Since becoming a parent, eating has taken on a new air of desperation. As a result, I’ve got more into meal planning. Not formal schedules, but vague ideas of what ingredient we’ll have on what night. I’m trying to eat lots of beans (they’re cheap and healthy) and protein (keeps me full) and so this week’s recipe has become a new go-to. It is a sweet potato based recipe, which I’ve been amazed to find my newfound sweet tooth has fallen for, after years of being indifferent to orange vegetables. Further down I’m sharing eating highlights from the month…

There is no getting around it, you eat different with a baby in the house. Often, it’s a time of eating in pure panic because you don’t know when you’ll have another 15 minute gap of calm. I’ve never before eaten so many strange combinations of things, and now that we are beginning to wean Eli (a fun and eye-opening journey that I’m sure I’ll talk more about in future) I’ve been introduced to the joy of eating unseasoned cooked vegetables to save them from the bin. You realise they are actually crazily delicious just as they come. Not sure my food hoover status can last though…

At the same time as all this eating on high alert, the need to plan meals a bit becomes obvious. Yes, I’ve become someone who writes the weeks’ menu on a board on the fridge like I see Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen do. And I love it. It doesn’t always happen, but when I do manage to schedule meals, it’s recipes that can be prepared in advance/quickly/bulk cooked for lunches/the freezer that win out. Dinners that leave us full show up even more on the weekly menu. Today’s recipe is one of those. And it all starts with this…

The bean and tofu topping turns this beauty into a dinner I like to call ugly-delicious. I love this meal because it ticks the prep in advance box nicely, and the beans and tofu can be doubled up so that there are leftovers to fill a wrap for lunches too.