Meg's Meal Planning

sweet potato

Sweet Potato, Spinach Buddha Bowl

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If you are looking for a healthy, filling lunch or dinner, this buddha bowl with sweet potato, spinach, avocado, and crushed walnuts will keep you full and satisfied. 

Sweet potato, spinach buddha bowl

Buddha bowls are a healthy way to get a balanced meal and an even better way to clean out your fridge.  The last few weeks, on Thursday or Friday I’ve made a buddha bowl using whatever was left in my fridge from the week. The beauty of this meal is you can add any kind of ingredient.

How to make a buddha bowl

First, start with your grain – try brown rice, lentils, or quinoa. Next, add greens/roasted vegetables – spinach, green beans, peas, Brussel sprouts, the possibilities are endless.  Finally, finish it off with nuts or seeds and your choice of dressing.

buddha bowl

Last weeks buddha bowl with quinoa, green beans roasted potatoes, sunflower seeds, and green onions

I make a very basic red vinegar/olive oil dressing. My favorite toppings are green onions because I love the taste they give, avocado, and any kind of nut. Try it out for yourself; you will quickly fall in love with buddha bowls!

Sweet Potato, Spinach Buddha Bowl
 
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If you are looking for a healthy, filling lunch or dinner, this buddha bowl with sweet potato, spinach, avocado, and crushed walnuts will keep you full and satisfied.
Author:
Recipe type: Buddha Bowl
Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • ½ cup uncooked quinoa
  • ½ roasted sweet potato, peeled and cubed
  • ½ avocado, cubed
  • ¼ cup walnuts crushed
  • ¼ cup fresh spinach, chopped
  • For the dressing:
  • ¼ cup red wine vinegar
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 3 tsp Dijon mustard
Instructions
  1. Cook quinoa according to package directions
  2. Add quinoa to a bowl and add the sweet potato, avocado, walnuts, and spinach
  3. In small bowl mix together the red wine vinegar, olive oil, and mustard
  4. Pour over buddha bowl, stir and serve

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Sweet potato, spinach, avocado buddha bowl

Vegetarian soup 

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Even though we are far from vegetarians, my husband and I both love this soup. It’s a one pot meal, packs plenty of flavor, and between the kale, sweet potato, butternut squash, and quinoa, you will feel full and satisfied! 

  

Vegetarian soup with kale and quinoa

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/2 yellow onion, diced
  • 1 carrot, chopped
  • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped 
  • 2 cups chopped butternut squash
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 4 cans  (14 1/2 oz) reduced sodium vegetable broth
  • 2 cans (15 oz) diced tomatoes
  • 1 can (15 oz) chickpeas, rinsed and drained
  • 1 cup quinoa
  • 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 2 cups chopped kale, ribs and stems removed
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Steps

  1. Heat olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat. Add onion and carrot and cook until the onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, sweet potato, butternut squash, and bay leaves. Cook until vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes. Stir occasionally so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
  2. Add the vegetable broth, tomatoes, and chickpeas. Stir in the quinoa and season with rosemary and thyme. Cook for 15 minutes or until quinoa is soft. Stir in the kale and cook for an additional 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
 

This recipe was inspired from here 

Cooking with Hope. Week 5

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I didn’t realize that the past three weeks have been Mexican themed dinners! (sorry I’m not sorry!) I love Mexican!  But this week is more classic American. We made a pork tenderloin, baked sweet potato, sauteed squash and zucchini, and a tomato salad.

The pork tenderloin was by one get one free at Stop and Shop!  I bought two unseasoned tenderloins and froze one. I like to keep my seasoning simple, just garlic, rosemary, and salt and pepper.

  

Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients

  • 1 pork tenderloin
  • 1 clove garlic, sliced thin
  • Fresh or dried rosemary
  • Salt and pepper

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
  2. Cut 8-10 slits in the pork tenderloin, spread out all over. Stuff with the garlic slices and rosemary
  3. Season with salt and pepper
  4. Place on roasting rack and cook at 425 degrees until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees, about 45 minutes

Because my husband was at the airport, I didn’t have my griller available. So instead, I cooked the veggies in an electric skillet (Thanks Nannie for the skillet!). I’ve never used one before, so it was a bit of an experiment. I seasoned the vegetables the same as if I was grilling them – salt, pepper, and olive oil. I cooked them on 350 degrees until they started to brown, stirring often.

The tomato salad (all from my garden) is my go-to recipe for a summer salad. It’s great to bring as a dish to a dinner party and a perfect side to add to dinner or lunch.

Tomato Salad

Ingredients

  • 6-7 plum tomatoes, sliced
  • Salt
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • 2 gloves of garlic, minced
  • Handful of fresh basil, sliced thinly
  • Fresh mozzarella, sliced

Steps

  1. Place tomato slices on a platter and season with salt. Let sit for 10 minutes, then drain any juices that collect
  2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, add the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, and basil. Set aside
  3. Once you drain the tomatoes, place sliced mozzarella throughout and pour marinade on top

Since the oven was preoccupied by the pork tenderloin, we cooked the sweet potatoes in the microwave. First, Hope poked holes with a fork over each potato. Then, she placed all three potatoes on a plate and cooked for 8 minutes, turning once halfway through. The two smaller potatoes were good, 1 larger one needed to go back in for another three minutes.

It was a great dinner with my sister and BIL! Hope wasn’t too sure if she’d ever cook a pork tenderloin for herself at school, but I reminded her it’s a great, easy meal to cook once, eat twice! Click here for other ideas for tasy pork tenderloin recipes.

Kale, quinoa, black bean, sweet potato and avocado salad

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Super foods unite! This salad is unbelievable!  The flavors all blend well together and the avocado sauce has the perfect amount of kick!  I really enjoyed making this because it has a lot of my favorite foods to cook and eat! It was the perfect size for two people; my husband and I polished if off!

 

Spiralize sweet potato, season with olive oil and salt and bake in oven at 400 degrees for 25 minutes

 

 

Add avocado , cilantro, lime juice, lime zest, olive oil, and salt to food processor, blend well

 

 

Season kale with salt and massage well

 

 

Kale, quinoa, black bean, sweet potato and avocado salad
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Dinner
Cuisine: American
Serves: 2
Ingredients
  • 1 cup uncooked quinoa
  • 1 bunch kale, ribs removed and chopped into bite size pieces
  • 3 tbsp olive oil, divided
  • Zest of 1 lime
  • 1 lime, juiced
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 sweet potato
  • 1 avocado, sliced and pitted
  • ½ jalapeño pepper, seeds and stem removed. You can use more to make it spicy
  • Handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
  • ½ can black beans, drained and rinsed
Instructions
  1. Prepare the quinoa as per packed directions. Set aside to cool.
  2. Spiralize sweet potato onto baking sheet. Season with 1 tablespoon olive oil and ½ teaspoon salt. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.
  3. Place kale in serving bowl and season with salt. Then massage kale with hands for 1 minute in order to really blend the salt. Whisk together 1 tablespoon olive oil, juice from ½ lime, and lime zest. Drizzle over kale. Set aside.
  4. Add avocado, ½ jalapeño pepper, cilantro leaves, juice from ½ a lime, lime zest, and salt to a food processor and blend well.
  5. Add cooled quinoa to kale, stir to combine. Distribute the kale to plates and top with sweet potato, black beans, and avocado sauce.

 

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Top with roasted sweet potato, black beans, and avocado sauce