Five Paleo Dinners To Cook Next Week #56

Summer has officially arrived in Prague, and I suspect in most of the United States, too! Cloudless skies, brilliant sunshine, and lots of gratitude for shade and cold water.

It’s too hot to slave in the kitchen!

So the recipes I chose this week fall into a few helpful categories: “make a bunch ahead of time and enjoy leftovers,” “no cooking required (but it’s still awesome),” and “so fast and easy you can make it spontaneously.” The Gado Gado, in particular, is nice because you can cook all the components in advance and enjoy them in various combinations throughout the week. Happy cooking, my friends, and stay cool.

Dinner ideas (Whole30 Compliant)

Gado Gado

Cookup Tips: This is the perfect meal for a weeknight if you cook “generic” protein and veggies (and hard-boiled eggs) during your Weekly Cookup. Don’t forget the Sunshine Sauce! This recipe uses chicken, but beef, pork, fish, or seafood also works—and any combination of steamed and raw veggies tastes good! You can even make the sauce in advance and store in the fridge for up to 5 days, so when you’re ready to eat, it’s just a matter of assembling the ingredients on your plate.

Recommended Sides: No sides needed!

Fried Chicken Meatballs with Collard Greens

This recipe is from my new-ish Well Fed Weeknights, and I actually did a bunch of research to find the Colonel’s secret recipe from Kentucky Fried Chicken to figure out the seasonings in the coating. I think it worked! Cooking time? 30-35 minutes.

Cookup Tips: Season the ground chicken and form the meatballs. Prep the fried chicken coating. Wash and cut the collard greens. Store everything separately in airtight containers in the fridge, then follow the directions for cooking the meatballs and greens.

Recommended Sides: No additional sides needed, but if you want extra credit, this Spring Chopped Salad is an awesome go-along.

Italian Hoagie Salad

This recipe is also from Well Fed Weeknights, and it’s one of my favorite recipes ever. HOAGIES!

Cookup Tips: It’s the best part of a sub without the bun, and it can be thrown together in about 10 minutes. This taste best when it’s tossed just before eating, but if you wanted to get a jump on it, you could pre-julienne the deli meats.

Recommended Sides: It’s everything you need in one delicious bowl!

Meat & Spinach Muffins

Cookup Tips: These taste great (or maybe better!) on days 2 and 3, and they freeze well, too. Make a batch (or a double batch) on the weekend and enjoy them all week long. They’re delicious as a main meal with a salad, cold out of the fridge for a snack, or sliced in half, grilled in a pan, and topped with eggs for breakfast… plus there are plenty of spice variations so you can keep it interesting.

Recommended Sides: I like these with a simple salad on the side with a luscious dressing (like, maybe, Creamy Italian.)

Mexican Meatza

Cookup Tips:  The Meatza can be baked for the first time in advance, then just before eating, add the toppings and do the second bake.

Recommended Sides:  This tastes really great with Crispy (green) Plantains, or a salad with Cumin-Lime Dressing. Plantains can be boiled and smashed during a Cookup, then crisped in a pan just before your meal. The Cumin-Lime Dressing tastes fresh for about a week, so you can make that in advance, too! You might also be interested in this Italian Meatza.

Nibble (Whole30 Compliant)

Caramelized Coconut Chips

Cookup Tips: These take about 5 minutes to make, so make them “to order” when you need a little snack.

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