Weekly Meal Plan 8/9 – 8/15

As always, a weekly meal plan full of great recipes to enjoy!  This week’s plan features a Meatless Monday and bonus dessert on Friday.  Plus, a few meals that are sure to yield plenty of leftovers for easy meals throughout the weekend.

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A few notes from our weekly meal plan:

Power Greens and Potato Breakfast Casserole

• The bake time depends on how thick your casserole is.  So, the smaller your skillet, the thicker the casserole and the longer the bake time.  I used a 6″ skillet in this recipe. You could use a square baking dish or a casserole dish.
• I use power greens (baby spinach, baby red and green chards, and baby kale) in this recipe, but feel free to use only spinach, or kale, or chards, or any combination of them.
• Browning the butter is an important step  because it adds a touch of extra flavor.
• You can use frozen hash browns in place of fresh potato if that’s what you have on hand, shredded a potato is not always fun or quick.
• If you choose to use fresh potato, use it quickly, otherwise the potatoes will oxidize and turn brownish, but they will still taste good!
• If you want to be extra fancy, use Cotija cheese in place of Parmesan (or in addition to)

15-Minute Vegetarian Burgers

1. Classic grilled vegetarian “cheeseburger”
2. Spicy vegetarian “chicken” sandwich
3. Grilled spicy black bean burger

Taco Pizza

• I used my sheet pan pizza recipe and halved it.
• Here is the pizza dough recipe:
  • 3/4 cup warm water
  • 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
  • 1/4 teaspoon sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 3/4 cups -2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• In a large bowl combine warm water and yeast, allow to rest for 5 minutes until the yeast starts to bubble. Add the sugar and stir to dissolve.
• Add in the salt, olive oil and 1 3/4 cups ap flour. Mix well with a wooden spoon or dough attachment on a stand mixer – may need a little more flour if your dough is sticky.
• Knead dough with hands for a few minutes. Put in a bowl, cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rest until doubled in size (about an hour to two hours).
• Place dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out to pan size.
• Par bake for 6 minutes at 400 before adding toppings.

Pepperoni Pasta Salad in a Jar – possible recipe variations

• You could sub out the greens-I’ve made this with a mix of arugula and spinach, just spinach, just arugula, Spring greens, butter lettuce, no greens when I didn’t have any on hand. Basically, use what you have in terms of greens…or don’t use any, your choice!
• I used whole wheat pasta. You could easily use any type of pasta you have (gluten free, regular pasta, whatever you’ve got). You can also use whatever shape you like. I like the rotini shape because it sops up the dressing in the little spirals, but I’ve also made this with different types of pasta and it comes out great!
• You could use a different type of protein – you could use turkey pepperoni, chicken sausage, tofu if you’re vegetarian. Do what works for you and what you have on hand
• Use white beans (great northern, navy, etc.) instead of chickpeas
• Use provolone or Parmesan or provolone instead of mozzarella

Instant Pot Cheddar Turkey Meatloaf

Slow Cooker Breakfast Casserole

• It can be made as an overnight casserole – meaning you make it overnight and have it cook in the slow cooker while you sleep and then have it ready to enjoy in the morning
• The casserole can be assembled the night before, and then baked in the morning
• The casserole can be made into individual mini casseroles

Tuna Salad with Picked 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.

Chicken with Creamy Mustard Sauce – tips and tricks

• You can use chicken thighs or chicken breasts
• You can prep ahead by mincing the garlic and chopping the shallot
• If you don’t have white wine, you can use chicken broth
• You can use an onion in place of a shallot
• If you want more of a saucy dish, you can double the sauce ingredients!