Air Fryer Burrito

I’ve been following a formula for dinner for the past month or so:

1. Make a sheet pan with vegetables and a protein — usually fish, chicken, or tofu. Also make a sauce to go with it.
2. Eat with different starches — usually rice, potatoes, pasta, or ramen.
3. Take a break from the sheet pan with an Instant Pot recipe, frozen meal, or take out.
4. Repeat.

Despite being, well, formulaic, this approach has given me a good base structure to experiment with. When looking at a new product or recipe, I can ask: how will I use that within the formula?

Here are some of the meals I’ve cooked with that philosophy in mind:

Salmon, green bean, and potato sheet pan

I cut up four defrosted salmon fillets and put them on a parchment paper lined pan with a bag of green beans, half a bag of little potatoes, half a red onion, and cherry tomatoes. I tossed the vegetables in oil, za’atar seasoning, salt, and pepper. I put some of the tahnini-hoisin sauce from You Gotta Eat on the salmon. Then I roasted it all at 400 F, removing the salmon after 15 minutes and the vegetables after 35 minutes.

The only issue I had was finishing the salmon. I ended up making salmon salad, which was a delicious lunch.

Ramen with red baby bok choy and cilantro

I made my usual ramen with JUST Egg, but added in some red baby bok choy and cilantro that I grew in my indoor garden. I sautéed the bok choy with garlic and ginger.

Leftovers with frozen soup dumplings

I tried Feel Good Foods’ gluten-free soup dumplings, which were okay. Some of them leaked out when I removed them from the container. They were still a tasty way to turn random leftovers into a meal.

Roasted garlic pasta

I decided to roast garlic during a sheet pan bake to add flavor to things. I ended up trying this take on Cacio e Pepe, though I made it in one pot instead of two (draining the pasta and adding it back with some pasta water). You can’t really beat butter, garlic, and cheese together. I topped it with air fried frozen GF chicken tenders.