Allow me to present my argument for always roasting extra veggies….
Behold! The quinoa tempo bowl (from my cookbook of the year Run Fast Cook Fast Eat Slow).
It’s not too labor intensive to make on it’s own, but there are definitely a lot of parts to it. That said, busting out a quick 1-2 hours of prep on the weekend makes it totally reasonable to whip up on a weeknight.
The main components are tempeh, roasted veggies, quinoa and a (DEEEELICIOUS) cashew ginger sauce.
If you have the roasted veggies already made, you can set your rice cooker/pressure cooker to make the quinoa while you saute some tempeh and make the sauce.
I doubled the sauce so I’d have more for another meal later in the week.
My general philosophy is to double all sauce/dressing recipes because I usually want more than they account for (and in the off chance we don’t use it all up, it means I have a head start next time I’m making a meal!). I mean, if you are getting all the ingredients out and dirtying appliances already, why not just make it a double?
Leftover meal!
I’m glad I froze the leftover turkey from Christmas because we were a little sick of it back in December, but it was great to pull out now, a few weeks later.
We had a teeny tiny bit of jello leftover, but it wasn’t enough for everyone so I opened a can of cranberry jelly so that we would all feel the holiday vibes all over again. Why not? I knew the can of cranberry sauce would otherwise sit in the pantry until next year, so might as well go for it now. When I was little I detested the whole berry kind, but I think I prefer it to the pureed stuff these days. Ocean Spray for life.
I rounded things out with a green salad, roasted sweet potatoes, and lentil salad.
Now, in case you were wondering what I did with the rest of the jar of cranberry sauce, let me assure you it was actually a hot ticket item.
First, I used some to make Brie and cranberry puff pastry bites (because the fam went loco for the same ones I brought to a NYE party).
Second, I made BBQ sauce!
I used a recipe from the America’s Test Kitchen cookbook Just Add Sauce.
Half of which I used to coat this pork tenderloin (the other half I saved to put on it when we were eating).
Kyle grilled the tenderloin to perfection while I roasted veggies.
Very much a winner of a meal.
V kept asking for more steak 😉
And speaking of Miss V…here is her SPECIAL plate from a few days later. She tried out swimming class and got the special plate to celebrate her giving it a try (she LOVED it and can’t wait to go back next week). On the plate is leftover pork (aka “steak” haha), a slaw salad with Brianna’s poppyseed dressing, and those Brie and cranberry pasty puffs.
