weeknight dinners.

i try to make dinner every night, but realistically i end up making dinner about four nights a week.  the other three nights we normally eat left overs or get carry out sushi or something.  i consider myself an average cook.  kind of a church supper/casserole cook.  i don't normally attempt anything expensive or time consuming. 

over the past couple of weeks i've been snapping pictures of the things i've made for dinner.  i found that it was motivating.  ooh look i made pretty dinner! 

we normally eat pretty late around here... around 7:45.  after the little one is tucked in and sound asleep is when i get cooking.  that way billy and i have some uninterrupted time to catch up with each other. sitting down to dinner together every night is really important to each of us. 

here are some of the meals i made recently, some with recipes.  i hope they might come in handy for you!  i am always on the prowl for good week night dinners, so please post your favorite recipes if you wanna!

 apple and chicken sausage from trader joe's, butter lettuce, and sweet potato and quinoa cakes.  the cakes turned out really delicious.  you can get the recipe here.

 ribeye, baked potato with crimini mushrooms, roasted brussel sprouts.

i do not eat beef or pork, but billy does! so sometimes i make him a steak.  this makes him very happy.  i always make my steaks in a cast iron skillet with lots of butter.  also, a long time ago i read this tutorial and how to make the best baked potato, and i've been making them this way ever since.  they always turn out perfect.

salmon cakes, cous cous, and green beans.  

i loosely used ina garten's salmon cake recipe.  and by loosely i mean i used canned salmon and i didn't have half of the required ingredients.  they still turned out awesome (even though they look a little charred in this picture... i swear they weren't!)

 lemon chicken, sweet carrots, rice and peas.

i think the best way to make carrots delicious is to dump a bunch of honey or even karo syrup on them.  you could probably make mulch delicious that way, too. 

 chicken, vegetable and potato soup.

this was a fridge dump.  normally when everything in the fridge is starting to go bad i make it into a soup. 

 ribeye for billy and flounder for me, mashed potatoes and braised asparagus.

i love broiling the heck out of asparagus so it's really crispy and crunchy. yum!

 ravioli with caramelized fennel.

i used this real simple recipe.  but i added crimini mushrooms and parmesan cheese and toasted pine nuts.  it was tasty.

pan fried tilapia, braised asparagus, beans and rice (zatarains what!)

welp, that's all folks.  maybe i'll post some more dinners in the future.  you should, too.  all of the culinary blogs are a little out of my league.  i need normal people dinner inspiration!