Meal plan: week of April 9, 2018
I was away last week and over the weekend, and this week is spring break, so getting dinner together the next few days is going to be a feat of willpower alone. While away, I pillaged my friend’s delightful cookbook collection, and she sent me home with five pounds of very exciting and delicious looking (and heavily inspected by the TSA) dried beans from Rancho Gordo, which I have been very curious about for some time, so expect beans to feature heavily the next few weeks!
Monday. Pinto bean tacos! With guacamole, sour cream, and roasted beets and yellow pepper. This is a fridge clean out if I ever heard of one, but with the addition of exciting beans. These are so fresh they only need to soak for 4 hours or so before cooking. If you soak too much longer, they poof up and go mashy!
Tuesday. Fried quinoa with pickled chard and cucumber, avocado, and hard boiled eggs. This is adapted from a recipe from 100% Real by Sam Talbot, which I snatched from my friend. I’ve never heard of him, but looking forward to trying some of his tasty looking recipes! I’m determined to remember to make a double batch of quinoa to use again on Friday.
Wednesday. Asparagus and ricotta quiche with a sweet potato crust. My friend’s brother-in-law passed along this sweet potato crust recipe (which is basically just a shredded, pre-baked sweet potato in place of a traditional crust). I’ll report back, it sounds tasty.
Thursday. Pasta e lenticchie, which was posted on the Washington Post the other day and is exactly up my aisle. Orecchiete is my favorite pasta shape, and paired with lentils in a one-pot meal it sounds divine and cozy, and it’s supposed to be a damp old week. Perfect for soupy, lentilly pasta.
Friday. Whole grain (quinoa! from Wednesday! Will I remember? Will it get gobbled by hungry members of the family?) sesame scallion pancakes with tofu, served with roasted broccoli. These pancakes are from another pillaged cookbook, What Chefs Feed Their Kids, by Fanae Aaron; this particular recipe comes from Diane Forley – I’ll report back.
What are you making this week? Do you have go-tos for when the kiddos are home all day?