Quick & Easy Weeknight Dinners Healthy-5 Main Ingredients
On weeknights, I know a lot of you don't have much time. Even if you do have the time, you may just not wanna spend it cooking, nothing wrong with that. So today I am sharing these Quick & Easy Weeknight Dinners Healthy meals each of which contains only five main ingredients, not including pantry, seasonings, and cooking fats.
All of these meals will feature Epic products. Epic products are so versatile that today I wanted to show you how to uniquely use them in recipes. But of course, nothing beats the convenience of being able to take them on the go.
Whether it's a snack for summer, post-workout fuel, or that emergency handbag snack. Epic bars and strips are easy to pack and take with you and there are so many flavors to choose from. I love the Bison Bacon Cranberry bar with its perfect balance of sweet and savory.
The new Beef Sea Salt and pepper and Beef Jalapeño bars have a delicious salty bite. And the Jalapeño flavor has all of the freshness without too much of the spice. And of course, the Chicken Sriracha bar has that delicious Sriracha sweet pepper flavor with a kick.
You can eat Epic products however you'd like but today I am getting extra creative and using them in recipes.
Easy Weeknight Dinners With Chicken.
1. Air Fried Chicken Tenders: We are starting with Air Fried Chicken Tenders. First, we need to make the coating that will give us that crispy crunch that makes the fried chicken so good. To get creative, I amusing Epic provisions Pink Himalayan and sea salt pork rinds.
I start by spreading them onto a baking sheet and baking them for about 10 minutes. This helps to remove any moisture so that they can really reach ultimate crispness as a breading substitute. I do not recommend skipping this step for optical crispiness.
Then we can post them up in the food processor with just a bit of paprika, garlic powder, or any spices that you prefer and grind into a powder. That goes into one shallow dish and another I beat a couple of eggs and in a final dish, I mix coconut flour, Salt, and pepper.
We need all three of these for our coating. The process is easy and pretty fun actually. Simply take your chicken tenders and dredge them through the coconut flour mixture. Then into the eggs shaking off any excess and then finally into the pork rinds coating.
I get all of the chicken tenders coated and then they're ready for the air fryer. I preheat the fryer for about five minutes and then those tenders are ready to go in. The great thing about the air fryer is you don't need oil all you need is air.
Still, I think it is a fine idea to add just a little bit of cooking spray for crunch. Those get flipped halfway through and in less than 20 minutes, you have got dinner ready to go. Serve them with your favorite roasted veggies or mashed potatoes and of course, dips for attendees need honey mustard.
I swear if I didn't know I would think these are fried and I would never know that they're gluten-free and made with pork rinds. The crispness is legit, it's delicious and savory but the air fryer keeps the chicken moist and tender.
You can cook them in the oven too but I find that the air fryer keeps them from drying out. Of course, these pork rinds are delicious on their own too, or with a dip. There are zero grams of total carbs. they're available both baked and fried, a great crunchy snack.
They've got sea salt and pepper and chili lime flavor too. I also love the added spices that I put in the breading mixture here. But if you use the chili line pork rinds that would make a super flavorful coating as well.
Easy Weeknight Dinners For Two.
2. Barbecue Sliders: For our next easy dinner we're going with spicy barbecue sliders. For the patties I finally chopped up one Chicken Sriracha flavored Epic bar and one of the new Jalapeño Beef Epic bars and combine that with some ground beef.
Because the bars are seasoned I did not add any additional salt and they were perfect. Get it mixed up but don't overdo it and aim for small parties since these are sliders but I guess if you want a larger burger to go for it.
I heat my skillet and then these go on for just two to three minutes on each side. If you want cheese, and trust me you do, add that right when you flip the burgers. Since these are so small they cook quickly.
Especially if you want them to be cooked medium or medium-rare. And that is it.
I add a bit of barbecue sauce to the slider buns along with the patty itself and whatever toppings your heart desires. I have got to say I love the new Jalapeño Beef flavored bar it is not too spicy. It has a great chewiness and moist texture and it almost tastes fresh from the Jalapeño.
I know it's in a package so that was unexpected and welcome. The Chicken Sriracha has a kick to it but the moist chicken is delicious and added together with the beef patty the spice flavor comes through.
They're not overly spicy at all though it's more zesty and smoky and flavor and it pairs perfectly with the barbecue sauce. The texture of the bars is almost like some bacon added into the burger. It is such a delicious and fun use of these bars.
If you don't like spice at all, you could use one of Epic's other bar flavors there are so many to choose from. They're all savory protein bars made of meat and spices for flavor, but not always spicy. Each of these has two total grams of carbs and 10 to 15 grams of protein depending on the flavor.
What I love most about epic provisions bars though and all of their products really are the ingredients list. They are short clear and I know exactly what I'm consuming.
Easy Weeknight Dinners Vegetarian.
3. Tomato Sauce With Cauliflower Gnocchi: Last but not least, we are getting a little bit crazy. Can you handle crazy? A Cauliflower Gnocchi with a savory tomato sauce, let's get that sauce going first because typically the longer the sauce cooks, the more flavor it is going to have.
First I get my Epic Wagyu beef steak strips. These are so good. They're so tender and flavorful they might be my current favorite Epic product. They have such a rich smoky and savory flavor, a perfect chewy texture it reminds me of a campfire.
Anyway, it is going to add so much depth to our sauce Believe it or not. I am starting by softening that strip which I've cut up finely with some boiling water.
Separately I've got some cooking fat I used ghee, but oil or whatever you prefer is fine with -
- Onion,
- Bell pepper, and
- A bit of salt.
Let that get tender for a few minutes and then optionally add a bit of garlic for another minute or two. Then you can add in that softened jerky with the water along with a can of diced tomatoes or crushed tomatoes, some dried parsley, and milk or cream non-dairy is also fine.
This can be ready in 10 to 20 minutes depending on how long you soak your Epic strips. But I prefer to let it go for 45 minutes to an hour or longer if you can until the sauce thickens it really integrates and becomes so much flavorful.
In the meantime, I get the cauliflower and Gnocchi cooked. I love this stuff, but I didn't the first time I tried it because I followed the package directions which in my opinion is wrong. Here's how I do it to make it taste great.
First, thaw it a little bit if you came beforehand I actually put the bag in the fridge for a few hours and then I add a small bit of water to the Gnocchi and steam it in the microwave for just one to two minutes.
You can skip this step but I think it helps then get your pan really hot and the Gnocchi can go into it with ghee or cooking fat of choice and cook over medium to medium-high heat for seven to 10 minutes turning once they start to brown.
The browning is key for flavor and texture. Do not add water as the package says that is what makes it in my opinion too watery and gummy and sticky. Instead, just use the heat and the cooking fat to brown up the Gnocchi.
And then when it's browning and starting to stick, you can add your sauce which will immediately help it all come together and it's ready to go. I just Garnish with some parmesan and fresh Basil yum. There is so much flavor in this it's smoky and almost savory as if there were sausage in it.
The sweet and tang Ty tomatoes are tempered by the cream and the white Beef strips add seasoning tenderness and protein. The strips also absorb the sauce and become plump and tender and it's a really fun way to use these strips.
Epic also has other strip flavors, the salmon ones are my favorite snack. I would not recommend those for this sauce because I am not sure the flavor it would pair as well but you could try these venison strips if you prefer.
They're great to keep on hand for when you're on the go and all of these are also certified gluten-free. And those are some easy healthy dinners for the week all using minimal ingredients and time. I hope that you found them helpful.
Let me know which you would wanna try and how you could make them your own. All of my recipes are always versatile. You never need to follow them exactly to succeed so you can add what you like take out what you don't this is not baking you'll be fine.
Bottom Line
All Epic products are available for easy ordering on Amazon. I really do love the company and what they're trying to do by offering healthy and nutritious products with quality ingredients, I highly recommend checking them out.
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