Anyone else craving salad or a simple bowl of soup?
We all did a whole lot of cooking and/or eating last week and the holiday season is just getting started. In this brief window before December really gets rolling, let’s all lean heavily on simple, easy dinners.
This is a good week for simple meal prep, which means roasting a few sheet-pans of vegetables and a wholesome grain for easy grain (or rice) bowls.
It’s a good week to make a big salad for dinner and not worry too much about what the kids will eat (supplement their dinner with grilled cheese or microwave mac n’ cheese or whatever they like).
It’s a good week for those meals you can make with your eyes closed. Like pasta and jarred sauce with ground beef or mushrooms or basic tacos or chicken roasted on a sheet-pan with potatoes and veg.
Here are three more ideas for you, all made with ease in your Instant Pot:
Instant Pot Lemon Garlic Chicken Breast with Potatoes & Carrots
Lemon-garlic chicken breasts cook with soft, tender potatoes and carrots for a filling one-pot meal with three distinct parts. Butter and chives are optional, but should be required. No steamed potato should ever be served without butter and chives!
Instant Pot White Bean Cabbage and Tomato Soup
A very simple soup that’s nourishing and affordable. I like this cabbage and white bean soup best a day or two after it’s made, when the tomatoes mellow and the overall flavor gets richer. To make this dinner, just saute the veggies, add the rest of the ingredients and cook for just 5 minutes in your Instant Pot.
Instant Pot Pho with Ramen Noodles
This soup recipe takes its inspiration from Vietnamese Pho and adds instant ramen noodles for a flavorful, aromatic bowl of soup with long, kid-friendly noodles. The broth is lightly scented with cinnamon stick, clove, star anise and ginger plus a dash of fish sauce. You can also add cubed tofu, shredded chicken, green onion or spinach to your bowl, which will stretch the soup out for a family.
Dinner Last Week
I’m always curious about what other families are eating. Aren’t you? Here’s what my crew ate last week….or at least the meals I was able to remember.
Monday: Trader Joe’s chicken sausage, orzo, frozen peas
Tuesday: I took my own advice and roasted two sheet-pans of vegetables and made a batch of brown rice. I also made easy weeknight tofu and served it all with Feasting at Home’s lemon tahini dressing.
Wednesday: Pasta and jarred marinara.
Thanksgiving: As I mentioned last week, we had a holiday potluck with friends. I made two pans of stuffing and left one at home so we could eat stuffing leftovers all weekend.
Friday: The before-mentioned stuffing, plus a salad and a small container of cooked turkey that I bought at Whole Foods. Perfect! The kids and I also made pecan bars, because we didn’t have time to make them before Thanksgiving. We still have a few bars left in the fridge and they are heaven with an afternoon cup of coffee.
What Type of Recipes Are You Craving?
I have a favor to ask. I’m planning my next few months of recipes for my blog, and I’d love to hear what type of recipes you need. Instant Pot or Crock Pot? Vegetarian meals? Quick meals? New pasta recipes? Are you looking for the perfect chicken soup or a new way to cook salmon?
Whatever you’re craving or whatever would make your life easier, I want to know about it! You can leave a comment here or email me at jenny@kitchenskip.com Thanks!
Cookbooks
Jen Hatmaker’s cookbook Feed These People is just as spunky and irreverent as her podcast and Instagram feed. She has five kids and knows a thing or two about getting dinner on the table. I’ve found the recipes to be a little bit hit or miss, but this cookbook is so fun to read and page through. She doesn’t take food too seriously and is all about over-the-top delicious meals.
Please note that book titles in this section are Bookshop.org affiliate links. Your cost for purchasing the book is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to me and help support my work. When ordering from Bookshop.org you’ll also be supporting independent bookstores.
We took a long bike ride in the San Gabriel mountains over the weekend, in search of autumn leaves. It was lovely, even though the area was ravaged by fire a few years ago and the trees are still recovering. It’s always so good to get out in nature.
My husband and I both realized it was the first long bike ride we’ve taken with no whining and no one fell off their bike in tears! It’s a miracle! I think we’ve reached a new stage in parenting. And don’t worry, we were careful not to run over any newts!
Hope you all enjoy your weekend! It’s December 1, so we’ll be pulling out the holiday decorations this weekend. I’m thrilled that we’ll have cloudy weather so we can feel properly cozy and enjoy our first mugs of cocoa.
xo
Jenny
P.S. Don’t forget to let me know what type of recipes you’d like to see