Weekly Meal Plan 013
Weekly Meal Plan 013
Once again, I tried to make quick meals this week. We have been busy and quick meals have been necessary! This will probably be the last week for soups for a while, as it is warming up here, but I couldn’t be more excited about it! We had a few things on our schedule that were moved around so we ended up skipping one of our meals and eating leftovers instead, but I’ve included the recipe we would’ve used. I love meal planning because it takes the stress out of dinner time, but I’ve learned over the years to be flexible with it. Make a plan, but expect to move it and change it around a bit as you go.
Here are the recipes from last week’s menu. Click each meal to take you to its recipe below:
Air Fryer Pork Chops, Couscous and Edamame
Italian Pasta Salad (“Cold Pasta”)
Fish Tacos with Pineapple Salsa and Avocado
Ground Beef Vegetable Soup
I am always in need of good ground beef recipes. We get part of a cow every year and it lasts us the entire year! This is a pretty standard vegetable soup recipe, easy and good. Dip some delicious “crusty” bread in it and, yum!
https://casserolecrissy.com/ground-beef-vegetable-soup/
Modification:
Instead of using canned vegetables, I used a mix of fresh and frozen vegetables I had on hand that I needed to use.
Air Fryer Pork Chops, Couscous and Edamame
If you haven’t tried air fryer pork chops, you are missing out! It’s so fast and easy and it’s a great way to prevent overcooking your chops. Here’s a recipe we’ve tried and really like!
When we eat couscous and we have time, we like to make this recipe as a base. It’s so so good. When we don’t have time we just use a box of Near East Couscous and it does the trick.
https://girlandthekitchen.com/lemon-infused-israeli-couscous-recipe/
Modifications:
- This recipe calls for zest from only half a lemon. I zest a whole lemon!
- I also add lemon juice to taste and mix it in the end.
For the edamame we use our faithful frozen Pictsweet Farms Steamables Edamame and microwave. So good and so easy.
Creamy Chicken Poblano Soup
This was a new recipe I tried! I love poblanos so I was excited to try this one. It had great flavor but there were a few things I’ll do differently next time! See modifications below.
Modifications:
-
- I would use less broth next time. Probably only 5 or 6 cups instead of the 8 it calls for. It seemed to water down the flavor a bit.
- I did not blend the soup (although I would love it that way too!) because my husband and kids prefer something they can chew on.
- I added additional salt, pepper and cumin at the end so be sure to adjust the seasoning to your liking!
- Definitely crush tortilla chips in it. It makes it perfect!
Italian Pasta Salad (“Cold Pasta”)
My kids love this pasta salad. When I first started making it my daughter referred to it as “cold pasta” and the name has stuck for us ever since. You could easily make your own variation of this meal with what you have in the fridge but this specific recipe is a good combo of veggies.
Modification:
- This recipe includes a recipe for a homemade Italian dressing. I just use Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing because it’s super easy. I’d love to find a good homemade zesty Italian dressing so if you know of one, share in the comments!
Sheet Pan Nachos
These are so easy and you can make them however you like them! Ours look different every time because we use whatever we have in the pantry or fridge. But this week it looked like this:
Sheet Pan Nachos
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 small onion, chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1/2 packet taco seasoning
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 15 oz can refried beans, warmed
- 1.5 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grab a sheet pan, use parchment paper or spray with cooking spray, and spread your chips to cover. Chop onion, red bell pepper and green bell pepper. Heat some olive oil in a large skillet and add veggies once heated. Once veggies start to soften, add minced garlic and cook for an additional 1 minute. Add ground beef and cook until pink is gone. Once cooked, add taco seasoning and some water and cook until water evaporates and remove from burner. Spread refried beans (they spread easier if warmed up) over the chips. Add beef mixture on top of beans. Top with cheddar cheese. Bake until heated through and cheese is melted, usually about 5-7 minutes.
This is also a really good recipe to try!
https://damndelicious.net/2016/09/06/sheet-pan-nachos/
Fish Tacos with Pineapple Salsa and Avocado
This meal is so easy and the kids like it, too. We don’t eat much fish, mostly because we don’t have much experience cooking it, but also we prefer other meat over it. However, I do love a good fish taco and this is a quick fix if you need it. We use Trident Seafoods Ultimate Fish Sticks and cook them in the air fryer. I’m not a huge fan of fish sticks but I really like these!
We change up the toppings every time depending on what we have but this week I made a chipotle mayo, pineapple salsa and topped with avocado and lime. YUM.
For the chipotle mayo I just mix mayo with adobo sauce from canned chipotle chilies, some salt and lime juice.
This is the recipe I used for the pineapple salsa. SO GOOD.
Pimiento Mac and Cheese
I found this recipe years ago in probably the first cookbook I ever bought (Rachael Ray’s Look+Cook).
It’s so easy and good! Serve it up alongside of some greens with a light vinaigrette and it’s perfect. This version below and the one I use from the book are a little different, but I’ll include the differences.
Differences from the book recipe:
- 3 tbsp of butter instead of 2
- 1 medium onion instead of a small onion
- 3 garlic cloves instead of 2
- 2 tbsp paprika instead of 1
- 2 tsp hot sauce instead of 2 tbsp
I hope this gives you some ideas on what to make this week!
Happy cooking!