Midweek Meal Inspo; Crockpot Ribs, Beef Tacos, Chow Mein & more

This week, we have tried some new foods and some old favorites in our family. Kai was really interested in cooking a few of the recipes and even picked one out! Amelia and Robin had a lot of activities they were doing and felt less interested in cooking, which is always OK. It was also a week where we ate out for Dann’s birthday! Eating out from time to time is always a good break from making food.

Mushroom Risotto

Mushroom Risotto is a really time consuming dish to make, actually! You want to make sure you purchase risotto rice specifically, and then heat up some butter in a pot. In another pot, you want to summer some chicken stock. We used homemade chicken stock, but you can use store bought! We then added our rice to the butter pot, and stirred until it had a nutty smell. Then, we added in chicken stock at one ladle full at a time, stirring constantly, until all of the liquid is gone and then adding more. You want to continue until your rice is fully cooked. I also cooked up some mushrooms in butter in another pan, stirred that into the rice when it was done, added in a handful of parm and poured in some edamame. Some people put in peas instead of edamame, but as edamame is a good source of protein and a family favorite, we do that instead!

BBQ Ribs with Loaded Potatoes

Kai had asked for a “messy meal” like ribs this week, so we went ahead and did just that! These BBQ Ribs are really easy – you just need to put all of your ribs in a crock pot, cover with water, ham stock cubes, a large squirt of BBQ sauce and bay leaves. We then let them go for 8 hours until they fell apart. Then, we took the ribs and put them on a baking tray, coated them in BBQ sauce and baked them until they were a bit crispy! These came back together and held up well. I also steamed some broccolli and served with some cresent rolls (sort of like dinner rolls). We also made loaded potatoes to go with this, which are baked potatoes that you then core out the middles of. You then need to add stuff to that center; butter, sour cream, cheese, bacon, and spring onions. Then, you can put the middles back into the potatoes to stuff them and then heat them up in the oven with the ribs cooking with their sauce at the same time.

Beef Tacos with Street Corn Inspired Salad

Beef tacos are a classic in our household! This is very ‘white people taco night’ in terms of tacos. We cook some mince in a pan with taco seasoning. Then I made some guac with smashed avocados, a little mayo, some onion and some tomatoes. I grated some cheese and had some pickled jalapenos on the table, along with salsa and taco sauce. We served this on soft shells, with french fries cooked in the air fryer and a street corn inspired salad. This salad is made by heating up frozen corn in olive oil until they are a little browned. Then add them to a bowl with some diced onion, mayo, chili powder, lime and feta cheese.

Pork Chow Mein

Kai also helped me make Pork Chow Mein, as he wanted to make something Asian inspired. We did this by cutting up a load of veggies; carrots, bell peppers, onions, practicing his cutting skills. I also cut up a pork tenderloin and started frying it off in a wok. Once the pork was browned I took it out of the wok and put in all the veggies to cook together, with a little oil. After they were cooked, I added in some grated garlic cloves, grated ginger root, water chestnuts and then added back in the pork and veggies We added in a few handfuls of frozen veggies like edamame as well, and then added in the sauce. It was made from soy, mirin, brown sugar, corn flour and Chinese five spice. Then I added some spring onion to the top!

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