Elle's Everyday Eats: Favorites when I'm in a Time Crunch
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Whaaat? Two Elle’s Everyday Eats in a row after I took a month off?! Yeah I know **insert girl with hand up emoji* I was internalizing why it was so hard for me to write these and I think I have been able to pinpoint it. We had come off of a week of traveling AND it is my busy season at work. Last Tuesday was the first "lunch break” I took at work in a couple of weeks. Oh and let me throw in the fact that it was raining and the sun didn’t shine for around 2 weeks. You get the picture?! Also during this time allllll I craved for dinner was pasta. Erreday. Not a great combination.
You will notice that most of the stuff I’m sharing is carby related. Let’s be real. If you wanted to make a quick chicken dinner, you wouldn’t have come here! You want something you can grab from your fridge or pantry and just roll with it. Don’t worry, I’ve got you! Side note: if I want something quick and healthy, often times I’ll head to Whole Foods and get them to cook me some stuffed salmon. You can actually get fresh fish from Whole Foods on Amazon Fresh now #winning buuuut you do have to cook it; )
Anyway, here are some of my favorite quick meals to prepare:
Cybele's Free-to-Eat Superfood Veggie Pasta. I’ve been talking about this pasta pretty much all year. I’m obsessed with it! It’s GF and made of veggies, but it’s also 8-Free meaning it doesn’t have the top allergens in it either! I will say it’s kind of expensive. I’d like to try these Ancient Harvest Shells, but I haven’t gotten around to it. I think my favorite Free to Eat past flavor is the white pasta, because it adapts best to all flavors, though I have tried and enjoy all of them.
You can prepare it with a sauce of course, but most of the time I caramelize some onion, throw in some garlic and olive oil and call it a day! It’s great with cheese and greek yogurt too!
Trader Joe’s Cauliflower Pizza Crust. I’ve been eating these crusts since they came out! I really enjoy them - you notice more corn than cauliflower for sure. Recently I tried their new butternut squash one and it was good, but I prefer the cauliflower version.
Nick and I do a lot of olive oil based pizzas, so that’s what this was here! Honey Goat Cheese, chicken, bacon, and some ranch drizzle.
Gnocchi. I love keeping this on hand! It takes 2 seconds to boil and you can put it with whatever! Here I made a tomato pumpkin sauce which was 10/1. I used 1 cup of tomato sauce and 1/2 cup of pumpkin. So yummy and a different spin on pumpkin, as it’s usually pretty creamy. I also added basil and a couple other spices.
Homemade pizza + kale caesar salad. It’s so easy to make your own pizza! We had friends over a couple weeks ago and we put up a DIY pizza bar. Everyone got to pick all of their toppings from the sauce to the seasonings. I also love the salad in a bag kale caesar - even guys like it! You can’t even tell it’s kale :)
Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Ravioli. Whole Foods has a lot of ravioli options too, but I love TJ’s seasonal ones!! I made mine with olive oil, onion, garlic, chicken, goat cheese, and parmesan cheese. WONDERFUL!!
Now I love to make my own raviolis and pasta…but I don’t always have time for that. I love these options because at the end of the day it’s better than eating out and isn’t too crazy on your prep time. What are your go-tos for when you’re on the go? Side note, one of my other favorites is Kraft Macaroni and Cheese #yesplease Alsoooo yes, these are all carby, BUT I do try to balance that and always throw in a side salad. Enjoy!!
P.S. if you liked this post, you’ll probably enjoy my post on Healthy Places to Eat in Dallas without Losing Flavor.
P.P.S. Today is mine and Nick’s wedding anniversary! To walk down memory lane with us, check out these posts:
My wedding category on the blog
What we learned during our 1st year of marriage
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