Easy Summer Recipes With Basil

Several weeks ago, Ben and I mapped out a series of mini home renovation projects with the goal of having them completed by this weekend. Current completion count:

My sister—who is in the midst of some home projects that make ours look as invasive as reorganizing a coat closet—warned me that real life is “not HGTV.”

I wasn’t entirely sure what she meant…until I was driving to an IKEA in a different state to pick up several missing parts of the shelving units that the store forgot to ship.

Homemade Strawberry Basil Frozen Yogurt

Add the shelf snafu to our first round of curtains being too short (the right length is now back ordered until July), the guy installing our blinds leaving halfway through the job for another appointment (he still hasn’t been back), and the fact that the only concrete step we’ve taken towards repainting our kitchen cabinets is to narrow down the color options from 17 shades of “white” to 7, and you have a situation that is a far cry from the 48-hour flips as seen on HGTV.

We have made some progress. Over the weekend, we built and installed the aforementioned IKEA shelves, which I gleefully loaded with stacks of plates, serving bowls, glassware, my entire cookbook collection, and heavy cast-iron skillets. It took the better part of an afternoon, but in the end, every dish and spoon had its perfect place. My cast iron skillets were going to be used in short order to make easy, one skillet meals like lemon basil chicken, skillet chicken and tomatoes and sausage white bean gnocchi.

Then, two hours later, we realized the shelves needed to move three inches to the right. We had to pull every single item from the shelves, and a good number of them are still scattered around my office. I feel like this probably doesn’t happen on HGTV.

Baked Salmon Or Roasted Chicken With Basil

Because we’ve been dedicating the majority of our free time toward the house, I’ve been appreciating quick and easy dinners like this Lemon Basil Chicken even more so than usual. Chunks of juicy chicken stir-fried with garlic, fresh lemon, and basil, this recipe requires hardly 5minutes of prep and can be on your plate in 20.

To make Lemon Basil Chicken a complete meal, I added several handfuls of fresh spinach. You can feel free to bulk it up further with any other sautéed veggies you enjoy or have on hand. We served our Lemon Basil Chicken over brown rice for dinner, and the next day, I tossed the leftovers with my salad for lunch. This would also be great served alongside Oven Roasted Potatoes (make the baked potatoes in oven while cooking the Lemon Basil Chicken on the stove top).

When getting a healthy meal on the table feels like a project of its own, keep this simple Lemon Basil Chicken in mind. While it might not be reality TV-worthy, in the reality of NEED DINNER NOW, it’s a star!

Eat The Rainbow Chopped Salad With Basil & Mozzarella

Basil chicken with lemon is an easy one pan skillet meal packed with fresh flavors! This easy chicken recipe is fresh, healthy, cooks in a single skillet, and is ready to eat in 20 minutes! Serve with rice for a quick and easy weeknight dinner.

Serving: 1 (of 4), with 1/2 cup brown rice Calories: 349 kcal Carbohydrates: 29 g Protein: 40 g Fat: 8 g Saturated Fat: 1 g Cholesterol: 98 mg Fiber: 4 g Sugar: 3 g

Hi, I'm Erin Clarke, and I'm fearlessly dedicated to making healthy food that's affordable, easy-to-make, and best of all DELISH. I'm the author and recipe developer here at and of The Well Plated Cookbook. I adore both sweets and veggies, and I am on a mission to save you time and dishes. WELCOME!

Tomato Basil Pasta With Balsamic Grilled Chicken

Basil chicken with lemon is an easy one pan skillet meal packed with fresh flavors! This easy chicken recipe is fresh, healthy, cooks in a single skillet, and is ready to eat in 20 minutes! Serve with rice for a quick and easy weeknight dinner.

Serving: 1 (of 4), with 1/2 cup brown rice Calories: 349 kcal Carbohydrates: 29 g Protein: 40 g Fat: 8 g Saturated Fat: 1 g Cholesterol: 98 mg Fiber: 4 g Sugar: 3 g

Hi, I'm Erin Clarke, and I'm fearlessly dedicated to making healthy food that's affordable, easy-to-make, and best of all DELISH. I'm the author and recipe developer here at and of The Well Plated Cookbook. I adore both sweets and veggies, and I am on a mission to save you time and dishes. WELCOME!

Tomato Basil Pasta With Balsamic Grilled Chicken