Midweek Meal Inspo; Sausage Pasta, Meatball Subs, Taco Salad and more.

This week, a lot of our meals were no stove and one pot, as the weather was very warm. We have also got into salads! There are so many types of salad at Costco, that actually are reasonably priced, so we have been trying them all out. It’s just better to have a non-cooked vegetable when it’s warming, especially as everyone’s hunger levels change.

Creamy Sausage Pasta

We do not eat pasta dishes much in our house, but when Dann and I took a trip to a local bakery to pick up some fancy treats, we had to go to the butchers next door. They sell the most amazing sausages and the only thing I could think of making with them was creamy sausage pasta. This is made by browning the sausages in a pot with olive oil, then taking them out and slicing them, before frying them again. I then diced up an onion and added it to the pot to fry off. I then added tomato puree to the pot, let that cook for a moment, then added in two cans of chopped, season tomatoes, then two cans of water along with a chicken stock cube. I dumped in a bag of pasta shells, as this is a one pot meal and let the pasta cook. Once the pasta was done, I poured in some double cream and added a handful of parm. I think one pot meals are really nice to make in the summertime, as they don’t use the stove. We served this with a salad.

Steak Rice Bowls

Steak Rice Bowls are super customisable! We made two types; one with steak marinated in a gochujang sauce and another with steak marinated in a teriyaki sauce. I made up some rice, fried off my steaks in a pan, and then added cucumber slices, shaved carrot and steamed broccoli to the top. We poured over some extra sauce to flavor the rice and that was it! You could add whatever vegetables your family enjoys and easily create a fun bowl for them.

Meatball Sub Sandwiches

Amelia actually made a big bread earlier in the week and Kai wanted to help turn that bread into meatball sub sandwiches. The bread was a garlic and rosemary focaccia. Kai made the meatballs by combining beef mince, bread crumbs, an egg, italian seasoning, a bit of tomato paste and a bit of parm into a bowl, then forming them into balls. From there, we fried them off, baked them until cooked through and tossed them in some garlic and onion pasta sauce before adding them to the middle of our sandwich bread. This was also served with a salad! As the bread had a lot of flavor, it was a very fun and flavorful dish.

Taco Salad

We eat a lot of tacos and this week we are eating a lot of salads, so I decided to combine them! I made the taco salad bowl by spraying a glass, oven safe bowl with oil, then taking a bigger bowl and spraying that with oil. I put a tortilla between the two bowls and baked it in the oven until golden and it held shape. This did involve taking out the middle bowl so the middle of the tortilla could crisp. I then fried up some beef mince with taco seasoning, chopped up some lettuce, diced a tomato and some avocado and shredded some cheese. We let everyone build their own, with taco sauce to top! Everyone was really impressed with the bowl, so worth the effort.

Bruschetta Chicken

Dong a light chicken dish for the week, I wanted to go with Bruschetta Chicken. This is a butterflied chicken breast fried in some olive oil (if you have a grill pan, using that is absolutely amazing). Once the chicken is cooked through and golden, I topped it with some soft mozzarella cheese, along with some sliced cherry tomatoes that had been tossed in olive oil, salt, pepper and basil. I served this with chicken rice (rice cooked with a chicken stock cube) that had some spinach stirred through and a salad. For Dann, Kai and I, we also put balsomic over the top. It was delicious.

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