One thing that always causes me a lot of anxiety is cooking meals on a weeknight. I don’t know how many nights I come home and think, “oh no, what am I going to make for dinner?” or “I really don’t want to make dinner” because it is hard to put in a full day of work and then switch gears and cook a meal for your family. And because I have a specialized diet, it’s extra tricky to figure out as often what my husband needs and wants to eat isn’t aligned with what I can and should eat. We manage though (most of the time) and I want to share with you some simply meal ideas for busy weeknights.
Steak and Salad and Falafel
Because I have to follow a lower protein diet due to having OTC deficiency, I really shouldn’t be eating high protein meals like steak. But my husband loves steak. And my son sometimes loves steak. Since this is a quick and easy meal, we will often have steak and salad (or steak and potatoes) and I have a more plant based protein like falafels. You can buy ready made falafels at grocery stores, to make your own and freeze them. And salad is pretty easy to throw together.
To keep this really healthy, something I’ve started doing is making my own Caesar salad dressing. There are a lot of recipes online, but I use the one from Mandy’s Gourmet Salads cookbook. It makes a good amount of dressing and keeps in the fridge. The wonderful thing about that recipe is that is uses olive oil, which is a healthy fat. So it’s far better than anything you can buy at the grocery store and really takes so little time to make. And it’s a simple meal really delicious on a busy weeknight.
Quinoa Bowl
Something else I find super quick and easy to throw together is what I like to call a quinoa bowl. All it is is cooked quinoa (which takes so little time to make) and then chopped tomatoes, black olives, feta cheese, hummus and some fresh sprouts (pea sprouts for example) and dinner is served. It’s fresh, nutritious and filling. You can top it off with a drizzle of oil olive if you like too. It’s a go to meal for me and I am hoping to find a good hummus recipe to make it even healthier for my family.
If you feel like you need more protein, you can always add in some roasted chicken or seared steak or even ground beef.
Chickpea Mushroom Pasta
My husband and I are both gluten free. But we have found a lovely chickpea pasta that we both love. Sometimes on a night we just aren’t feeling like fussing too much in the kitchen, we cook some pasta. While it’s boiling, we brown up some mushrooms with slices of garlic in some olive oil and butter. We add in some of the pasta water, sour cream and parmigiano cheese to make it into a bit of sauce and then toss our pasta into the mixture. I can assure you it’s completely delicious and filling. My husband is very meat loving and on nights when we have this pasta, even he doesn’t feel like he needs more.
Sage and Raisin Patties
My husband and I both really love these. Made with quinoa (a staple in my house), these are delicious and perfect for a weeknight. We simple add cooked quinoa to a bowl of chopped onion, raisins and shredded sage leaves. Mix that together, add two beaten eggs, some crumbled feta and add bread crumbs and then form patties and fry. The sage really makes these, so don’t skip out on that ingredient. You can also add spinach for to get in some extra veggies. We like to have these with a salad, so a spinach salad would be lovely to have with these patties. We really love Caesar salad dressing, but you could always do a vinaigrette with balsamic vinegar instead.
Bean and Beef Tacos
The perfect simple meal for a busy weeknight, is in my opinion, tacos. I love tacos and my husband and I sometimes have tacos for dinner. We buy the hard shell tacos, and then my husband cooks ground beef and I cook black beans. I have the black bean tacos–I like to season my beans with chili powder, garlic powder, and some smoked paprika–and then we just add our favourite toppings.
One way we keep this meal a bit healthier is not using any seasoning mix from a packet. We also make sure to get an organic sour cream and brands like Mrs. Renfros for our salsas. This summer, I’d love to make some of my own salsa as well and hopefully I’ll be able to share that experience with you.
In Conclusion
None of these meals require a lot of prep or hours in the kitchen. They are pretty easy to prepare and cook and we usually are done cooking and eating within an hour. And all of these meals are full of flavour and are healthy. I do want to continue and find meals that are just as yummy and easy to make and healthy for us to enjoy and I hope I’ll be able to do just that. I also really want to continue to make more things like salad dressings from scratch–hence why I’d like to try my hand at making my own salsa this summer. Making things like dressings and salsas from scratch allows you control over what goes into those mixtures and also helps you save money in the long run. And we could all use more pennies in our banks, especially with inflation. Making things from scratch helps save your hard earned money and therefore serves your family in the long run, which is what homemaking is all about: a service and act of love.
What are some easy meals you like to make? Share in the comments below!