Meatless Menu Week 5

You guys! The whole family has been sick all week! Poor Theodore is just a mess and always tired with no appetite and Matthew has had it pretty bad too. I did a lot less exercising/fun things and a lot more cleaning and playing every day this week. It's so hard to not just give Theodore every little thing he wants when he's hurting! So for the most part, I do, lol. In fact, we're currently cuddled up on the couch with our bed comforter and I'm feeding him yogurt 😂 He asks for yogurt by name now, but it sounds like "ah-got" hahaha. But anyway, it's comforting to know that for the most part I plan very healthy meals for my family and we all got the nutrients our bodies needed to fight off whatever illness got us. This week I not only wanted to plan healthy, meatless meals, but I also wanted to keep it super low-budget and easy and I think I did just that. There was one meal that was made with meat because Matthew requested it and how do you tell your sick husband no?? I can't. Let's get started!

Monday
Strawberry Spinach Salad with Balsamic Dressing


The linked balsamic dressing was so amazing. I'm thinking about making a huge batch of this salad for our tailgate today because it was that good. I didn't use a recipe for the actual salad, because it's super simple. I chopped strawberries and crushed plain almonds, chopped a ton of spinach, and tossed those things together with salt and pepper. We drizzled the dressing over our salads individually so we didn't overwhelm the salad with it!


Tuesday

Spaghetti Squash with Red Sauce and Meatless Meatballs


If you read last week's post, you know I am not talented enough to make meatless meatballs, so I decided not to test my luck and I just purchased these meatballs from Aldi. I think they're amazing!! Matthew says they're just "alright". He's so wrong. But you can decide that for yourself- they were a really great price! If you don't have an Aldi near you, most grocery stores have meatless meatballs now!

I'm actually ashamed at how simple this meal was! I really took the easy way out. The only effort was cooking the spaghetti squash. I lined a baking sheet with parchment paper, rubbed a little olive oil on each "inside" area of a halved spaghetti squash, then sprinkled salt and pepper and garlic powder on the insides as well. (The garlic powder is what makes the difference-don't skip that step!!) Bake them in an oven preheated to 400 degrees for 45-50 minutes. Wait for the edges to brown before taking them out. Then I poured over some heated pre-made pasta sauce and the prepared meatless meatballs! 

Wednesday

Loaded Sweet Potatoes


Again, no recipe because we tried to keep it super simple this week! (And we are next week, too😊) For this meal the only real work is baking the sweet potato- and stabbing it with a fork. Is that everyone's least favorite part of baking sweet potatoes or just mine?? It's so hard! To bake sweet potatoes, I line a baking sheet with tin foil, poke holes in the potato, rub with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake at 425 degrees for 45 minutes. When they're finished, split them open and load them up! Some of my favorite things to put on sweet potatoes are:

avocado
corn
black beans
cheddar cheese
shredded chicken
sour cream

Thursday



This was the meal that we made with meat! And I have to admit, it was delicious. However, I want to try to replace the meat in this with a block of crumbled tofu cooked in the same way. I think it would be just as delicious! Also- every time I make shepard's pie there seems to be way too much liquid in the end result. Does anyone else have this problem? Am I doing something wrong?? Help!


Friday

Spicy Popcorn Cauliflower


Emphasis on the spicy...like, Matthew and I drank milk with our dinner to curb the spice. However, I like spicy food and I still enjoyed it! If I were to make it again, I'd just back off on the gochujang a bit. It calls for 1/2 cup and I'd use 1/4 so it was equal parts soy sauce and gochujang. Also, the fried cauliflower was absolutely amazing! It was super simple and relatively quick to fry and truly it tasted so much better than I imagined. 

I hope you guys love these recipes! This will be the last week for Meatless Menus! There are now five weeks of meatless recipes with my notes for you to look through and I think we've just reached a good stopping point! As always, if you need inspiration for a meatless meal, please reach out! 

Thank you for reading!

  





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