Jessica Merchant's Blog, page 80

A Week In The Life, Vol 2.

We finally got some snow this weekend!

I mean, barely any. But still! It was fun!

It was a short school week, and a weird week with Max and Emilia back in school. Poor Jordan doesn’t know what to do with himself when they’re gone!

Influenced by my own instagrams.

Finally a pretty snowfall!

Went to Max’s basketball game.

Cutest cheer crowd!

I’m very into everything chocolate brown.

This is what Emilia calls her dog pile. She sleeps with about 40 of these in her bed.

We couldn’t wait to go out in the snow!

Jordan was napping, so these two had some fun.

This is right before he threw this INSIDE MY COAT.

There is no one happier!

Came in for hot chocolate!

And that was the week! Yay January.

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This Week’s Menu Plan: 1/7/24.

Bringing in the new year with the most delicious meals!

What’s on your menu this week?

This Week’s Menu

Chicken meatball pitas

Sheet pan sweet potato fajitas

Honeycrisp kale quinoa salad

Lemon brown butter salmon with caesar pasta salad

Broccoli cheddar tortilla pizzas

Sheet pan buffalo chicken meatballs

Mediterranean chicken kale salad

Breakfast quinoa

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Currently Crushing On.

Hello and happy 2024!

I have shared so many great recipes lately! First, you can find 43 weeks of menu plans right here. You can also find 100 make-ahead lunch ideas for 2024. And a few extra cozy recipes for January!

I shared these sheet pan buffalo chicken meatballs and these sheet pan sweet potato fajitas too.

There’s a new weekly menu up and a peek at a week in our life!

You can join The Everyday Dinners cookbook club right here! If you have a copy of the book, request to join the group. If not, get one here!  Ready to start on fall! It is such a wonderful community and an amazing place for recipe ideas.

xoxoxo

WHAT I’M LOVING THIS WEEK

This cilantro lime chicken looks incredible!

Chocolate dipped blood oranges. Yes please!

Love this lemon blueberry bread too.

Light jalapeño popper dip. Yum.

Always want a blood orange bourbon fizz.

Classic meatloaf is the ultimate dinner flex.

January calls for cozy tomato soup.

Air fryer buffalo cauliflower! Love it.

A giant green smoothie is necessary!

Lemon rolls are so gorgeous.

These cinnamon cookies! Oh my gosh.

Enchilada sweet potatoes. Hello dinner.

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Smoky Sweet Potato Fajitas.

These smoky sweet potato fajitas and made right on a sheet pan with peppers, onions and the best fajita seasoning sauce. They are super easy, delicious and a huge crowd pleaser!

I’ve got another sheet pan meal for you today!

These smoky sweet potato fajitas are super delicious. Seasoned to perfection, roasted sweet potato bites are served in warm corn tortillas, topped with caramelized peppers and onions and a big sprinkling of cotija cheese.

Sounds like something I want to eat every single day! 

We all love fajitas in this house. They are so easy and simple, the leftovers are great and they are so customizable. That means that everyone in our house can find some way they like to eat and enjoy them. 

I’ve shared our favorite sheet pan shrimp fajitas, these lime chicken fajitas, flank steak fajitas, halloumi cheese fajitas and cauliflower black bean fajitas. We love ‘em all! 

This fajita mixture is wonderful. I find it to be foolproof, the spice is lovely and you can always add some heat if you wish. Whenever I make this, I divide the sauce in half so there is some for the fajita “filling” (in this case, the sweet potatoes), and some for the classic peppers and onions. 

The sheet pan fajita method is my favorite. Sure, nothing beats one those sizzling hot pans where the peppers are practically bouncing on the surface. But this is very close, not to mention SUPER easy. And it won’t burn anyone’s face off. 

For many of my fajita recipes, I add the vegetables first so they get super caramely and then add the meat, so it cooks without drying out. 

But!

Since the peppers and onions can handle a long time in the oven, and the sweet potatoes get a bit of that golden, crisp flavor too, I roast both at the same time.

I make sure the sweet potatoes are in smaller chunks. Around 1-inch in size or less. And you want them to be mostly equal in size. 

This ensures that the potatoes will cook within 25 minutes or so, and the peppers and onions will get nice and soft, maybe even a little charred. 

For toppings, I love a lot of crumbly cotija cheese. Especially if it goes on right when the potatoes and vegetables come out of the oven – it melts and gets all warm and soft.

I also add cilantro, maybe guac if I have it, a spritz of lime and lots of cilantro!  (more…)

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20 Cozy Recipes for January.

Sharing some of my best cozy recipes for January nights! I love making these recipes for my family when we need a comforting meal to warm up the soul.

It’s getting cold and comfort food is the name of the game!

Earlier this week I shared a ton (over 250!) of dinner recipes for all your menu planning needs in 2024. Today, we’re talking COZY! It is finally getting colder here after a weird warm-ish spell and I am all about it. I wouldn’t mind a bit of snow and to cuddle up after sharing a meal like this with my family.

I love a hearty, comforting, nourishing dish in the deep winter months. My mom was the queen of making weeknight dinners and she really specialized in comfort food. These are some of my favorites and ones that everyone goes crazy for!

20 Cozy Recipes For January

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Sheet Pan Buffalo Chicken Meatballs & Broccoli.

These buffalo chicken meatballs are baked on a sheet pan with broccoli florets for the perfect meal! Drizzle with wing sauce and my greek yogurt blue cheese dressing for an extra pop of flavor!

Easy meals are the name of the game right now!

These buffalo chicken meatballs are filled with flavor and roasted on a sheet pan with broccoli florets. Once finished, they are drizzled with buffalo wing sauce and my greek yogurt blue cheese dressing, then topped with a big shower of green onions. 

The combination is fabulous! Juicy meatballs with savory flavor, refreshing bites from the herbs, a little bit of heat from the wing sauce and a cooling drizzle of yogurt blue cheese to cut the spice. 

Talk about a major crowd pleaser. 

I already have a slow cooker buffalo chicken meatball recipe. But this is a flavor we enjoy so much that I wanted a quick and easy weeknight version. One that I can throw together for sandwiches or right on a plate with vegetables.

See, my family goes CRAZY for meatballs – any and all kinds. The kids love them, Eddie and I love them and they are such a perfect dish for busy weeknights. Plus, they reheat super well. Put them in a wrap, eat them for a snack. The options are endless! 

Our most loved vegetable is roasted broccoli, so it just made sense to combine these two favorites. It’s such a  winning meal. This is something that everyone in our house will eat!

The meatballs are filled with so many ingredients that I love to serve with buffalo chicken. Things like shredded carrots, cilantro, green onions and even gorgonzola. The gorgonzola is the perfect cheese to add to meatballs because it’s so crumbly. It allows a few tiny pockets of melty cheese to sneak into each meatball! 

I add a quick drizzle of wing sauce to the meatball mix too to up the flavor too.

Now I have two different methods for making the meatballs. The first includes searing them in a skillet. Once the meatballs are formed, I like to do a quick sear in a pan just to get that golden brown color. This also helps the meatballs retain some moisture! 

Then, I throw them on the pan with the broccoli florets. Both the meatballs and broccoli are finished in 15 to 20 minutes. A drizzle of wing sauce, another drizzle of greek yogurt blue cheese and the dish is perfect. 

This extra step takes just a few minutes and makes a big difference in my opinion.

However! If you don’t feel like browning the meatballs, you can place them right on the baking sheet to bake. They will need a bit longer in the oven, so in this case I bake them for about 10 minutes, then add the broccoli to the sheet pan and finish for another 15 to 20 minutes. 

Both are easy methods.

Both are incredibly delicious! 

You can serve both of these alongside rice or potatoes if you want an additional side dish. I love making this meal ahead of time to prep for lunches – the leftovers are delicious.  (more…)

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Tuesday Things.

1. The fact that a whole new YEAR started on a Monday! The perfection. I can’t handle it.

2. Apparently it’s bad luck to clean on the first day of the new year? That’s all I did yesterday. Now I am scared.

3. Craving this mojita cake! It’s gorgeous.

4. Pantone color of the year is peach fuzz. I like it.

5. I love the start of a new year but it makes me so sad to take Christmas down. I wish I could find a way to decorate and keep it cozy and sparkly!

6. TV things!! I am missing so many shows! This time of year is when Emily in Paris and Ginny & Georgia would come out – ugh! The strike just killed the timing my favorite shows, haha.

7. Some foods that defined 2023. Definitely not on my list.

8. Winter reading list is coming!! Sorry I failed at the fall one!

9. I can’t sing the praises of this candle warmer enough. I love the ambiance it gives. I love that there is no flame! And the scent throw – you can smell a candle throughout the house. It’s my favorite thing ever.

10. As much as I love the new year, I am so over everyone’s ins and outs on instagram. There I said it.

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A Week In The Life, Vol 1.

First day of 2024!!

New day, new year!!

Oh man. We continued to fight sickness this whole week! So we spent the entire week at home, just hanging out.

We had lots of movie nights – Emilia’s favorite!

Max got a kindle for christmas and when I tell you I didn’t think he could possibly read more… oh my gosh. He is reading NONSTOP every day. Right now reading through the whole diary of a wimpy kid series (which he has even already read! haha.).

He also had a fun hockey camp!

New sourdough starter for the win.

Cookies for daysssss.

This weekend we finally got celebrate christmas with my side since no one was sick!

Cutest cousins.

Jordan unwrapping gifts this year was my favorite thing. He got SO excited!!!

My mom got all the girls boots, boas and headbands!

Super cute!

For NYE we had friends over and made homemade pizzas.

Baby BFFs.

And for the first time, we did a countdown at 5pm. It was great.

Party time!

Sparkling grape juice with gummy bears!

This was super cute.

I made my mom’s old school oreo ice cream dessert. This is one of the first recipes I ever posted. The post is horrific, FYI. I need to update!

Everyone went to bed and Max BEGGED to stay up until 12. He made it! We both read our books until the clock struck midnight, then we watched the ball drop.

And we woke up to snow!

My parents also got Emilia a book on Taylor Swift’s eras tour outfits. So now she calls these her taylor swift boots! We rented the movie and watched it and she looked through her book the whole time.

This is all I made to eat today. Ha!

And now it’s full speed ahead into 2024! So sad this holiday break is coming to an end. Time is so fleeting with these babies!

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43 Weeks of Lightened Up Dinner Ideas! That’s 300 Dinner Recipes for Your 2024 Menu!

Sharing some of my favorite healthy dinner ideas with 43 weeks of menu plans! Over 300 dinner ideas to help your meal plan and prep so you can eat satisfying, nourishing dinner at home.

Happy new year!! I can’t believe it’s 2024!

This is one of my most favorite posts to share every year. Each year it’s similar but I add in/swap at least 40 to 50 of healthier meals that I really loved over the previous year and then remove the ones I wasn’t as drawn to making. I reference this post approximately ten million times over the the course of the year, especially when I’m really struggling for dinner ideas! Coming up with dinner meal plans is tricky, even for me who develops recipes for a living!

I’ve mentioned before that in our perfect weeks, planning and shopping for three full meals works best for us. This way, we don’t get sick of our “menu plan,” we always end up with leftovers (but not too many leftovers), it allows for a night or two of eating out on the fly, whether it’s both of us or one of us for work, and usually will allow one night of breakfast for dinner, which we adore. This has changed a bit with the pandemic – we’ve cooked at home SO MUCH MORE than we used to. Some weeks I did five or six meals. Some weeks I only do two and we have leftovers and take out! You have to find what works for you.

I always want to make sure our meals are super balanced, always including a vegetable, consistent and most of all – planned ahead of time. This is KEY and even I fall out of practice sometimes. But when our dinners our planned, we just generally eat BETTER.

I’d love to hear some of your favorite meals below, along with your meal planning tips and how you plan your weeks! xo

43 WEEKS OF HEALTHY DINNER IDEAS

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2023!

2023 was such an incredible year. I am continuously blown away by how wonderful and full my life is – it is more than I could have ever dreamed – and you are a part of that!

Thank you for spending so much time here each day and also for your constant support. The recipes you make and share from my site and books brings me so much happiness and I appreciate you so much. I have many exciting things in store for you in the next year!

Here’s to a a fabulous 2024 for all of us.

xoxoxo

P.S. I grabbed most of these photos from my week in the life posts, which is where I document our days each week! I love looking back on them and seeing what we are doing!

P.P.S. and just for fun, here were YOUR top recipes of 2023 from the blog. Which were your favorites?

Your Favorite Recipes for 2023

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