Welcome to our Early Spring Family Meal Plan n°2 ! If you’re looking for fresh meal inspiration this season, you’re in the right place! In this week’s video, we’re sharing what our family really eats—simple, nourishing meals with plenty of gluten and dairy free options to suit a variety of needs. Whether you’re meal planning for the week or just need a few new ideas, we’ve got you covered.
In this week’s meal plan, there are four meals, some have those fresh flavours of spring we all enjoy, while others are cosy and warming for those evenings that are still cool and crisp. I have also included some bread recipes that we enjoyed eating this week, as well as a special birthday cake I made for a friend. Let me know which recipes you try!
See me cook these recipe’s in this week’s video!
Recipes included in this week’s video:
- Salmon and Asparagus Quiche with sourdough shortcrust pastry
- Pork Shank Goulash
- Ground Beef Chili
- Honey Mustard Chicken Thighs
- Cinnamon and Cardamom Rolls
- Garlic Herb Bread Knots
- Chocolate Cake
Early Spring Family Meal Plan, Dish n°1: Salmon and Asparagus Quiche
This dish is the epitome of spring. With delicious pink salmon and bright green asparagus, this quiche brings the colours and flavours of the season to the table. Homemade Sourdough Shortcrust Pastry brings it to another level and is a lot easier to make than it sounds!
Get the full recipe here!
Serve with a crisp, green salad or (my favourite) carrot salad, and you have the perfect light evening meal!
To make this meal dairy free, I simple whipped up a crustless quiche (basically an oven-cooked omelette) with some of the salmon and egg. I baked it in the oven at 180°C for about 10 mins. You could also add some asparagus to the crustless quiche, but my boys don’t enjoy it very much so I left it out this time.
Early Spring Family Meal Plan, Dish n°2: Pork Goulash
In the video, I made this with a pork shank. While not totally successful, it was still delicious! If you want to make a goulash, try this recipe for Autumn Pork Goulash Stew Recipe. Instead of the onion squash use a 400g tin of white beans.
We love to eat this kind of stew until the weather gets really hot, so it still features on our spring menu. When we get to July and August, we won’t want to be eating stews any more, so we are enjoying them while we can!
Early Spring Family Meal Plan, Dish n°3: Ground Beef Chili
This is one of our favourite meals, and we make it year-round! We enjoy topping it with avocado mashed with salt and lime juice, a quick tomato salad with coriander, sauerkraut, crème fraîche and grated cheddar. We always serve it with rice to make it go a bit further – an important money saving tip for our large, hungry family!
Get the recipe here!
Early Spring Meal Plan, Dish n°4: Honey and Mustard Chicken
I don’t have a full recipe for you for this meal, I made it up as I went along. Here are some approximate details for you 😉 Having said that, it was such a hit that I think I will be working on an ‘official’ recipe, so keep you eye out for it on the blog soon!
Ingredients:
- 6-8 chicken thighs, skin on, bone in
- 2 onions
- 4 carrots
- 1 tsp thyme
- salt
- 2 tbsp dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp honey
- 4-6 tbsp crème fraîche
Preheat the oven to 180°C fan. Fry the chicken thighs on both sides, sprinkle with 1 tsp salt. Remove the chicken from the pan and add the onions and carrots. Fry gently until softened. Return the chicken to the pan and pour enough water in the pan to come up about half way. Cook in the preheated oven for about 40 mins or until cooked thoroughly and nicely browned. Check the internal temperature of the chicken if you’re not sure it’s cooked – it should be at 74°C when fully cooked.
Remove the chicken from the pan, remove some of the liquid if you need some that is dairy free. Add the mustard, honey and cream. Salt to taste. Return the chicken to the sauce, and bring the sauce to a gentle boil for a couple of minutes.
Serve with mashed potato and green beans.
The dairy free option for this meal consists of removing some of the chicken and a little bit of sauce before adding the cream. You can remove the sauce before or after adding the mustard and honey, it’s up to you.
Easy, Delicious Chocolate Cake
This is our absolute favourite chocolate cake recipe and it is super easy to make! Check out the recipe here if you want to give it a go! It can easily be made gluten and dairy free too!
We love it on it’s own, but it is also excellent with a raspberry coulis, vanilla ice cream or crème anglaise…
Cinnamon Rolls and Garlic Knots
I enjoyed making these but my recipe needs some work, so I’ll have to get back to you on these! I used this recipe for the filling of the cinnamon rolls, and it was excellent!
Pin it for later!
I hope you enjoyed what we made this week, and that it gave you some ideas for meal for your own family! If you make any of these recipes, don’t forget to take a photo and tag me on social media @candleinthekitchen!
Leave a Reply