When I say easy, I mean, E A S Y !

These three dinners below are short on ingredients AND time.

My favorite go-to dinner (at the moment, anyway) is this broiled chicken thigh recipe:

These chicken thighs are juicy, artichokes tangy and feta creamy – a perfect combination. One of the things I LOVE about this is how the broiling gets the artichokes the perfect amount of crispy on the outside.

Another thing I love about it: the feta cheese (no surprise there!)

I marinade the chicken in the artichoke water for a while, usually from when I get up in the morning, until it’s time to cook them. But in a pinch I’ve let them sit for 20 mins in the artichoke ‘juice’ and it still tasted great.

Add ins that you might like: broccoli, zucchini, grape tomatoes, olives, lemon.

This is great served over pasta, if there’s a specific kind you like, cook it up, add a bit of butter after it’s drained and then top with the chicken! We like tagliatelle pasta because it’s a little bit wider, and the texture seems to “go” with the chicken and artichokes. Mix it all up and it’s perfect.

An important tip for re-heating: this is great for leftovers; broil but only for 5-8 minutes.

Here’s the link – https://snugandcozylife.com/artichoke-chicken-feta/

Next up: Butter chicken from half baked harvest:

A couple of years ago, I would have never attempted something like this; I recall my friend Bonnie and her husband visiting us here in Houston, and she suggested we make chicken tikka masala….so she mostly did haha.

I thought, “I know you can get this at a restaurant, but this is way too hard to cook yourself!”

Butter chicken was also a little overwhelming to think about at first, but much less involved than Bonnie’s recipe!

I used ground turkey because I like to mix things up. I like that this calls for meatballs. I made half, and froze the rest of the ground turkey for later. Speaking of freezing, the butter sauce also freezes well; so I have a ready made dinner for later, just warm up the sauce and cook the meatballs.

The recipe says that prep takes 15 minutes, and it’s true. BUT it only takes 15 minutes to cook, so all in, dinner in 30 mins.

Link to recipe: https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/30-minute-butter-chicken-meatballs/

Last but not least is: Chickpea Tomato & Avocado Salad

I saved this one for last because I’m actually going to type out the ingredients & measurements:

here’s the link to the original recipe:

https://cafedelites.com/chickpea-tomato-salad/#wprm-recipe-container-70512

And here are the measurements as I did them; I cut the recipe in half and made a couple of changes.

If you follow the link, you’ll see that this is categorized as a lunch but trust me this is a DINNER.

Super filling and super light. Also super easy, as promised!

1 can rinsed garbanzo beans

1/4 c. fresh chopped parsley

1/2 pint of cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 of an avocado, cubed, to top when plated

>>> for the dressing:

2 Teaspoons evoo

1/2 of a lemon, which was about 2 Tablespoons for me. If you don’t like things as tangy, squeeze a quarter of a lemon over the mixture, it’s QUITE tart using half (I prefer it to be very tart/tangy, my husband a little less so)

2 teaspoons minced garlic

Now, the seasonings:

dried oregano, dried parsley, salt, pepper, cayenne……I did not halve these because it was too much work, so here’s what I did: two shakes of oregano, four shakes of the parsley, plenty of pepper, pinch of salt, and the cayenne, we’ll just say I was not shy about it.

So just dump everything together in a bowl except for the avocado. Top each bowl with as much or as little as you’d like. I didn’t add the avocado into the mixture because even though this is supposed to serve 2 once I halved it, we still had a ton leftover! So I didn’t want any extra avo turning brown.

For serving, I recommend some pita bread….I get some from the store and heat it up the tiniest bit and it is PERFECT.

This is super filling and I love it.

This could (in my opinion) easily serve 3 people

So there you have it! If you try any, comment and let me know what you think!

🙂 Michelle