One of the things I have really enjoyed over the past year is discovering new recipes. As much as I love some of my staple go-to’s (ahem, quiche), planning for new recipes keeps dinners interesting and keeps us out of the rut of eating the same things week to week. I think a little bit of variety during the work week, at least in this season of our lives, is a good thing.

I have been very good about meal planning so far this year. I always set aside a little time over the weekend to decide what will be on our menu for the coming week. For the most part, deciding what to make is relatively easy but every so often I come to realize that hours have passed. With all of my cookbooks spread out in front of me, and my Pinterest board pulled up on my tablet, and a barely finish meal plan, that’s usually about the time I do my recipe round up.

I did another round up back in early fall where I intentionally pick one new recipe to try each week. It such a success and I was even more surprised to realize that I actually liked doing it. So once I hit that recipe rut, I knew it was time to try a few new recipes and today I’m sharing what I tried.

SOUTHWEST BREAKFAST WRAP

I found this recipe at my mom’s house in Eat Well Lose Weight magazine by Better Homes and Gardens. Besides anything breakfast related sounding absolutely delicious, this was a light and easy meal that was much appreciated during a busy week. It has chopped peppers, cumin, and crushed red pepper in it, which were good, but I personally liked the chopped tomatoes and cilantro that topped the wrap. I honestly felt like it was missing cheese but since this was suppose to be a healthy meal, I served it with salsa instead.

HEALTHY QUINOA STUFFED PEPPERS

I just love quinoa. I don’t make it that often, but when I do it is just so good. So when I found these quinoa stuffed peppers by Damn Delicious, I just knew I had to try them. This actually was the recipe that made me want to do another recipe round up because I had never had stuffed peppers! They were a little time consuming to make (20 minutes to prep before cooking), but then again, some of the best things are. Part of my other issue was my peppers kept falling over (as seen in the picture above) because I didn’t think to check to see if the peppers I bought had a flat bottom. Rookie mistake. My hubby honestly wasn’t a huge fan of them, but I think it was because of the different textures. I, on the other hand, loved every bite of the quinoa veggie cheese mix. I would agree the pepper was kind of weird to eat so I ended up eating that part separately. If you love pepper jack cheese, definitely give these a try!

HEALTHY ENCHILADA CASSEROLE

Now, I don’t know how healthy this one from Everyday Meal Prep is compared to the others but it sure is delicious. And easy! You basically just cook the meat, onions and garlic, layer all of the ingredients together and pop it in the oven! It comes out bubbly and oh so good. It’s also an easy meal to make for meal prep — after we had our helpings that night, I divided up the rest into our lunch containers for the remainder of the week. For reference, I used ground turkey, whole wheat tortillas and greek yogurt in lieu of sour cream to top it off.

EASY + LIGHT EGGPLANT PARM

I definitely did not read the instructions prior to making this as I totally missed how long it takes to get the moisture out of the eggplant slices. Regardless what time I actually ate that night (we were pushing 9:30pm), I will definitely be making this one from Andie Mitchell again. I didn’t end up letting the eggplant sit for the entire hour, but they were still pretty good to me, and I was honestly amazed how much moisture I was able to get out. I didn’t take her advice to get fresh mozzarella, but I’m sure it will taste even better when I do next time. This dinner is good for a night when you have a little more time to prep the eggplant, but other than that, its effortless!