Fitness or food, food or fitness - it's hard to decide which one we love more!!! There are few things more satisfying than a truly delicious meal... So why is it when we're at home, we're always looking through our pantries and thinking that WE HAVE NOTHING TO EAT!!
With just a dash of ingenuity and a pinch of creativity, however, we can cook up FIVE STAR MEALS with just what we've already got on hand! 🙌 💯
You've got this. Here are some of our favorites - all easy to whip together in no time at all!!!
1. Anything Enchiladas
Fact: If you put anything in a wrap, it's 1000% more delicious 😆. Here, we'll spice things up a bit with some uber-customizable enchiladas! We've also linked a recipe to simple chicken enchiladas, if that's more your style. You'll need:
- Enchilada sauce (If you don't have any on hand, you can make your own!)
- Tortillas
- Shredded or chopped vegetables or meat
- Toppings (think: avocado, cheese, cilantro, diced tomatoes, you name it!) 🥑
Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (or 175 Celsius). Literally whatever you have on hand would work as a good filler for these enchiladas: shredded pork, beef, or chicken, chopped chiles or bell peppers or mushrooms, black beans or rice - ANYTHING!!! This is TOTALLY your chance to transform leftovers into AMAZING comfort food if you so choose, just sayin'. 😉
To form the enchiladas, pour some enchilada sauce into the base of a baking dish. Then, fill one tortilla with a small dollop of your filler ingredients, wrap into a burrito, and place into the baking dish. Repeat with tortillas and filling until the baking dish is full; then cover with more enchilada sauce, toppings, and bake for about a half hour... if you can wait that long!!
2. Buddha Bowls
These DELICIOUS grain bowls are endlessly customizable because you can basically just follow some guidelines instead of specific recipes... which means that you can make them just as you please with whatever you happen to have!
To make a buddha bowl, you'll want to gather:
- Grain (think: rice, quinoa, couscous)
- Steamed or roasted veg: (peas, broccoli, or edamame)
- Raw veg: (cabbage, romaine, spinach, kale)
- TOPPINGS (avocado, salt, sesame seeds)
Layer in a bowl, then drizzle with any dressing you choose! Our favorites are carrot ginger dressing and lemon tahini dressing, but the world is your oyster!!! Even topping these bowls with a glug of olive oil, some salt and pepper, and a lil bit of lemon juice and hot sauce would be STELLAR!! 💫 😍
3. Vegan Rice Paper Rolls
Remember how anything in a wrap tastes better??? The same principle applies with these GORGEOUS spring rolls! The way the colors of the veggies peep through the transparent rice paper makes these rolls look just as good as they taste!!!
(Bonus: Don't have rice paper wraps? Saute your veggies in some olive oil, put them in a bowl with the rice noodles, and drizzle with the peanut sauce for a deish stir fry. YUM!!!)
The best part about rice paper rolls is that they're CRAZY simple to make. In fact, there are basically just three ingredients - rice paper, rice noodles, and whatever vegetables you have on hand - and three steps:
- Gather a variety of colorful vegetables and chop into fine sticks. 🌶 🥒
- Boil some thin rice noodles and chill.
- Assemble your spring rolls with rice paper wraps. Here's a quick video showing exactly how to wrap them easily!
ANY kind of roll-up could also work!! The dipping sauce is really where it's at!!
You can use any sauce you like...but. Can we recommend peanut sauce enough?!!?!? 🔥
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 tsp chili garlic sauce (or hot sauce or literally anything spicy)
- 1-2 tbsp maple syrup (or other sweetener, optional)
- 2-3 tbsp tamari (or soy sauce or coconut aminos)
- 2-3 tbsp lime juice
- salt and pepper to taste
- water to thin
Whisk it all up and you're golden!!
4. 2 Ingredient Pancakes 🥞
Whether it's a weekend morning tradition or you're craving breakfast for dinner, a hearty stack of pancakes NEVER fails to hit the spot!!! Here's our favorite low-ingredient pancake recipe!
Take one ripe mashed banana, two eggs, (we also added pinch of baking powder and a dash of vanilla)... and mix 'em all in a bowl. Once you have your batter, heat up a dab of coconut oil (or any cooking oil) in a pan. Once the oil is hot, pour 1/2 cup of batter in the pan.
When you see little bubbles around the edge of the pancake, it's ready to flip! Keep pouring and flipping until you're done with all of the batter. You'll have a whole stack of gluten-free, dairy-free pancakes that should be lightly sweet and incredibly fluffy!!!
Top them with fruit, syrup, butter, peanut butter, or just eat them as they are. 💛
5. Dal
Most of us have a random bag of lentils in the back of our pantries, right??? Let's cook up some Indian lentil stew, or dal, with just those lentils and a handful of spices!!! 🙌 🔥
To make dal:
- Boil one cup of lentils in three cups of water for thirty minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add spices!!! Traditionally, you'd use about a teaspoon each of cumin, garam masala, turmeric and coriander; but add what you have (taste as you go to figure out what you like!!), plus salt and pepper. (If you like hot sauce, add some of that in as well!)
You can eat dal on its on as a thick, comforting, and super filling meal; but adding tomatoes, onions, and cilantro or eating with a wedge of bread can round it out a bit and make it EVEN MORE delicious!!! 💫 ✌️
AAAHH, just THINKING about these dishes is making us hungry!!! We're off to raid our pantries to see what we can make (the possibilities!!!).
What do you think you'll try making first!?!?
