Recipe Ruts

Today is January 17th, which means most of you have either waved goodbye to your resolutions for 2019, or you're hanging on for dear life only because you're too stubborn to let go and admit defeat this early.

One of my resolutions was to return to more consistent clean eating, which we had somewhat abandoned in all the December buffets. :) Of course, our trips to the hospital for Ryan's mom began on January 2nd, so I wasn't sure I could hang onto my intentions. But I have to say we've done pretty well! I'm proud of our efforts, anyway.

I think one of the hardest things about eating well is the determination it takes to plan and prepare the meals when you're tired/busy/sick/you name it. (And we've had a little bit of all of that lately.) Though I've so greatly improved in my meal planning over the past year, I have to say I kind of like it that Katie from Dashing Dish now publishes her own personal meal plan every week. I absolutely cheat and use it. I do that partly to save myself some planning brain strain, but I also do it partly because I am the queen of the recipe rut. I'm not great about trying new things...but following her plan means trying things from her recipe repertoire that I've never before attempted.

And I have to say, we're finding some new favorites!

(You can see her meal planning posts if you scroll down through her blog here. I believe you can see the posts even if you're not a member of her site, but you might not be able to access all the recipes unless you are a member.)

If you, too, are in a mid-January recipe slump, let me share with you some of our recent favorites.

Strawberry Pineapple Smoothie. (Note: I couldn't find frozen pineapple, and even if I could have, chances are good I would have been too cheap to afford it. So I bought frozen strawberries, and portioned out canned pineapple per her serving size to freeze that myself. Problem solved.)

Clean Eating Frosty. (Note: NOTHING will ever replace a real Frosty in my heart. I am a huge Frosty fan, and you can't mess with the goodness of the original. But that said, and even taking into consideration my disdain for bananas, I do like this recipe.)

Supreme Pizza Quesadilla. (This one is a TOTAL winner, and so very easy. You can easily swap in and out the sorts of pizza toppings you prefer.)

California Cobb Strawberry Salad. (I even loved the dressing. Made it in the Ninja and stored it in this nifty little salad dressing container Ryan gave me for Christmas.)

Cheesy Egg and Hashbrown Crockpot Casserole. (This recipe is very similar to a NOT healthy breakfast casserole I make regularly. I thought it tasted every bit as good, though. Next time I'm going to use turkey sausage instead of turkey bacon. Just personal preference.)

Snickers Protein Shake. (It's kind of like a frappe and makes me very happy.)

15 Minute Flatbread Pizza. (Another winner - like the quesadilla. And again, you can swap out whatever toppings you want.)

Grain Free Dutch Baby Pancake. (I was really skeptical. But I loved it. And Ryan did too! And I loved it that I didn't have to sit and babysit pancakes for flipping.)

Zucchini Parmesan Fries. (We had them with burgers. While I won't pretend they're real white-potato-fries-drowned-in-salt-and-grease, they are tasty!)

Roasted Cauliflower Poppers. (One of our favorite side dishes when we just need a little something extra.)

So maybe in there somewhere, you can find something new to try, especially if you feel like you're stuck in a bit of a rut. I made many more over the last two weeks, but I thought I'd just share the free access ones with you, in case you don't have a membership. If you DO have a membership, you should also check out the baked oatmeal singles, grain free chicken parmesan, white queso chicken chili, and Zuppa Toscana soup, among others.

Happy cooking, and happy hanging onto healthy resolutions! If we can do it in the middle of all our current chaos, I believe you can do it too! :)