One of the hardest parts of eating healthy, home-cooked meals is figuring out what to make. With hundreds of thousands of recipes available at the click of a button, I often find myself paralyzed with decision fatigue when it’s time to make my weekly shopping list. Finding that perfect balance of tasty, healthy, fast, easy, interesting, and inexpensive can feel like looking for a needle in a haystack, and I often spend WAY too long scrolling through recipes online.
If you can relate, this monthly feature is for you!
Each month, I plan to do a roundup of recipes that I have enjoyed cooking and eating recently. While everyone’s nutritional needs and preferences are different, I intend to give you a sample of dishes that worked well for me, along with some modification ideas for different dietary preferences. Let me be clear that I am not claiming that my food choices represent “perfect” nutritional habits (if such a thing even existed), but rather, I want to give you some ideas for recipes that you might like in order to save you some work and help make healthy eating a little easier for you.
While I may sometimes include recipes of my own creation, I view this segment as an opportunity to highlight the work of other creators. So if you create food content (or know someone who does), feel free to send me a recipe that you think I might like, and I would be happy to try it out and perhaps feature it next month.
One important thing to remember is that there is no such thing as one-size-fits-all nutrition. Just because something feels great to my body does not mean it is optimal for yours. Please feel free to modify the recipes to make them better suit your tastes and needs.
Recipe 1: Tahini Veggie Sheet-Pan Meal
https://gatherednutrition.com/sheet-pan-roasted-fall-veggies-with-tahini-sauce/
This meal from Gathered Nutrition was delicious and relatively easy. I loved the sauce, the fact that I didn’t create too many dishes (yay for sheet-pan recipes!), and the fact that it is so customizable.
I have recently been on a bit of a tahini kick.
Tahini is a paste made of ground sesame seeds (think peanut butter, but made from sesame), and it is one of the star ingredients in this recipe. You can find it at most grocery stores, and it is a delicious and healthy staple in my kitchen. However, if you cannot find tahini or do not care for it, I could imagine this recipe working well with a nut butter substitution. Additionally, the recipe calls for a small amount of Sriracha hot sauce, but I think it worked just fine without it.
The recipe above is primarily focused on the veggies and sauce, but I recommend adding some sort of additional protein source to make it more filling. For my meal, I added slices of nitrate-free Italian sausage to my sheet pan, and it was absolutely delicious. However, you could just as easily add tofu or chickpeas to keep the meal vegan. Or, you could serve the veggies as a side dish to a meat or fish entree. If you do substitute the tahini for nut butter, I think it would taste best with tofu or chicken as a protein source.
While the vegetables listed in this recipe are great, feel free to use any vegetable that you like. I think this dish would taste good with most vegetables, so no need to limit yourself to the specific ones mentioned if they are out of season for you, or if you prefer a different assortment of veggies.
Features: gluten free, dairy free, vegan option, omnivore option
Recipe 2: Fagioli all’olio (White Beans with Garlic and Sage)
I adored this cheap and easy dish from Nat’s Nourishments! I will say that the fresh sage and fresh garlic stole the show for me, so I recommend finding these ingredients fresh if at all possible.
If you can’t find fresh sage, I would recommend subbing the sage for another fresh herb like rosemary or thyme, rather than using dried sage.
I ate this with some gluten free toast and a simple side salad, and I was surprised at how filling I found the meal to be. However, if you are concerned about getting full enough, or if you can’t tolerate large quantities of beans, feel free to serve this as a side dish alongside another entree. It could also be fun to include as a small dish in part of a tapas-like meal, or it could be a great addition to a potluck.
Features: gluten free, dairy free, vegan
Recipe 3: Moroccan-Inspired Cauliflower
https://dishingouthealth.com/moroccan-cauliflower-with-tahini-honey-5-ingredients/
Oh boy, did I love this recipe from Dishing Out Health! My mouth is watering just thinking about this meal; it was that good. At the first bite, I knew that this would quickly earn a place on my list of favorite recipes. It was extremely flavorful without being overly spicy, and since it only contained five ingredients, it was super easy to make.
A few notes: though this recipe only used five ingredients, a couple of these ingredients (harissa and tahini) might be unfamiliar for those who have not cooked many Mediterranean/Middle Eastern/North African recipes. Please do not be intimidated! This recipe is quite simple once you have the ingredients, and it is fairly forgiving if you need to make ingredient substitutions.
I did not have harissa paste (which was recommended in the recipe), but I did have a dried harissa spice mix. I thought the dried harissa worked well, but I would be curious to try the paste sometime to compare.
For those who haven’t yet been introduced to harissa, it is a delicious mix of spices and peppers commonly used in Middle Eastern and North African cooking. I bought my harissa powder at a kitchen/spice store, but I was also able to find it at several local grocery stores and online. Otherwise, you can impress your friends and family by whipping up a batch of your own. :) Please note that harissa recipes vary by country and region, so the flavor profile of this dish might vary based on the type of harissa you’re using.
I paired this cauliflower dish with some Moroccan-inspired chickpeas (https://www.cookrepublic.com/moroccan-spice-chickpea-and-spinach/), which were also easy and delicious. However, you could also just roast some chickpeas in the same sauce as the cauliflower for a one-pan meal, or you could serve the cauliflower as a side dish with a Moroccan-inspired meat entree.
Features: gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian (vegan option—substitute honey with vegan sweetener)
That’s my recipe roundup for this month. Do you have any recipes that you think I should try next month? Any requests for types of recipes you’d like to see in the future? I’d love to hear from you in the comments!