3 healthy, delicious meal ideas for the New Year
Happy New Year from all of us at Olliffe! We hope you had a joyful, restful holiday season and are feeling motivated, enthusiastic and optimistic about 2024. We understand that many customers are looking for nutritious meal ideas after an indulgent holiday season—satisfying, healthy, local food that will help them feel strong and energetic as they tackle a new year. We know a thing or two about this subject, so we’ve gathered up a few recommendations to help you kick off 2024 on the right note.
We hope to see you in our Yonge Street butcher shop soon and look forward to serving you. Remember, you can also place an order online and choose from local home delivery or in-store pick up. Thanks for reading and take care!
Steak stir fry
Beef stir fry is one of those meals that’s flavourful and delicious but also quick and easy to prepare—a ‘weeknight winner’ for busy families. You can use any kind of protein for your stir fry, but a tender Ontario beef skirt steak is a great option. It’s excellent in stir fry recipes and will end up juicy, tender and flavourful on the plate. You can add just about anything to a stir fry but we recommend snow peas, bell peppers, thin-sliced carrots, broccoli and plenty of aromatics (garlic, ginger, etc). Keep things mild or add some heat, and serve your stir fry as is or with a portion of rice or rice noodles. This is the kind of meal you don’t necessarily need a recipe for—feel free to go off script!—but here’s a great one from Food Network to help you get started.
Chicken vegetable soup
Chicken vegetable soup is delicious, comforting, and packed with protein and nutrients. There’s nothing better than a hot bowl of homemade soup on a cold day, and you’ll probably have enough left over for tomorrow’s lunch. Chicken vegetable soup is also very cost-effective, low waste and a great use of a leftover roast chicken (or one of our rotisserie chickens). You could serve this soup on its own, with a side salad or with fresh bread. Feel free to experiment or add ingredients to any standard chicken vegetable soup recipe—for example, substituting vegetables to suit your family’s preferences, or adding a bit of ginger or curry to the broth. Here’s an excellent recipe from Jamie Oliver to inspire you.
Oven-roasted garlic pork chops
It’s no secret that we love fresh, local pork chops—they’re tender, juicy and absolutely delicious. There are countless ways to prepare a pork chop and make it delicious, but sometimes simple is best. These oven-roasted garlic pork chops take very little time to prepare and only require a handful of ingredients. Serve them with a side of green beans or roasted broccoli, plus your favourite style of potatoes. This is another great weeknight dinner recipe, but you could just as easily dress it up and serve it on a Sunday. Here’s the recipe—enjoy!