#but it also works as a winter evening meal. Cooked macaroni noodles are combined with chilled veggies like tomatoes | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lotsofdogs · 5 years

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A Week of January Weeknight Dinners: A Whole Lot of Bowls

I’ve had a few requests to share my weekly dinner meal plan with you guys and now that I’m out of my self-imposed newborn baby meal planning hiatus, I’d love to highlight our meals on the blog once a month or so to give you a glimpse into what we’re eating for dinner around here. Of course I’ll still share the occasional peek into our weekly meal plan in my weekend recap posts from time-to-time, but I think sharing a recap of our dinners this way will allow me to share photos (not styled pics but real in-the-moment pics of our dinners) as well as little notes of feedback about the recipes we tried and any changes we made that worked well for our family.

So here’s the first installment!

It wasn’t until I started to upload photos of our meals that I realized last week was apparently the week of dinners in bowls in our house. I’m not sure if it’s a cold and dreary January thing or what but lately I just want to eat meals that taste like comfort food in a bowl. I’ve found myself gravitating toward vegetable-packed recipes that incorporate a lot of nutritious ingredients in one big dish. Soups, stews and pasta recipes are calling to me and our meals from last week make that quite apparent!

Since I’m someone who is always interested in what other people are eating and loving, I thought maybe we could use these posts to share links to recipes we’re all enjoying so we can get meal planning ideas from each other as well so please feel free to drop a link below and let me know what recipes you’re making and raving about in your house this month!

(Note: You’ll notice I only have photos of our meals from Monday through Friday in this post and that’s because I typically only meal plan for Monday through Friday. Often one of the meals I plan for a weeknight will get pushed to the weekend in favor of leftovers during the week and I like to leave the weekends open to whatever we’re feeling in the moment, whether it be takeout, something simple at home, etc.)

A Week of January Dinners

Lemon Chicken Soup with Orzo from Pinch of Yum

As you can tell from this picture, I didn’t use orzo pasta in this Pinch of Yum recipe but that’s only because we didn’t have any on hand. I simply substituted a mixture of wheatberries and Banza chickpea pasta wheels and it was fabulous! I was slightly intimidated by the recipe since the creamy consistency of the broth comes from eggs (no cream or milk!) and you have to slowly, slowly add the egg + lemon juice mixture to the broth to prevent it from scrambling but it turned out well and we loved it! It was a smooth and creamy soup with the perfect amount of bite from the lemon. Note: This soup is a great way to use up any leftover chicken you may have on hand. I prepped a big batch of shredded chicken in our pressure cooker on Sunday night and simply used a bunch of it here!

Lentil Soup from Chocolate Covered Katie

I made this recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie’s blog two weeks ago and it popped up on our dinner menu again last week for good reason! It was the perfect winter lentil soup recipe — flavorful, packed with vegetables and even better as leftovers the next day! When I made it again last week, I added some ground venison I defrosted from our freezer to the soup to give it a little more staying power and while the original vegetarian version is fabulous, Ryan and I agreed we loved it even more with this addition. The venison made the soup taste a little heartier and I know this is a soup we’ll be making again and again in our house. (I simply cooked the venison in a skillet and then added it to the soup at the end.)

Healing Lemongrass Chickpea Thai Green Curry from Ambitious Kitchen

You know a recipe is a winner when you cannot help but text your mom about it! Right after I made this dish, I texted my mom to tell her she must add it to her must-make list because I know how much she and my dad love Thai food. It’s a vegan recipe that’s perfectly warm and comforting and also very nutritious and absolutely packed with flavor. I actually didn’t even use lemongrass in the recipe only because I couldn’t find it at the grocery store when I was shopping last weekend, but it was still wonderful without it. The only change I made to this recipe was to add some chopped zucchini and chicken thighs to the mix and it was great and didn’t seem to impact the flavor at all.

Egg Roll in a Bowl from Peace, Love and Low Carb

We are a cabbage-loving family, so it’s no surprise we love this recipe so much. If you spend any time on Pinterest and pin Paleo recipes from time to time, you’ve likely seen no fewer than 50 variations of Egg Roll in a Bowl recipes floating around. I’ve tried a handful of them but always come back to this Pinterest find because it’s the most flavorful while still being incredibly easy to throw together on a busy weeknight. I like to serve ours on a bed of brown rice and really enjoy the various textures in this dish. Bonus: It reheats really well for lunch the next day! (Note: I highly recommend using ginger paste or fresh ginger in place of the ground ginger in this recipe. It makes a big difference and really brightens the flavors.)

Mac and Cheese from Pinch of Yum

I was craving something warm and comforting on Friday night and whipped up this mac and cheese for our crew. The sauce is actually made with a combination of pureed butternut squash, caramelized onions, milk, salt and chicken broth mixed with shredded cheese and was creamy, buttery, smooth and pretty much perfect. The only thing that left me baffled was just how much sauce it made! I followed the recipe — and it has tons of positive reviews — but I had a ton of sauce in the end that pretty much drowned our pasta. To make the recipe easier, I actually used frozen cubed butternut squash rather than chopping my own squash up and I also used two different kinds of pasta (pasta wheels and penne rather than the elbow macaroni because that’s what we had), but I cannot imagine it made that much of a difference? I even ended up saving some of the sauce to use for leftovers another night! The bottom line: We liked this recipe but next time I’ll definitely double the pasta portion knowing we’ll have plenty of sauce to cover the noodles.

[Read More ...] https://www.pbfingers.com/a-week-of-january-weeknight-dinners-a-whole-lot-of-bowls/

#health #fitness

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goodlifeclinic-blog1 · 7 years

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Want To Know How To Be A Good Cook? Try These Ideas!

There is always room to become a better cook. Even the most experienced cook can better their abilities through learning new techniques. When you are first becoming a cook, there are many tips to learn to help make cooking easier. This article is full of tips you will find helpful in getting you started as a cook. Even if you have screwed up in this way, there is a fix that will still let you use it right away. Take one tablespoon corn starch, and combine with two tablespoons water in a mixing bowl. Slowly add this mixture to your simmering sauce to thicken it up. Add the mixture slowly and keep stirring to make sure it does not thicken too much. If you want to slice meat into thin strips, freeze it partially before bringing it to the cutting board. This works well for Asian dishes, like Chinese or Thai. When meat is slightly frozen, it becomes simpler to slice because the fibers won't stretch and tear that easy. But, if you use this technique make sure that the meat strips thaw out again before you cook them. A good cook takes pride in keeping a set of well-sharpened knives. Dull knives make it harder to cut and are more dangerous to use. A cut is more likely when you push down hard on a dull knife that when you cut easily with a sharp one. You may have felt regret when you threw away a moldy orange or lemon. Have you ever wondered if you could simply cut away the part with mold and keep the rest? Unfortunately, you cannot save half rotten fruit and expect it to be healthy. Mold grows deep into the fruit, and by eating it you will risk illness. Apples are widely used in recipes during fall and winter, but they will spoil fast if incorrectly stored. You can keep apples fresh by storing them in a cool basement or refrigerator as warm or dry air makes them rot. Keep checking on them though, otherwise one rotten apple will spoil the bunch in no time at all. The one downside of garlic is that your hands easily absorb the smell of it. Rubbing your hands on something made of stainless steel, such as your sink, can help to get rid of these odors. Not only will this remove the scent from your skin, but it will also prevent the juices from affecting the flavor of the next food you touch. Sometimes, your burgers can stick onto the grill. This makes removing them extremely difficult or impossible without compromising their shape. To prevent this in the future, brush a bit of vegetable oil onto the grates before adding the food.

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Even cooks who have experience are still learning new tips so they are able to have a better day in the kitchen. New cooks should gather as much cooking knowledge as possible while learning how to cook. Use these tips to see if you can better your cooking skills and enjoy cooking in the kitchen more.

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