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Weeknight Real Food Recipes

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Weeknight Real Food Recipes - ahumbleplace.com

Food is very important to me and I love finding meals that will not only bring our family around the table each day and fill bellies but also include foods that I know will nourish our bodies and keep them healthy. I sincerely believe in the healing power of food for both the body and the mind. Adhering to this, however, isn’t always easy with a full schedule of homeschooling, trying to make sure my home is maybe at least kinda-sorta clean, and other responsibilities. So when I find a recipe that includes real, whole foods but is still practical to whip up on any given weeknight, I consider it a win.

This list comprises my go-to, real food recipes and includes the tried-and-true favorites that we usually have on a monthly basis (if not more in some cases). When I’m not sure what meals to plan for the month, I can load this post and see what I have to choose from. Easy peasy!

I do want to add that though these meals won’t take hours, they’re definitely not 5-minute meals. When I consider trying a new recipe, speed is definitely a factor as I obviously don’t want to be making a 6-course meal every night, but it’s not necessarily my top goal as I’ve found that making things with fewer processed foods does just take more time. The trade-off is worth it to me and I find that most of these recipes take about an hour or less. Of course, you may be a gourmet cook and able to whip them up in 15 minutes. If so, I’m jealous and you should feel free to move in with me. 🙂 Either way, once I’ve made them a few times, I get faster and more efficient, so I try to give a new recipe a few tries before I dump it because it takes too long.

I also have a few other posts related to this, including my favorite kitchen equipment, how I meal plan, and my favorite sources for real food, in case you’re interested. 🙂

Weeknight Real Food Recipes

Beef

We get a beef quarter at least once per year from our raw milk dairy and you can also find them in your neck of the woods through Eat Wild. It’s the cheapest way to get grass-fed beef and to stock your freezer with ground beef, roasts, and steaks without breaking the bank. It’s also quite a bit more convenient to have all that meat sitting in the freezer than having to buy it at the store each week! I’ve also gotten ground beef, steak, and roasts when we’ve run out from ButcherBox (get $30 off your first order with my link!).

I’ve broken this category down even further because that’s how I’ve meal planned for each week in the past. We have ground beef usually twice a month as I have the most of that, then roasts (if I have them) usually once a month, then another week of steaks or stew meat. This makes our stash last as long as possible.

Draining eggplant for moussaka. Eggplant is kind of pretty. Kind of.
Ground Beef
Roasts
Steak
Simple Swiss Steak Recipe (ahumbleplace.com)
Stew Meat

Chicken

I used to be part of a local chicken CSA that I really liked and they provided us with a monthly bundle of hens, leg quarters, wings, and necks and we just had to go and pick them up. Due to various factors (mainly the long drive and cost during a time of no employment), we decided to not renew it, but I’d love to find another good, reasonably priced local source of chicken. Until then, we get Mary’s Chicken through Azure Standard (which I appreciate because I can buy it in bulk) and Natural Grocers.

Breast/Thigh Meat
Ground Chicken
Thighs/Legs/Wings
Weeknight Real Food Recipes - ahumbleplace.com
Whole Chicken

Fish

I buy canned salmon as well as wild-caught, frozen salmon and cod from Costco (or cod through Azure Standard if Costco is out). We have crab once in a great while and I usually just pick up a can of that at Natural Grocers.

Pork

Breakfast for Supper

Weeknight Real Food Recipes - ahumbleplace.com

Beans

I only added beans back into our rotation recently after not eating them for quite a few years. When we have them, I soak them overnight with kombu or use Eden beans, which are pre-soaked.

Soups

I try to make my stock from scratch, but when I don’t have enough bones and/or time, I use Bonafide Provisions stock.

Side Dishes

Breads (grain-free)

Simple Apple Dip (refined sugar free) - ahumbleplace.com

Desserts and Snacks

Breakfast

For breakfast, we have the same thing nearly every day because who has time to come up with something different every day? During the week I make scrambled eggs for B, my husband, and myself (sometimes with kale). Because C can’t have egg whites, I usually make a batch of breakfast chicken sausage from Nourishing Meals for her. They also get yogurt and a banana and a few times a week I’ll serve soaked oatmeal with ground flaxseeds, butter, and maple syrup. In the past or if we’re short on time, I also make apple cinnamon cottage cheese bowls for my husband and me. He also makes coffee for himself. I’m not much of a coffee girl, so I’ll usually have a mug of tea with breakfast that lasts into our lesson time.

Lunch

For lunch we go through a rotation. The kids will have leftovers, hot dogs, cheese, tuna, summer sausage, sardines, chicken salad, or some other kind of protein along with cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, pepper slices, olives, peas, or some other kinds of veggies as well as a ferment like pickles or sauerkraut. I’ll usually have leftovers, tuna, or hodgepodge something together from whatever I have in the fridge. Sometimes we’ll have crackers as well.

Favorite Recipe Sites

I get a lot of my real food recipes from Pinterest, but there are also a few sites that consistently offer meal ideas we really like:

Simple Meal Planning - Plan to Eat

I keep track of all of these recipes in Plan To Eat, which I also use for meal planning and grocery list creation. You can sign for a free, 45-day trial through my link!

I will definitely be revisiting this list from time to time and adding new recipes or removing recipes we don’t have as much anymore. If you have any recipes your family loves, feel free to leave a comment!

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