Weekly Menu Planning - April 2022

Let’s use this thread to share concise weekly dinner menus, planned or actuals, for each week in April. It’s helpful if you tell us how many you’re cooking for and geographically where you’re cooking, so we have a sense of what ingredients might be available fresh or unique to your area. Recipe links welcome and sources are helpful.

What’s your preferred planning process? Do you start with an ingredient and build a meal around it? Or with a daily theme - meatloaf Monday, pizza Friday, seafood Saturday? Or with a flavor-profile for the day/week - “I’m feeling Italian today”? The reality of my own planning process is often focused on using up fresh produce/fruit bought in excess, or freeing freezer space in order to take advantage of a planned buy of a large-item at sale price.

The March discussion is still available for noting your plans/actuals for this final week.

Many of us who moved from the Chowhound cooking site in the past month are enjoying the broader community and topics here on Hungry Onion. But still getting tripped up on-occasion by the technical differences of non-nested replies and getting links embedded behind phrases / recipe names. Celebrate our successes, and scroll on by any clumsiness, please.

In the interest of faster reading times, remember to use the like button (knife & fork), rather than commenting “that looks good” separately on every post.

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Well April 1st and it is snowing like crazy in the mountains of southwest Virginia. Ground is white. I am cooking for two adults.
Friday- April 1- take out- Husband wants Captain D’s fish. I am getting egg rolls and hot and sour soup at local Chinese restaurant. Angus, the lab, will get two small Wendy’s cheeseburgers for his treat.
Saturday- Root beer (sugar free) crock pot country style ribs with bbq beans
Sunday- for husband and FIL bacon cheeseburgers. FIL loves my bbq beans so he will get a big container of those. For me grilled lime shrimp avocado salad.
Monday-Crock pot chuck roast with carrots and Yukon gold potatoes
Tuesday-Grilled chicken and rice
Wednesday-Leftover ribs repurposed into pulled pork sandwiches
Thursday-Leftover roast and vegetables
Friday-probably take out pizza

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Greetings everyone I can’t believe it is April already. The weather has been overcast and cool all week long. We still have snow on the ground :frowning: Not much but I am done with winter and I am ready for sunshine and warm weather. Life has been pretty quiet lately so not much to report on that front. A friend signed up for Tai Chi so she’s inspiring me to try something different. I’ve been thinking about yoga since it would probably be good for my achy joints and the socialization would be nice. I haven’t done anything with a group in months. In the meantime my menu plan for a singleton in Ottawa is as follows:

Today: I am now noshing on a meatball sandwich from a nearby deli so I will have the remaining marinated artichoke salad in my fridge,

Saturday: clean-out-the-fridge/freezer day. Take out for dinner.

Sunday: I will be doing a big grocery shop today since I am getting low on provisions. I will have the last of the cabbage chickpea curry I found in the freezer. https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/turmeric-and-coconut-braised-cabbage-with-chickpeas

Monday: Chilled soba noodle salad from Cook’s Illustrated.

Tuesday: Greek salad with salmon. https://whatsgabycooking.com/greek-salad-with-salmon/

Wednesday: chicken in black bean sauce (from epicurious), Asian slaw on the side.

Thursday: fettucine al pesto, veggies TBD.

I am suitably jealous of those of you whose gardens are coming up. I got an email from the farm I get my CSA from and they are just now planting some of their veggies in their greenhouse.

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Hi, all! Cooking for 2 in Chattanooga. Hope nobody is getting fooled today–the little bugs on the HO site freaked me out briefly…
Saturday, April 2: We’re having friends over, and I’m going to make carnitas (Smitten Kitchen) from a GIANT pork shoulder roast I got in my last produce delivery (Market Wagon). Black beans, slaw, chocolate-cherry cake
Sunday: Easy vegetarian chili (simply recipes), maybe biscuits
Monday: Roasted squash and tofu (SK), rice, maybe asparagus
Tuesday-Thursday: Scrounge/takeout
Friday: Burst cherry tomato pasta from Bon Appétit

Hang in there and have a good week. Happy cooking!

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I’m glad you explained the little bugs-I thought that somehow they had gotten inside my computer screen !!!

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Change of plans- neighbor’s mother passed away and I sending food to them today to have. after the service Two beef roasts with carrots and potatoes were put in the crock pot last night and I am up making two batches of homemade rolls. I wish I had time to do a dessert for them, but what I have will have to do.

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The second half of the semester starts Monday. Our second boosters are scheduled for this week.

For two adults in San Diego:

This week’s breakfasts: Lemon loaf, from a W-S mix bought to make up the difference between a sauce pan and gift card. :slight_smile:

S: (tonight) Outdoor dining with friends we hadn’t seen since 2019. Worth the drive up to Orange County.

Su: Egg scramble with bacon, spinach, cheese and home fries

M: Chicken and veggie curry with rice

T: Tomato soup with grilled cheese on rosemary bread - vegetarian

W: TJs lobster ravioli in a garlic butter sauce with spinach or peas - seafood

Th: Meatball subs made with TJs turkey meatballs

F: Old school tacos (ground turkey, all the fixings)

Have a good week!

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@MidwesternerTT What do you think about a master thread that lists/links all the WMP threads — like we had for COTM, DOTM, etc.?

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Hi everyone!

Winding down my visit with my parents over the next couple of weeks, and given how long it’s been, it’s getting very stressful to imagine departure…

Lunches are all homemade (and vegetarian), dinners have been largely takeout, assembly, and freezer clean-out.

Actuals for the past week, with a few things planned forward:

Mon - Special meal — mom’s (goat and veg - separately) biryani, after 4 or 5 years. Onion raita on the side. So delicious!

Tues - We had a long and tiring day with checkups for my parents after almost 3 years, so dinner was very simple: leftover soups (scotch broth, tomato) and assorted other bits from the fridge - finger sandwiches (chicken mayo, roasted lamb), eggless “quiche”, and banana bread I made (for everyone but me). A strong few sips of chai to end and revive.

Wed - Fresh fish (pomfret) simply pan-fried, dal, rice and a baby lettuce and tomato salad to start.

Thurs - Freezer clean out — mutton biryani, tandoori chicken, naan.

Fri - Takeout after a series of conference calls - Indian Chinese: hakka noodles and fried rice. Homemade vegetable soup to start.

Sat - Leftover Chinese supplemented with homemade tomato rice and an order or Chicken Manchurian.

Sun - TBD. Crab curry is planned for today or tomorrow, another mom special we haven’t had in several years. Pav bhaji the other day.

I keep planning to start pizza dough and forgetting, so that should finally happen this week, and we’ll have pizza night at some point.

And there was a request for Kerala stew that’s still pending, so that’s on the forward menu as well, with appams.

Have a peaceful and delicious week!

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If someone else wants to create it, that’s fine. Unlike COTM and DOTM indexes that serve the purpose of tracking specifically which books and which dishes have already been featured by those groups, the WMP has no focus other than the monthly timeframe. I do include a link to previous month’s thread in the intro post, and the next month’s thread link is among the comments (around the 23/24 most months).

How functional is the HO search feature – could someone instead of looking at an index list search for “Weekly Menu Planning - March 2022” and reliably get to a discussion?

The search is great (even more by comparison) — good point. I think the tag also helps.

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Hi everyone, feeding two adults and an 11yo in the Boston burbs. This will be our first week of adjusting to some new scheduling: me working in the office (we have temporary space in a co-working building but it’s about 30min away, boo) about once a week, DH working from home once a week, and multiple activities for DS. It’s gotten me sufficiently stressed from being out of practice that our menu on the fridge now includes DS’s lunches (suddenly he wants to pack lunch again!) and activities out of the ordinary.

Sun: white chili (turkey, white beans, hominy, and some peppers for good measure: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/white-chili-recipe-1953095 ) and cornbread (Midwest Made without bleu cheese or scallions)

Mon: rigatoni pie - think baked ziti but with the noodles standing on end in a springform pan, and meat sauce poured over the top. Random magazine recipe. Salad on the side.

Tues: chicken/broccoli pot pie I didn’t make a few weeks ago. I’ll be in the office for part of the day, and then I’m going back to the doctor in the afternoon to check on the healing process for my broken toe (which is much better, hopefully the X-rays agree).

Weds: skillet chicken parm (The Dinner Plan) and garlic bread. DS has boxing this afternoon.

Thurs: DS has play practice after school. DH seems to have agreed to make dinner - grilled cheese and tomato soup - but we did not buy bread or canned/boxed soup at the grocery store and so I’m not sure how he plans to execute on this agreement. Methinks there may be a stop at Whole Foods.

Fri: tbd after soccer for for DS. Side note - anyone want to guess why his old cleats didn’t fit? If you said “because they were two full sizes too small,” you’d be right. I have had to order a ridiculous number of new cleats and we still haven’t found one that fits (width). Hope the last two pairs arriving this week include a winner, otherwise Saturday’s game will be rough!!

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LOL on the shoes/cleats - doggone kids, you feed them and they grow :grinning:

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So true!! And he’s long past the days of kid sizes, so…

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Chicken/broccoli pot pie sounds really good!
Best of luck with your toe healing and the kid activities.

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Hey all, seems spring is here with allergies but no exciting produce yet. We had a bunch of landscaping done last summer and the new plants are starting to emerge…so fun! haven’t decided what to put in the vegetable garden yet though.
2 adults and 1 teen in STL. Last week I overestimated what we would eat at dinner so had lots of leftovers–enough for 3 later meals. Trying to be more realistic this week.
I’m taking Thurs and Fri off work…I may have some work to do those days, but need to not acquire more work at least.
Sun 4/3: grilled bratwurst, wheat berry and “crunchy things” salad (bell pepper, sugar snap peas, cucumbers)
Mon 4/4: 24th anniversary! fairly underwhelming day TBH. cauliflower with feta, caramelized onions, and feta https://smittenkitchen.com/2008/03/pasta-with-cauliflower-walnuts-and-feta/
Tue 4/5: Carrot and chickpea korma, from Simply Julia. serve with rice and Romaine salad.
Wed 4/6: Parmesan Dutch baby, asparagus.
Thu 4/7: it’s my birthday, it’s my birthday, gonna party like it’s my birthday! dunno about the Bacardi part of that song though, on a weeknight… tomato soup, biscuits, roasted broccoli, and cake! going for yellow cake with copious chocolate cream cheese frosting (form Dessert Person).
Fri 4/8: even if I’m not working, I still want tacos or pizza for dinner on a Friday.
Next week is going to be long and hard, so I need to enjoy this week and plan ahead but not worry ahead if that is possible!

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Happy Birthday! :birthday:

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Happy birthday and happy anniversary! I love a classic yellow cake with chocolate icing. Lots of other delicious stuff in your week too.

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Happy birthday and happy anniversary!

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