Meal Plan for December 4-10
Baby it's cold outside
Hello!
My girls had their 5th birthday today and we had a lot of fun celebrating them! We also started Christmas decorating this week and I’m trying to keep everything really low key this year. Cozy and easy meals are helping.
Quick Links
ribollita, minestrone // smashed potatoes // salmon rice bowl, chicken rice bowl, egg rice bowl // bolognese: easy, complex, vegetarian // chocolate cake
Weeknight meals
This time of year calls for comforting, filling and easy soups. I really like both of these vegetarian soups. I grew up eating minestrone really often but ribollita is pretty new to me.
The ribollita needs a pretty stale bread to not just turn into mush so I usually end up toasting cubes and serving it on top instead of baking the bread into the soup as the recipe calls for.
For the minestrone, I like to cook the noodles separately and have people add them at the table and then storing the leftovers out of the soup to avoid the mush factor. Crusty bread on the side is a must.
Greek burgers and smashed potatoes
These are a mash up between a gyro and a burger and super delicious.
There isn’t really a recipe for this, just simply grilling/cooking burgers and topping with feta cheese, tomatoes, tzatziki sauce, grilled onions and lettuce.
Spicy black bean burgers are an easy and flavorful substitute.
We usually just do frozen french fries when we have burgers (Trader Joes are my favorite) but smashed potatoes are fun way to mix it up.
Rice bowls
This is such a quick dinner that everyone loves. You can really riff on it based on whatever is available. You just need rice, a few veggies and greens, a protein and a sauce. Here are a few tasty options:
Project meal
Spaghetti Bolognese
Here’s an easy version we have loved. I do half the meat when I make this, just the ground beef and it is plenty meaty for us.
the Marcella Hazan version is perfect if you have a long time and want to make something that feels truly decadent.
Here’s a walnut and lentil version for vegetarians.
Treat of the Week
The “I want chocolate cake” cake
This is in honor of my girls’ birthday. I remember making this while I was pregnant with them! I love this one bowl cake and easy frosting.
Something to listen to:
This episode of the podcast Pressure Cooker was a great listen and made me think a lot about the expectations I have for recipes. It feels really applicable to my newsletter. I loved the advice to choose a few recipes to master and to remember what a big job it is to feed people. This is an important work.
Happy cooking!
Emily