Meal Planning Monday

When I meal plan each week, I like to have some quick dinner options, especially for days full of chaos and activities. A few family favorites are cheese tortellini with marinara sauce and Teriyaki Pineapple Chicken Meatballs that are found at Costco. Both are no-thinking foods that I don’t have to spend hours in the kitchen for.

Another thing I love to do is roast veggies for a side dish. Roasted carrots are the ultimate favorite, but roasted asparagus comes in a close second. When you roast vegetables in only some olive oil it brings out their natural flavors. So when carrots are roasted, they get super sweet and when asparagus is roasted they taste a lot like green beans. Roasting vegetables is SO SO easy, all you need is your choice of vegetable, olive oil and depending on the vegetable some seasoning. Below is a list of various seasonings I use depending on the vegetable being roasted.

carrots-just olive oil

asparagus-olive oil, salt, and pepper

sweet potatoes and zucchini-olive oil, Italian seasoning blend

Yukon gold/red potatoes-olive oil, powdered ranch dressing mix, or Italian seasoning blend

broccoli-olive oil, salt, and pepper

Adding a little seasoning to vegetables not only keeps the flavor integrity, but it also layers another element of flavor without adding extra calories, sugars, or carbohydrates.

We also tried a new Instapot recipe tonight, lemon garlic parmesan noodles. It was liked by some, disliked by others…either way there are plenty of leftovers, so that means those who don’t like it will like it by the end of the week.