Intro: Welcome, welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: What’s good everybody? So if you’re listening to this episode in real time, then it’s either back to school day or it’s back to school time for you. For us, our kids went back to school on Wednesday and the house has been very, very quiet ever since. So now that we’re getting back into the rhythm of schedules and running to soccer practice and swim practice and basketball practice and all of the things, dinner time gets the shaft basically. So what we need now, and I think you’re the same if you’ve got kids, you need easy, quick recipes that are still delicious and nutritious for your family.

So that’s what we’re focusing on today. We’re making something called a Pesto Lasagna Skillet. The nice thing about this is that you get flavors of a full lasagna, but it is made in a skillet. It’s made super quick, like 30 minutes, and it is delicious with very few dirty dishes. So I hope that you like this recipe and that you’ll make it for dinner. If you do and you love it, give it five stars on the actual recipe card and leave me a little comment that you listen to it here on this podcast. 

Tips and Tricks: As for tips and tricks today, the only thing I want to talk about really quickly is the pesto. Obviously this recipe has a pesto, Pesto Lasagna Skillet. When you’re looking for pesto, if you aren’t going to make fresh pesto, which actually I will link a fresh pesto recipe right in the show notes for you. It’s actually pretty easy. It’s just done right in a blender. If you’re not gonna make your own pesto, then buy one at the store and your best bet is going to be buying a refrigerated pesto. It’s gonna have the best flavor. It’s gonna be the freshest. Now if you want to go shelf stable, what I recommend is that you look at the ingredients of the pesto bottles and make sure that basil is one of the first at least three ingredients.

The other thing you’re going to need is a large skillet. So whenever I make a skillet lasagna, I use my all clad pan and it is not nonstick. You could use a nonstick pan, but it’s not necessary. It’s about a 12 inch pan. It’s got about two to three inch high sides and then it has a nice tight fitting lid. You definitely need a pan with a lid to trap that heat and steam to cook the lasagna noodles. 

Pesto Lasagna Skillet Recipe: With all of that said, let’s go ahead and get into the full recipe for Pesto Lasagna Skillet. The first thing you’re going to do is actually toast a quarter cup of pine nuts. We’re going to actually add those at the end, but before you put anything in your skillet, you want to toast those nuts.

So, take that large skillet, put it over low heat, pop a quarter cup of pine nuts, and just roll them around in the pan until they start to brown, not burn, just brown, and they’ll start to smell really nutty. They actually, to me, when pine nuts start to toast, they smell like bacon. Take them out of the pan and just set them aside in a little bowl. We’ll use those later. 

Now set that empty skillet back over medium heat and you’re going to cook and crumble one pound of Italian sausage. You can use hot, mild, sweet, whatever bulk Italian sausage you want, go ahead and use that. Now after that’s browned and nice and crumbled up, you’re going to drain any excess grease from the pan.

Now to that, you’re going to add a half a cup of chopped onions, two chopped garlic cloves, one teaspoon of dried oregano, and a quarter teaspoon of kosher salt to the pan. Saute that around for about four to five minutes. 

Now it’s time to get things going. You’re going to need to add one and three quarters cup of water, a 15 ounce can of diced tomatoes that has been drained and then about 6 to 7 ounces of the pesto to the pan. You’re going to give that a really good stir and then bring it to a boil over medium high heat. 

As soon as that starts boiling, you’re going to take 8 to 10 lasagna noodles and break them up into 1 or 2 inch pieces and start nestling them down into that hot liquid. Now for the lasagna noodles, you can use either oven-ready noodles or you can use traditional noodles. Both work. But what I’ll say is that I usually prefer the traditional noodles because they’re just a little bit thicker and heartier than the oven-ready ones. 

After you have all of the lasagna noodle pieces nestled down into that liquid, you’re going to lower the heat to low and you’re going to pop that lid on the pan and cook for 12 minutes. After that 12 minutes, you’re going to open that pan back up and you’re going to take a half a cup of ricotta and you’re going to just dot spoonfuls all over the top of the lasagna and then you can shimmy them down into the sauce. Then top that with about 4 ounces of shredded mozzarella all over the top. You’ll pop that lid back on and cook for an additional 10 minutes. After that 10 minutes, you remove the lid, remove that pan from the heat, and just let it sit for about five minutes. Then right before serving, you will garnish it with those toasted pine nuts, and it’s ready to eat. 

So you can serve this up with a really nice side salad and some garlic bread, and you are good to go. You have a really easy and quick dinner that’s perfect for a weeknight, but also delicious enough for a weekend family dinner. 

As always, I will link this full recipe for you in the show notes so that you can take a look at it, you can print it, you can pin it to save the recipe, and hopefully make it for dinner.

Outro: So, until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinnertime a little easier. See ya!

Double Dip: All right, now it’s time for your weekly double dip. In the double dip we just go over the recipe that we are going to make next week on the podcast so that you can have the ingredients you need to cook along with me every Thursday. So next week we have more of a side dish that we’re making but such a good side dish. We’re making Instant Pot Refried Beans.

If you’ve never made your own refried beans, this is your opportunity. It’s amazing. Highly, highly recommend. You don’t need much to make them, so let me tell you what you’re going to need to grab. 

You’re going to need about one pound of dry pinto beans, three tablespoons of olive oil, a white onion, some garlic cloves, one jalapeno, one tablespoon of chicken base. Chicken base is kind of like chicken bouillon, but way more flavorful. You can find it in the soup aisle by the bouillon. But it usually comes in a tub or a jar, and we like the Better Than Bouillon brand. 

From your spice cabinet, you’re going to need cumin, onion powder, kosher salt, and a bay leaf. You need four cups of chicken broth, some water, and then a fresh lime. Then of course, you’ll need an instant pot. 

So if you plan to make this, it goes great with any kind of Mexican dinner, enchiladas, burritos, tacos, quesadillas, you know, any kind of Mexican dinner where you would serve rice and beans on the side. I hope you’ll join me next week to make these Instant Pot Refried Beans.

Intro: Welcome, welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Suzy Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: What’s up everybody? What’s good? All right, I am back in the studio today. We had a beautiful vacation last week. We were right around like the Destin, Florida area. I think they call it 30A. It’s like Caribbean water, which is crazy because it’s northern Florida. It’s amazing. Highly recommend it if you need a really great family vacation. It is a wonderful spot to be. 

Now that I’m back in the mix, we’re going to make a really easy recipe for dinner tonight. We’re making tilapia fish tacos. I think that my husband didn’t quite get his fill of fish when we were in Florida, so we’re going to take this opportunity to make a super simple recipe that’s going to fulfill that fish craving for him. 

The nice thing about tilapia is that it’s a super quick cooking fish and it’s pretty inexpensive, especially as we’re coming off a vacation and we’ve spent all of our money. We need an economical dinner. So this recipe is going to fit that bill. 

Tilapia Tacos Recipe: Not a ton of tips and tricks today. You know, everything is pretty much straightforward. We’re going to make a kind of marinated tilapia, and then we’re going to serve it with a chipotle lime crema on tacos. So let’s go ahead and just get straight into the recipe.

We’re going to start this recipe with one and a half pounds of tilapia filets. From what I just purchased, that was about four filets. Then we’re going to marinate them really quickly. So you’re going to generously season both sides of the filet with salt and pepper. Then, in a 9×13 pan or some type of pan that will fit all of the filets, you’re going to mix together 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the zest and juice of 1 lime, 3 garlic cloves that are just chopped up, 3 teaspoons of chili powder, 1.5 teaspoons of ground cumin, 3 quarters teaspoon of smoked paprika, and a quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Now if you don’t like it super hot, you can take the cayenne pepper out completely, or if you like it really spicy, add a little bit more. But mix all of that together, and then you’re going to place the tilapia filets in that mixture, and rub that paste onto both sides of the filets. You can cover that up and chill and let it marinate for about 20 or 30 minutes in the fridge. 

While that’s marinating, you could certainly get all of your other things ready. So like your tortillas, your lettuce, your salsas, get all of the taco things ready for when it’s time to eat. So now is the really quick part. We’re going to cook the tilapia filets and this happens very quickly. So in a large nonstick skillet, you’re going to heat two tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat. You’re just going to cook those filets for about two to three minutes on each side until they’re nice and flaky and cooked through. Fish is cooked through when it reaches an internal temperature of 145 degrees. You can always check that way. Now what I like to do is let that tilapia cool just a little bit and then I break it apart into one inch chunks. 

We said at the beginning, we are going to serve this with a chipotle lime crema, which is so delicious. Super easy to make. So in a small bowl, you’re just going to whisk together half a cup of mayonnaise, a quarter cup of sour cream, three teaspoons of fresh lime juice, three chipotle chilies in adobo sauce. So that’s actually a canned product that you can get in the Mexican food aisle at your grocery store. You’ll need three of the chilies that are in the can. Usually there’s five to six chilies in there. Don’t use all of them because they’re really, really spicy. So you’ll chop those up, put those in the bowl. One large garlic clove and two tablespoons of milk. Just whisk it together and that’s ready to go.

Now that you’ve got everything ready for your tilapia fish tacos, you can let everybody just make their own tacos. Or if you want, what we love to do is take either a corn tortilla or a flour tortilla, warm it up, and then put a little bit of angel hair slaw down the center. Top that with either salsa, corn salsa, esquites is really good in this taco. Then you’re going to put your pieces of tilapia on top of there. Then drizzle it with that chipotle lime crema, do a spritz of lime, maybe some extra cilantro, and it’s super, super delicious. 

So that does it for the full recipe for tilapia fish tacos. Of course, I will link every recipe that I talked about in this episode right in the show notes for you so you can click through and you can print it, save it, pin it, share it, whatever you want to do when you’re ready to make these tilapia fish tacos.

Outro: So until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinnertime a little easier. See ya! 

Double Dip: Alright, now it’s time for the double dip. Thank you so much for sticking around. Every week on this podcast you can stick around for the double dip at the end of the show and know what we’re going to make next week. Then you can have all of the groceries ready to cook along with me next Thursday. 

So, next week, we are making an older recipe from my website. It is for a pesto sausage lasagna skillet. We love these lasagna skillet recipes because it’s like you can have all of the flavors and the deliciousness of lasagna, but it doesn’t take you 75 hours to make.

So what you’re going to need to make this pesto lasagna skillet is one pound of ground Italian sausage. You can use any version you like. So spicy, mild, turkey, pork, whatever you want to use. You need some yellow or white onion, garlic, kosher salt, dried basil, 15 ounce can of diced tomatoes, half a cup of pesto and half a cup of marinara. Eight uncooked lasagna noodles, half a cup of ricotta cheese. Four ounces of grated mozzarella and a quarter cup of pine nuts. That’s it. 

You’re going to make a super delicious lasagna skillet. So I hope you will join me then and I hope you guys have a wonderful week ahead.

Intro: Welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: Today we are going to make a wonderful side dish that you’re absolutely going to love. My little picky kids love this side dish and they request it all the time. Usually at the beginning of the week I’ll try to ask them what’s one item you want to have for dinner this week? So we can avoid tears at dinner time. These crispy cast iron skillet potatoes are one of the number one requested items on our table. They are super easy to make and any time you have a main dish that calls for a potato side dish, these can sit in perfectly instead of having to go through all of the work of making a cheesy potato casserole or mashed potatoes or potato salad. These crispy oven potatoes are perfect. 

Tips and Tricks: This is actually going to be a really quick episode. So not many tips and tricks. The only thing I’ll tell you is that number one, you do need a cast iron skillet to make this recipe. And number two, you definitely want to find the really tiny potatoes. They may even be called tiny potatoes at the grocery store. They’re going to be smaller than a ping pong ball. Maybe actually the size of a ping pong ball and smaller is what I’ll say. Then that is what allows them to get super crispy and creamy on the inside while they cook in the oven. You’re going to love them. 

Crispy Potatoes Recipe: So let’s go ahead and just get into the full recipe for these little crispy oven potatoes. So you need about one pound of tiny Yukon gold potatoes, three tablespoons of olive oil or extra virgin olive oil. 3 quarters teaspoon of kosher salt and a 1 teaspoon of dried oregano. 

You’re going to preheat your oven to about 425 degrees. Cut all of the potatoes in half and then in the bottom of a large cast iron skillet, probably like a 10 or a 12 inch cast iron skillet, you’re going to pour two tablespoons of that oil across the bottom of the cast iron skillet coating the whole surface. Then you’ll sprinkle in a half a teaspoon of the kosher salt and a whole teaspoon of dried oregano. You’ll place those cut potatoes, cut side down into the oil, making sure that all of the potatoes are touching the surface of the skillet. Then you’ll drizzle the remaining oil. You should have about one tablespoon left of oil, over the top of the potatoes and sprinkle with the remaining quarter teaspoon of kosher salt. You’re going to roast them in that hot oven for at least 30 to 35 minutes. Then at the end of that time, pull that cast iron skillet out and double check a couple of the potatoes on the bottom to make sure that they are crispy. I don’t mean they look a little golden brown. They should be crispy like a potato chip crispy. You are going to love them. So if they don’t look super duper golden brown, pop them back in the oven for about another five minutes. 

These suckers are going to be hot when they are ready. So let them cool for probably about 10 minutes and then you can go ahead and serve them. They are creamy and buttery on the inside and the outside is literally crispy like a potato chip. 

Like I said before, this is a side dish that goes with just about anything that requires a potato side dish. We love them with roasted chicken, maybe a rotisserie chicken, grilled burgers, grilled chicken, meatloaf, barbecue meatballs, hamballs, just about anything. So I really hope you make these. If you really, really love them, I would love to have you give the recipe five stars and leave a little comment about what you served these little potatoes with. 

As always, I will link all of the recipes I talked about in the show notes for you so you can go and check it out, cook with the recipe, pin it, save it, share it, whatever you want to do.

Outro: So until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya!

Double Dip: All right guys, now it’s time for your double dip and I’m so excited for this. So every week when you listen to the new podcast episode on Thursday, you can always stick around for the end of the episode where I go over the ingredients you need to make the recipe for next week. 

So next week we have a fun little recipe that I think is great for the end of summer. It’s easy to make and it’s so, so delicious. This is a newer recipe on Mom’s Dinner, the website where I share all of my recipes that I go over here on the podcast. We are having tilapia fish tacos next week. You are going to love these. Tilapia is great. It is really economical and it cooks up super fast.

So what you’re going to need for these tilapia fish tacos is one and a half pounds of tilapia filets, salt and pepper, olive oil, a couple limes, garlic cloves. chili powder, ground cumin, smoked paprika, and cayenne pepper. 

Now, of course you want to have anything you want to have with your tacos. So either flour shells or corn shells. We like to do a little bit of angel hair slaw on the bottom. Then we do a chipotle lime crema that gets drizzled over top. Let me tell you what you need for that. Some mayonnaise, sour cream, some more lime juice. You need a can of Chipotle Chios…. This is always, this is always a tongue tie for me. Chipotle chilies in adobo sauce. So just one can. Garlic and milk. So I hope you’ll join me next week when we make these tilapia fish tacos.