Click Here to Pin this Taco Rice Bowl recipe!

One thing I’m quickly learning these days is that the more prep I do as far as meals go, the smoother dinnertime is during the week. For instance, when you find yourself with some time to spare over the weekend (or while you are in the kitchen already cooking up something else), go ahead and cook up some brown rice to put in the fridge ready to go for another meal.

I’ve been trying to do that each week and because I did last week, for instance, these Taco Turkey and Black Bean Rice Bowl meals were a breeze to pull together for dinner. Cooking up the brown rice ahead of time freed up some cook time at dinner where I just had to pull together the taco meat and bean mixture while assembling the bowls.

Normally a pound of ground turkey doesn’t go very far for my hungry family of 5. I stretch it a bit by bulking it up with black beans, chopped red pepper and onion as it browns. Four out of 5 of us love black beans so adding them to our taco meat is always a more economical (and healthier) option in my book.

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Click here to pin this Mango Salsa Shrimp Tacos recipe.

Every time I go to Costco, I come home with their big container of mango peach salsa. You know the one, right? It’s so good. My friend Sandy uses it a lot in her recipes like this Smoked Turkey Mango Chili recipe and this Crock Pot Salsa Chicken on Brown Rice and always inspires me to use it more in my cooking. Salsa is a staple in my kitchen and I go through so much of it weekly between using it as dressing for my taco salad or when I make something like our favorite Salsa Chicken and Bean Tostadas.

If you don’t shop at Costco, no worries, Newman’s Own makes a mango salsa and a peach salsa, and I’ve seen some at Target as well.

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At breakfast, I’m typically an egg and toast girl. Every now and then I go through an oatmeal phase but for the most part I stick to a quick fried egg and a slice of lightly buttered Ezekiel bread with my cup of coffee. Eggs are also my choice when it comes to breakfast for dinner…which is when I started making these easy Black Bean and Egg Tostadas.

If you have all the ingredients on hand, which is highly possible, you can put these little tostadas together in literally just a few minutes. The recipe is for one tostada, but I can usually make (and eat) 2 at a time.

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Click here to pin this Beef and Spinach Stuffed Peppers recipe!

I grew up eating Italian style stuffed peppers like these I posted waaaaay back in 2008. That is my standard family recipe that my grandfather always made and still makes to this day (well, my version at least). Those do take a little more time to cook since I typically stuff the whole pepper, time that I haven’t wanted to invest in cooking a meal lately. The last year or so I finally caught on and started making stuffed pepper “halves” and hello, they cook up so much faster!

I have made these simple Beef and Spinach Stuffed Peppers a few times now and I love how quickly they come together, making them a weekly meal plan regular.

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These Salsa Chicken and Bean Baked Tostadas frequently make an appearance on our dinner table during the week. Tostadas in general are a go-to (we love these Turkey and Spinach Oven Baked Tostadas as well as these Salsa Verde Pork Tostadas), because they are one of those meals I know everyone in my family will eat and I can easily switch up the toppings based on what I have on hand that week.

Have I mentioned how quickly they come together making them incredibly convenient for a school night too? I may have mentioned that once or a thousand times.

From what I gather, tostadas are typically fried correct? I don’t think my way of preparing them would be considered very traditional or authentic, but baking the corn tortillas as opposed to frying them definitely keeps this recipe on the lighter side. The tortillas crisp up just enough to be picked up and eaten by hand, making it fun for the kids of course.

Here are a few more healthy dinner ideas for you.

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I’ve mentioned before that I’m a little obsessed with these baby bell peppers I’ve been finding at the grocery store. They are the perfect size in my opinion, making these Mini Mexican Stuffed Peppers a great side dish for our dinner the other night. I’d like to think they would be a nice hearty option for an appetizer too, especially during football season. A plate of these, alongside some quesadillas and chips and guacamole and you’ve got yourself a nice fiesta spread. I’m always a big fan of fiesta food.

To stuff these little peppers, I used Bush’s Beans line of Latin inspired preseasoned beans, Cocina Latina. The Frijoles Negros Machacados variety is reminiscent of refried black beans and are absolutely delicious. They are great on their own, served with rice, or would make a nice filling for tacos, quesadillas or enchiladas too.

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Click here to pin this Beef and Egg Tortilla Skillet recipe!

Breakfast for dinner is always a treat, especially for me because it comes together so quick and easy. Needless to say, this Beef and Egg Tortilla Skillet is perfect as we are adjusting to back to school and busy weeknight mode.

One thing I’m learning as far as getting dinner on the table quickly is to prep as much as possible ahead of time. For instance, if you have the opportunity to brown some lean ground meat or chop some veggies while you are cooking another meal it truly saves so many precious minutes on the days you need them the most. When I am on my A-game I like to have a few bagfuls of browned ground beef or turkey measured out and stored in Ziplocs in the freezer for easy tacos, tostadas or meat sauce (I measure them out into 2 cups per bag usually). These bags of pre-cooked meat come in especially handy on nights you don’t have a meal planned or are just short on time and are looking to wing it with what you have on hand.

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Click here to Pin these Oven Baked Black Bean and Cheese Quesadillas!

This sheet pan quesadilla recipe was created in partnership with Bush’s Beans.

For the last few weeks I’ve been really making an effort to write out, shop for, and follow a meal plan during the week. It’s worked wonders for us. The question of what to make for dinner is no longer an issue, and I feel more prepared each day. It’s definitely a habit I’m trying to stick with.

At least one night a week we squeeze in a Mexican themed meal. If it’s a particularly busy night I’ll even turn that Mexican meal into a meatless one to save the extra steps involved to cook up the meat. I always have cans of beans on hand, and if it was up to me, it would be my protein of choice on most nights. Mexican nights are the perfect nights for a good, easy meatless recipe if you ask me!

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Click here to pin this Mexican Pasta Bake recipe.

This Mexican Baked Pasta is a recipe is I started making a few years ago while I was following the South Beach Diet.  I was inspired by a recipe that was shared on a South Beach Diet forum on the website iVillage and originally posted it here on the blog back in 2008. Since then, I’ve updated the recipe a bit by using ground turkey this time around and of course by taking new photos. 🙂

It’s such a great recipe and I felt like it deserved a little attention in 2014.

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I’ve been eying this refried bean recipe from Bush’s for a while now. Refried beans are one of my favorites when eating Mexican food whether it be as a side dish with rice, part of my taco salad or as a dip for our chips. I love refried beans (even more so when made vegetarian). I have to admit, I’ve always just opened them straight prepared from the can not even considering making them on the stove top myself like this. I doubt I’ll do that again, the few extra steps taken to make them this way was definitely worth it.

This refried bean recipe came together so easily and is so delicious, it’s definitely going to be a regular part of taco/taco salad night in our house. I adjusted a few things in the original recipe based on what I had in my house, for example instead of chicken stock I used more beer, making these refried beans a bit “drunk” (kinda like these ). I also didn’t have any chili beans so I used all pinto beans and added some chili powder for flavor. Now obviously, if you don’t like your beans drunk, stick to the original recipe and use chicken stock instead of beer.

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