Weeknights can be tough when it comes to having a meal ready at the end of the day! After a long day at work followed by a workout at the gym, it can be tempting to come home and order takeout or grab whatever is nearby, rather than cooking a meal. Here are 10 healthy and easy meals full of fall flavor that you can pull together with minimal effort.
Want to make it even easier? Chop your veggies over the weekend, so they’re in the fridge, ready to go. You can pull them out in a moment’s notice and whip up one of these simple dishes!
- Creamy Cauliflower Soup from The Movement Menu
Creamy, smooth, and with enough spices and flavoring that you’ll likely not even know you’re getting a hefty serving of vegetables! Need some meat in your dish? Top with cooked bacon or pancetta to add a little salty flavoring to it. This recipe calls for putting the soup in a Vitamix or other high-powered blender, but I’m personally a huge fan of the immersion blender. It’s a fraction of the cost, and you can stick it right in the pot until the soup is smooth!
2. One Pot Paleo Sausage and Slaw Skillet from Fox and Briar
You can bet that anything that starts with ‘one pot’ is the perfect weeknight meal. It translates to easy prep and low clean up, which is what we all want after a busy day.
3. Sweet Potato Noodle Lo Mein from Paleo Running Mama
Feeling an asian-inspired dish? This sweet potato noodle lo-mein takes the heavy pasta out of the dish and replaces it with sweet potatoes cut into “noodles,” which can make you feel like you’re eating the real thing (and make you feel a whole lot better afterwards!)
4. Quick and Easy Quinoa with Avocado Dressing from Economical Chef
Quinoa is gluten-free, cooks super fast, and can take on pretty much whatever flavor you want it to. Want to add an extra punch of flavor and nutrients? Try using broth instead of water! Want to add a protein to the meal? Try serving it with…
5. Lemon and Herb Roasted Chicken from Lemon Blossoms
Such a simple and flavorful combo. She wants you to marinate for 2-12 hours, but in case you forget, or are just too lazy, it’s really ok. I think just cooking it with the lemon and herbs alone will still be delicious!
6. Chorizo, Kale, and Sweet Potato Stew from From a Chef’s Kitchen
You had me at chorizo and sweet potato. The perfect combo of spicy and sweet. And you probably won’t even notice the kale, but it’s still there to pack an extra punch for you nutrient-wise.
7. Pumpkin Turkey Chili from Paleo Scaleo
The best meals are the ones you throw in the crockpot before you leave for work, and come home to a meal that’s ready to be served and eaten right then and there. This pumpkin turkey chili is loaded with veggies, and doesn’t really taste like pumpkin – it’s used more as a thickener than as flavoring. Yum!
8. Chicken Pot Pie Soup from Jay’s Baking Me Crazy
Comfort foods like chicken pot pie can be easy to miss when you’re trying to eat healthy and not wrap your meal in a pie crust or biscuit dough. This chicken pot pie soup brings in all the comforting flavors of that pot pie without all the bread. Win-win.
9. Instant Pot Mexican Stuffed Sweet Potatoes from 40 Aprons
Can we hear it for the Instant Pot? I mean, really, could our lives be made any easier by an appliance? It does it all. And if you don’t have one, that’s ok – the recipe includes alternative instructions as well, so you don’t have to miss out on this beautiful little twist on Mexican food.
10. Green Pepper and Almond Pesto Zoodles with Chicken from Perchance to Cook
Zoodles. They make life so easy, and get dinner on the table so quickly. Pre-cook your chicken over the weekend. Then spiralize your zucchini, sautee them together in a pan for just a few minutes, add some sauce, and dinner is done.
