12 Dinner Ideas + What I Bought at Whole Foods

Hello, hello! I hope your week is going well. After a morning of training clients and teaching yoga, I just popped into Amelie’s for a quick work session before I pick Finn up from school…and then we head to the airpot to get my mom!!! She’s coming to visit for a whole week! We have Finn’s 6th birthday party (how????) on Saturday and Mother’s Day on Sunday so it should be a fun and festive time.

I have become very aware lately that my success with getting computer tasks done when I have a short window of time is much higher if I avoid going home. I LOVE being at home and working from home but I tend to easily get sucked into the vortex of laundry, dishes, puttering, etc. I have this problem where I like everything to be tidy before I feel like I can focus on work tasks when sometimes I just need to get the work done and let the mess be. I’m trying to build more of these coffee shop work sessions into my schedule. The change of scenery is also nice and gives me a little boost creativity and productivity.

Amelie’s was a great choice for today because I could also pick up some pastries for me and my mom to share!

Alrighty…how about a Whole Foods grocery haul and lots of delicious dinners for today’s post?

WHAT I BOUGHT AT WHOLE FOODS

This Whole Foods trip is a pretty accurate representation of what I would buy for a week of meals.

• Salad greens – I try to rotate between mixed greens, spinach, arugula, romaine, etc to keep it interesting.
• Broccoli
• Shaved brussel sprouts – love to sauté these for a change from roasted brussels
• Cherry tomatoes
• Sumo mandarins
• Yellow mangos
• Avocados
• Lime
• Garlic
• Raspberries
• Pink Lady apples – my absolute favorite apple variety of all time

• 2% milk
• Plain full fat greek yogurt – I usually buy FAGE but they were sold out. It is my favorite plain greek yogurt by a landslide.
• GTS Kombucha – their spring Bloom flavor is delightful
• Lenny Boy Kombucha (local brand)
• Chicken breasts
• Lemon Herb marinated chicken thighs – first time trying and they were so good!
• Boneless chuck roast
• Wild blueberry goat cheese
• Gouda cheese
• Eggs

• Frozen strawberries (Whole Foods has excellent prices on these bigger sized frozen fruit packages)
• Frozen mangos
• Frozen riced cauliflower
• Frozen cherries
• Frozen spinach
• Frozen raspberries
• Frozen pacific protein blend
• Frozen Provencal blend
• Chicken breast tenders
• Dr. Praeger Spinach Littles – we usually buy the Aldi brand of these because they’re so much cheaper but these were on sale

• Kalamata olives
• Hearts of palm
• Olive oil
• Chicken broth
• Nature’s Own Honey Wheat (our favorite sandwich bread to keep on hand)
• Dave’s Killer Bagels
• Garbanzo beans
• Diced tomatoes
• Tart cherry juice – having a moment with this right now! I mix it with kombucha or seltzer water.
• Orzo
• Ranch seasoning packet
• Ready to eat 7 grain and lentil blend
• Brown gravy packet
• Annie’s mac and cheese
• Basmati rice
• Local coffee
• Sprinkles (Finn was shopping with me 🙂 )

12 THINGS I’VE COOKED FOR DINNER RECENTLY

Coconut curry salmon with steamed basmati rice. This is one of those dishes that looked so good on Instagram but just didn’t quite hit the mark. This is the recipe that I used. I reduced the garlic cloves to two and halved the red pepper flakes. I found the recipe to be too rich and way too spicy – even with half the red pepper flakes. If I made this again, I would reduce the red pepper flakes down to 1/8 or 1/4 teaspoon, completely omit the peanut butter and keep the reduced garlic. I did like incorporating the bok choy into the curry.

Baked chicken thighs with roasted asparagus and mushrooms and a baked sweet potato with salted butter and maple syrup. This dinner was sooooooo good. I used a local barbecue sauce on my chicken.

Homemade spaghetti sauce with cheddar cheese. Here’s my favorite sauce recipe. Finn and I both love this dinner.

Crispy chicken dinner salad. Chopped romaine, cucumbers, cheddar cheese, tomatoes, carrots, croutons, avocado, air fried chicken tenders and ranch dressing.

Buddha bowl with steamed green beans, roasted sweet potatoes, air fried tofu, pine nut couscous, spinach tzatziki and hummus.

Frozen pizza night. Barbecue chicken pizza from Whole Foods, add extra cheddar.

Pine nut couscous, roasted sweet potatoes, green beans, marinated chickpeas from Trader Joe’s, sautéed chicken sausage, spinach tzatziki and hummus.

Mississippi pot roast over cheese grits with sautéed shaved brussel sprouts. Here’s the recipe for the slow cooker pot roast. This dinner is delish! You can also use the leftover pot roast for sandwiches, quesadillas, etc.

Dinner salad with spinach and arugula, roasted sweet potatoes, pickled beets, pepitas, dried cranberries, goat cheese, avocado, a ready to eat grain blend, baked salmon and honey balsamic dressing.

Hamburgers, homemade french fries and roasted broccoli. I used ground beef from Bluebird Farm that I got at the farmers market (I always try to keep some in the freezer) and OMG it tasted so wonderful. Finn helped me prep the fries and we both loved this dinner! Finn likes his burger plain with no bun. I had mine with cheddar cheese and ate it on a pice of buttered, toasted sourdough as I didn’t have any buns and lacked the desire to go buy any.

I whipped this shrimp and quinoa dinner up in under 20 minutes one night. I quickly defrosted shrimp from the freezer while I cooked a batch of quinoa. I sautéed the shrimp with the Whole Foods Provencal blend and then topped it all off with goat cheese and chopped leftover bacon. Yum yum!

Kevin’s marsala chicken with penne costa and parmesan. Roasted broccoli on the side. Another fast, easy and tasty dinner.

Okay, off to pick everyone up!

QUESTIONS

Where do you focus best to get work done? 

What’s your biggest distraction when you work from home? 

Which dinner looks tastiest to you!?