Meal plan was out the window this week cuz our heater broke and we couldn’t get it fixed for three days so it’s been all soups and stews (it’s a long story involving tree removal, a stuck crane, and especially bad timing on the furnace’s part). We’ve had:
Chilli- this was actually in the meal plan. I’d made tacos with ground turkey for the meat and there was leftover meat. Leftover taco meat always becomes chilli. Just add beans, canned tomato (Rotel usually for us cuz it comes with jalapeno or habanero or whatever already mixed in), a little broth, seasoning, and I add a bit of spinach or shredded zuchinni for additional veg and/or to use up leftovers.
Beef and vegetable stew- that steak was meant for quesadillas as a treat, damnit. It’s just meat, potatoes, broth, and veg (and herbs and seasoning). In this case, leftover sauted cabbage and leeks and shredded brussel sprouts. Also, carrots and peas from frozen.
Chicken noodle soup- by this point we were getting the sniffles. So I sauted more garlic than is probably advisable, and some onion, then added the broth and chicken and celery salt. I put in a butt ton of fresh parsley toward the end. More frozen peas and carrots. Made toast to go with it.
I was over the whole situation and ordered a pizza. Made salad with a nice vinaigrette. Ate huddled under blankets binging XFiles and lamenting the cold.
Leftovers. The heat is back, the week was long, and I can’t at this point. I’m tired and tomorrow is Christmas eve.
Bonus: apple chips. The apples were just sitting there and leaving the oven on for 2 hours sounded good, so I made several batches of apple chips. You just cut super thin slices of apple and sprinkle with cinnamon. Then bake at like 200 for a couple hours. Turn the oven off and leave them in there while it cools about an hour, hour and a half.
Notes: I make my own broth. It’s vegetable broth which is easy, you shove all the bits of veg you don’t quite use or wouldn’t usually eat into a ziploc in the freezer and whenever it’s 3/4 full dump it in water with your preferred seasoning and simmer a while then strain. Store portioned in freezer. Also, I’m feeding me who is a foody and healthy eating minded, a teenager who doesn’t like anything and will forget to eat if you don’t put something in front of them, and a dude who grew up on the ugly side of Southern cooking (like, there’s really amazing dishes and really terrifying bland ones, guess what he’s used to), there are a lot of compromises all round. Also, I’m an utter disaster in general and my cooking reflects that chaos: there are no measurements and my main goals are to include as much veg as I can cram in without making it weird, and getting something on the table before we’re all half asleep.
Great idea OP! Here are meals I eat more or less every week during this season:Spicy chicken breasts with mashed/roasted potatoes and salad, Sauted Tofu with lentils or beans, probably rice (depends how hungry I am), Soup with leek, carrot, onion, garlic, potato, and whatever vegetables are left over,Omelette, with potatoes or mushrooms or vegetables, I really love eggs.Smoked herring with beets and a little bit of chopped pickles. (although beware I know a lot of people who don’t enjoy herring)
Avocado, chicken, whole wheat tortilla
One or Two pears
Whole cucumber
Can of beans with hot sauce and a bit of avocado
Big bowl of lettuce (roughage!)
Unsalted, unshelled (until I am eating them, natch) pistachios
Stopped eating salt again a few days ago and my blood pressure dropped about 10-15/5 pretty much overnight. It’s not dangerously high even with the salt, but I prefer to see the numbers at the 118/70 type range. 130/75 makes me nervous.
Soak oats in a blender, add banana, berries, greens, chia and hemp seeds and make a smoothie. Fill a tortilla wrap with hummus, quinoa, roasted sweet potato, more greens, pumpkin seeds and pomegranate seeds. Mix rice with peas, raisins, hemp seeds and coriander.