On the Menu

Okay friends, I am in a major cooking rut! Major! Like, as in, I need help!

Here's the thing... it's FALL, which is my favorite time to cook and I always have tons of great fall recipes, but for some reason, right now I am just stuck!

So many things sound good, delicious really! I just can't get myself to actually make them! I'm not sure if I really don't have time or if I'm just so overwhelmed from work combined with parenting that I don't have the energy or what my problem is. This time of year is especially challenging at home with Cliff so busy on the farm and the stress of how the harvest is going. I do get impatient for the harvest season (followed by hunting season) to end so that we can return to the normalcy of two parents putting the kids to bed, cleaning up dinner, etc. In the meantime, we eat a LOT of macaroni and cheese! Just this week, Gavin actually told me "I actually don't really like macaroni and cheese" when I asked him to finish his dinner. Poor kid! It used to be his favorite food (back when it was a treat!), but that was the third time in a week that we had macaroni and cheese for dinner. Oh goodness!

So... I'm looking for fresh ideas for QUICK meals. Something I can have ready in 30 minutes or less or that can go in the crockpot without a lot of effort. I do have some favorites that I will share with you as well!

I have tried the whole make-enough-for-two-meals-and-freeze-half approach and the sad truth is that I never make the second half because in general thawing and cooking things that have been frozen kind of scares me for some weird reason! I have no idea why, I just never think it will taste good!

I love crock pot chicken tacos and they're so easy, but  I just made white chicken chili last weekend, which has much the same flavor and many of the same ingredients as the tacos, so I'm holding off with those for a bit.

So...   Here's what's on my menu / idea list for the next couple of weeks. Want any of these recipes? I love to share! The new recipes that I haven't tried yet have links below! If you get to making them before I do, please share your critique in the comments!


Meal Option 1
Hamburgers with potato chips and pickles (because I have six ready-to-cook burgers in a baggie in the freezer from this summer when I mixed up too much hamburger!  ...and because I NEVER buy potato chips, and they sound SO good and summery!)

Meal Option 2
Greek Yellow Squash Pizza from Kate and CookieandKate with a regular flatbread crust. (new recipe)


Source

Meal Option 3 - crockpot
Sausage and Bean Soup made with turkey sausage, which makes it WAY less heavy / greasy (an old favorite) and
Sweet Potato Corn Cakes with garlic cilantro dipping sauce (new recipe from Beth at Budget Bites)


Source

Meal Option 4
Potato Corn Chowder (my favorite original recipe)
Crusty bread or Pecan Nut Thins with Fig & Olive Goat Cheese (my new fave goat cheese)

Meal Option 5 - crockpot
Balsamic Glazed Pork Loin with Oriental Stuffing (two old favorites that we love over and over and over again).

Meal Option 6 - crockpot
Chicken Enchiladas or Tacos with Yellow Saffron Rice

Meal Option 7 - crockpot
My favorite ground beef Chili with Colby cheese and garlic bagel thins on the side.

What are you making these days? Anything quick that I can whip up in 30 minutes or less between getting home from work with kids in tow and sitting down to eat?  Please share in comments!