Weekly Meal Plan 1/31/22 – 2/6/22

• When making the waffles, you can either use buttermilk or make your own!  To make your own, you simply combine milk and lemon juice and let it sit for 5 minutes.
• The recipe calls for using frozen strawberries.  The water content in the frozen berries will help the sauce be more liquid.  If you want to use fresh strawberries, the sauce will just be thicker.
• The strawberry cream cheese sauce was originally inspired by one that Ben picked out of the Let’s Cook: Elmo Cookbook (a cute kids’ cookbook). It was a recipe for strawberry cream cheese stuffed French toast, but we didn’t have 1/2 the ingredients, so we made a sauce and waffles instead.

Quick pickled eggs

• Quick pickling is refrigerator pickling
• This recipe is very vinegar forward
• Marinate for 1-2 days or eat them as soon as one hour after putting them in the refrigerator

Instant Pot Chili con Carne

• Adding great toppings to chili is one of my favorite things to do.  For chili con carne, I like to add any mixture of the below items:
  • Avocados
  • Onions
  • Cheese
  • Sour Cream
  • Lime wedges
• Once you’ve got your toppings figured out, I love to enjoy chili alongside easy sweet potato cornbread muffins or slightly sweet skillet cornbread.
• I use a jar of chipotle salsa for an extra shortcut/time savor, but I’ll share in the recipe how you can use the same ingredients (minced canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce, diced tomatoes, jalapeño and garlic cloves if you don’t have the salsa).
• To give this recipe the final perfect touch, you add a little bit of cornmeal into the soup to thicken it up.

Anything Goes Big Batch Granola

• Make a large batch and store in an airtight container for up to one month.  Or freeze it to extend shelf life even longer.
• This recipe is super flexible and you can use any variety of toppings.  The post has some great ideas!
• You will separate the wet and the dry ingredients before combining.
• You don’t want too much liquid in this recipe, but you want just enough to make sure the granola sticks together and then forms clumps.
• This recipe is so easy that you really can’t mess it up!  You can use syrup, honey, whatever oils you want, any toppings/mix-ins, just follow the ratios in the recipe.
• Pack the granola up in a Weck jar (or other similar air tight large jar or sealable freezer safe bag), tie a ribbon on and give it as a gift!  You can even get silly and decorate the jar like a reindeer for the holidays (quick antlers, a red nose and some googley eyes).  Plus, the amazing Weck jar is part of the gift; I use mine all the time!
• If you’re adding chocolate as one of your toppings, add it when there is only 5 minutes left in the oven otherwise the chocolate will burn (<- game changing tip for making chocolate granola).

Instant Pot Lemon Chicken Risotto

• You can absolutely make this a vegetarian-friendly dish by simply skipping the chicken and opting for vegetable stock instead of chicken stock.

5 Ingredient Skillet Pizza Pot Pie Recipe

• You can use pre-made pizza crust or you can make a  homemade pizza crust.
• The oven-safe skillet I use is a LeCreuset, but you can find a more cost-effective option that works great as well!
• I use diced tomatoes with garlic and onion, but you can certainly use plain diced tomatoes and add some garlic.

5 Ingredient Shortcut Danish Pastry (Breakfast Cheesecake)

• This recipe makes 16 servings (you’re making a whole pan) so you can keep it refrigerated and eat it throughout the week (or give some to friends/family.)

Tuna Salad Recipe with Pickled Celery

• This recipe makes enough pickled celery for the salad, but I used the same ratios to turn an entire bunch of celery into pickled celery.