A Few Easy & Tasty Winter Weekday Meal Ideas

As I'm spending most of my summer break at home, I started cooking a ton and have found a few new favorite recipes that I wanted to share! I'm not super great at writing up recipes, so I'll just give an overview of ingredients and basic steps: these are all super simple and very hard to mess up! I hope you love them!

Porridge with banana, coconut, and super seeds

• Rolled oats
• Plant-based milk (I like a mix of almond & coconut)
• Tinned coconut milk
• Coconut oil
• Banana, sliced
• Optional: chia seeds, flax seeds, fresh berries, almonds

I've gone a week with this for breakfast every single day, and never get sick of it! I put 1/2 cup of oats, 1 cup of milk, a splash of tinned coconut milk and half the sliced banana in a saucepan and heat it over medium flame for about 5 minutes (add chia/flax if you want here). Then add a tablespoon of coconut oil, and cook for a further 5 minutes. Once it's your ideal consistency, serve it up with the rest of the banana, and any other fruit or nuts on top!

Italian seasoned sweet potato chips

• Sweet potato (I can happily eat one sweet potato, so maybe one per person)
• Olive oil
• Italian herbs (Moroccan herbs are also great)

This one is definitely the easiest of the bunch, it takes literally 3 minutes to get started. Preheat the oven to about 170 celsius. Peel and chop up the potatoes. I like wedges but also enjoy round slices. Then just pop them in a lined pan with olive oil and herbs, make sure everything's evenly coated, and pop in the oven. Turn halfway through cooking, and when they're a little bit crispy, they're ready to enjoy!

Brown rice burrito bowl with fresh guacamole

• Rice (I like brown rice)
• Black beans
• Garlic
• Avocado
• Fresh coriander/cilantro
• Fresh tomato
• Lime juice

I was super hungry last week and threw this together to satisfy all my cravings. It's so great! Start by putting the rice on to cook, it will be ready when it's nice and fluffy! To make the guac, just mash the avocado in a bowl, add as much chopped tomato as you want, some lime juice, and about one clove of crushed garlic. Combine the black beans with 2 cloves of crushed garlic, and put it in a pan to heat up for about five minutes, stirring frequently. When everything's ready just pop it all in a bowl and you're good to go! (Pictured with some homemade tortilla chips: super easy too! Just chop up tortillas and drizzle with olive oil, bake in the oven until crisp!)

Cozy pesto pasta

• One serve of pasta (I love brown rice or quinoa spirals)
• About 1/2 cup of basil
• About 1 cup of fresh spinach
• Small handful of pine nuts or cashews
• Olive oil
• Lemon juice
• More fresh spinach (or rocket/arugula, for serving)
• Fresh tomatoes
• Optional: cheese (vegan or regular, whatever you prefer)

Definitely my go-to comfort food, I love this so much! Pop your pasta on to cook with a pinch of salt. While it cooks, combine the basil, spinach and nuts in a food processor with approx. 1/2 cup olive oil and about 1 tbsp of lemon juice. Add less/more olive oil depending on the consistency you're after. Then just stir the pesto into the cooked pasta, add some fresh spinach leaves and fresh tomato and it's all done! Top with cheese if you like. Perfect for a night in front of the TV.