Weeknight Dinner: Sometimes its Delicious to "Cheat"

One of the challenges I've found in planning and making weeknight dinner, is keeping it just as delicious as the dinner prepared on the weekends, when time is usually much more plentiful.  Sometimes, the idea of eating something "simple and quick" at home doesn't sound as appealing as dinner out, which ends up with too much money spent at restaurants, eating food that probably isn't as good for you as homemade, and not enough downtime at home (which I love dearly).  So, sometimes I "cheat".

As I mentioned in my Father's Day post, I love marinades... and I often play around and make up my own.  However, on a weeknight, with only 3 hours to spend before I should go to bed, the last thing I want to do is cook dinner and come up with a marinade for dinner the following night... A good solution: pre-packaged marinated meat from the grocery store.  I know that sometimes the selection isn't very good, and I do try my best to stay away from the big brands that often add a lot of extra sodium to things to keep them "fresh"... but when you find a brand, (in my case, Wegman's store brand), or store that you trust, purchasing your meat ready-to-cook is a delicious time saver.

Tonight, we had grilled pork tenderloin- the Wegman's brand Brown Sugar BBQ marinated pork tenderloin- grilled corn and steamed green beans tossed in a lemon vinaigrette.  It was incredible!! With only about 5 minutes of prep, and 20 minutes of cooking, we had a delicious, healthy dinner, that reminded us of weekend relaxation.

Dinnertime is more than just food... sometimes it can be a mini vacation.