While we are stuck amidst days of grey skies and (much-needed) rain here in Boston, I must admit the drab weather hasn’t helped my motivation to write about last week’s meals. They were all delicious, but I find my enthusiasm tapers just slightly when the weather decides to take a turn for the not-motivating. However, you don’t care about my feelings about the clouds so let’s push forward, shall we?

Last week included three awesome, meatless meals plus two incredible ones featuring my forever-favorite, meatballs. Whether you need to avoid meat or just choose to forgo it here and there, I strongly recommend all of these options for your next dinner. And if you’re seeking out one amazing Italian classic, then I’ve got that as well. Let’s get to the food!

Lamb Meatballs with Greek Salad and Roast Potatoes

One of my favorite ways to have “Greek food” at home is to create a plate with these specific flavors. Lamb meatballs are superb, if you ask me, and they pair perfectly with a simple cucumber/tomato/onion/feta salad. Sure, that would definitely be a sufficient dinner (don’t forget the yogurt sauce), but we decided to go over the top and add in roasted potatoes. Too. Good.

My favorite yogurt sauce for this dish, and many other mediterranean-inspired meals, is very quick to make. Simply mix together in a bowl one cup of Greek yogurt, the juice from one half of a lemon, salt and pepper to taste, plus a drizzle of olive oil. To make it even more flavorful, grate a clove or two of garlic in as well. This sauce is scrumptious on meatballs, as a dip for chips, or even as a sauce for roasted veggies. It’s versatile, flavorful, and easy to whip up. Sounds good to me!

Seth informed me that the trick to making these roast potatoes is to let them soak in cold water for about half an hour (cubed, skin-on) before patting them dry and roasting in the oven with olive oil, salt, and pepper. This prep method results in a crispy skin on the outside and a soft, pillowy potato on the inside. Absurdly delicious.

In terms of the meatballs, we frequently turn to this recipe from Half-Baked Harvest. It’s great!

Pinto Bean Burrito Bowls

What’s better than being able to recreate your favorite order from Chipotle in your own home? Not much! Burrito bowls are easy to prepare and can be as versatile as you need them to be. We opted for meatless in our version and it turned out to be excellent. Sure, I’d love a carnitas-filled burrito bowl, but that didn’t happen this time around. My cravings for dinners like these are often sudden so we had to create them with what we had in the fridge and cabinet. Joyfully, they were very delicious.

Our bowls had a base of greens, then topped with a scoop of Spanish Rice from Right Rice, pinto beans for protein, corn (frozen is fine) that was sautéed with peppers and onion, fresh cilantro, a dollop of sour cream, and slices of Fresno chiles. Yes, you would be correct in noticing a lack of guacamole. Whoops! We forgot to include it. A major oversight and a mistake we will never make again. ;)

Chickpea Caesar Salad with Homemade Dressing

We kept the meatless meal train going with another great option for an easy, but still very filling dinner: caesar salad! Instead of creating the salad with chicken or shrimp or steak (all amazing options in this type of salad), we decided on chickpeas. Don’t run away; they are a great protein choice for this dish. Chickpeas are way more than hummus and I find myself preferring them more often than not when serving meatless meals. Try them! You will like them a lot.

Our Caesar had a base of spinach, plenty of sliced avocado (this is a new-age Caesar), warm, slightly-crisp chickpeas, shaved Parmesan cheese, and homemade Caesar dressing (use store-bought mayo make it quickly). Oh, and croutons! This may be one of my best discoveries in the make-salad-quickly world.

We used a few handfuls of Aleia’s Plain Stuffing Mix, which is essentially plain cubes of crunchy “bread",” to serve as croutons in our salad. Low and behold, they worked perfectly! The texture and flavor is great in a Caesar salad and the crunch is much-needed amongst the greens, chickpeas, and avocado. Is this a life hack? Or just a dinner hack? Whatever it is, I’m glad I “discovered” it. Happy crunching!

Pasta with Garlic Scapes and Chickpeas

When you order a bulk amount of dry chickpeas, you must suddenly acknowledge you’ll be eating them a lot. And often. One “round” of soaking the dry chickpeas results in two massive portions which is just the right amount for two, separate dinners. Therefore, we had a third-in-a-row meatless meal, a second involving chickpeas, with this dish appearing on our plates. Ta da!

This was a fairly straightforward bowl of pasta with chickpeas, garlic scapes, and shallots. Nothing too crazy, but it was flavorful and filling, and that’s exactly what I need from a bowl of pasta. Yes, there are times when I ask more from my carbs, but on this particular night, the almost-bare-minimum worked quite well.

Cooking tips? I’d recommend slicing the garlic scapes smaller than we did. The flavor and texture is better when they are more bite-size. Add plenty of Parmesan! That should go without saying. And while I love a meatless meal, I admit this one would have been even better with something salty, such as bits of prosciutto or pancetta. ;)

Sausage and Kale Stir-fry with Snow Peas

And by Friday night, we brought back the meat! After a joyful cocktail hour on our balcony, it was eventually time to make dinner and so we settled on a savory bowl of goodness (my preferred way to begin a weekend). This is a sausage and kale stir-fry with snow peas served over jasmine rice, which you cannot see in this photo because I took a giant portion. I was also too carefree to use our professional camera, so this is an iPhone photo - surprise!

Savory stir-fries are a staple around here and with good reason: they are delicious, quick, easy, and always (most often) provide leftovers for the next day. I don’t often love leftovers for dinner, but I do adore them for lunch. I know, slightly ridiculous, but I am who I am.

We sliced raw shallots on top of our bowls and I do think it added a great, final crunch to the meal. We so often use cooked shallots in this type of meal so it was a fun change of pace to have them cold, and crunchy, as a garnish. If you’re not a fan of sausage, I’d recommend using ground pork or beef for this specific dish. If you don’t like kale, then I’d suggest spinach, broccoli, mixed greens, or asparagus (in season). Make it your own!

Turkey Meatballs and Tagliatelle Pasta

Admittedly, our Saturday night dinner was not worthy of a photo because it consisted of eating potatoes on the couch. No joke! We had a late-afternoon ice cream break which led to us not being hungry enough for a real dinner. Eventually, we were hungry, so Seth made those roasted potatoes (the ones from the first meal above) while we watched Somebody Feed Phil on Netflix. Yes, this is our life. Welcome.

The potatoes. Too good. Make them for your next Saturday night.

Sunday night was rainy and chilly so we made the quintessential Sunday night dinner: spaghetti and meatballs! I looked through old meal reviews and the last time we made this dinner was another rainy night. See? It’s a classic for a reason.

We opted for turkey meatballs because we had ground turkey available and I like it for a slightly lighter-tasting meatball. There’s a time and place for beef, but this evening wasn’t it.

Our meatballs included GF Italian breadcrumbs soaked in milk, one egg, a little olive oil, salt, oregano, and a pinch of garlic powder. I’m telling you, those breadcrumbs soaked in milk made them amazing! And, as I’m learning, do not over-mix the meatball mixture; the result is a much better (not tough) meatball out of the oven. We cooked them for 15 minutes at 425 degrees and then a few minutes under the broiler. Perfection!

Our secret for quick, but awesome, tomato sauce these days is to use a jar of Rao’s Homemade Basil Marinara, and add extra garlic and onion, which makes it even more superb for jar-sauce. We tossed the sauce with Jovial Foods tagliatelle (egg noodles) which is wider than spaghetti, and was so scrumptious for this meal.

A sprinkle of fresh basil and a hearty shower of Parmesan topped our bowls which I deemed “spectacular” and now I am already craving them again. Meatballs are one of my forever-favorite meals and when you add in pasta and scrumptious red sauce, well, you really can’t go wrong. #ultimatecomfortfood.

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Enjoy!

Mollie and Seth

Meatballs Bookend A Trio of Meatless Meals (Week 15)