Weekly Menu Ideas: 10-03

Underutilized Resources

This is a strange concept—the idea that we can have things lying around our house for years but not fully know how to utilize them to their best potential. This sounds like a bad analogy for describing one’s own life, but it is usually the case for me. I had my Russel Hobbs Electric Pressure Cooker for about two years before I left South Africa. I use it once a year for my annual Ramadan Soup preparation and absolutely nothing else. 

I shipped it all the way to the Netherlands but have not used it once until two weeks ago when I took it out to make soup again. The truth is that I was utterly afraid to use it for anything else because my mom taught me how to make soup in it and I have heard some bad stories about people hurting themselves really badly when using it. 

Two months ago, I was beyond exhausted. Living the life of a football mom involves a packed schedule and barely anytime to slave around at the stove. For those wondering in the Netherlands, our meat is extremely fresh, I assume the Dutch do not believe in the storing period, as with everything else you only take what you need. The fillets are not soaked in brine, the meat is not aged to perfection. You take what you get and done complain. 

Being in this pickle and thinking about the extra time I needed to cook my steak nice and soft for my homemade toasted steak specials, I casually glanced over at my pressure cooker. I thought to myself, today we are going to figure it out. This was the beginning of the end for stovetop cooking for me, each night I just shove all my meat into the pressure cooker with the spices and let the magic happen. The food keeps warm, until I get home from practice and then we are ready to eat in minutes. 

This post is not aimed at getting everyone to buy a pressure cooker, but perhaps to explore the underutilized tool at your disposal to make meal times much easier for you. 

Team work makes the dream work

For the last two weeks, I realized that I was giving my kids too much slack, given that growing up my mom didn’t give us much too do, as we grew older I learnt the value of hard work. I thought there is no better way to help your kids into doing more than having them do it with you rather than for you. It marks a new age in our household and has been so much more fun to in the kitchen preparing snacks. 

Do not get me wrong, I still get the “oh no, I am tired today”, but there are a few moments when we compliment the preparer of the dish for their efforts even if it was only adding all ingredients to the pressure cooker before I put it on, thatseems to generate some pride for the kids. It’s also great to keep encouraging them to be active society citizens. 

Weekly Menu - 10 March

Monday

School Lunch: French Toast

Dinner: Mashed Potato with Grilled Protein and Broccoli

Tips for this idea:

This recipe has been a traditional staple in our household, we only realised recently how much we actually enjoy steam broccoli. It is great for the kids to get used to eating vegetables in its raw form although it is not always the easiest. If you do not enjoy it this way, just add some soy sauce on your broccoli which dynamically changes the flavor. If you not a fan of mash potato, you can always change this to rice.

Tuesday:

School Lunch: Cheese Quesadillas

Dinner: Fish Curry

Tips for this idea:

This fish curry can be replaced by any protein of your choice, but it is good to change up the menu every few weeks. This includes spicier food. Tofu and Paneer are great alternatives for a curry.

Wednesday:

School Lunch: Muffins

Dinner: Red Pepper Soup with bread

Tips for this idea:

Red pepper soup can be prepared in the oven or the airfryer, it is easy to make and should not require much additional effort. You can substitute out the cream with soy or coconut alternatives for vegans.

Thursday:

School Lunch: Mini Pita Pockets

Dinner: Sausage/Boerewors with Tomato Chutney

Tips for this idea:

In the Netherlands, sausage is quite easy to find but if you in South Africa and have access to Boerewors then this is always a delicious meal. In addition, you can easily make vegan sausages from mushroom, these taste amazing.

Friday:

School Lunch: Cold Pasta

Dinner: Homemade Toasted Steak Specials

Tips for this idea:

Toasted steak specials are quite an easy recipe to make especially if you have a pressure cooker, you can add the add any toppings of your choice to this toasted sandwich. Lately, I have become obsessed with brown lentils as a substitute for meat in my dishes, if you do not eat meat, you can cook and spice lentils with masala, and also toast this.

Saturday:

Lunch: Toasted Sandwiches

Dinner: Fried Chicken and Fries in a Big Mac Dipping Sauce

Tips for this idea:

My husband found an amazing idea on TikTok using sparkling water to make a crunchy chicken recipe, I therefore reserved this spot for him to try out this new recipe but any crumbed chicken will do. One of my favorite vegan meals to eat in batter is egg plant, feel free to try this if you vegan or vegetarian.

Sunday:

Supper: Chicken Tikka Masala with Traditional Potato Bake

Tips for this idea:

Potato Bake is a delicious way to end the week, as an adult I found that this is easier to make than I initially anticipated. It works well on its own as well, but for those who prefer a little extra protein, while the oven is on, spice your favorite protein and add it in the oven.

I hope this makes this week easier for you. If you feel like you this is something you need for the weeks ahead, please subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas for next week. ♥️