Week of April 1st - Meal Planning and Recipes

Updated: Apr 5

Each week I search cookbooks, magazines, and the internet and plan out 5 main meals. These meals have been tested and adaptations and tips are provided when needed. I'm here to help make Bringing Back Dinner to your home go a little more smoothly with Meal planning and recipes plus tips.

Tip: If you find that the recipe links take a lot of time/memory to load try using the print recipe feature and print to pdf.

Vegetable Chow Mein - By The Woks of Life #meatlessmonday

Serves: 4

Time: 45 Minutes

Moderate

Don't be afraid of ingredients! We tend to stick to the same spices, sauces, etc. I encourage you to be bold and branch out! This recipe calls for a few ingredients you may be unfamiliar with, but it's so yummy!

Tips:

I found this page to take a lot of energy and the ads were easily accidently clicked. I recommend printing this to pdf and then using the pdf to follow the recipe.
Whole Foods has a great Asian food section and most ingredients can be found there.
I don't have a Wok anymore - I'm trying to reduce the amount of stuff we have! If you don't, a large Dutch oven will work fine or try a large frying pan.
You can substitute the Shaoxing Wine with Mirin, but use about half, or white wine, or dry sherry.
OK - Honesty time, I never take the time to use white pepper. If you use black pepper it will be fine.

Meatloaf- By Bringing Back Dinner

Serves: 4 - 6

Time: 1 hour 45 minutes - mostly baking time

Easy

Tips:

We love this meatloaf! I don't like the smell of ketchup and the tomato sauce takes care of that, but also makes a nice flavorful meatloaf.

Mix well. I often use my Kitchenaid to mix this, the more it is mixed the more compact and dense the meatloaf will be.
Feel free to spice it up and add things like chipotles to the tomato sauce, but it's yummy as is.

Spicy Fish Taco Bowls- By a Pinch of Yum

Serves: 4

Time: 50 minutes

Easy

We have tacos of some sort in our regular rotation of meals and this Taco Bowl is a nice way to mix it up a bit.

Tips:

If you don't like Quinoa you can use rice instead
You can buy frozen cilantro! It comes in little cubes like frozen garlic does! I keep this on hand for when my cilantro is not growing in my garden. Because if I buy it I will use part of it and the rest turns to yucky mush.
For a healthier option try cooking the fish in an air fryer instead of frying it.

Meatloaf Sandwiches (or Roast Beef) -Really it is about the Tomato Relish!

Time: 35 minutes

Easy

The link for this recipe is for the Tomato Relish, it truly makes your sandwich. It is originally from the cookbook Wichcraft by Tom Colicchio, one of our favs!

Tips

Yes, I am assuming you have leftover meatloaf from earlier this week. If you don't know worries, you can use roast beef or a hamburger instead
Take the effort to buy Ciabatta rolls, it ups your sandwich game and holds up to the moistness of the sandwich.

Tortellini Pesto Salad - By Evergreen Kitchen

Serves: 4

Time: 20 Minutes

Easy

Tips:

This meal is quick and easy by taking advantage of things like jarred Pesto and pre-made tortellini.
Trader Joe's has great pre-made pasta
If you have a local place that makes its own pasta I recommend buying from them for an elevated meal. In Greensboro, we have a place called Giacamo's Italian Market and their products are amazing!