About 2-3 times a month one of my Mom friends (or Dad friend’s if they are the ones that do the majority of the cooking) will post a meme or a tweet or comment something about how we have to cook dinner every. single. night. And I’m silently sending them a Katniss salute of solidarity and admiration in return because I too feel the pain of trying to make dinner every. single. night. I kiss those three fingers and wave goodbye as I head into the abyss of the kitchen where I spend hours (seriously, sometimes hours) cooking for children who either wolf it down in less than five minutes or refuse to eat anything at all. Today I’ll share with you one of my favorite, quick and simple (seriously easy, my kids could make this!) recipes that everyone (mostly) eats – to make your life easier. I’m also going to include a bunch of pictures from my kitchen at home of food we love to eat because being inspired in the kitchen is a great way to break the monotony!
(Header picture is of roasted spiced Cauliflower and Yam with Tahini dressing, Cilantro and Pomegranates over rice)
On the road, I don’t have hours to prepare meals, and to be honest, I don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen anyways! There is so much more to do and explore, and I’m happy to whip up a quicker more painless meal. We don’t have a full oven in the RV so that also eliminates some of our choices. We have a tiny oven with one shelf that might fit a 9×9 pan (8 weeks into the trip I haven’t even used it once!) and 3 tiny gas elements on top. The cooking appliances that I chose to bring along and use most are;
- Instant Pot
- Gas powered Flat top Grill
- Kettle
- Rice Maker
- Espresso Maker
- Blender
About a month into our trip we also picked up a tiny toaster to add to our collection. Although I miss having a full oven at my disposal, (I really love roasted vegetables!) we’ve figured out which meals we can do without, and in a pinch, we can use the tiny one if need be.
This October marked 4 years since we started eating the majority of our foods as plant-based meals. In our family, we have both gluten and dairy intolerances. We were also dealing with eczema and psoriasis that flared with certain foods. Add sensory food sensitivity to the list and it just made sense to adjust our diet to fit our needs. When we moved to Salt Spring and started raising chickens we added eggs to our diet. One of my kids’ safe foods is yogurt and cheese so we have never eliminated those for him (and luckily he doesn’t need to be dairy free!), so while I wouldn’t say we are great at being Vegan (also – who can resist honey?!), we certainly tend to eat most of our meals plant-based (including condiments) and think of meat-as-a-treat when we are cooking for ourselves. When we go out or are being cooked for, we eat everything (except allergens) gratefully, so you can still invite us over for dinner!
So…what are our favorite foods, and why am I being so long-winded and annoying before getting to my recipe? Well, because the recipe itself is so stinking simple it’s not enough of a blog post on its own. So just keep reading, or scroll on – I’ll never know, so whatever you want to do is fine!
I personally like to have a rotation of 7-10 meals and just cook those over and over. When I get tired of making those, I choose a new lot. The beauty of doing this is twofold – I usually always have the ingredients I need on hand, and I save a lot of money by preplanning this way. Secondly, the kids are better eaters when the food is familiar. Some of the kids have trouble with new tastes, smells, and textures, so having a predictable meal rotation means they see and try something several times in a row. That meal then becomes safe, and if it doesn’t meet the cut then we don’t use it as much in rotation.
Here are 10 of our favorite meals currently in rotation during our trip:
- Stir Fry with cashews or almonds over rice noodles
- Spaghetti (added vegetables and lentils in the sauce, sometimes with vegan meatballs)
- Veggie Burgers / Hamburgers and salad
- Dahl with spinach, rice, and tortillas
- Mexican Beans with rice and corn chips
- Breakfast for dinner – eggs, hashbrowns, grilled veg. Sometimes with breakfast sausages. Sometimes as a McMuffin.
- Chickpea Coconut Curry stew
- Butter Chick-pea Curry with rice
- Beyond Meat Sausages with mashed potatoes and vegetables
- Fried rice with eggs and nori
- Also – a bonus: oatmeal bowls. We love oatmeal!
It hasn’t been cold enough yet to crave soups, stews or chili, but those would also be our go-to meals over winter and I’ll probably add some in as the weather feels consistently cooler.
The recipe I want to share with you today is Mexican Beans. It’s so easy, you’ve probably made a variation of this before and think why on earth I’m sharing something so un-original. Well, I’m sharing because we love it. It’s quick, easy, and cheap to make. I make it in large batches and then on nights that I don’t want to cook I just pull it out of the freezer – Voila! No cooking, and happy full kids.
Mexican Beans
I make mine in the instant pot. I’ve also used a crock-pot and an extra large frying pan. Use what you have, it doesn’t matter. Tonight I made a double batch, it feeds my family of 6 three times so if you have a smaller family (or smaller pan) just half the recipe. Here are the ingredients in order that you add them:
- Olive oil
- 1 large diced onion
- 4-5 carrots diced
- 4 celery sticks plus the leafy middles diced
- Garlic, as much as you like. I think I threw in 3-4 tablespoons? I don’t know.
- 3 17oz cans of Black beans
- 2 28oz cans diced tomatoes
- Salt. Add salt like your Grandma is coming and she has only a few tastebuds left.
- 3 packages of taco seasoning
- Rice – cook what your family would eat for one meal. We like long grain Basmati rice but pick your favorite kind. It doesn’t matter.
- Corn chips. Again, pick your favorite.
Add olive oil to the bottom of the Instant pot and hit Sauté mode. Throw in the diced onions while you cut up the other vegetables so they start turning translucent. Some caramelization is good. It’s yummy – go for it. But if you are in a hurry just throw the carrots and celery and garlic in. You want to have equal amounts of onion/celery/carrot and this applies to the beans as well. Slightly more beans are good. Slightly less is not, add another can. Don’t forget to drain and rinse your beans, you don’t want to add the bean juice. Bean juice is gross. The tomatoes are going to bring the liquid and form the sauce. Put them in next and then add the taco seasoning. If you like it less spicy, only add 2 packages. If you like it spicier, add more cayenne or chili powder. I don’t know the amounts – wing it.
Once everything is in, put the lid on and change the Instant pot setting to Manual, and set it for 12 min. If you are in a hurry and you sauteéd your vegetables for a while, go for 10 min. If you like your vegetables soft, try 15 minutes. I prefer the carrots to come out with a little firmness, especially since I freeze the meals for later and they tend to get softer after being frozen/thawed/reheated. If using a pan, cook until the vegetables are how you like them. If using a crockpot, give it 4-6 hours depending on your appliance. This recipe is forgiving, don’t overthink it.
After I turn the crock pot on I cook the rice. I bought this small rice cooker from the grocery store for $15.99 on sale. It only makes 6 cups but that’s exactly what my family eats per meal so it’s perfect. Plus it’s small and fits almost anywhere – perfect for the RV. (It will actually fit right inside my Instant pot!) If I want to make a big enough batch to have leftover rice I use my Instant pot.
This meal is versatile. We like to eat it over rice with corn chips. If you want to serve it with cheese or sour cream, go for it. If you want to put it into soft corn or flour tortillas that works. Try it as a breakfast burrito with a scrambled egg! Or bake it as a casserole mixed with pasta and cheese. Or top it with a fried egg. Have it with a side of cornbread instead of rice. It’s all good.
It’s also incredibly economical. When you are feeding a large family that also has food allergies (no dairy, no gluten) and sensory preferences, it’s great to be able to meal plan without breaking the bank. How much does it cost to make Mexican Beans? I broke it down for you (USA pricing as we are currently in the USA):
Canned diced tomatoes ($2.59 x 2), Black beans (on sale $4 for $5.00, I used 3 cans = $3.75), Taco seasoning (On sale for $1.00 each, I used 3 pkg), Vegetables (I buy in bulk and had onions, celery, carrots and garlic already on hand – probably cost around $2.50), Rice (the bag was $2.49 and we used half so $1.25), Corn chips ($3.99). Not including the rice, the meal cost $19.41 and made 3 batches for us. Add a new batch of rice per meal and it works out to a total of $7.72, or $1.29 per person.
An honest caveat – Julian doesn’t eat this. He doesn’t like sauce or spice. He’s four years old and particular about what he eats, so we break the meal down for him. He will eat the plain rice (with dairy free butter), corn chips, a peeled raw carrot and rinsed black beans with no seasoning if I sneak them to him while I’m cooking and they in no way end up in his dinner bowl and contaminate his white rice. So all in all I still count this as a winner of a meal that everyone eats becasue it’s super easy to modify to his preferences. I used to think that I would cook one meal and the kids could eat it or leave it, but my kids with sensory issues would rather go hungry and I simply choose not to punish them for something they can’t control, but I can.
Cole will usually cook on the grill / BBQ, but the rest of the meals generally are mine to plan and execute. (And, I generally plan the meals he cooks too!) It’s easy to get in a rut or not know what to make. I’m curious – how does it work in your house? Do you share cooking as a household chore? Do you cook meals in roation like me or have something new every night? We generally don’t eat out a lot, but ordering pizza every now and then is a nice break.
If you end up trying my Mexican beans, let me know! I hope you like it. And if you are primarily a carnivore, I hope you find some of these plant based recipes compelling too – they really are tasty!
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