Midweek Meal Inspo; Meatballs, Some Curry Dishes, Sweet Potato Nachos and More

This week we played around with sweet potato, as this was one of our highlighted ingredients. I have been cutting down on my meat consumption, having alternative versions of a lot of the dinners that I have been making, so there are more meat-free options than their have been in previous weeks. There are also some fantastic comfort foods and lots of foods that Amelia very much enjoyed – I think this is her favorite mix yet of new stuff and classics that she enjoyed.

Meatballs and Pasta

Growing up, we always had meatballs! Zucchini is in season, and the best way is breaded, so we decided to make some beef meatballs, which is a mix of beef, tomato paste, Italian herbs, bread crumbs, egg, and parmesan cheese. I pan fried these before baking them off in the oven. I breaded and fried some sliced zucchini, which was Amelia’s favorite thing ever and now what she asks for, for breakfast each day, and cooked up some pasta. We did use our favorite jarred sauce to tie it all together, finishing the meatballs off in some of the sauce. I also buttered some rounds of bread to go with it. This is such a filling and delicious meal.

Katsu Chicken Curry

I did not get a picture of the Katsu Chicken Curry, but as I have cut down on my meat consumption, I had mine with fried zucchini. To make the curry, I cut up onion, carrot and potato and fried it off. Then, I added in the curry cubes and water, letting them cook off until it thickened. I made some rice to go with it! For the chicken, I butterflied chicken breasts, then did a flour, egg, and panko bread crumbing, which Amelia and Robin helped with, before frying them in oil and baking them to finish in the oven. For the zucchini, I used the same bread crumb method, but with Italian breadcrumbs instead of panko. I also cooked some rice to go with it.

Sweet Potato Steak Nachos

We are playing around a bit more with sweet potatoes for the summer, and one of Dann’s favorite sweet potato dish are these “sweet potato nachos” that I made up once, ages ago. I basically peel and cut a bunch of sweet potatoes and air fry them until soft but with crispy bits. This is the nacho chips to our nachos. I then top them with cheese and let that warm up in the oven a bit more. Once the cheese is melted, I put on tomatoes, red onion, avocado and some steak tips. These are just chunks of steak cooked in a bit of oil, salt and pepper. It’s a fresh feeling and delicious meal, which Kai really enjoyed, as it was in line with his fitness goal and very “clean”.

Chili and Corn Bread

Autumn means soups and chili! We have our list of our family’s favorite autumn soups, if you are more of a soup person. This chili is super easy to make; I cut up some onion and bell pepper, and put them into a crock pot along with a bunch of cans of beans (drained and rinsed) and some cans of chopped tomato. Then I filled the rest with water and let it cook all day. I made some corn bread muffins to go with it and topped the chili with cheese or sour cream. It’s a comfort food and one of Amelia’s favorites.

Sweet Potato and Chickpea Curry

A bit more playing around with sweet potato, I made a sweet potato and chickpea curry with spinach. This was a very simple meal – I peeled and chopped up some sweet potato and boiled them until nearly cooked. In a pan, I cooked off some drained and washed chickpeas until they were toasty. I added in the sweet potato and then added a jar of our favorite curry sauce. I let these all cook together while some rice was going. Right before we were ready to serve, I added in a handful of spinach to finish it off! We had this with naan bread.

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