This was one of those weeks where I had a plan in place for meals I was going to make, including tacos! … and then life got in the way, specifically a bug that I picked up from work. I won’t go into details, haha, but suffice it to say that I ended up making far fewer meals than I had intended. Despite being derailed, I still managed to make a delicious chili, a healthy soup for lunch throughout the week, a lazy pasta dish, and today I used up some very very over-ripe bananas, so at least the whole week wasn’t a loss!
This white bean chicken chili is from Shutterbean, and is one of my favorite chili recipes. It is perfect for a weeknight, because once it’s prepped, it only takes about half an hour to cook! It’s also pretty healthy, and I always love recipes that I’m able to customize with toppings. Here I added cheddar cheese, jalapeños and avocado, and I served cheddar bay biscuits on the side (not pictured), but other topping ideas include scallions, pickled jalapeños, cilantro, corn chips, tortilla chips, and/or sour cream.
For lunch I made the Hearty Lentil Minestrone that I posted about earlier in the week. It definitely lived up to the “hearty” in its name, keeping me full for hours!
For my lazy pasta dish, I cooked some shrimp, just simply seasoned with salt and pepper, added it to warmed up pasta sauce (use whatever you like)- I used Rao’s fra diavolo sauce, and then added that to some cooked spaghetti. Super lazy, but yummy!
Finally, with the super ripe bananas, I made a simple banana bread recipe. I admit that I didn’t follow the instructions to a tee- instead of creaming the butter and sugar together, I melted the butter first because my butter was still rock solid. I basically just mixed all the wet ingredients together, combined the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, and then added them to the wet. Very good, but not my favorite banana bread that I’ve ever made- here are some links to ones I’ve tried and liked better:
Banana Bread from the Moosewood Cookbook
Crackly Banana Bread from Smitten Kitchen
Maple Olive Oil Banana Bread from Shutterbean
Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread from Lovin’ From the Oven
See you next week with another round-up!
I'll Have Seconds! 
Have to make that white bean chili!!
You’ll love it!