Dinner Ideas- No Recipe Required

I thought I would try to include on this blog from time to time, some general dinner ideas. Sometimes you don't want to drag out a cook book, measure things out, peruse the grocery aisles for every exact ingredient- Sometimes you just want to make something and just don't know what. We always hate the dreaded "what do we do for dinner?" question. Just making the decision sometimes is more than half the battle in our house. So I thought I would include this "No Recipe Required Dinner Ideas" for those nights that we just need some inspiration on a direction to head.

I have two that we have done this week:

Dinner Idea #1

Grilled Chicken ( we did boneless skinless thighs and I seasoned with Lemon Pepper)

Grilled Zucchini (I use my mandolin slicer to slice them in planks lengthwise and they grill beautifully)

Baked Potato (Just good old fashioned potato in the oven- dressed to your liking)

What a satisfying, easy dinner with little work and even better- hardly any clean up! Also, you only have to pick up three things at the store.

Dinner Idea #2

Shepherd's Pie

Who's mom didn't make Shepherd's Pie when you were a kid? This had been sounding good to me lately so I made it last night for dinner. Talk about a meal with no rules- my mom used to use corn as her vegetable and anything else she could find leftover in our fridge to use up. Once I had Ryan's mom's that she made with green beans and a tomato sauce in her meat. I liked it like that and that way has stuck with me.

So her is how I did mine:

Browned my ground beef (a little less than 3lbs) with chopped onion and seasonings (you can be creative)- I just used salt and pepper, oregano, and some garlic powder. I drained it and mixed in two cans of tomato soup (You can use anything for your tomato sauce- I chose soup to keep it mild)

Meanwhile, I cooked and mashed my potatoes with butter, milk, and some sour cream.

I layered in my big casserole dish- my meat, a thawed bag of frozen french cut beans, my potatoes, and topped with some shredded cheddar and sprinkled with Paprika.

I baked at 350 for about 30-40 minutes.

It hit the spot for us! And if your leftover people like us, you've got dinner for the next couple nights.

I hope the picture is a bonus for you- I felt like a nerd taking a picture of our food, but I thought if it would add something to the blog I would do it =) So I hope you like it. Haha.