I frequently find myself in a creative rut with meal planning. I have a few requirements of my meals, namely: they must be interesting, inexpensive, healthy(ish), leave leftovers for lunch, and be relatively easy to prepare. Our family (read: my husband) also really enjoys fine food, but I am hardly a James Beard award winning chef. This leaves in me in a tricky situation. This week, completely bored by cooking the same rotation of eight or so meals (four of those eight being some variation on tacos) and on an inspirational high after listening to The Splendid Table, I sat down to create a new and interesting meal plan for the coming week. I gleaned the internet for ideas and pulled recipes from Pinterest, blogs, and old instagrams of meals we cooked in the distant past (yes, I'm an obnoxious foodstagrammer) and put together what I believe is the crowing achievement of all of my weekday meal plans. I give you:
1.) Nikujaga: This dish is a Japanese spin on basic meat and potatoes (the word nikujaga literally means meat and potatoes) which I found on the Splendid Table website. It's ground beef, potatoes, carrots, an onion, ginger, a little brown sugar, soy sauce and some chicken stock. It doesn't have any expensive weird ingredients that you wouldn't normally have around and it only uses one pan. This meal took about 45 minutes (but 30 of those were the dish simmering on the stove) and that includes prep time. Everybody really liked the flavor and Daniel doused his second helping in sriracha and said it was great that way too. This one is definitely going into the rotation as it meets each meal requirement!
2.) Carrot Soup: I saw this recipe on Bleubird Blog two weeks ago and filed into the recesses of my memory. I've never been a major soup lover, but last weekend I had a delectable roasted cauliflower soup at Mandolin and the experience emboldened me to branch out a bit. Plus a carrot soup just seems so fall. This recipe was also super easy--novice cook level. You have to let the soup simmer for about a hour all told, so you may want to throw everything in as soon as you get home from work and then let it simmer, filling your home with divine aromas while everyone decompresses from work/daycare/school/whatever you do. Our house felt so cozy and warm while this soup was on the stove, and our bellies felt so satisfied after devouring it. A note on the spices I used: Bleubird calls for marjoram and thyme, which I did not have handy, so I subbed in oregano and basil and it was great that way. I served it with sharp cheddar grilled cheese sandwiches and it was very filling. Awesome leftovers, too.
3.) One Pan Pasta: Martha Stewart living has done it again for me. Her website is definitely one of my go-to recipe resources. Some of her dishes look super complicated and expensive, but she also has a ton of really quick & cheap meals to choose from. This one I've seen floating around Pinterest and was a bit skeptical, but decided to give it a shot. It actually worked out quite well! I slightly over-seasoned it with the red pepper flakes, and subbed in canned diced tomatoes instead of the fresh cherry tomatoes called for in the recipe, but for a 15 minute meal this one didn't disappoint. I served it with a baguette and a glass of red wine and felt mighty sophisticated for a Wednesday night! (also the tomatoes look really weird in the picture below... I don't know what happened there...)
4.) Grilled Balsamic Chicken: This is not a new recipe, but it is one of our fall back simple-but-tasty meals. Daniel makes a marinade with balsamic vinegar, agave (or honey), brown sugar, sesame seeds, soy sauce, and salt & pepper. We thaw the little frozen chicken tenderloins you get in the big bag at the grocery store in the marinade all day and then throw them on the grill when we get home. The chicken cooks super fast on the grill, so I usually whip up the sides a little bit before Daniel heads out to play grill-master. Jack, in the meantime, prances around between inside and outside, urging us to cook faster while waiting for his favorite chicken dinner. We (read: Daniel) much prefer fall grilling to the summer variety because there's less sweat involved and it's nice to have a few minutes of fresh air after being cooped up at desk jobs all day. This week, our sides for the meal were a simple salad of mixed greens with some crusty toast. Very simple, very delicious, and relatively healthy! We had leftover chicken which was very nice to eat cold on top of the leftover greens for lunch.
5.) Brinner (!): At the close of a long, often stressful, always draining work week my family is in the mood for something fun for dinner. Something soul-refreshing, something that will make the whole house smell amazing all night, and something that everyone absolutely loves to eat. Our solution to these cravings is a Friday-night tradition of eating breakfast for dinner (aka brinner). This Friday Daniel surprised me with croissants from our favorite local bakery, Yellow Dog Bread Co. and we fried up a package of thick-cut bacon and a couple of eggs to go with. I couldn't think of a better way to welcome the weekend.
So friends, that is my weekday meal plan. Do you guys have go-to weekday recipes? Do you have a favorite source to find new ideas? I love sharing recipes and meal planning tricks, and am always in the market to learn more.
Sarah
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