September 5, 2024 • 22 mins
This week I'm dreaming of cooler temperatures and I'm printing out my Fall Pantry Cheat Sheet. The school year is well underway and my family is turning to recipes that just really hit the spot, including 5 new recipes for September, my birthday month! Join me in celebrating!
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hi everybody. I'm Kelsey Nixon and this is Kitchen Prescription,
the podcast you listen to when you don't know what
to make for dinner. Today is episode ninety seven my
Fall Pantry cheat Sheet. I hope September is off to
a great start. We are in the midst of a
heat wave, having our highest temperatures of twenty twenty four.
But I imagine that maybe some of you might be experiencing
(00:28):
a crispness in the air. Maybe I think summer doesn't
technically wrap up until the twenty second or twenty third
of September, so I guess I should not be surprised
by the hot weather. But still I hear September and
I think fall. Maybe I'm the only one. This is
our first episode of the month, which means we just
added a fresh batch of new recipes to a recipe
(00:50):
club library. Since it's my birthday month, we added a
handful of recipes that are favorites of mine that hadn't
made their way into the club yet. A few are
from my first cookbook that I wrote ten years ago,
and a few are just family favorites that I'd make
on repeat but never had formally written. A recipe for
So it's such a good lineup and we would love
(01:12):
to cook with you this month. So since it's my
fortieth birthday, we are offering a forty percent discount on
an annual membership, which is the best deal we offered
this calendar year. So it's a great time to jump
in and try it out. The code is forty candles
and maybe it'll make me feel better about turning forty
if we have a bunch of you that join us
(01:35):
in the club. Ah, probably not. It's fine. Forty is
going to be great. I keep telling myself it's going
to be the best decade yet, right all right. In
addition to a library of hundreds of family friendly recipes
in Recipe Club, we also have some awesome resources like
a drag and drop meal planning tool, one click grocery shopping,
(01:55):
and are very popular cheat sheets. In fact, that's what
we're going to chat about today, my fall pantry cheat sheet.
But before we really get into that, let's do what
we always do on this podcast and start by giving
you three simple ideas recipes that you could throw on
your meal plan for the week. I know that many
of us really don't mind the cooking it's the deciding
(02:17):
what to make and the grocery shopping and all of
the steps that come before that that can feel so daunting.
So hopefully by sharing a few ideas with you every week,
it helps with that decision fatigue and kind of jump
starts you making a plan for the upcoming week. So
here we go. First on the list is probably my
family's favorite recipe right now, the one that's being requested
(02:38):
the most, and it is peanut chicken bowls. So I
make a really simple, like creamy peanut sauce in a skillet,
and you can use either chicken breast, so you can
use chicken thighs. You could really do any sort of protein,
but you're gonna see it off. You're gonna make the
peanut sauce, and then I like serving these in bowls
of rice, and then we always do a little sliced cucumber.
(03:02):
Cucumbers big hit in my house right now. Everybody loves cucumbers,
pickled onions, which I always have on hand, and a
little shredded cabbage, and then I'll do some fresh cilantro
on top, a little bit of chopped peanuts, and then
a squeeze of fresh lime and it is like Chef's
Kiss delicious, so good. So that's the first thing, and
(03:23):
I'm very excited that's that's on our line up. I
can't wait. Then we are going to make the baked
chicken tiktos at the request of my kids. They freeze
so well, so I make these when usually when I
say to my kids, what do you want for dinner
this week? This is usually one of the first things
that comes up. They are so tasty, they are so
(03:43):
easy to double, and then you freeze the rest and
it's a perfect like after school snack, or if you're
having dinner earlier like my family is, it might not
be an after school snack, but it might be a
snack before dinner, a snack before bedtime because we're trying
to eat dinner a little earlier at this school year.
And then the third recipe, we're doing my Italian chicken
(04:05):
sausage and orzo skillet. This is such a good recipe.
It's one of those where I get all the ingredients
at Trader Joe's because I shop there often enough, but
you certainly can get the ingredients at any grocery store.
But I make this and love this so much that
if you were to blindfold me and send me into
my Trader Joe's, I could walk to all of the ingredients.
(04:26):
That's not much. I like it. It's just hearty and
healthy and delicious, easy to deconstruct. It's a good balance
of protein and veg. It's got a little bit of
acidity from some bright lemon flavors in there. It's just good.
It's just a good recipe. So there are your recipes
for the week. You can find and print them all
in Recipe Club individually or in our weekly meal plan
(04:49):
with an easy to follow shopping list broken down by recipe.
You could also use our one click shopping feature to
add all of the ingredients directly into your online shopping cart.
Remember that you can easily customize a meal plan as well,
and that will generate a shopping list that you can
either print out or view in our app. So we've
tried to cover all our bases to make really every
(05:11):
step we can think of. As far as simplifying dinner,
we've tried to incorporate that. So it just feels a
little bit more manageable to develop a regular ritual or
habit of feeding your family a bit more often Okay,
let's jump into the back half of the podcast and
chat about my fall pantry cheat sheet. Now that your
(05:34):
kids are back in school, you might be getting into
more of a predictable dinner routine, whether you've already kind
of built that meal planning muscle or you're trying to
ease into it by just cooking a few nights a week.
Being able to cook from your pantry is such a
great skill to develop. I have a pantry cheat sheet
for every season of year and recipe Club that rounds
(05:56):
up the best shortcut ingredients to keep on hand for
quick and easy seasonal dinners. In addition to sharing some
of those favorite pantry staples, the cheat sheet also includes
my favorite recipe Club recipes that utilize them. So I
want to talk about what that cheat sheet looks like
for Fall as we are heading into that season. Because
(06:18):
these are ingredients that I usually always have on hand,
and because I like pantry recipes, they don't require very
many other ingredients to make a full blown dinner. So
here's how my Fall pantry cheat sheet is broken down.
In really all of my seasonal pantry cheat sheets, so
that's winter, summer, spring, and fall, there are six pantry products.
(06:40):
It has a picture of the pantry product, and then
underneath it it includes a list of recipe Club recipes
that you can search for in recipe Club. That way,
it feels like, if you have nothing to make for dinner,
you open the door to your pantry and you're like, ah,
I've got a jar of Reyos Marinara sauce, So here
are you know? A hand full of recipes I could make,
(07:01):
like the skillet creamy tortellini, or the sheet pan pizza chicken,
or the chicken par meatballs or Kelsey's baked zd And
it's hopefully just supposed to be one more tool that
you can utilize as a jumping off point when you
feel that decision fatigue of I have no idea what
to make for dinner. And then on the flip side,
I share one five ingredient recipe that incorporates that ingredient,
(07:24):
a recipe that's usually so simple that a traditional recipe
really isn't even required, especially if you've made it once before,
kind of like a dump and stir a recipe almost.
And so if I really don't want to make any decisions,
I'll just make that recipe. So today I want to
run through those six ingredients and the recipes that I
suggest you could make with them. That way, if you
(07:45):
keep your pantry stocked with these staples, you should always
have a dinner option on hand that won't be too
heavy of a lift. So we're going to start with
marion arisas we kind of already talked about it. If
you have followed me for any amount of time, this
is no news to you. To me, it is the
most delicious jarred Mariner sauce. It might be my favorite
(08:06):
pantry staple of all time. It's clean, it tastes delicious.
The only downside is it's a little more expensive than
some other Marionnaire sauces, but it doesn't have nearly as
much added sugar. And I dare you to make a
homemade Marionnaire sauce that tastes more flavorful. It really is
(08:27):
just that good. And Ina Garten is the first person
who turned me onto this product, and so I feel
like anything that Aina says is gospel. So it's so good.
So I ran through the recipes on the cheat sheet
for that, and on the back is the skill at
Creamy Toortellini, which is a delicious five ingredient recipe. But
I also want to tell you about one thing I've
started doing here. I love buying ground protein, ground beef,
(08:52):
ground chicken, crown turkey, even ground pork. And if you
have got a super busy night, or let's say it's
seven o'clock and you just got home from picking up
kids from baseball practice and gymnastics, and you got to
feature people. If you have a jar of Marinaia sauce
and you have a pound of some sort of ground
(09:12):
protein in your freezer or in your fridge, and you
have some sort of pasta, you have a meal that
really is going to taste pretty delicious. So I rather
than just making traditional spaghetti, this is so simple, and
maybe some of you already do this. I started always
keeping some ground protein in my freezer so that I'm
(09:33):
never just serving spaghetti and sauce. I'm at least sautaining
a pound of ground protein like beef or chicken and
stirring the sauce in. And if you want to, at
that point, you could add like a tablespoon of prepared
pesto I love the Kirkland brand one to add like
a basil y flavor. You could add some fresh basil
(09:56):
in you could add a few more seasonings, like some
Italian seasoning or some dried a raginhoe or something like that.
Or one thing that my family loves is all sometimes
add a splash of heavy cream to make it more
of a pink sauce, but having the protein in with
that sauce and then served over pasta is awesome. It
is really great. So that's something I've been relying on lately.
(10:17):
Next on the list maple syrup. And I really like
the maple syrup either at Costco or Trader Joe's. Once again,
they're fairly clean but still tastes good, but it's not
like Missus Butteroth's style uber uber sweet. So a couple
of recipes and recipe club you'll find that utilize maple
syrup are my maple mustard Salmon, which is an amazing
(10:38):
five ingredient recipe. One of our most popular my sheet
pan chicken with butternut and apples, which is so appropriate
for fall. I make a really delicious maple mustard glaze
for that, and that goes on top of the chicken.
We use chicken dice in the recipes, but you could
obviously use chicken breast as well my maple pecan granola cluster,
(11:00):
which isn't so much a weeknight dinner, but it's a
great breakfast option. Funny story about this recipe. When we
transitioned our site from our old Recipe Club site to
Recipe Club two point zero on the brand new, beautiful
custom site we just built, somehow this recipe did not
transfer over and I had at least three people email
(11:22):
me and say where did the granola go? And I'm
so surprised because what we specialize in is weeknight dinners,
but people are making these granola clusters, so that had
to be on the cheat sheet. And then one of
our favorite side dishes that we will serve either with
a rotisserie chicken or basic grilled chicken or a grilled
pork tenderloin or something like that is my Brussels sprouts
(11:45):
with maple and pecans. I like buying the shaved Brussels sprouts,
but you could absolutely just roast these whole. But something
about that maple and pecan flavor combo is just delish. Okay,
next a rotisserie. Now, I know this can't live in
your pantry, but what it can do is live on
your weekly shopping list, especially as we get back into school.
(12:09):
Having the assistance of a five dollars rotisserie chicken I
get my from Costco should be no surprise there. Sam's
Club I have heard. I just don't live near Sam's,
but I have plenty of friends who prefer Sam's over Costco,
and I know they've got delicious rotissery chickens. But it's
a five dollars protein that will feed my entire family.
I have a family of five, three little kids. My
(12:32):
son's not that little, but we still can get a
home meal a lot of it. You just can't beat
the flavor and the cost, especially given that it's a
nice lean protein, and so I just have it on
my shopping list for the week. I get one every week,
and I usually make one of these recipes from it.
I have a delicious tortilla soup my ingredient recipe. It
uses a jar of salsaverde a can of beans. It
(12:55):
uses chicken broth. I usually serve it over rice and
then kind of dress it up like you would tacos,
little sour cream, pickled onions, cilantro lime. Another one my
green chili chicken enchiladas. This is a skillet enchilada. Super
easy to pull together, especially if you're not having to
cook the chicken separately and you're just shredding it off
(13:16):
of the rotisserie chicken. My cheesy chicken broccoli bake. Just
had a conversation about this recipe this morning, my sister
in law, Hannah. She says it's their favorite recipe club recipe.
This is like comfort to a tea and I love it.
As long as you've got that shredded chicken and broccoli
on hand. Almost everything else is a pantry staple. Use
(13:37):
rice and orzo in that recipeach make a really nice consistency,
uses some chicken broth. It's just super super delicious. And
my skillet chicken pop pie another one great for fall
comes together even faster when you're utilizing that rotisserie chicken. Okay.
Next on the list is farrow. This is a grain.
Love farrow. I particularly like the quick cooking Firo comes
(14:00):
from Trader Joe's that's sold in a blue bag and
it is like a dollar sixty nine. And we we
prefer this to rice, We prefer this to couscus. It's
just got a nice nutty flavor, especially when you cook
it in chicken broth. We'll do harvest green bowls, which
is kind of like a knockoff of the sweet grain
Harvest green bowl. We'll do my blt bowls. We'll do
(14:21):
my roasted grain bowl veggie bowls, or my apple cheddar
grain bowls, which are so good and actually another recipe
that I think I'm gonna make this week. It's like
a backup recipe for the week. But I use honey crisp, apples, furrow,
the unexpected cheddar, a creamy balsamic vinaigrette, shredded kale. Next
is sweet potatoes. So the reason I have sweet potatoes
(14:44):
here is you can buy sweet potatoes and as long
as you're storing them in kind of a dry, dark place,
they'll last you at least a week or two closer
to two weeks really, And this is just a nice,
a nice veggie, hearty veggie option to have on hand.
So we will do loaded sweet potatoes. I make this
(15:05):
really delicious kind of creek yogurt sauce and I do
it with black beans and avocado some lime, and that
is oh gosh, I should put those on my nail
plan And those are so good I've made those in
a while. Another one is my sweet potato green curry.
That's a five ingredient recipe. So as long as you've
got sweet potatoes, some broccoli, and my favorite jarred green
(15:27):
curry sauce, or it's like a paste, you're gonna go
really great recipe. Or my cilantro lime chicken with sweet
potatoes that's a sheet pan recipe. And then the last
thing on my list is canned pumpkin. This one might
be more of a stretch for weeknight dinner, but there
is one recipe that makes it worth having it on
my cheat sheet, and that is my favorite, favorite, favorite
(15:50):
pumpkin chili. So during this time of year, this is
about when it starts. We love making pumpkin chili, which
really is just kind of traditional chili with the addition
of a can of pumpkin. And there's something about what
the pumpkin does to the chili. It kind of gives
it this body, this texture. It does not taste overly pumpkiny.
(16:12):
But I love it like I take a chili recipe
with a can of pumpkin over any other chili any day.
Love it so much, love it, love it, love it
and It's also fun if you make it for friends,
you say, guess the secret ingredient and no one can
ever guess what it is. But it's pumpkin. So I've
got that on there because we'll do you know, chili
and corn bread this time of year all the time.
(16:35):
I also have my pumpkin bars and my pumpkin pinu
chi cookies. Those are also just kind of sweets we
like to make this time of year. So that's it,
you guys. That's a little tour of my fall pantry
cheat sheet. You can find it in Recipe Club. You
can print it off. My sister's so great she will
actually take the seasonal pantry cheat sheet and hang it
(16:56):
up in her pantry, so she'll change it for every season,
and just a nice way to remind her of a
couple of recipes that is longer. She's got some of
those pantry staples. She's not too far away from a
really easy weeknight dinner. Finally, let's finish with the weekly
Gimme five. This is five things that made my life
easier or more enjoyable this week. First up is actually
(17:16):
a gift my kids got for Christmas that has just
really pulled through as something that saves me on many occasions.
And it is our art cart. I was gonna say
the white art cart, because that's what my kids call it.
They call it the white art cart. But we did
it for Christmas, and we stocked it with crayons and
markers and pencils and scissors and construction paper and tape
(17:39):
and stickers and all this stuff, and it actually stays
in like our main living room. We don't have a
ton of toys in our main living room now that
my kids are getting older, but this art cart is
so loved and so used, and we used it throughout
the summer for those moments when kids said I'm bored.
But now we are using it for homework and it's awesome.
(18:01):
Maybe it's just because I've got a second grader and
a daughter in TK, and so I kind of did
a little refresh, restock, and I'm just so glad we
have it. It's like a really good place to keep
all of those things. Next is my crinkle cut vegetable cutter.
So I made a real I think two weeks ago
where I was talking about how I loved doing and
(18:23):
earlier dinner time, and I did like what they call
b roll. Just some footage of what it looks like
when my family comes home and we all sit down
to the dinner table. And I showed a little bit
of me prepping dinner, and I had this one cutter
where it kind of crinkle cuts veggies, specifically cucumbers. That's
what we use it foremost. And I can't believe how
(18:44):
many people reached out and said, what are you using
to cut those cucumbers? It's awesome. It's this little vegetable cutter.
It gives it waving lines. It's like eight dollars on Amazon,
and for whatever reason, my four year old and seven
year old are ten times more likely to eat a
cucumber if it's got wavy lines in it. So I
love it. I almost use it every day for their
(19:07):
lunch boxes because I send cucumbers most days. And it's
just really easy to use, Like my daughter Nora could
totally use it. Penny could probably use it. You can't
really cut yourself, but it's a great little tool in
the kitchen. Another kitchen favorite this week has been my
fridge turntable or Lazy Susan. I keep this in my
fridge and I keep condiments on it and It's just
(19:28):
a way better way to organize those so they don't
get lost in the back of the fridge. And you
guys know, I did a big fridge clean out before
school started, and I've been trying to cook through my condiments,
like the jars that were three fourths the way gone
but just had a little bit left, whether it was
barbecue sauce or using a hot sauce that was almost
(19:48):
gone for eggs or chili chi lais or nacho's or
something like that. And I'm just so glad I have
that little turntable, And honestly, I'm like, this is a
good way for me to manage how many sauces are
coming into my house too, because we shouldn't eat more
than what lives on that turntable, and if we do,
then maybe we should use those up. Find it a
(20:10):
recipe to use them in. So I just love that
it helps keep my fridge more organized. And my fridge
is still looking pretty good after I cleaned it out
before school started. Next is my favorite dishbrush. Now that
we're back in school, back to more regular dinners, it's
back to dishes and this is my Oh gosh, it's
the brand is full circle and it's technically a dishbrush
(20:32):
for cast iron, but I use it on everything and
it's just really sturdy, Like I never want a dishbrush
to be too soft because I can't really get stuff off.
This is the best. And my mom actually texted me
the other day, what's that dishbrush you like? Because she
has bought it as well and really really liked it,
so that I'm glad I've got. And then, last, but
(20:53):
not least, I have very few but a couple makeup
items that I have been using for five years plus
and anytime I run out of them, I reevaluate am
I going to use this again? Or I'm going to
try something new? And this is something I ran out
of this week and decided I'm gonna buy that again
for like the fifth or sixty year in a row.
(21:15):
And it is the IT Cosmetics c C cream. You know,
it's like thirty dollars, so it's not super expensive, but
it's not super cheap either, And I just find it
to give me the best coverage that's not too much
and also really moisturizing. So that makes my life easier
because lots of times that's all I'm putting on. It's
(21:35):
got some SPF in it. I just like it for
a nice, clean, simple make your protein. All right, that's
it for today. You guys, make sure you're subscribed to
the podcast so that you never miss an episode. This
podcast is always meant to be a quick twenty to
thirty minute listen while you map out your meals for
the upcoming week. And to really support helping you set
up your own simple dinner system. Reminder that for a
(21:57):
limited time, you can get forty percent off an annual
membership drest Beak Club with that code forty candless. How
I'm making myself feel better about turning forty, so I
hope you benefit off of that. It ends up being
like a dollar three a week if you do that,
you guys, a dollar for someone to help you decide
what to make for dinner every week. Such a good deal,
(22:17):
Such a good deal. All right, thanks for listening today.
I'm so glad you're here. Until next time, happy cooking.
I'm Kelsey and look forward to chatting with you and
next week.
Hi everybody. I'm Kelsey Nixon and this is Kitchen Prescription,
the podcast you listen to when you don't know what
to make for dinner. Today is episode ninety seven my
Fall Pantry cheat Sheet. I hope September is off to
a great start. We are in the midst of a
heat wave, having our highest temperatures of twenty twenty four.
But I imagine that maybe some of you might be experiencing
(00:28):
a crispness in the air. Maybe I think summer doesn't
technically wrap up until the twenty second or twenty third
of September, so I guess I should not be surprised
by the hot weather. But still I hear September and
I think fall. Maybe I'm the only one. This is
our first episode of the month, which means we just
added a fresh batch of new recipes to a recipe
(00:50):
club library. Since it's my birthday month, we added a
handful of recipes that are favorites of mine that hadn't
made their way into the club yet. A few are
from my first cookbook that I wrote ten years ago,
and a few are just family favorites that I'd make
on repeat but never had formally written. A recipe for
So it's such a good lineup and we would love
(01:12):
to cook with you this month. So since it's my
fortieth birthday, we are offering a forty percent discount on
an annual membership, which is the best deal we offered
this calendar year. So it's a great time to jump
in and try it out. The code is forty candles
and maybe it'll make me feel better about turning forty
if we have a bunch of you that join us
(01:35):
in the club. Ah, probably not. It's fine. Forty is
going to be great. I keep telling myself it's going
to be the best decade yet, right all right. In
addition to a library of hundreds of family friendly recipes
in Recipe Club, we also have some awesome resources like
a drag and drop meal planning tool, one click grocery shopping,
(01:55):
and are very popular cheat sheets. In fact, that's what
we're going to chat about today, my fall pantry cheat sheet.
But before we really get into that, let's do what
we always do on this podcast and start by giving
you three simple ideas recipes that you could throw on
your meal plan for the week. I know that many
of us really don't mind the cooking it's the deciding
(02:17):
what to make and the grocery shopping and all of
the steps that come before that that can feel so daunting.
So hopefully by sharing a few ideas with you every week,
it helps with that decision fatigue and kind of jump
starts you making a plan for the upcoming week. So
here we go. First on the list is probably my
family's favorite recipe right now, the one that's being requested
(02:38):
the most, and it is peanut chicken bowls. So I
make a really simple, like creamy peanut sauce in a skillet,
and you can use either chicken breast, so you can
use chicken thighs. You could really do any sort of protein,
but you're gonna see it off. You're gonna make the
peanut sauce, and then I like serving these in bowls
of rice, and then we always do a little sliced cucumber.
(03:02):
Cucumbers big hit in my house right now. Everybody loves cucumbers,
pickled onions, which I always have on hand, and a
little shredded cabbage, and then I'll do some fresh cilantro
on top, a little bit of chopped peanuts, and then
a squeeze of fresh lime and it is like Chef's
Kiss delicious, so good. So that's the first thing, and
(03:23):
I'm very excited that's that's on our line up. I
can't wait. Then we are going to make the baked
chicken tiktos at the request of my kids. They freeze
so well, so I make these when usually when I
say to my kids, what do you want for dinner
this week? This is usually one of the first things
that comes up. They are so tasty, they are so
(03:43):
easy to double, and then you freeze the rest and
it's a perfect like after school snack, or if you're
having dinner earlier like my family is, it might not
be an after school snack, but it might be a
snack before dinner, a snack before bedtime because we're trying
to eat dinner a little earlier at this school year.
And then the third recipe, we're doing my Italian chicken
(04:05):
sausage and orzo skillet. This is such a good recipe.
It's one of those where I get all the ingredients
at Trader Joe's because I shop there often enough, but
you certainly can get the ingredients at any grocery store.
But I make this and love this so much that
if you were to blindfold me and send me into
my Trader Joe's, I could walk to all of the ingredients.
(04:26):
That's not much. I like it. It's just hearty and
healthy and delicious, easy to deconstruct. It's a good balance
of protein and veg. It's got a little bit of
acidity from some bright lemon flavors in there. It's just good.
It's just a good recipe. So there are your recipes
for the week. You can find and print them all
in Recipe Club individually or in our weekly meal plan
(04:49):
with an easy to follow shopping list broken down by recipe.
You could also use our one click shopping feature to
add all of the ingredients directly into your online shopping cart.
Remember that you can easily customize a meal plan as well,
and that will generate a shopping list that you can
either print out or view in our app. So we've
tried to cover all our bases to make really every
(05:11):
step we can think of. As far as simplifying dinner,
we've tried to incorporate that. So it just feels a
little bit more manageable to develop a regular ritual or
habit of feeding your family a bit more often Okay,
let's jump into the back half of the podcast and
chat about my fall pantry cheat sheet. Now that your
(05:34):
kids are back in school, you might be getting into
more of a predictable dinner routine, whether you've already kind
of built that meal planning muscle or you're trying to
ease into it by just cooking a few nights a week.
Being able to cook from your pantry is such a
great skill to develop. I have a pantry cheat sheet
for every season of year and recipe Club that rounds
(05:56):
up the best shortcut ingredients to keep on hand for
quick and easy seasonal dinners. In addition to sharing some
of those favorite pantry staples, the cheat sheet also includes
my favorite recipe Club recipes that utilize them. So I
want to talk about what that cheat sheet looks like
for Fall as we are heading into that season. Because
(06:18):
these are ingredients that I usually always have on hand,
and because I like pantry recipes, they don't require very
many other ingredients to make a full blown dinner. So
here's how my Fall pantry cheat sheet is broken down.
In really all of my seasonal pantry cheat sheets, so
that's winter, summer, spring, and fall, there are six pantry products.
(06:40):
It has a picture of the pantry product, and then
underneath it it includes a list of recipe Club recipes
that you can search for in recipe Club. That way,
it feels like, if you have nothing to make for dinner,
you open the door to your pantry and you're like, ah,
I've got a jar of Reyos Marinara sauce, So here
are you know? A hand full of recipes I could make,
(07:01):
like the skillet creamy tortellini, or the sheet pan pizza chicken,
or the chicken par meatballs or Kelsey's baked zd And
it's hopefully just supposed to be one more tool that
you can utilize as a jumping off point when you
feel that decision fatigue of I have no idea what
to make for dinner. And then on the flip side,
I share one five ingredient recipe that incorporates that ingredient,
(07:24):
a recipe that's usually so simple that a traditional recipe
really isn't even required, especially if you've made it once before,
kind of like a dump and stir a recipe almost.
And so if I really don't want to make any decisions,
I'll just make that recipe. So today I want to
run through those six ingredients and the recipes that I
suggest you could make with them. That way, if you
(07:45):
keep your pantry stocked with these staples, you should always
have a dinner option on hand that won't be too
heavy of a lift. So we're going to start with
marion arisas we kind of already talked about it. If
you have followed me for any amount of time, this
is no news to you. To me, it is the
most delicious jarred Mariner sauce. It might be my favorite
(08:06):
pantry staple of all time. It's clean, it tastes delicious.
The only downside is it's a little more expensive than
some other Marionnaire sauces, but it doesn't have nearly as
much added sugar. And I dare you to make a
homemade Marionnaire sauce that tastes more flavorful. It really is
(08:27):
just that good. And Ina Garten is the first person
who turned me onto this product, and so I feel
like anything that Aina says is gospel. So it's so good.
So I ran through the recipes on the cheat sheet
for that, and on the back is the skill at
Creamy Toortellini, which is a delicious five ingredient recipe. But
I also want to tell you about one thing I've
started doing here. I love buying ground protein, ground beef,
(08:52):
ground chicken, crown turkey, even ground pork. And if you
have got a super busy night, or let's say it's
seven o'clock and you just got home from picking up
kids from baseball practice and gymnastics, and you got to
feature people. If you have a jar of Marinaia sauce
and you have a pound of some sort of ground
(09:12):
protein in your freezer or in your fridge, and you
have some sort of pasta, you have a meal that
really is going to taste pretty delicious. So I rather
than just making traditional spaghetti, this is so simple, and
maybe some of you already do this. I started always
keeping some ground protein in my freezer so that I'm
(09:33):
never just serving spaghetti and sauce. I'm at least sautaining
a pound of ground protein like beef or chicken and
stirring the sauce in. And if you want to, at
that point, you could add like a tablespoon of prepared
pesto I love the Kirkland brand one to add like
a basil y flavor. You could add some fresh basil
(09:56):
in you could add a few more seasonings, like some
Italian seasoning or some dried a raginhoe or something like that.
Or one thing that my family loves is all sometimes
add a splash of heavy cream to make it more
of a pink sauce, but having the protein in with
that sauce and then served over pasta is awesome. It
is really great. So that's something I've been relying on lately.
(10:17):
Next on the list maple syrup. And I really like
the maple syrup either at Costco or Trader Joe's. Once again,
they're fairly clean but still tastes good, but it's not
like Missus Butteroth's style uber uber sweet. So a couple
of recipes and recipe club you'll find that utilize maple
syrup are my maple mustard Salmon, which is an amazing
(10:38):
five ingredient recipe. One of our most popular my sheet
pan chicken with butternut and apples, which is so appropriate
for fall. I make a really delicious maple mustard glaze
for that, and that goes on top of the chicken.
We use chicken dice in the recipes, but you could
obviously use chicken breast as well my maple pecan granola cluster,
(11:00):
which isn't so much a weeknight dinner, but it's a
great breakfast option. Funny story about this recipe. When we
transitioned our site from our old Recipe Club site to
Recipe Club two point zero on the brand new, beautiful
custom site we just built, somehow this recipe did not
transfer over and I had at least three people email
(11:22):
me and say where did the granola go? And I'm
so surprised because what we specialize in is weeknight dinners,
but people are making these granola clusters, so that had
to be on the cheat sheet. And then one of
our favorite side dishes that we will serve either with
a rotisserie chicken or basic grilled chicken or a grilled
pork tenderloin or something like that is my Brussels sprouts
(11:45):
with maple and pecans. I like buying the shaved Brussels sprouts,
but you could absolutely just roast these whole. But something
about that maple and pecan flavor combo is just delish. Okay,
next a rotisserie. Now, I know this can't live in
your pantry, but what it can do is live on
your weekly shopping list, especially as we get back into school.
(12:09):
Having the assistance of a five dollars rotisserie chicken I
get my from Costco should be no surprise there. Sam's
Club I have heard. I just don't live near Sam's,
but I have plenty of friends who prefer Sam's over Costco,
and I know they've got delicious rotissery chickens. But it's
a five dollars protein that will feed my entire family.
I have a family of five, three little kids. My
(12:32):
son's not that little, but we still can get a
home meal a lot of it. You just can't beat
the flavor and the cost, especially given that it's a
nice lean protein, and so I just have it on
my shopping list for the week. I get one every week,
and I usually make one of these recipes from it.
I have a delicious tortilla soup my ingredient recipe. It
uses a jar of salsaverde a can of beans. It
(12:55):
uses chicken broth. I usually serve it over rice and
then kind of dress it up like you would tacos,
little sour cream, pickled onions, cilantro lime. Another one my
green chili chicken enchiladas. This is a skillet enchilada. Super
easy to pull together, especially if you're not having to
cook the chicken separately and you're just shredding it off
(13:16):
of the rotisserie chicken. My cheesy chicken broccoli bake. Just
had a conversation about this recipe this morning, my sister
in law, Hannah. She says it's their favorite recipe club recipe.
This is like comfort to a tea and I love it.
As long as you've got that shredded chicken and broccoli
on hand. Almost everything else is a pantry staple. Use
(13:37):
rice and orzo in that recipeach make a really nice consistency,
uses some chicken broth. It's just super super delicious. And
my skillet chicken pop pie another one great for fall
comes together even faster when you're utilizing that rotisserie chicken. Okay.
Next on the list is farrow. This is a grain.
Love farrow. I particularly like the quick cooking Firo comes
(14:00):
from Trader Joe's that's sold in a blue bag and
it is like a dollar sixty nine. And we we
prefer this to rice, We prefer this to couscus. It's
just got a nice nutty flavor, especially when you cook
it in chicken broth. We'll do harvest green bowls, which
is kind of like a knockoff of the sweet grain
Harvest green bowl. We'll do my blt bowls. We'll do
(14:21):
my roasted grain bowl veggie bowls, or my apple cheddar
grain bowls, which are so good and actually another recipe
that I think I'm gonna make this week. It's like
a backup recipe for the week. But I use honey crisp, apples, furrow,
the unexpected cheddar, a creamy balsamic vinaigrette, shredded kale. Next
is sweet potatoes. So the reason I have sweet potatoes
(14:44):
here is you can buy sweet potatoes and as long
as you're storing them in kind of a dry, dark place,
they'll last you at least a week or two closer
to two weeks really, And this is just a nice,
a nice veggie, hearty veggie option to have on hand.
So we will do loaded sweet potatoes. I make this
(15:05):
really delicious kind of creek yogurt sauce and I do
it with black beans and avocado some lime, and that
is oh gosh, I should put those on my nail
plan And those are so good I've made those in
a while. Another one is my sweet potato green curry.
That's a five ingredient recipe. So as long as you've
got sweet potatoes, some broccoli, and my favorite jarred green
(15:27):
curry sauce, or it's like a paste, you're gonna go
really great recipe. Or my cilantro lime chicken with sweet
potatoes that's a sheet pan recipe. And then the last
thing on my list is canned pumpkin. This one might
be more of a stretch for weeknight dinner, but there
is one recipe that makes it worth having it on
my cheat sheet, and that is my favorite, favorite, favorite
(15:50):
pumpkin chili. So during this time of year, this is
about when it starts. We love making pumpkin chili, which
really is just kind of traditional chili with the addition
of a can of pumpkin. And there's something about what
the pumpkin does to the chili. It kind of gives
it this body, this texture. It does not taste overly pumpkiny.
(16:12):
But I love it like I take a chili recipe
with a can of pumpkin over any other chili any day.
Love it so much, love it, love it, love it
and It's also fun if you make it for friends,
you say, guess the secret ingredient and no one can
ever guess what it is. But it's pumpkin. So I've
got that on there because we'll do you know, chili
and corn bread this time of year all the time.
(16:35):
I also have my pumpkin bars and my pumpkin pinu
chi cookies. Those are also just kind of sweets we
like to make this time of year. So that's it,
you guys. That's a little tour of my fall pantry
cheat sheet. You can find it in Recipe Club. You
can print it off. My sister's so great she will
actually take the seasonal pantry cheat sheet and hang it
(16:56):
up in her pantry, so she'll change it for every season,
and just a nice way to remind her of a
couple of recipes that is longer. She's got some of
those pantry staples. She's not too far away from a
really easy weeknight dinner. Finally, let's finish with the weekly
Gimme five. This is five things that made my life
easier or more enjoyable this week. First up is actually
(17:16):
a gift my kids got for Christmas that has just
really pulled through as something that saves me on many occasions.
And it is our art cart. I was gonna say
the white art cart, because that's what my kids call it.
They call it the white art cart. But we did
it for Christmas, and we stocked it with crayons and
markers and pencils and scissors and construction paper and tape
(17:39):
and stickers and all this stuff, and it actually stays
in like our main living room. We don't have a
ton of toys in our main living room now that
my kids are getting older, but this art cart is
so loved and so used, and we used it throughout
the summer for those moments when kids said I'm bored.
But now we are using it for homework and it's awesome.
(18:01):
Maybe it's just because I've got a second grader and
a daughter in TK, and so I kind of did
a little refresh, restock, and I'm just so glad we
have it. It's like a really good place to keep
all of those things. Next is my crinkle cut vegetable cutter.
So I made a real I think two weeks ago
where I was talking about how I loved doing and
(18:23):
earlier dinner time, and I did like what they call
b roll. Just some footage of what it looks like
when my family comes home and we all sit down
to the dinner table. And I showed a little bit
of me prepping dinner, and I had this one cutter
where it kind of crinkle cuts veggies, specifically cucumbers. That's
what we use it foremost. And I can't believe how
(18:44):
many people reached out and said, what are you using
to cut those cucumbers? It's awesome. It's this little vegetable cutter.
It gives it waving lines. It's like eight dollars on Amazon,
and for whatever reason, my four year old and seven
year old are ten times more likely to eat a
cucumber if it's got wavy lines in it. So I
love it. I almost use it every day for their
(19:07):
lunch boxes because I send cucumbers most days. And it's
just really easy to use, Like my daughter Nora could
totally use it. Penny could probably use it. You can't
really cut yourself, but it's a great little tool in
the kitchen. Another kitchen favorite this week has been my
fridge turntable or Lazy Susan. I keep this in my
fridge and I keep condiments on it and It's just
(19:28):
a way better way to organize those so they don't
get lost in the back of the fridge. And you
guys know, I did a big fridge clean out before
school started, and I've been trying to cook through my condiments,
like the jars that were three fourths the way gone
but just had a little bit left, whether it was
barbecue sauce or using a hot sauce that was almost
(19:48):
gone for eggs or chili chi lais or nacho's or
something like that. And I'm just so glad I have
that little turntable, And honestly, I'm like, this is a
good way for me to manage how many sauces are
coming into my house too, because we shouldn't eat more
than what lives on that turntable, and if we do,
then maybe we should use those up. Find it a
(20:10):
recipe to use them in. So I just love that
it helps keep my fridge more organized. And my fridge
is still looking pretty good after I cleaned it out
before school started. Next is my favorite dishbrush. Now that
we're back in school, back to more regular dinners, it's
back to dishes and this is my Oh gosh, it's
the brand is full circle and it's technically a dishbrush
(20:32):
for cast iron, but I use it on everything and
it's just really sturdy, Like I never want a dishbrush
to be too soft because I can't really get stuff off.
This is the best. And my mom actually texted me
the other day, what's that dishbrush you like? Because she
has bought it as well and really really liked it,
so that I'm glad I've got. And then, last, but
(20:53):
not least, I have very few but a couple makeup
items that I have been using for five years plus
and anytime I run out of them, I reevaluate am
I going to use this again? Or I'm going to
try something new? And this is something I ran out
of this week and decided I'm gonna buy that again
for like the fifth or sixty year in a row.
(21:15):
And it is the IT Cosmetics c C cream. You know,
it's like thirty dollars, so it's not super expensive, but
it's not super cheap either, And I just find it
to give me the best coverage that's not too much
and also really moisturizing. So that makes my life easier
because lots of times that's all I'm putting on. It's
(21:35):
got some SPF in it. I just like it for
a nice, clean, simple make your protein. All right, that's
it for today. You guys, make sure you're subscribed to
the podcast so that you never miss an episode. This
podcast is always meant to be a quick twenty to
thirty minute listen while you map out your meals for
the upcoming week. And to really support helping you set
up your own simple dinner system. Reminder that for a
(21:57):
limited time, you can get forty percent off an annual
membership drest Beak Club with that code forty candless. How
I'm making myself feel better about turning forty, so I
hope you benefit off of that. It ends up being
like a dollar three a week if you do that,
you guys, a dollar for someone to help you decide
what to make for dinner every week. Such a good deal,
(22:17):
Such a good deal. All right, thanks for listening today.
I'm so glad you're here. Until next time, happy cooking.
I'm Kelsey and look forward to chatting with you and
next week.
Host
Kelsey Nixon
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