Potatoes, red and green bell peppers, and yellow onions are combined in a colorful and flavorful skillet that is perfect for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Breakfast Potatoes Skillet

I love having potatoes with breakfast in the morning. Well, technically, I would enjoy having potatoes with most of my meals. Potatoes, peppers, and onions add up to a terrific meal that comes together quickly any time of day.

By taking the time to prep them in advance, I simply heat as many as we need when we are ready to eat them. These potatoes are great as a dinner side dish, as a simple lunch, or tossed into scrambled eggs for a hearty breakfast.

Breakfast Potatoes with Peppers and Onions

I get why some people don’t like to pre-chop their potatoes because they discolor and turn brown. For breakfast potatoes, I typically dice them the night before and store them in the refrigerator submerged in water.

Wondering how to make crispy breakfast potatoes? In the morning, drain the water and pat the diced potatoes to dry. Drying the potatoes well is the key to getting the best crispy potato edges.

The peppers and onions can be chopped and just stored in containers or in simple zip-close bags until you’re ready to cook them.

Potatoes with Peppers and Onions

You’ll need just a few ingredients to make this recipe.

• olive oil
• yellow onion
• potatoes
• bell pepper
• kosher salt 
• freshly ground black pepper

Read more

Crispy-edged green chile chicken burritos full of cheesy goodness are an easy-to-assemble mealtime hit, full of green chile flavor.

Green Chile Chicken Burritos

Burritos are often served wet or smothered in delicious cheeses and sauces. Some days just beg for a simple, flavorful baked burrito with a bit of lettuce, tomato, and sour cream on top.

I enjoy the contrast of the, baked slightly crispy-edged burrito with the creamy, cheese filling. We like to top these easy chicken burritos with freshly shredded lettuce, tomato, and olives with a dab of sour cream. Fresh salsa or guacamole make wonderful toppings as well.

When making green chile chicken burritos I like to cook my own chicken seasoned with Mexican spices and then shred it and add green chile sauce.

To do this, I place chicken breasts or thighs seasoned with taco seasoning into the crock pot along with some green chile sauce. Cook the chicken for 4-5 hours until the chicken can easily be pulled apart.

When the chicken is done, shred it with a fork or roughly chop it and let it sit in the juices for a few minutes soaking up all that flavor. Add the additional green chile and the drained beans to the crockpot and stir to combine before spooning the filling into the burritos.

To assemble the burritos, fill each tortilla with about ½ cup of the chicken mixture, add the cheese, and sprinkle with cilantro. After rolling each burrito, keep the seam sides down and slide them into place on the pan.

If you do all the assembly right on the pan, it helps to avoid it spilling out the ends or unrolling when you transfer it.

Baked Chicken Burritos

To finish these chicken burritos in the oven, pop them into the preheated oven for 20-30 minutes, or until

Loaded with flavor and just a hint of heat, these Italian stuffed bell peppers are filled with ground beef and rice, seasoned with plenty of Italian spices, and topped with cheese.

Served with a salad or warm rosemary garlic bread, this is a hearty meal that comes together without any fuss.

Just brown the meat, fill the peppers, and let them roast away while you kick back on the couch with a book. Sprinkle the warm peppers with cheese just before serving and you’ll have an easy dinner on the table with minimal effort.

Spicy Italian Peppers

These Spicy Italian Peppers are one of my husband’s favorite meals. I’ve been making them for at least 8-10 years now and I double this recipe almost every time I make them.

They’re loaded with flavor and just a hint of heat, but if spicy dishes aren’t your thing, skip the crushed red pepper and you’ll have Italian-style stuffed peppers that will make everyone happy.

The meat mixture freezes perfectly on its own and the stuffed peppers freeze well too. I often freeze the cooked peppers individually for quick and easy lunches.

Italian Style Stuffed Peppers

To make the recipe even easier, you can also use cooked rice leftover from a previous meal. Make rice as a side dish for your lunch and use the leftovers in stuffed peppers for dinner!

My kids and I typically eat one pepper each and my husband will eat a couple of them. They’re filling, delicious, and enthusiastically enjoyed by everyone.

Stuffed Bell Peppers are easy to customize based on your family’s tastes. You can play with different pre-made spaghetti sauces, adjust the spices and try different kinds of cheese on top of the cooked peppers.

Feel free to use this recipe as a jumping off point for making the Stuffed Peppers of your dreams. I love the ground beef in the original version but sausage and ground turkey work well too.

These Italian style stuffed peppers have the advantage of being convenient, easy, customizable and kid-friendly to boot. As far as weeknight meals go, can we ask for anything more?

Read more

Naturally sweet and bursting with blueberry freshness, banana blueberry pancakes are a weekday breakfast must in our home.

(Are you wondering how to pull off pancakes on a busy weekday morning?? Check out all the tips below!)

Banana Blueberry Pancakes

I’ve been making these pancakes for years. Blueberry waffles and pancakes have been a long-time favorite, (check out these blueberry waffles for proof of that – they’re just so good!) but when I started adding blueberries to the banana nut pancakes in my first cookbook? That combination became an immediate favorite.

Even with a house full of voracious eaters, I am baffled at how any food can possibly go bad in my household but bananas are my nemesis.

A few years ago a friend told me that when her my bananas get close to spoiling, she just tosses them into the freezer without peeling them or anything else and when they accumulate, she makes banana bread.

FYI that tip did NOT work for me, but peeling the bananas and dropping them into a freezer bag DOES work for me. You can grab however many bananas you need out of the bag and thaw them on a plate. It’s much simpler and less messy than dealing with a frozen and then thawed slimy banana peel.

Fluffy Banana Pancakes

While this is a super handy thing to keep in mind for dealing with over-ripe bananas, I am not even going to admit how many bananas often accumulate in my freezer. These easy banana pancakes are one way to avoid the banana backlog.

Fresh blueberries are my favorite to use in pancakes and waffles, but frozen will get the job done as well. One thing to note with frozen blueberries and pancakes is that the batter will sometimes be uncooked around those frozen blueberries.

To avoid these little pockets of batter I will set out frozen blueberries in a single layer on a plate before mixing up my batter. Then, by the time the batter is made and has had a few minutes to rest while the griddle gets hot, the blueberries are just slightly soft and everything cooks nicely.

Need more fluffy banana pancake ideas? Try these Read more

Protein Waffles – Easy Healthy Breakfast

Two ingredient protein waffles…2 INGREDIENTS…that’s all you need to make this high protein breakfast! We are eating protein waffles for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

We practically live off of these things. A few times a month I seem to have one of those days where no matter how badly I want to make dinner (or sometimes don’t even want to think about it), it just isn’t going to happen. Or maybe we just got home from vacation or ate super heavy all week, the list goes on and on. Either way, having something in your pocket that isn’t cereal or nachos comes in quite handy. Introducing what we call, “protein waffles”. 

We eat protein waffles for dinner, but we also have them regularly for breakfast. A healthy breakfast sets the tone for my day, and I love getting a lot of protein in at breakfast. With this waffles recipe, you get 16 grams of protein in just one waffle.

Ingredients for Protein Waffles

Okay, don’t blink because you might miss it! For these protein waffles all you need is protein powder and eggs. You can use whole eggs or go with just egg whites for an even healthier waffle recipe.

What is the Best Protein Powder?

We use lots of different protein powders and have tried just about everything out. Our favorite brand of protein powder for these waffles is Just Ingredients Vanilla Bean. When you’re picking a protein powder, keep a close eye on the sugar. A lot of protein powders have loads of sugar in them and we don’t want that! Just Ingredients brand has only 2 grams of sugar per scoop.