So here’s the first installment!
It wasn’t until I started to upload photos of our meals that I realized last week was apparently the week of dinners in bowls in our house. I’m not sure if it’s a cold and dreary January thing or what but lately I just want to eat meals that taste like comfort food in a bowl. I’ve found myself gravitating toward vegetable-packed recipes that incorporate a lot of nutritious ingredients in one big dish. Soups, stews and pasta recipes are calling to me and our meals from last week make that quite apparent!
Since I’m someone who is always interested in what other people are eating and loving, I thought maybe we could use these posts to share links to recipes we’re all enjoying so we can get meal planning ideas from each other as well so please feel free to drop a link below and let me know what recipes you’re making and raving about in your house this month!
(Note: You’ll notice I only have photos of our meals from Monday through Friday in this post and that’s because I typically only meal plan for Monday through Friday. Often one of the meals I plan for a weeknight will get pushed to the weekend in favor of leftovers during the week and I like to leave the weekends open to whatever we’re feeling in the moment, whether it be takeout, something simple at home, etc.)
A Week of January Dinners
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Lemon Chicken Soup with Orzo from Pinch of Yum
As you can tell from this picture, I didn’t use orzo pasta in this Pinch of Yum recipe but that’s only because we didn’t have any on hand. I simply substituted a mixture of wheatberries and Banza chickpea pasta wheels and it was fabulous! I was slightly intimidated by the recipe since the creamy consistency of the broth comes from eggs (no cream or milk!) and you have to slowly, slowly add the egg + lemon juice mixture to the broth to prevent it from scrambling but it turned out well and we loved it! It was a smooth and creamy soup with the perfect amount of bite from the lemon. Note: This soup is a great way to use up any leftover chicken you may have on hand. I prepped a big batch of shredded chicken in our pressure cooker on Sunday night and simply used a bunch of it here!
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Lentil Soup from Chocolate Covered Katie
I made this recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie’s blog two weeks ago and it popped up on our dinner menu again last week for good reason! It was the perfect winter lentil soup recipe — flavorful, packed with vegetables and even better as leftovers the next day! When I made it again last week, I added some ground venison I defrosted from our freezer to the soup to give it a little more staying power and while the original vegetarian version is fabulous, Ryan and I agreed we loved it even more with this addition. The venison made the soup taste a little heartier and I know this is a soup we’ll be making again and again in our house. (I simply cooked the venison in a skillet and then added it to the soup at the end.)
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Healing Lemongrass Chickpea Thai Green Curry from Ambitious Kitchen
You know a recipe is a winner when you cannot help but text your mom about it! Right after I made this dish, I texted my mom to tell her she must add it to her must-make list because I know how much she and my dad love Thai food. It’s a vegan recipe that’s perfectly warm and comforting and also very nutritious and absolutely packed with flavor. I actually didn’t even use lemongrass in the recipe only because I couldn’t find it at the grocery store when I was shopping last weekend, but it was still wonderful without it. The only change I made to this recipe was to add some chopped zucchini and chicken thighs to the mix and it was great and didn’t seem to impact the flavor at all.
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Egg Roll in a Bowl from Peace, Love and Low Carb
We are a cabbage-loving family, so it’s no surprise we love this recipe so much. If you spend any time on Pinterest and pin Paleo recipes from time to time, you’ve likely seen no fewer than 50 variations of Egg Roll in a Bowl recipes floating around. I’ve tried a handful of them but always come back to this Pinterest find because it’s the most flavorful while still being incredibly easy to throw together on a busy weeknight. I like to serve ours on a bed of brown rice and really enjoy the various textures in this dish. Bonus: It reheats really well for lunch the next day! (Note: I highly recommend using ginger paste or fresh ginger in place of the ground ginger in this recipe. It makes a big difference and really brightens the flavors.)
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Mac and Cheese from Pinch of Yum
I was craving something warm and comforting on Friday night and whipped up this mac and cheese for our crew. The sauce is actually made with a combination of pureed butternut squash, caramelized onions, milk, salt and chicken broth mixed with shredded cheese and was creamy, buttery, smooth and pretty much perfect. The only thing that left me baffled was just how much sauce it made! I followed the recipe — and it has tons of positive reviews — but I had a ton of sauce in the end that pretty much drowned our pasta. To make the recipe easier, I actually used frozen cubed butternut squash rather than chopping my own squash up and I also used two different kinds of pasta (pasta wheels and penne rather than the elbow macaroni because that’s what we had), but I cannot imagine it made that much of a difference? I even ended up saving some of the sauce to use for leftovers another night! The bottom line: We liked this recipe but next time I’ll definitely double the pasta portion knowing we’ll have plenty of sauce to cover the noodles.
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Oh all of these look so good! I love getting inspired from other people’s meal plans.
We made Pinch of Yum Lentil Detox soup and it is amazing! I did it in the Instant Pot which made it even faster and better.
https://pinchofyum.com/the-best-detox-crockpot-lentil-soup#tasty-recipes-41824
I’ve had that one on my radar, too!! Loving lentils so much lately!
Hi. Just curious, did you cook the pasta first before adding it to the lemon soup or just put it in the soup and cooked it in there? My daughter is gf so I wouldn’t use the orzo but rather a gf pasta. I’ll wait for your answer so I can make it too!
Thanks!
Deb
I cooked it in with the soup BUT I probably would cook it separately if I make it without orzo again since it did start to fall apart a little bit! Nothing major and we still loved it but to maintain the pasta shape, I think cooking it separately would be preferred!
Deb, look for Dellalo gluten free orzo. I cook mine before & add it to the soup after cooking. It stays together & has a great texture.
Hi, thanks Julie for your response and Jan thanks so much for letting me know they make that shape! Appreciate it!
These dishes look yummy! But how in the world do you get your 3 year old to eat this stuff? Every time I try to make something “soup” oriented, my 2 year old refuses. He is a mac n cheese and chicken fingers or anything with a sauce on it kinda fella. I just am not sure how to go about getting him to eat other things that don’t involve some sort of cream sauce! ha!
Oh gosh Chase definitely doesn’t eat all of this! I am a BIG fan of deconstructed versions of our dinners for him — so, for example, on the night we had the lentil soup, I know he’s not a fan of lentils, so I made him a venison burger with the venison I was cooking in the skillet and paired it with sliced carrots that I was already slicing up for the soup and sliced apples. Oh and ketchup, too! 🙂 I used to worry about feeding Chase different meals than what we’re eating but have become a lot more relaxed about it. Lindsey from The Lean Green Bean is a registered dietitian and wrote a GREAT post about feeding her kids different meals from what she eats and it made me feel a lot less horrible about doing the same. Here’s her post in case it’s of interest: https://www.theleangreenbean.com/tips-for-feeding-toddlers/
Oh thank you! I will check this post out! Dinner time is always my biggest stress with my little guy!
Just wanted to chime in because when our kids were toddlers they were the same way about any sort of soup or all-in-one casserole or bowl dish. We did a lot of deconstructed meals for them, and also some nights just made them something completely different. As they’ve gotten older we started requiring that they take a few “no thank you” bites, and now they are 4 and 6 and are MUCH better eaters than they used to be!! They still won’t eat everything, but dinners used to be the most stressful time ever (especially with our youngest who has food allergies and was just a really picky eater in general) and now we feel like we can actually relax and chat and enjoy meals together because no one is complaining. So, all that to say, keep up with just offering ingredients from your dinners and eventually I think most kids start eating more once they are past the toddler stage!
Thank you for this encouraging comment! Dinner time with Chase can definitely feel like a chore at times so it’s so great to hear from those who have been there and come out positively on the other side!!
Love you ❤?
My husband surprised me with a Ninja Foodie for Christmas. (Huge thanks to you for mentioning it on your blog because it’s my favorite thing ever!) I’ve been looking up recipes like crazy! Our favorite right now is a Chicken Burrito Bowl made in the pressure cooker. It’s so good! I’m adding the Lemon Chicken soup to my meal plans.
Isn’t it AMAZING!?!?! I am making shredded salsa chicken for tacos in it as we speak!!! I am obsessed with it!!
I’ve been making a version of the Lemon Chicken soup for a couple of weeks now with Dellalo gluten free orzo. I can’t stop making it! So good!
My husband and I love this recipe from Little Spice Jar called The Best Steak Fajitas, and the recipe definitely lives up to it’s name! I feel like we make these at least a couple times a month because of how easy they are to put together and because the marinade makes the meat so flavorful.
http://littlespicejar.com/the-best-steak-fajitas/
Did you use Banza pasta for the Mac and cheese?
The wheels were Banza but the penne wasn’t! So half Banza half not — do you think that may have been my issue?
All of these recipes look amazing! There is nothing better than warm bowls of comforting, yummy goodness this time of year. Thanks for sharing!
It’s not even 9 AM and now I’m wanting soup. All of these look so good!
I am all about the bowl life too right now!
Two of my recent favs come courtesy of Pinch of Yum:
https://pinchofyum.com/morrocan-spiced-chickpea-glow-bowl
https://pinchofyum.com/mediterranean-quinoa-bowls-with-roasted-red-pepper-sauce – the sauce in this one is TO DIE FOR!
I am single, so I love how fun bowls are to play around with when it comes to different ingredients, etc. – especially when it comes to leftovers. 🙂 Excited to see more of these recipe posts!
Thank you for these delicious recipes! I am trying to start meal planning for my family (inspired by you!) and am wondering if you have a system, use any apps or other tricks, or just have advice to share. I learn so many great tips from reading about you and your life—thank you!
This couldn’t have come at a better time since we are all down and out with a bad cold /fevers . I pinned them all!! Have a great weekend
A favorite dinner I make almost weekly in the winter for our family is turkey chili (Eatyourselfskinny.com’s version) with a batch of your cornbread! Soo delicious! ?
Also I think a post like this but what Chase eats would be so fun to read! Or even just a what he eats in a day post. I always joke with my husband that our almost 2 year old has always been basically the same person as Chase from birth! (He was a peanut when born, always had to be moving, just now starting to sleep through the night, wouldn’t take a bottle, world’s pickiest eater – especially with meat?, other random things haha ?) I always love to know other ideas for toddler foods and snacks!
There really is something about dinners out of a bowl that say warm and cozy!
http://www.primallyinspired.com/crockpot-balsamic-roast-beef/
This is my favorite beef roast recipe that is perfect for cold nights when you need a cozy meal but is fancy enough for entertaining, too! I cook it up in my instant pot as opposed to the crock pot. I cut the meat up into 2-3 inch chunks and pressure cook on high for about 40 minutes-ish. I also add in carrots and an extra onion with the meat and they come out SO TENDER!! Serve it over some roasted or boiled potatoes and you’ve got yourself a delicious meal!
Yum! I will be trying that lemon grass soup next week! And i am so excited about you sharing more meals in the future!
We have been loving this turkey chili recipe. Lots of flavor and veggies in it so it feels so healthy and still tastes great. Often my family doesn’t like the lack of taste with ground turkey but this chili has a ton of flavor.
https://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/slow-cooker-turkey-chili/
Ohhh….excited to try a lot of these, thanks! The flavors and healthy aspect are up my alley, and so thankful my new husband is agreeable to try new recipes too ?
A question, just being curious really…is whether you pack Ryan’s lunches? When you mentioned planning leftover nights, I smiled because it’s hard for me to cook enough for my athletic, construction-working hubby’s next-day lunch, let alone another dinner lol….
I think just new-wife learning curve. I give you and all ladies with families to feed so much credit!! You’re great inspiration for newbies like me ?