My Best Meal Planning Tip

Hello!

The return of the sun and time comfortably outside does such wonders for my mood and especially for my desire to cook. I have been struggling a little bit through the winter to feel inspired, but fresh produce and sunshine have helped so much. I’ve felt more motivated and interested in cooking again, just like I do every year around this time.

I wanted to share a little meal planning structure that I use and has been helpful for me. It makes planning a lot easier and also encourages variety. I used to mainly focus on planning around the protein that we were going to eat, but focusing on the starch base first is more useful for me. I think of how many nights I’m planning for (it’s usually 4) and I come up with 4 starch sources I’m going to use (i.e. pasta, bread, tortillas, rice, quinoa, potatoes, pita) then plan to have half vegetarian and and half meat, since that’s what works best for us. This week it’s butter chickpeas with rice, pasta with chicken, lettuce wraps with leftover rice, quinoa bowls. When I just cannot come up with ideas that don’t feel like something we’ve eaten 1,000 times, this has really helped me.

Quick Links

singapore noodles, chicken satay // lemon pepper pasta // potato frittata // greek yogurt ranch // spinach artichoke pizza // buttermilk rolls, lentil soup, beef stew

Weeknight Meals

• Singapore rice noodles

  • This noodle dish a. comes together very quickly, b. uses inexpensive and flavorful ingredients and c. is completely delicious. I’ve seen many recipes with pan fried tofu and I also really like adding green beans myself. We like to have this with chicken satay and peanut sauce.

image from cooking.nytimes.com

• Lemon Pepper Pasta and Broccoli

  • I love a quick pasta dish and this one is a winner. It’s creamy without the addition of cream and the brown butter does a lot of heavy lifting, flavor wise. We roasted our broccoli with some cannellini beans for a little more protein and it was a delicious result.

• Potato Frittata with Feta and Scallions

  • This is one of those dinners where everyone in our family ended up taking multiple servings, which always feels like a big win. There’s bacon here but it’s entirely skippable.

• Greek Yogurt Ranch Dressing

  • I’ve been looking for a homemade ranch for a good long while and this one is quite good. And it’s from Alexandra Stafford’s new cookbook which I can’t wait to get into my hot little hands.

• Two things I bought and cooked that I need to recommend:

  • Japanese barbecue sauce that we love on chicken but is also amazing on tofu, pork, shrimp, etc. Eat with rice and asian slaw.

  • TJ’s chicken shawarma is incredible. We grilled it up and I was so impressed with the flavor!

Weekend Meals

• Pizza night

  • Fig, Caramelized Onion and Arugula

    • Might be my favorite pizza. Although I could say that about most pizza, don’t hold me to it, but this one is so good. On a thin, Neapolitan style crust (or sourdough crust), spread fig jam or fig butter in a thin layer, then add caramelized onions and season with salt and red pepper flakes. Bake and then top with dots of goat cheese, a large pile of arugula, balsamic glaze, a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of flaky salt.

  • Spinach Artichoke Pan Pizza

    • We cook our thin crust pizzas on a baking steel (similar in function to a pizza stone) but I know not everyone has that and still wants to make pizza at home. Pan pizza is a winner for accessibility and also taste cause this is delicious. I love this combination of spinach pesto, funky cheese and artichokes. We made extra dough and baked some pepperoni pizza in a 8x8 square pan and it also turned out perfect. Maybe this is my favorite pizza? I’ll never be able to decide.

image from smittenkitchen.com

• Buttermilk rolls

  • Also known as how to get a six year old to sit at the table and be very excited about what’s for dinner. She has talked about these so many times since we made them nearly a month ago.

  • You probably don’t need to stretch your imagination very far to find something good to eat with soft dinner rolls, but they are delicious with beef stew or lentil soup.

Treats of the Month

• Mocktail

  • Mix the juice of 1 Grapefruit, 1 lemon and 2 limes with 1-2 Tablespoons of simple syrup. Split between 3 or 4 glasses and add ice and ginger beer. It’s refreshing and delicious.

• Quick Jam

  • I had no idea how easy it is to make quick jam with frozen fruit until recently. This is not going to be steam canned or shelf stable, I keep in the fridge and I think it would last a month in there, although we used it in just a couple days. I used frozen cherries and raspberries, a perfect combination. It’s just 300 grams of fruit to 150 grams of sugar and the juice of half a lemon. (I used about 110 grams of sugar and it set up just fine, so there’s some wiggle room for that if you’re refrigerating it.) You cook the fruit down for about an hour, stirring every little while and it will start to break down and thicken. If it’s not set up after an hour, it will thicken as it cools but you can also cook it a little longer. I think it really depends on your fruit. This is the most basic jam and I really loved it. I’d love to experiment with different combinations and types of citrus.

Some things to Listen to

• I’ve loved discovering the band Tele Novella this month. I love every song on their album, but Funeral is my favorite.

• Really enjoying the new Vampire Weekend album. Almost as good as Modern Vampires of the City, a all time album for me.

• The best audiobook I read this month was Just Another Missing Person by Gillian McCallister. I love the twisty mysteries she writes on audio, they’re so fun and well plotted.

Have a lovely May,

Emily