What’s for dinner?
This week we’ve been revisiting some recipes from The Food Wife so here are some ideas to help you with some meal planning for the week ahead. All are gluten-free (or easily adaptable).
At the weekend we had some friends round for dinner and I went for the low prep, no fuss chicken and potato tray bake with peppers and artichokes, served with a large green salad. It meant I could minimise my time in the kitchen and maximise my time socialising! We also had some of the marinated olives to nibble on with drinks before hand which I had set marinating the night before so they were full of flavour.
We’ve also had a firm favourite midweek, simply defrosted from the freezer and reheated; the yellow split pea daal. We had it with nutty brown basmati rice and some blanched green beans. So healthy and nutritious but utterly delicious too!
Another freezer staple was ragù; stirred through pasta it makes a really quick and satisfying meal. And also with pasta we’ve had the creamy spinach and pea pasta making a 15 minute meal perfect for a week night.
Lunch times have been soup-focussed and the sweet potato and butternut squash Thai coconut soup has been spicing up lunchtimes.
New to the menu was a Thai-inspired beef and noodle salad. Fresh flavours making the most of leftovers as I used left over roast beef and green beans from a family roast on Sunday.
The Food Baby has not been forgotten. At the start of the week I had a mammoth cooking session making batches of toddler-appropriate food. My main aim has been to try and get as much fruit or vegetables into him without him realising, as he appears to be able to identify and reject anything obvious at 20 paces. A batch of baby oaty ‘carrot cake’ cookies have gone down well with half being popped in the freezer for another time. I also made a big batch of veggie curry fritters, although I split the vegetables and batter and did half with the curry powder, and the other half with a teaspoon of smoked paprika and 100g grated cheese. Each batch made seven good size fritters which have been popped in the freezer for future dinners.
Hopefully our week’s meal plan has offered you some inspiration for all the family, catering for a variety of different diets, including gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian and vegan. If you haven’t already, why not sign up to The Food Wife Newsletter at the bottom of the homepage, to ensure you get every recipe each week, direct to your email.