Meal plan: week of May 21, 2018
Well. Last week’s meal plan – as basic as it was – went a little off the rails. It’s bananas how much my husband being out of town saps me of any energy for the kitchen. Or frankly, any energy for doing much of anything except collapsing on the couch in a heap and diving into a deep, deep YouTube rabbithole once the kids have been tucked into bed and childcare duties are ticked off for the day. Bedtime, by the way, creeps up earlier and earlier every night that he is away until I’m like “oh look it’s 5:20, dinner is done, might as well start up those stairs.” I didn’t even bake bread all week, which is a first in the full year since Sadie the Sourdough Starter joined the family. There was a cereal/smoothies/boiled egg night, and there were scrambled eggs on toast. But honestly, the kids didn’t mind a bit. And so neither did I. Now I have to re-enter the world of actual adulting in the kitchen and feel a little meh about it.
So I turned to a few cookbooks this week in the hopes that I’d get some new inspiration. And now that I’ve done it, that the meal plan is on the books, the week doesn’t loom so large and I’m even feeling a little excited to try out some of these new recipes. Also, I’m on a serious bread-baking spree this week, which I shall report in on next week. I’m on a production schedule which is a little bit exciting.
Also, I will probably add eggs to almost all the meals below, because wowser, we have a whole lot of magnificent eggs from our dear friend who keeps a chicken flock nearby. It’s glorious, look at these beauties.
Monday. From Anna Jones A Modern Way to Cook, I’m going to try the cashew, kale, and lime nacho bowl. Not unlikely that the kiddos will exclusively be eating whole wheat tortillas for dinner, but worth a spin. I like her recipes a lot, find them both tasty and unexpected, though I’ve cooked more from A Modern Way to Eat than this newer one.
Tuesday. Stir-fried rice vermicelli with mushrooms and kicap manis, and I’ll also probably add in tofu and/or eggs. This is from a borrowed cookbook called The Malaysian Kitchen by Christina Arokiasamy. My veggie-phobic eldest kiddo somehow really likes mushrooms, which is very strange as I think I was probably 18 before I decided maybe mushrooms weren’t a horrifying mushy creation from Hell.
Wednesday. My day off; the kiddo is cooking and they’re making pizza this week. Maybe I’ll toss a salad together to go with it. Maybe I won’t.
Thursday. Back to my friend Anna Jones and her book A Modern Way to Cook. Or at least sort of. I’m going to make the seeded halloumi and harissa bowls. I’m going to change up the bowl components a bit, just to fit better with what is coming in our box, and I’ll serve it over farro (Instant Pot!) rather than the freekeh she calls for, because I have that in my pantry, and my pantry is alarmingly overstuffed already. And we’ll serve it with broccoli and snap peas rather than beets and kale. But close enough. Also, do you ever eat halloumi? We eat it all the time and it is just the most delicious cheese ever.
Friday. Turning to old reliable Deb Perelman and her recipe for spaghetti pangrattato with crispy eggs from Smitten Kitchen Every Day. I’ll probably toss in some kale or other greens as well.
What’s on your menu this week?
