#familyfriendly #healthyeating #meals I know we all need a little inspiration when it comes to our weekly family meals so today I’m sharing realistic and easy meals that use all the basics: chicken, beef, salmon, and veggies!
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[Music] this week I’m going to take you guys through some of our week and I’m going to show you some weekly family meal ideas so we’ve got chicken we’ve got beef we’ve got salmon and a lot of different sides and things to show you how to pull together just an easy family meal and these are really realistic for us it’s what we really eat every week so I’m going to take you through some of our days and show you some of my favorite things that I cooked up this week if you’re new I’m Elizabeth thanks so much for watching this video and I hope it really gives you some good inspiration for your family so let’s get started whenever I’m cooking a meal I always think about what I need to start first so for this meal I needed to start my rice first so I’m cooking a little bit of Jasmine brown rice I just rinse it real quick and then instead of cooking it in just water I cook it in either bone broth or vegetable broth and throw in a bay leaf and a little bit of salt and I’ll just put that on the stove to simmer so that way it’s already ready to go and I can have that kind of done and out of the way before I start on the next item which are some really easy just sheet pan ground beef meatballs and I’m going to make them have a little more flavor by adding in some Greek seasoning you can either make this just in a mixing bowl and mix it with a wooden spoon or a fork but I’m going to put it in the food processor cuz honestly it just makes it really easy to get the onion and everything kind of just like broken down quickly and combined so I have in there a sweet onion and then a bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley and then I’m adding in a little bit of Greek seasoning you can use any kind of Greek seasoning or Italian seasoning I can link the one I use down below just so you can see what’s in it and then plenty of salt and pepper that way they have good flavor and I’m not using using beef that’s extremely lean either I’m using kind of a fattier ground beef that way they stay nice and moist when they’re cooking in the oven so I’m just going to add all my ingredients in there my salt my pepper I also added in one clove of garlic and then I just scraped it down a few times and pulsed it together and then I’m going to use a mini ice cream scooper that way I can make sure all the meatballs are the same size and that they’re going to cook evenly in the oven so that they’re all done around the same time so I’ll just use that scooper and place them on a parchment line baking sheet these are my favorite baking sheets they have the ridges in it and they are made of aluminum so to keep it from touching my food and coming into contact I usually will use a sheet of unbleached parchment paper and that just helps your food not to absorb all that aluminum because it can lead to other health issue issues so I just use that frequently and then I’m just going to roll them a little bit with my hand that way they’re in nice shape and then I’ll put these into my preheated oven around 375 or 400° [Music] I love it when the meatballs get a little bit Brown on the top and bottom so this is optional but I like to spray it with a little bit of avocado oil spray I usually get the chosen brand one you can find them at Costco and they’re really affordable so I’ll just spray the tops and the bottom of that and then my rice was done so I just remove the lid and let it sit on the stove without touching it that way all the steam evaporates and I can fluff it and it’ll be really nice and fluffy instead of kind of falling apart so now I put my meatballs in the oven and they’re going to cook for about 15 minutes and my rice is done and cooling so I’ll just fluff that up and now while that’s baking I’m going to go ahead and put together a little quick chickpea salad just really simple to keep on hand in the fridge during summer time so I have two cans of rinsed and drained chickpeas along with a little bit of date syrup balsamic vinegar olive oil and that kind of makes a quick little balsamic glaze I’ve been doing that a lot lately and then I’ll just do salt and pepper and and I’ll also pull some fresh basil from the garden just to give it more flavor and then I’ll cut up some sweet onion just into little chunks kind of like you would with a Greek salad and then I’ll do the same thing with an heirloom tomato that I picked up from my Farmer Market I’m just going to either roughly chop it or just cut it into big wedges cuz it’ll kind of marinate and become really delicious and it’s supposed to be a chunkier salad then I have a cucumber that I’m just quartering and slicing up into little bite-sized pieces and then at the end after I toss that all together I’m going to add in little mozzarella pearls so these are little tiny balls or if you can’t find them you can just use a big ball of mozzarella and cut it up or you could even use a chunk of mozzarella that’s like in a rectangle and just cut those into bite-sized chunks and it goes really well with the [Music] chickpeas having quick salads like this just in my fridge anytime is one of the biggest ways to stay healthy I feel like if I always have a salad in the fridge no matter what meal it is sometimes even for breakfast if I can’t figure out what I’m want to make or what I’m kind of craving then I’ll just take whatever is in the fridge so if I already have things like healthy meatballs and rice or salads made it just makes every single meal that much easier so once my rice was cooled and ready to go I just fluff that with a fork and I’m going to serve that with the meatballs and the side salad of chickpeas and onions and tomato and this is just a really good kind of Mediterranean spice inspired meal and is delicious everyone in the family loves this kind of meal you could even turn it into a bowl and put the rice as the base and then the meatballs and top it with the salad that would kind of be delicious too but I love this it’s just fresh and you have all your major food groups fiber and protein and this is just one of my favorite just easy go-to meals [Music] okay if you hear screaming it’s because the kids are outside playing in the sprinkler right now so now is a good time to get dinner started it’s going to be really easy and simple tonight I just have some veggies that I have from the farmers market that need to be used up so I’m going to cook that and then I have a little bit of chicken in the fridge that I’m also just going to roast on a sheet pan so really simple so I picked up this beautiful yellow cauliflower from the farmers market and I just trimmed off a little bit of the specks that were starting to get a little brown and everything else is fine on this so I’m not worried about that I do that all the time and then I have two fresh things of broccoli here but I’ll probably only use one of them I don’t think we’ll need that much I think between the whole cauliflower and one head of broccoli we should be good I’m already preting my oven so I put it at 42 five and I’m going to cook it on two different racks here so I’ll put the chicken on the bottom and then the veggies on top so they can get a little more Brown that’s one of the reasons I love this air fryer it has two levels on it so I can cook a big family dinner no problem so I’m going to do that and then I’ll get this all in the oven roasting and that’s when I’ll make the sauce [Music] this is my standard way of roasting vegetables and depending on the vegetable I’ll raise or lower the temperature but other than that I do it the same way so I’ll cut everything up into around the same size and put that on my parchment line baking sheet drizzle it with lots of avocado oil and then I love to take a big bulb of garlic and cut that in half cut the top off and then I’ll drizzle that with avocado oil and sprinkle everything with salt pepper and sometimes I’ll even do garlic and onion powder it just kind of depends on what I’m doing that day and massage it in really well and then at the end after everything’s nice and brown and caramelize and crispy I’ll squeeze out that garlic and it makes this most delicious like roasted garlic paste that you can toss the veggies in so really delicious and I highly recommend it now for the chicken I just have some thin sliced organic grass-fed or not grass-fed Freer ranged chicken breast and I’m going to salt that and pepper it and then sprinkle a little bit more of Greek seasoning again just cuz I have it on hand and it’s really yummy so I’m just going to sprinkle that over the top and do avocado oil and that will go in the same oven while those veggies are roasting [Music] this is optional but sometimes I like to combine my fats and so I’ve already put a little bit of avocado oil but then I’m also adding a little bit of ghee or you could just use some butter and that just adds even more flavor and then I also took a lemon and cut that into big wedges and I’m going to let that cook too because then all that lemon juice goes over the chicken and it just turns into the most delicious kind of roasted garlicky lemony chicken now to go with all of that I’m going to make a homade little garlic aoli type sauce but I’m going to add in some fresh basil too that way we have a dipping sauce to go with the chicken in the veggies now for this I do like using the food processor but you could also use like an immersion blender or even just a regular blender and in there I’m just putting some avocado oil mayo or you could use sour cream sometimes I’ll use cultured sour cream along with two to three of those roasted garlic cloves or just normal garlic cloves work too and then a little dash of avocado oil and lemon juice salt and pepper and then optional you can add in that handful of fresh basil but it really gives such a brightness and like a really nice Herby flavor especially to the veggies so I just pulse that all together until it’s a nice creamy sauce and you can just drizzle it over everything or just have a little sauce on the side to dip and I think sometimes adding the extra thing of making a sauce or dressing just really makes your meal feel special and gives it a lot of flavor especially when you’re cooking with basic Whole [Music] Foods to kind of complete the meal tonight I just took that chicken and sliced it up along with the veggies and drizzle the sauce over the top and then I had some leftover brown rice with the bone broth so I just put some of that rice on the side and this was a perfect week night [Music] meal next I’m starting out by making a really simple all-purpose marinade that I use for chicken and I use for fish especially salmon which is what I’m using it for today the base of it is coconut aminos and I like the Tangy barbecue one it just has a slightly different flavor but you could use regular coconut aminos or even Liquid Aminos or soy sauce and then I add in some raw honey avocado oil um Worster sauce and then I like to do paprika garlic powder salt and pepper so kind of just like house seasoning and this is a fantastic marinade you can just soak anything in it or you can add in a little spatch of sriracha or garlic you could put a couple garlic cloves in there it’s really easy to make any kind of flavor you want out of this base then I’m just taking a big fillet of wild CAU salmon and I’m using my scissors to cut through the skin and make fillets that way each person has a nice little piece and it’s easier to grill fillets versus one whole piece so I’m just going to put that on my parchment line baking sheet and I drizzle all of that glaze or marinade that we just made over it but then the trick is to turn them over I like to use tongs for this that way the meaty side is really getting in that marinade and it’s not just the skin side that’s kind of just sitting there in it but that way the meat can really absorb it I know for me my meals usually revolve around some sort of protein so here’s your reminder to pull out some chicken or beef from your freezer and I just keep mine in a bowl in the fridge that way I always have something that I can just throw together really quickly and it makes everything easier when the meat is already ready to go now I have my meat that’s been marinating for a few hours and I use tongs and a stainless steel spatula that way I can Grill it really easily and I’m going to try grilling it today which has been my favorite way to make salmon lately instead of just air frying it or something just putting it on the grill gives it amazing flavor and it’s not as hard as you would think at all it’s actually really easy so to grill the salmon I’m grilling mine on my big green egg all I do is I oil the grates and clean them first I’ll use avocado oil and just a big brush and I’ll get that Grill preheated to about 375 or 400 and then I place the salmon skinside down directly on the grates that have been oiled then I just close the lid and I’ll cook the salmon for about 4 to 5 minutes on the first side that has the skin down then I’ll flip it with my either tongs or my spatula and Grill it for just about three maybe 4 minutes on the other side until the salmon reaches about 145° and you can also rotate it just like 90° to the side halfway through cooking that way you get those beautiful kind of cross-hatch grill marks and it just makes it so flavorful and it’s actually incredibly to grill salmon so don’t be afraid it’s a pretty hearty fish and can handle it now to go with it I threw together a simple kind of like French style potato salad so it has a vinegret as opposed to like a creamy dressing and it was actually a little bit odd tasting it had pickles and herbs and I planned to share it but it just didn’t turn out as good as I thought it was going to be so I’m not going to share the exact recipe for that but you can kind of get an idea I think it was better after I added a little extra olive oil to it to kind of thin out the dressing but it was pretty flavorful it had a lot of mustard and herbs in it and it still went well with the salmon it was just like a little bit off so I’m not going to share that recipe but other than that all of these meals were delicious and I hope that you guys and your families all enjoy them [Music] [Music]