Easy. Healthy. Delicious.
Hey everyone!
It has been a while since we have done a blog post. Things have been getting really busy around the clinic which is very exciting! We just absolutely LOVE serving this amazing community. Thank you to everyone that has been coming in and referring your family and friends to us!
Today’s blog post is about easy and healthy weeknight meals. I get questions ALL THE TIME about how to feed your family a healthy meal that everyone at the table will eat that is also very easy to make. I want to use this post to bring you all some great ideas and resources to do just that! Some of the easiest meals to make are some of our household favorites. I find that it is important to mix it up for us with easy meals most of the time but occasionally throw in something a little more fun and exotic to keep having fun in the kitchen. One of my favorite easy meals is a sheet pan meal I am actually making for us tonight! This meal is fun because the components can very easily be swapped around to make this meal different but still easy and delicious.
For this meal I start with a basic formula. Protein + Veggie + Veggie = Dinner! Seems simple enough right? But think of the possibilities! Fish + Broccoli + Asparagus or Chicken + Butternut Squash + Green Beans…endless combinations! Everything goes on a sheet pan and gets roasted…couldn’t be easier. We are big fans of roasting veggies for dinner. If you haven’t tried roasted broccoli or roasted Brussels sprouts then you are really missing out! When you roast vegetables they take on totally different flavors. For example, think of a radish. When consumed raw, radishes have a spicy taste to them. However, when you roast a radish it suddenly takes on the flavor of a potato! Such a fun new twist to an awesome vegetable. Another benefit of roasting the veggies is that you can roast veggies straight out of the freezer. This leads to ultimate convenience. We always have at least 2 or 3 different bags of frozen vegetables in our freezer along with frozen fish. By keeping the freezer stocked with frozen fish and veggies I know I can always whip this meal together in no time if needed.
For the sake of this post I will use one of our favorite combinations in that formula. Fish + Broccoli + Potatoes. I like to use the bag of organic fingerling potatoes from HEB for this meal because they are colorful and taste so good roasted. We use the frozen organic broccoli from HEB and the frozen wild caught cod from Sam’s Club. All I had to do was wash and cut up the potatoes while the oven was preheating then throw everything in and badaboom DINNER IS SERVED! One of my favorite ways to play around with this meal is changing up the seasonings. You could use more of an Italian blend one day and then use more of a spicy Mexican flare the next and it would feel like a completely different meal! We kept it very simple this round and simply used garlic and onion powder, salt, and pepper. So easy!
I put the potatoes and broccoli in the oven at 400 for 35-40 minutes. We have a very old and slow oven…newer ovens would require even less time! After about 20 minutes I take out the broccoli tray and add the fish then put the tray back in for the final 15-20 minutes. The fish was seasoned with lemon, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper. Nothing fancy here this time but feel free to get creative!
I served everything together in a bowl. I topped mine with some Tessemae diary free ranch but Dr. Ply chose to eat his without any dressing because it was not needed! If we had gone with more of a Mexican blend of spices I likely would have topped mine with salsa instead for a fun change up!
Please note…I am no food photographer! Pictures do not do this justice! Take my word for it, this meal is ridiculously easy and so delicious.
If you try your own combinations let us know in the comments! I hope you all enjoy the idea! For more ideas on easy weeknight meals that are a little more fun (and beautifully photographed) check out http://www.thedefineddish.com to get some inspiration. Bonus points that she has young children to feed and is always updating her recipes to include how her children eat them!