I have always loved vegetables. My very favorite after-school snack was cut cucumber, tomatoes, and carrots with a little bit of ranch dressing. While my friends would hide their broccoli under piles of cheese, I went back for second helpings of Brussels sprouts and asparagus. The same does not apply to my husband! Since we've been on a vegetarian diet, I've been making a lot of vegetable soup. This particular recipe is really easy, and it turns out well no matter how many times I've thought I messed it up. As long as you get all the ingredients in the pot and simmer long enough for everything to cook through, you're going to have a pretty good soup. This recipe tends to pop up on our home menu at least every other week, and it makes a great lunch for the week! It keeps us full because of the extra protein in the beans and lentils, but is still really healthy and gets all those veggies in. I actually like to put a little bit of apple cider vinegar in my soup before I eat it, to make it more like a borstch. (My family did this all the time when I was growing up, and now I can't eat vegetable soup without it!) Let me know what modifications you made that worked best for you and your family!
Easy Weeknight Lettuce Wraps
A few months ago, I was trying to use up all of the vegetables in our refrigerator before we went on vacation, and threw together some quick lettuce wraps. These have since become a staple meal for my husband and I, and seem to make an appearance at our dinner table every week. The filling cooks up pretty quickly and leaves us both feeling satisfied, even in one of those "hungry for nothing in particular" moods. The best part? It is really simple to make, and tastes like you put in a lot more effort than it actually takes to prepare these! Another bonus - it is easy to modify this recipe to fit into different diets and taste preferences. In my family, there are people on many different diets - Whole30, vegetarian, paleo, gluten-free, etc. You name it, and at any given moment, there's someone at the table who is on that diet. It's nearly impossible to plan a fun, easy meal that can cater to every single diet for every single person, but this recipe makes it easy to modify the meal for those diets. Not eating meat? No problem! Chop up some additional mushrooms and use that instead of the turkey meat. Hate onions? Don't use them! (Disclaimer - I would say that if you dislike vegetables in general, this is probably not the recipe for you!) I've made a few different versions of these, substituting different ingredients or adding different things in, but it always tastes great. The version that I'm posting is my favorite version, so if you change things up, let me know what worked and what didn't work for you! The coconut aminos give the entire recipe a sweet, yet savory flavor. It's typically marketed as a great substitute for soy sauce, but…