First Time

I am blessed to say I had a stay at home mom growing up. She took my brother and I to and from school, drove us to a million soccer practices, made us cookies, organized sleepovers, and occasionally brought us Chick-fil-a for lunch at school. 💗

She’s also magic. She can blindly put recipes together without ever looking at a recipe book. Recipes like you wouldn’t believe. It blows my mind. To this day, I don’t understand how she cooks without thinking.

A few women I’ve met since college have hosted dinner parties with delicious meals they’ve whipped up.
Cooking makes me feel this feeling of nervousness sometimes. It feels something like being in the middle of the grocery store, finding half the ingredients you need, but you just can’t find the rest of what you need. By that time you’re down to go get some Chipotle. Are you with me? Cooking seems complicated sometimes with tons of preparation. I have been on a mission to cook delicious meals easily on the cheap with the least amount of dirty dishes. Cooking shouldn’t be that hard y’all! 💪🏻

I drove over to my mom’s house for a cooking lesson recently to learn all the food prepping magic. She taught me how to spice meats, cook in bulk, and cook multiple things at one time. These skills were put to work this week to food prep healthy, protein-rich meals for all day energy.

First up on the meal prep menu is baked omelette cups! This is super easy and definitely a recipe I will make again. You could throw these together with extra veggies you have in your refrigerator. These don’t have to be fancy. Put whatever veggies or meat you want! 💁🏼‍♀️ These are easy to keep in the refrigerator, freezer, and defrost in the microwave on the go!

Place your muffin pan in the oven at 350 degrees for 17-20 minutes.
Take them out and let them cool. I placed half of mine in the freezer and half in the refrigerator for the upcoming week.

Next up is cilantro lime chicken!
You will need:
4 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
Juice of 2 limes
1/4 c. freshly chopped cilantro
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. cumin
Pinch crushed red pepper flakes
4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (I use boneless skinless chicken and cut to smaller pieces)
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Cooked white rice or veggies for serving

Whisk together oil, lime juice, cilantro, garlic, cumin, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. Pour into a gallon ziplock baggie.
Leave 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs as is or cut boneless skinless chicken into smaller pieces.
Place chicken into the gallon baggie with the mixed ingredients.
Squeeze as much of the air out as possible and close the baggie.
Squish and squeeze to allow for the mixture to cover your chicken.
Leave to marinate overnight before cooking.
After marinating over night, dump chicken and remaining seasonings into a large pan and cook for 15-20 minutes or until all chicken is cooked fully. Use a food thermometer, if necessary.