I know, 30-minute weeknight meals that are wholesome and delish seems hard to believe but I promise you they exist.
As moms, we want our family to eat healthy – but that can sometime mean hours spent in the kitchen. Let’s put those days behind us because healthy eating doesn’t need to take hours in the kitchen. This week I am sharing how I kicked my mom game from survival Mode into Thrive Mode. The best part is that it’s so easy you can do it to! Roll up your sleeves and take notes (or follow my blog by clicking here) because I am sharing 3 tips as well as 4 recipes I made this week that were wholesome, delicious and cut down time spent in the kitchen and increased my time doing other things. Are you ready?
Table of Contents
This Weeks Menu and Tips
Let me begin by saying I menu plan before I go grocery shopping for several reasons – to stay within budget, don’t over shop and most importantly it helps me meal prep. Now I’ve done several kinds of meal prepping like 30-day crock pot dinner meal preps that took me a whole Sunday to prep BUT that’s not what I’m going to tell you to do – not today mama! That is just HARD CORE and I don’t want to scare you. My intention is to help you cross over to the Thriving Side of motherhood by starting with small steps that will free up your time and if someday you want to venture to hard core prepping you’ll have the confidence and basics to pull it off and free even more of your time. Let’s begin…
This Week’s 30 Minute Weeknight Meals:
- Shrimp Teriyaki Bowls
- Taco Pasta
- Steak and Garlic Potatoes
- Corned Beef Hash – Puerto Rican Style
Now, if you are wondering why there’s only 4 meals when there’s 5 weekdays it’s because on Friday we eat out/takeout and do one of the following: family movie night, eat at the lake or eat at the park if the weather permits.
- Tip #1 – Make the sauces/marinades and place them in a mason jar in the fridge ahead of time
- Tip#2 – Cut and Season your meat and poultry before placing in a zip lock bag and throwing in the freezer
- Tip #3 – Cut vegetables and put in a zip lock bag before throwing in the freezer
Teriyaki Shrimp and Broccoli Bowls
This is a family favorite. My marinade is usually made on Sunday after I unpack and put away all my groceries. My shrimp is already peeled and deveined. I spend the little extra money for this because it frees my time and that’s worth the extra couple of cents in my book. It’s totally your call. My florets are also chopped, ginger and garlic minced on Sunday so all I have to do is sautéed the shrimp and mushrooms, add broccoli and sauce then simmer. While I do this I make a pot of white rice. Quick, easy and frees me up to focus on the kids’ homework before we all sit down for dinner. After dinner homework continues, baths, story time and bedtime prayers all before 8pm. This means time for me and my spouse to watch a movie or for me to do a little self-care. You can find the full recipe for my Teriyaki Shrimp and Broccoli recipe right here.
Taco Pasta (30-Minute Weeknight Meal Edition)
Another family favorite and spin off of Tacos. This is a Mills Original Recipe that originated via accident. Wasting left overs is not something I like to do so when I had leftover taco meat I wanted to use it. The plan was to use it in my spaghetti but I didn’t have pasta sauce. I did however have taco sauce and just rolled with the theme. I basically, replaced tacos for pasta and kept everything else the same. This recipe is sure to wake up some tastebuds. You can find the full recipe for my Taco Pasta here.
Steak and Garlic Potatoes (30-Minute Weeknight Meal Edition)
This was a new try for me but worked out really well. I seasoned my steak cubes prior to freezing so all I had to do was peel and cut the potatoes then season with garlic and olive oil. Once I did that I made 5 foil pods and put a handful of potatoes and steak in each of them. Then threw them in the oven and let the oven do the rest. Just remember to cut the potatoes bite size so that you aren’t waiting forever for them to cook through. Last minute I opened a bag of salad and added it to the plates. Not too much work with this recipe and it scored a perfect 10/10. Jump to the Steak and Garlic Potatoes Recipe here.
Corned Beef Hash [Puerto Rican Style] – (30 minute weeknight meal edition)
Okay, I didn’t really know what to call this as it’s something my mom use to cook and when I asked her she said it was Corned Beef Hash but I’ve had corned beef hash and I can tell you it’s not like hers. Cue a funny story: When I was a kid I went to school and some of my friends had tuna sandwiches for lunch. Wanting to be like my friends, I went home and asked my mom to make me a tuna sandwich. My mom willingly made me a tuna sandwich. Excited to have a lunch that looked like my peers but I opened my lunch bag only to find that my tuna sandwich looked a lot different than my classmates – it’s was ORANGE! If you are Latino the orange color is very distinct to a particular latin seasoning – Sazon! I share that story in hopes that you understand why it was hard to title this recipe. I’m not sure if it’s a Puerto Rican thing or not but regardless it’s delicious despite it’s appearance.
Not much prep here except cutting the peppers, onions and potatoes. I saved time because I made extra rice earlier in the week and just had to warm it up. I know some people aren’t a fan of left overs but I’m glad that’s not the case in my household. With the veggies already prepped and rice already made all I had to do was sautéed the veggies and potatoes, add the corned beef followed by the tomato sauce and warm up the rice. This was one of my mom’s go-to recipes and now that I’m a mom I understand why – it’s so quick, easy and delish!
What Will You Do With The Extra Time
After trying my 30 minute weeknight meals, what you will do with the extra time. I was able to do everything – homework, baths, story time and bedtime prayers all before 8pm. With my extra time I watched a movie with my spouse, worked on my blog and did some light reading…I say these recipes are worth having in the arsenal.
Did You Try Any of These Recipes?
I’d love to know how these 30 minute weeknight meals recipes went and whether or not your family enjoyed them as much as mine. Did you make modifications or followed the recipe exactly as written? If you made any modifications I would love to know what they were – Share them in the comments.