Category: Recipes

My 5 Go-To Winter Meals

Posted on by Lauren Lane

I become a warm, hearty meal kind of girl in the winter time. I love something filling and savory for dinner. It’s rare that we go a week without trying at least one new recipe, but there are certain meals that I come back to time and time again, and when I’m not sure what to make, it’s usually one of these in the winter…

Chili & Cornbread. It’s not really fall and the kick-off of the cooler weather until we’ve made our first batch of chili for the year. We serve ours with sour cream, cheddar cheese, and Fritos, and always, always, always Trader Joe’s cornbread.

Print Recipe

Chorizo Chili

Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time40 minutes
Course: Main Course

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 lb ground beef
  • 1/2 lb fresh beef chorizo
  • 1 med yellow onion chopped
  • 1 med red bell pepper chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic minced
  • 15 oz diced tomatoes
  • 6 oz tomato sauce
  • 3 c beef broth
  • 3 T Penzey’s Chili 3000 powder
  • 1 1/2 t dried oregano
  • 1 t ground cumin
  • 1 t salt
  • 1/2 t ground black pepper
  • 2 Cans 15.5 oz red kidney beans drained and rinsed
  • 1 Can 15.5 oz black beans drained and rinsed
  • 1 can 15.5 oz small red beans drained and rinsed
  • 1 can 15.5 oz pinto beans drained and rinsed

Instructions

  • Place in large Dutch oven over medium heat, brown beef and chorizo. Add onions, bell peppers, and garlic. Cook 5 min until cooked through. Add all remaining ingredients, stir well, bring to a boil.
  • Reduce heat to a simmer and cook at least 30-35 minutes

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Let’s Look At Our Go-To Summer Lunches

Posted on by Lauren Lane

It’s Let’s Look day with Shay @ Mix and Match Mama and Erika @ A Little Bit of Everything! If you’re new here, it’s one day a month that we share a little peak into some aspect of our lives. So far this year, I’ve shared:

Today, we’re sharing our go-to summer lunches.

Let me see, my go-to summer lunches for kids are: peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Easy mac, grilled cheese, and cheese quesadilla. Ha. Doesn’t that sound like your childhood, too?

My adult go-to summer lunches look a little bit different than the kids, though.

Option 1: In the summer, I usually pick up at least one bag of pre-packaged salad a week to have on hand. I like a spring mix or a spring mix & baby spinach. Half of the time, I also pick up a pack of the already hard-boiled eggs to stick in my fridge as well, because I’m unbelievably lazy when it comes to having to pre-make anything for lunches.

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Lanes Lately {May 2022}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

I was wondering what I should write about today. I had a weird assortment of things that were on my mind, or I wanted to share with you all. So a Lanes Lately post was born! Hope you guys had a good weekend!

MAKING: Chicken gyros with homemade taziki sauce. You guys. These are SO GOOD.

Taziki sauce recipe HERE + Chicken recipe HERE.

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Recipe Round-Up III

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Quarantine over the past year really forced us to add and try more new recipes, since we were cooking almost every meal at home. I started putting out a little recipe round-up of recipes we really loved and ones that we decided not to make again.

Recipe Round-Up I || Recipe Round-Up II

This is my third recipe round-up. I hope you can find something new you’d like to try!

Emily Bites’ Korean-Inspired Ground Turkey

This was actually recommended by a friend on Instagram, and I was just sort meh about this. It tasted good, but both Nathan and I agreed that it reminded us a lot of our beef with broccoli or teriyaki stir fry recipes, and we’d rather have one of those than this.

Make Again Meter? No. We’re going to stick to some other soy sauce based recipes that we like more.

The Girl Who Ate Everything’s Easy Beef Burrito Skillet

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Recipe Round-Up II

Posted on by Lauren Lane

I love a good recipe recommendation because more often than not, I feel stuck in a recipe rut. Especially during a time that we’re eating out a lot less, it seems like our recipe rotation needs a new infusion of good recipes every couple of months. Back in June, I posted my first recipe round-up. What we liked, what we didn’t. It seemed about time that almost a half a year later, I should show you some new recipes that we’ve tried and added to our regular rotation.

Let me know if you try one and how you like it!

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Peanut Butter Energy Bites

Posted on by Lauren Lane

As a brand new mom (again), most days the first true meal I get to sit down and eat is dinner. The rest of the day, I’m living off of energy bars and anything that can be eaten quickly with one hand while holding a baby and playing soccer with a toddler. I shared a few weeks back on my Instagram a video of Harrison and I making these peanut butter energy bites. So super easy to make with kiddos. Lots of opportunity to let them taste test the ingredients – that’s Harrison’s most prized part of helping cook or bake – and as my husband says, they taste better than his beloved Clif peanut butter bars. Enjoy!

Print Recipe

Peanut Butter Energy Bites

Course: Snack

Ingredients

  • 1 C Rolled oats
  • 1/2 C Peanut butter
  • 1/3 C Honey
  • 1/4 C Chocolate chips
  • 1 Tsp Vanilla
  • 1 Tbsp Chia seeds
  • 1 Tbsp Flax seeds

Instructions

  • Combine all ingredients
  • Chill for 20 minutes in the fridge, then roll into balls

Quarantine Recipe Round-Up

Posted on by Lauren Lane

I’ve been doing so much more cooking during quarantine. Three people at home for three meals a day has resulted in the need for a LOT more food. I didn’t even mention snacks. Is it just me or do 2 year olds seem to snack constantly? Or maybe that’s just part of Harrison’s genes.

We’ve been able to take advantage of this extra time, though, and try out quite a few new recipes. Some were hits. Some were duds. So I’m sharing all of my thoughts on the new recipes we’ve tried this quarantine today.

Grilled Italian Sausages & Cowboy Tin Foil Packets

This one is a bit made up. I was desperate to find something different to grill this summer aside from just burgers and hot dogs, and pregnancy currently has me totally avoiding chicken. So, I grabbed some Italian sausages from the meat counter, and made we call “Cowboy packets” with lots of veggies one night for dinner, and it was a hit! So simple and delicious.

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Carne Asada

Posted on by Lauren Lane

During long work days, I love dumping all of the dinner ingredients into a crockpot and coming home to a completely finished dinner in the evening. Not to mention that when you get tired of carne asada tacos, add the meat to a quesadilla, or chili, or hamburger bun, and you’ve got a whole new meal.

Print Recipe

Carne Asada

Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time6 hours
Course: Main Course

Ingredients

  • 2 lb skirt steak
  • 1 lime juiced
  • 2 t cumin
  • 1 t paprika
  • 7 cloves garlic minced
  • 1/4 c cilantro roughly chopped
  • 2 t oregano
  • 1 1/2 t salt
  • 1/2 t pepper

Instructions

  • Season steak with salt & pepper
  • In a small bowl, mix together juice, cumin, paprika, garlic, oregano. Rub on steak
  • Put steak in crockpot, sprinkle cilantro on top
  • Cook 6-8 hours on low. Slice and serve as soft tacos. Garnish with monterrey jack cheese, sour cream, and avocado

Green Smoothies for the New Year

Posted on by Lauren Lane

I love having a batch of these smoothies in mason jars in my freezer. I just pull one out on a busy morning and let it de-thaw, and it’s ready to drink by mid-morning. This recipe makes two full smoothies, and you can substitute the fruit for whatever fruit you like – just make sure at least one of them is frozen if you’re going to drink the smoothie right away!

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