Meal Prep Monday: The use it up edition.

Welcome to my new series called Meal Prep Monday where I share all of the food I’m making for the week. Because I am well and truly over spending my time and energy making dinner each night, only to have to make something else for my kids.

If I had to choose a theme for this week, it would be “use it up”. Which is always a good theme to go with, both in and out of the kitchen.

If I had to choose a second theme, it would be lentils because that’s what I have the most of to use up. Why, you might ask? Because I mistakenly thought I didn’t have any lentils, so bought a bag of lentils at the store last week, only to discover that I did, in fact, already have an unopened bag of lentils in the pantry. And then discovered another unopened bag of lentils in the pantry while looking for something else.

If you’re keeping score at home, that’s 3 unopened bags of lentils.

After finding the third bag of lentils, I knew I had to add some lentil-based recipes to the menu. I also had some strawberries that were starting to go bad and needed to be used up, a bag of broccoli that had maybe a day left in it, and 4 large bananas that were turning various stages of brown.

The following recipes are the result of needing to use it all up.

Firecracker Chicken from Kinda Healthy Recipes

What I made for the week:

Lentil Brownies from Power Hungry — I brought back Secret Ingredient Day™ just so I could make these and torture my family with them. Everyone tried one and everyone had opinions. Both good and bad. The Little and I were on Team These Are Good! The Husband was on Team It’s Okay (he’s not a big chocolate guy). And The Big was on Team OMGWHATISTHIS?! And not a single person guessed that the secret ingredient was lentils.
Black Bean Burgers — This is a recipe I’ve been making for years and it happens to be one of The Big’s absolute favorite meals. I always try to have them on hand for her, so when I saw that we were out, I knew a restock was a must.
Mediterranean Lentil Soup from Betty Flavors — Apparently most people eat lentils in soup form. This one sounded interesting, so I went for it. I am a little nervous now, though, because the whole website looks like AI and that makes me equal parts annoyed and nervous. Fingers crossed this one is legit.
Lentil Bolognese from The Plant Based School — Another one for the lentils. I’m kind of excited for this one. But only kinda, because mushrooms and I aren’t the bestest of friends. But I’m hopeful it’s a good one because it makes a lot. I’ve already portioned it out and placed some in the freezer since I’m confident the kids won’t eat it.
Firecracker Ground Chicken from Kinda Healthy Recipes — This is definitely my new favorite meal. I’ve made it once already and liked it so much that I had it for lunch and dinner one day. When I found another pound of ground chicken in the freezer, I knew it was meant for this.
Broccoli Rice Casserole from Spend With Pennies — This one was for the husband. We had some broccoli going bad and no idea what to use it for. It makes a lot, which can be good or bad depending on how many people are eating it. The hubs gave it a thumbs up and ate as much of it as he could. Poor guy was on his own with this one. 😂
Banana Bread (an OG favorite) — When life gives you brown bananas, make this banana bread. This is always a crowd pleaser and uses up lots of bananas.
Strawberry Oat Bars (another OG favorite that I haven’t made in ages!) — for some reason, the strawberries I bought for this week were already starting to go bad. Instead of wasting a giant container of strawberries, I pulled out this recipe from the archives. We had just enough strawberries and I am truly sad I won’t be able to partake in this one. Stupid gluten intolerance.
Sheet Pan Aloo Gobi from Weight Watchers — We had a head of cauliflower that was begging to be used and some potatoes that only had so much longer to live. Sheet Pan Aloo Gobi it is! I do think this dish is always better days two and three, and benefits from being pan fried to get extra crispy. I’ll probably pair some with eggs for breakfast one or two days this week.