Meal Inspiration for January 10-16
Quiche, Sweet Potatoes and Candied Pecans, Sheet Pan Fajitas, White Bean Kielbasa Stew, Mac 'n' Cheese with Sneaky Cauliflower, and Mini Pecan Pies!
Happy Monday! We’ve got some nutritious comfort foods on the docket for this week to help you feel warm and cozy inside. A grocery list is at the bottom. Enjoy!
Breakfast
Build-Your-Own Quiche
You’ll be using pie crust to make mini pecan pies for MLK, Jr. Day (see the “Treat” below), so you’ll have a decent amount of it left! Let’s make a quiche with whatever other ingredients we have in our fridge, shall we?
It’s great to feel confident making quiche without a recipe. It takes some experimentation and error, but overall, quiche is a pretty resilient meal that can overcome most baking foibles 😉
If you’re trying to eat low-carb, you can easily modify this to be crustless.
Preheat oven to 375 F.
Spread out pie crust in the pan of your choice. You can make a huge slab quiche, or mini-quiches, heart-shaped quiche…lots of flexibility!
Most recipes recommend that you blind-bake your crust first by lining the crust with parchment paper, putting weights on it (such as dried beans), and baking for 15 minutes. Then remove the weights, poke holes in the crust with a fork, and bake for 7 more minutes. (But if a step like this is a deal-breaker, skip it 😛)
If you’re putting cooked toppings in your quiche, go ahead and sauté those onions or do whatever prep is needed. (You might want to set aside extras as a sweet potato topping (see “Lunch” below.)
In a large bowl, whisk together milk or half-and-half and eggs with a ratio of about 1/2 c of dairy for every egg. (Decrease milk if you prefer a more firm filling.) Fold in some shredded cheese and toppings of your choice (broccoli, sausage, onions, tomatoes, ham, mushrooms, whatever!) Add seasonings of your choice.
Bake for about 30 minutes (depending, of course, on the size of your pan.) You should be able to insert a knife and have it come out clean.
Let sit for 10 minutes or so, top with some garnish, and serve! Quiche makes excellent leftovers, and you’ll thank yourself later when you know you have a filling meal ready in the fridge 🙌
Lunch
Sweet Potatoes and Candied Pecans
A quick way to make sweet potatoes is to slice them to about 1/4” thick, saute them in olive oil with spices of your choice, then put cover your pan and let the steam cook them the rest of the way! (If that’s not enough instructions, see the recipe by Minimalist Baker.)
Then let’s make some candied pecans. They can last in a sealed container for a week on the counter, or a few weeks in the fridge, so you might want to make a whole bunch and use them to sweeten up other dishes!
First, set out a baking sheet or large plate to let the candied pecans cool. Then combine brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, vanilla, water, and some orange zest in a skillet on medium heat. (Use about a 5 to 1 ratio of sugar to water.) It should thicken into a bubbling sauce in about a minute. Stir in pecans and keep stirring for 2-3 minutes. Make sure they don’t burn.
Transfer the candied pecans to the baking sheet and let them cool. Top your sweet potatoes with some of them (along with whatever else you like) and transfer the rest of the pecans to an airtight container. They really brighten up a salad. Enjoy!
Dinner
Sheet Pan Fajitas
This is a quick and easy meal with lots of flexibility.
Preheat your oven to the “broil” setting, and get a sheet pan ready. (If you line it with foil, cleanup is all the easier.)
Slice baby bell peppers, an onion, and any other veggies you want.
Mix chili powder, salt, and pepper in a little bowl (or use a spice blend.) Reserve some of the seasonings for the chicken, but rub some on the vegetables along with olive oil.
Broil veggies for about 10 minutes.
Cut chicken breasts into slices that are about 1/4 inch thick. Toss with the spices and some olive oil and put them on the pan with the veggies.
Bake until the chicken is cooked through and getting brown, about 5 minutes.
Drizzle with lime juice and serve with tortillas, rice, Monterey Jack cheese, guac, salsa, lime wedges, salsa…whatever you’ve got on hand!
White Bean, Kielbasa, and Whatever Stew
This is a meal that is perfect for snuggling in on a cold day…plus, it’s a great chance to use up some vegetables in your fridge or freezer. It’s best made in the instant pot.
Slice up and sauté some smoked kielbasa and add garlic. Let it get nice and brown.
Add Great Northern beans and whatever vegetables you have. Frozen peas and carrots work great in this meal. Add salt and pepper generously and anyseasonings you’re craving…smoky flavors work great. We love the Scenic City Grilling Pepper from Alchemy Spice Co. Add some red wine (optional) and chicken broth for your liquid.
Cook it at high-pressure in the instant pot for awhile, slow-cook it, stovetop simmer it…whatever you’re comfortable with. You’re just softening things and melding flavors at this point.
Boil some pasta (we used fusilli) in salted water while you’re waiting. You kind of only want a half-batch so it doesn’t overpower the stew, so go ahead and cook the whole package and store the other half of the pasta for Mac ‘n’ Cheese below.
Drain the pasta and stir in some butter so it doesn’t stick.
When the stew is done, stir in the pasta. Your family will love it!
Mac ‘n’ Cheese (with sneaky cauliflower)
It’s very empowering to make mac ‘n’ cheese from scratch. It’s also fun to sneak in some cauliflower. You can gradually decrease the pasta ratio until you’re at 100% cauliflower…but your kids probably won’t even care 🤫
And don’t be intimidated by the number of steps; you’ll get this down to a quick, satisfying process before long.
Preheat oven to 450 F. Toss some cauliflower (fresh or frozen) with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roast it on a baking sheet while you prepare the rest. You want it browned and cooked through. (Tip: break/cut the florets into bite-size pieces.)
On one stove burner, make pasta of your choice, following the box’s instructions. (Make sure you salt the water!)
For the cheese sauce, heat a saucepan or pot on another burner—the shallower and larger the pan, the faster this will go.
Melt and combine equal parts butter and flour to make a roux. (About 3 Tbsp of each should do it.) Then you pour in whole milk. We don’t usually do measurements around here, so you’ll just learn to eyeball it 😏 We are making what’s called “béchamel” cheese sauce; if you want more directions you can go here.
Stir the milk frequently to keep it smooth and uncurdled. It’s fun to watch the milk/roux mixture turn into a thick sauce. Then add whatever cheese you wish, as well as salt and pepper, nutmeg, Dijon mustard, cayenne…whatever you feel like. Add more milk if you want the sauce thinner. Keep stirring.
After you drain your pasta, pour it into a baking dish and mix it with the cauliflower. Then pour your cheese sauce on top and mix it all together.
Bonus: if you have bread crumbs, you can mix them with some melted butter and top your mac and cheese with it.
Bake (yep, keeping it at 450 from earlier is fine) until, well, it looks impressive and yummy.
Mac ‘n’ cheese has a reputation for being indulgent, but when you step back and look at these ingredients, it’s not terrible, eh? Comfort foods don’t have to be synonymous with “bad for you.”
Treat
Mini Pecan Pies
We are making this for MLK Day because pecan pie was apparently one of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s favorite foods. This recipe adapted from Yummy Mummy Kitchen makes 6 mini-pies, so you’re not stuck with more sweets than you can handle. If you’ve never made a filling like this before, it’s very satisfying!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Roll out a premade pie crust (or make your own; recipe here.)
Using the mouth of a glass or the lid of a mason jar, cut out circles that will fit into your muffin tin or ramekins. Chill them in the fridge. You can use leftover pie crust for quiche (see “Breakfast” above.)
Put a pan on the stove at medium heat. Melt 1 Tbsp butter, then add a little over 1 Tbsp flour until it’s golden. Stir with whisk. Add 1/4 c water and cook until it’s thick and bubbly.
Add 1/4 c maple syrup, 2 Tbsp c coconut sugar or brown sugar, 1/8 tsp salt and continue cooking until it’s thick and bubbly again.
Remove from heat and stir in 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and 3/4 cups chopped pecans.
Spoon the mixture into the pie crust wells you made earlier. Bake for 25 minutes. They scoop out nice and easily. Enjoy!
This is a great time to invite your kids to join you and talk about the man who loved pecan pie in between all the whisking and waiting 😊
Exercise
Here’s a 20-minute full body HIIT workout with a swath of moves to keep it fresh as you go. Change helps you forget how hard you’re working 😉
This 10-minute power yoga workout burns because of how long you have to hold each pose. You’ll feel exhausted and amazing after!
Story Prompt
Tell a story or draw a picture about a young animal who woke up early from hibernation and had to figure out what to do alone.
Grocery List
We hope these were helpful! See you tomorrow with the main newsletter!