What’s For Dinner Wednesday (4 More Meal Ideas)
How is it Wednesday already?! It’s been a weird week around here, since we got back into town on Sunday night (Bjorn had had army training at Fort Knox for a week, and Sophie and I were in the Twin Cities that week, helping my mom after she broke her arm). And then Tuesday was a snow day (the 6th or 7th one this year?!) and we had a 2-hour late start this morning. Whew! Anyway, it’s high time to get back into routines around here, and one of my favorite weekly things to do is to get our What’s For Dinner Wednesday post up!
If you missed it, this is a relatively new series on the blog that started because I feel like I’m constantly looking for nice, easy meals to make!
You can catch up on meal ideas from the past 3 weeks here:
What’s For Dinner Wednesday (4 Simple Meal Ideas)
What’s For Dinner Wednesday (5 More Meal Ideas)
What’s For Dinner Wednesday (3 More Meal Ideas)
I think each of us appreciates some fresh ideas now and then, so hopefully this post will be inspiring to you!
** Note: The meals I’m sharing for “What’s For Dinner Wednesday” aren’t ALL of the exact recipes I’ll be making that week, although I’ll make sure to include some of the meals in my weekly meal plan amongst the recipes in the list. 🙂 Enjoy!
Delicious Turkey Cucumber Sandwich:
I got this idea from Caitlyn Neier, who I follow on YouTube, and when I shared my version of the sandwich over on Instagram, I was surprised by all of the comments I got! So I figured I’d share it again here with you all. It’s so easy and really, really good. I’ve made it at least three times now and I’ve loved it just as much every time!
Ingredients:
2 slices of bread
Laughing Cow cheese (I use 2 wedges of it)
mayo (optional)
cucumber slices (I recently tried peeling my cucumbers before slicing them, and it makes sandwiches a lot better!)
deli turkey meat
Trader Joe’s Everything But The Bagel Sesame Seasoning Blend
Directions:
Spread the Laughing Cow cheese on the slices of bread. You can also spread mayo, if you’d like. Caitlyn recommends the “Just Mayo” brand. Layer turkey onto the bread, then top with a lot of cucumber slices! Sprinkle it with the Everything But The Bagel seasoning (or black pepper with onion powder), and enjoy! It’s so fresh and delicious!
Hearty Stuffed Spaghetti Squash:
This is a recipe I came up with back in 2015 and it’s still my favorite way to prepare spaghetti squash! It’s a great way to make spaghetti squash more of a filling meal. The full blog post is here if you want to pin it for later, but I’ll still share the recipe below.
Ingredients:
2 spaghetti squash
1 lb. ground turkey
1 clove minced garlic
1 can diced tomatoes
Salt
Pepper
1 can Great Northern (or black or cannellini) beans, drained
Parmesan cheese
Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cut spaghetti squash in half length-wise. Scrape out seeds. Fill a 9×13 pan or baking dish with about an inch of water (this will help “steam” the squash a bit in the oven). Rub cut sides of squash with olive oil, and lay squash cut side down in baking pan. (If your squash are quite large, then you will need 2 pans.) Bake squash for 25 minutes. Meanwhile… Brown the turkey, draining any fat. Add minced garlic to the turkey and cook during the last 1-2 minutes. In a medium bowl, combine turkey with the can of beans and can of diced tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Remove squash from oven. CAREFULLY flip the squash over so the cut side is up. Fill squash with turkey and bean mixture. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese generously over mixture (about 1 Tablespoon per squash half). Pop back in the oven for another 20 minutes.
To serve, add more Parmesan cheese on top. You can serve each person their own squash half (which is prettier), or you can scrape all of the squash and filling out and serve in a large bowl. Either way, it’s super good! Enjoy!
Our FAVORITE Red Thai Curry:
This is both Bjorn’s and my favorite go-to curry recipe. We love Thai food and we love curry. This is a great way to have yummy curry at home! It’s from Chicilicious and it’s a pretty flexible recipe. Add more chicken if you’d like, toss in an extra diced bell pepper, more or less curry paste, etc. etc. I always just taste the sauce at the end and decide if I need to either add more soy sauce/fish sauce for saltiness, more red curry paste for heat, or more white sugar for more sweetness. 🙂
Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts (but sometimes I cook up more)
2 Tablespoons Thai red curry paste
2 tsp. oil
4 slices fresh ginger, minced
1/2 onion, diced or sliced thinly
1 clove minced garlic
1/2 red bell pepper (I do 1), sliced thinly
1/2 green bell pepper (I do 1), sliced thinly
1-2 carrots, diced or sliced thinly
1 1/2 Tablespoons white sugar
1 Tablespoon fish sauce (but soy sauce works fine, too)
1/2 can coconut milk (I often just do one whole can, especially if I’ve upped the chicken and veggies anyway)
fresh basil leaves, optional
rice, prepared
Directions:
Cut the chicken breast into thin strips and season with salt and pepper, set aside. Have all your vegetables ready: slice the onions, ginger, peppers and carrots thinly. Mince the garlic. Set aside.
In your wok or non stick pan, heat up the oil on medium high and add the chicken. Cook for 2 minutes just to get a nice sear on them but not fully cooked. (I actually cook my chicken basically all the way, just for peace of mind – and it turns out fine.) Add the ginger, garlic and the vegetables and fry for another minute, add the Thai red curry paste and sugar. After 1 minute, add the coconut milk and the fish sauce. Taste and adjust if needed. You can add a splash of water or stock if it’s a bit thick. If you want it to be a bit spicier add more red curry paste. Turn off the heat and add the basil leaves. Serve with white rice.
Greek Quinoa Bowls:
I came across this recipe a long time ago, on a blog called Peas & Crayons. It’s a vegetarian recipe but still pretty filling, if you dish yourself up a good amount. 🙂 I think adding some rotisserie chicken on the side could be really good, too! This is a great lunch recipe to take to work as well.
Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa (or more, if desired)
water
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2-3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
1-2 Tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
Hummus
Pita bread wedges
cherry tomatoes
sliced avocado, optional
olives, optional
lemon wedges, optional
Directions:
Cook 1 cup quinoa with water, according to directions on package. (You can make even more quinoa if you’d like.) While the quinoa cooks, chop and prep the bell peppers and parsley, and whisk together your dressing ingredients in a small bowl. Snag your now-fluffy quinoa from the pot and give it a little fluff with a fork. For a chilled salad, you can pop the quinoa in the fridge for a few minutes prior to adding your veggies or simply let it cool on the countertop for a few minutes for a room temperature quinoa bowl. For the super simple vinaigrette, whisk together the olive oil, apple cider vinegar, salt, and pepper. Pour over your quinoa bowl and toss with a pair of forks or salad servers. Add any additional salt and pepper to taste, if desired. Serve quinoa bowls with pita bread, hummus, cherry tomatoes, and also olives, avocado, and lemon wedges, if desired.
There you have it! Be sure to follow Just Bee on Instagram and Facebook so you can stay up to date! 🙂 Thanks for reading along!
What’s a go-to fun meal idea in your household? I’d LOVE to hear!! 🙂