Posted by kathryn in Lunch, Easier eating and Dinners

Mid-week meals can be tricky. If you’re late home or tired, then putting together a meal that’s quick, easy, healthy and tasty can be a big-ask.

A while ago I posed the question what’s your perfect mid-week meal? Two themes that came through the responses were, pre-preparing meals on the weekend (which could then be frozen and re-heated), and making use of leftovers.

Last week I had a few meals which illustrate both of these scenarios. For starters, I did some cooking on the weekend. This gave me a combination of prepared meals and cooked ingredients that could be used in other dishes:

• two batches of soup
• a jar of harissa
• a tray of roasted pumpkin
• several containers of cooked lentils, white beans and barley.

And this is how I put everything together last week:

Monday

Lunch: Lentil soup (made on the weekend)

Dinner: Roast pumpkin with white beans & barley (took about 10 minutes to make, using the pre-cooked pumpkin, beans and barley)

Tuesday

Lunch: Leftover roast pumpkin with white beans and barley

Dinner: Tofu and vegetable stir fry with noodles (made from scratch)

Wednesday

Lunch: Roast pumpkin and pear soup (made on the weekend) with sourdough toast

Dinner: White bean falafels (made from scratch, using white beans cooked on the weekend) with mixed greens (took about 15 minutes in total)

Thursday

Lunch: Leftover falafels in a wrap with avocado and salad

Dinner: We ate out (Thai)

Friday

Lunch: Lentil soup (made on the weekend)

Dinner: Pasta with tomato, garlic and caper sauce (made from scratch)

Saturday

Lunch: At a cafe

Dinner: Lablabi (using harissa made on the weekend)

Sunday

Lunch: Mixed greens with white beans and harissa (both made on the weekend) on a slice of sourdough toast

Dinner: We ate out (sushi train)

As you can see, my week was a combination of using pre-cooked ingredients, making new dishes from scratch and eating out on a couple of occasions. When I did cook, I generally made enough for lunch the next day. In amongst all the one-pot meals, the white bean falafels were a great contrast.

And . . . I still have lots of soup in the freezer, along with barley, white beans and lentils.

25 June, 2007