In this week’s meal plan, we’re holding on to summer with a few of our favorite hot weather dishes. Plus, you can enjoy a special bonus dessert that’s great to celebrate the kid’s getting though the first week or so of school! Take a look at the plan and enjoy creating a super easy grocery list.
Notes from this week’s meal plan:
Lentil Cauliflower Burgers with Yogurt Sauce
- If you want to make this recipe vegan, you absolutely can by simply omitting the egg. I’d make a flax egg in place of the egg by combining 1 tablespoon flax seeds with 2 tablespoons water.
- These burgers don’t stick together exactly the same as a regular burger, so take care when flipping them.
- If the burgers fall apart, you can always crumble them on top of a salad even making a fun vegetarian lentil cauliflower bowl meal.
Banana Snack Cake with Greek Yogurt Frosting Recipe
- Because this cake is made with Greek yogurt and less sugar than traditional cake, it’s basically guilt-free!
Easy Cucumber Salad
- You can use red wine vinegar in place of the rice wine vinegar, it’s really whatever you have on hand.
- The only things I don’t count as “ingredients” are salt, pepper, and water because chances are, you have those somewhere in your house. I consider those “free” ingredients.
Vietnamese Chicken Rice Noodle Salad
- This salad could be served warm or cold
- It’s a great gluten free salad because the noodles one uses for this recipe are rice noodles (vermicelli noodles).
- Customize the salad with whatever vegetables you have on hand and have it ready in under 30 minutes.
Tres Leches Banana Pancakes
- No additional sweetener is added to this recipe because it uses ripe bananas and tres leches sauce – both of which add a touch of sweetness already.
Almost No Stir Risotto Recipe
- I had read somewhere that if you use a heavy-bottomed pan for cooking (I LOVE my Le Creuset) you don’t need to stir it as much.
- Pro tip: chop up your onion, celery and carrot ahead of time, put it in containers and freeze it! It saves so much time and makes making this recipe so much faster. Or you can buy the pre-mixed, already cut vegetables so you don’t need to chop up your own onions, celery and carrots.
- This recipe freezes great, so be sure to make a big batch!
- A few recipes swaps you could make: parsnips instead of carrots, add in butternut squash or omit mushrooms out and add eggplant.
Easy Beef Brisket
- Any leftover brisket makes for a great sandwich
- Ask for a “point” brisket at the butcher– it’s the second cut with typically a little more fat. This is not necessary though, any cut will work – just leave the fat on (as the meat slow roasts, it will melt).
- This is a really great make-ahead dish, so if you want to do all the steps the day ahead and then serve it the next day, rewarmed, it’s just as good!
- Browning the brisket before you roast it in the oven really brings out flavor (then you deglaze the pan with either red wine or beef broth.) You could skip this step and just roast everything, but I’d recommend taking the extra step.
- I always like adding extra carrots. My kids love the soft carrots that have been roasted in the tomato sauce with this dish, so I add extra. Also – since this dish is cooking low and slow, you don’t want the carrots to completely disintegrate, so I’d recommend cutting them in large chunks (or if they’re smaller carrots, you could leave them whole.)
- Serve this brisket over mashed potatoes.
Energy Balls without Dates
- If you don’t want to use chocolate chips, add mini m&ms or chocolate chunks or white chocolate or dried fruit.
- Think about adding your favorite nut – cashews, peanuts, walnuts etc.
- Put a pinch of sea salt on top…Maldon sea salt flakes are my favorite
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