I love having a supply of meatballs in the freezer. So many options for so many good and quick meals.
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I had a Cook’s Illustrated recipe for manicotti in mind. It’s behind a paywall, unfortunately.
For the stuffing I use a mix of ricotta, spinach, parm and egg. The addition of artichoke seems like a natural fit.
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Greetings, people.
A few winter soups left on the menu, but in the back of my mind I’m thinking ahead to more spring-centric dishes. The JB pasta recipe referenced below is a favorite kick-off to asparagus season.
Cooking for two adults in the blossoming PNW:
FRI: James Beard’s Pleasant Pasta with peas and asparagus (NYT).
SAT: Ethiopian lentil soup with berbere and garden greens. Beef meatballs. Bread or pita of some sort.
SUN: Greek Chicken. Greek potatoes or rice. Maroulosalata with garden greens. (Thank you for the inspiration @Phoenikia!)
MON: Tortellini soup with beans, kielbasa and kale (epicurious).
TUE: Shrimp fried rice.
WED: Lemony shrimp and bean stew (NYT). Garden greens. Homemade bread.
THUR: Stromboli (Version 2.0). Garden salad.
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Hello everyone from an overcast Ottawa but at least it’s warm out. I plan on taking my summer clothes out tomorrow even if we get a raging snow storm. I am declaring it spring! My menu for a singleton in Ottawa is as follows:
Today: I am now enjoying a combo meal from a Thai restaurant that I have been to before. Lunch includes chicken curry with pineapple and a mango salad. I normally prefer savoury dishes but I’m thoroughly enjoying it and it’s an improvement over the Korean pancake I ordered from another place last week. Tonight I will have a Greek salad for dinner,
Saturday: take-out-the-summer-clothes day. Out for dinner with a friend.
Sunday: Oscar night! Wine. Perhaps a cheese board, maybe pate and a baguette, I might go the the Lebanese-owned cheese store I go to since they have some Lebanese dishes for sale like stuffed grape leaves and baba ganoush. They sell cheese too 
Monday: [peanut butter noodles with cucumbers]
Tuesday: Oriental pasta salad
Wednesday: Last serving of garbure basque
Thusday: fettucine al pesto, salad
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Hi, all! Cooking for 2 in Chattanooga, where spring is still struggling to get a foothold (relatively speaking, I should add!).
Friday, March 25 (today): I’m postponing the salmon I had originally planned and instead am planning stuffed grilled chicken breasts (Cook’s Country) and minted couscous (back issue of BA)
Saturday: Pork chops with mushrooms and spinach (Blue Kitchen), roasted potatoes
Sunday: Chinese walnut chicken (Cinnamon Society, aka Appetite for China), rice, lemon curd tarts
Monday: Pasta with broccoli-pine nut pesto and perhaps some white beans (back issue of BA)
Tuesday: scrounge
Wednesday: The salmon I had planned for today
Thursday: scrounge
Friday: Going on a food tour of Chattanooga! That will involve going out later and eating more than I’m used to, but I’m excited to sample food from places we haven’t been to!
Hope everyone finds little moments of joy in and out of your kitchen this week. Happy cooking!
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Cooking for two adults in the snowy and blustery cold mountains of southwest Virginia. We are having first of March weather at the end of March. Well nothing in the world is “normal” anymore if there ever was such a thing as normal.
Saturday night (3/26) stromboli referenced up thread from Sally’s Baking Addiction
Sunday lunch- beef stew
Monday- vegetable soup and grilled cheese
Tuesday-Italian sausage, pasta and peas-https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/23974/pasta-with-peas-and-sausage/
Wednesday-leftover beef stew or soup
Thursday-leftover soup or beef stew
Friday-takeout
Not very exciting, but the snow and the cold have got me down. My forsythia was ready to bloom and now is probably not going to, my tulips were up and my daffodils were just beginning to bloom. Husband is in awful mood- he has five months of feeding and slogging through mud and he is done with it too. Still one more month of feeding to go as grass doesn’t do anything in our part of the world until late April/May and the cows will still need supplement.
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I really feel for you and all the farmers who have to struggle with unpredictable weather.
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Greeting! Cooking for 2 adults and 1 cat in the Greater Boston area. I am happy to report that we mostly followed last week’s meal plan, falling off the wagon only once to cave into delivery (sushi, earlier than the anticipated Friday. The spaghetti pie became lunches and Friday became a night out at a local steakhouse!). Here’s the plan for this week:
Sun. (3/27) - I discovered some feta that needs to be used up, so it will be the Shrimp and Orzo from Ottolenghi Simple. I think I am going to add some diced up fennel bulb to it as well. If the store is out of fennel, it’ll be green beans or asparagus.
Mon. (3/28)-Tues. (3/29) - Kurobuta pork short ribs cooked following the recipe in the X’ian Famous Foods cookbook, but will adapt for my slow cooker (probably start the base on Sunday). They will need to go for between 9-11 hours on low, so I expect the house will smell amazing when I get home from work! Either bok choy or chard and some rice to go with. Leftovers on Tuesday may get some kind of fusion taco treatment. We’ll see.
Wed. (3/30)-Thurs. (3/1) - Ravioli casserole, loosely following this recipe from Taste of Home. I have mushroom ravioli in the freezer to use up, as well as the Marcella Hazan Tomato and Onion (and butter!) sauce. Will probably just use shredded cheese and leave out the cottage cheese. I don’t think it needs it.
Fri. (4/1) - Taking the day off work to take my mom to appointments. Am requesting pizza delivery for my return.
Sat. (4/2) - TBD
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(post deleted by author)
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Heading into spring break, although I have to be on-campus for a few things on Monday.
For two adults in San Diego:
This week’s breakfasts: Chocolate chip scones, most likely
S: (tonight) takeout - Chicken pot pies
Su: Chile colorado postponed from a few weeks ago, tortillas and guacamole
M: Soup with spinach tortellini, veggie broth, carrots, celery, spinach, green onion - vegetarian
T: French toast, eggs, sausage - been too long since we had breakfast for dinner
W: BBQ chicken thighs, potatoes baked with smoked gouda, spinach, and shallots
Th: Nasi goreng ayam
F: Tacos with shrimp and all the trimmings - seafood
Have a good week!
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Monday sounds good (as does Friday). Is there a recipe for the tortellini soup you can link to?
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Hi everyone
Hope you’re enjoying the weekend — it’s getting hotter and muggier in Mumbai as we approach the summer hell of April and May… silver lining: MANGO SEASON!
There are mangoes or mango-related items at every meal now, as the season is short and everyone is obsessed with maximizing consumption while it lasts 
. So sliced mangoes, mango pulp, mango in anything you can dream it could possibly be added to — it’s there.
And 90% of all discussions everywhere have to do with mangoes as well - pricing (it’s still a luxury item, until the glut in peak summer, but not cheap even then), sources, were they naturally ripened, are they appropriately flavorful or “bland” , and on and on and on. I haven’t come across anything that is approached with quite as much passion as Indian mango season.
Oh, I should specify that in Mumbai and environs, “mango” usually only means Alphonso / Haphoos — the King of all mangoes. It won’t grow anywhere else — in the country or the world, because: terroir and climate (diaspora Indians have tried and tried and tried, because it still cannot be imported into the US). Notoriously finicky too — people read the news with bated breath as the crop reports start rolling in, to prepare themselves mentally if there’s a bad season coming 
.
All other mangoes have their own place, but are considered less-than by those whose frame of reference is the Alphonso (some are for pulp, some for sucking, some for cooking, and the rest because Alphonso season is done and you still want to eat mangoes so what choice is there… or because you didn’t grow up in Alphonso land and don’t know any better…)
Writing up actuals for the past week. We are still working our way through leftovers from the rest of the family visit, woven through a normal menu,
Lunches are usually a balanced Indian vegetarian meal — vegetable, dal or beans, chapati, rice occasionally, and yogurt. Dinners vary significantly. ( Also imagine that I wrote “MANGO” every day, because it was definitely consumed.)
Mon - Can’t remember.
Tues - A rare treat of offal (my WFD report is here).
Wed - Potato chops, one of my top favorites from our family meals — baby goat or lamb chops coated with mashed potato and pan-fried. A bit laborious (labor was mine because everyone else was exhausted) but absolutely delicious. Tomato salad on the side
Thurs - Swedish meatballs (Hej! ikea opened up a downtown store in Mumbai!), truffled mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, sliced tomatoes.
Fri - Kababs and butter chicken (leftover takeout), naan or roomali roti (fresh takeout), homemade paneer bhurji for the vegetarian (the milk suddenly curdled, so fresh paneer!)
Sat - Kheema aloo with fresh Pav (dinner rolls) and rice, beet salad (vegetarian option was leftover paneer bhurji)
Sun - Baby lima bean pulao for lunch (the season for fresh baby lima beans is at an end so we are enjoying our last few meals of them); dinner of leftovers and takeout — potato chops (leftover), tandoori chicken (takeout), chicken farcha (takeout)
I am currently an object of annoyance because I am not consuming my weight in mangoes, even though I haven’t been here for mango season in 25 years.
I will try to do better… 
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LOVE mangos.
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Hi friends, cooking for two adults and an 11yo in the Boston burbs. We had a few days of spring, but winter is coming back tomorrow/Monday. I’m hoping that this is the end of winter and we can empty out the snowblower for storage.
Big news: DS survived play auditions and callbacks! He was cast as “Mall Boy” in the ensemble of one of the two plays, and rehearsals start this week. I’m so proud of him for pushing outside of his comfort zone. It’s going to be interesting seeing how we manage scheduling around his rehearsals, soccer practice (which starts in a couple weeks), boxing lessons, and oh yeah - schoolwork.
My broken toe is healing; doc said no surgery required. The bruising is down to a lovely shade of purple-green and I’m back in sneakers (no boot). I will be in the office on Mon and Tues - getting to meet my new coworkers in person! - which is simultaneously exciting and terrifying. I have to people for several hours at a time… do I remember how to do that??
Sun: DH’s birthday! Homemade pan pizza (SE), salad, and a Boston cream pie for dessert (NYT for the custard and chocolate, Martha Stewart vanilla cake… DS is working on it as we speak). I’m also making the broth and pork for ramen tomorrow.
Mon: pork ramen https://thefoodcharlatan.com/wprm_print/32289 with some modifications - I bought a 7.5 lb pork shoulder so I’m cooking it separately from the broth. I’m also trying dried ramen noodles and will probably not cook them in the broth, so I can just make what we need. Last time the leftover noodles absorbed all the broth so the leftovers were more noodley than soupy.
Tues: IP spaghetti and meatballs (Melissa Clark), green beans
Weds: Chicken shawarma and Greek potatoes
https://www.thechunkychef.com/wprm_print/12888
Thurs: leftovers
Fri: tbd, I’m meeting my old boss for a drink so I might let DH and DS figure it out themselves
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We loved this dish too. I’ve made it several times. My notes say; use two cans of rinsed beans. Cook the shrimp first, remove and add a splash of white wine to reduce.
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OOps This is a response to the Lemon Bean Shrimp dish from the NYTimes website.
Congratulations to DS, happy birthday to DH, and good luck peopling.
I really want a slice of the Boston Cream Pie.
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Actuals for March 21 week, cooking for 2 in Minnesota. Where the year-long excitement of city construction on the corner of our block - tearing down and replacing a fire station - has just begun. We think we’ll have fewer meals outside on the back deck this season, since the non-stop beeping of construction equipment can’t really be called “musical”. Closed windows and louder settings on the stereo speakers is our current coping strategy. However, “techy” husband managed to get an outdoor webcam working and we can watch the construction site from any screen in the house.
Mon - OUT with a friend we’d not seen in person for two years– Husband and I split a seafood platter – salmon with lobster sauce, grilled scallops, breaded shrimp, rice, baked potato, salad, biscuits
Tues - (Schwan’s) breaded hake (white fish), macaroni & cheese, fresh orange slices. (Schwans’s) Key Lime Pie nibbles
Wed - Sushi, Baked potato half with tonnato (tuna) sauce and egg from Ottolenghi Simple https://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/apr/18/easy-ottolenghi-fish-recipes
Thurs - One pan pork chops with apples and onions, using apple cider instead of broth and dried herbs not fresh.
https://www.thechunkychef.com/one-pan-pork-chops-apples-onions/ Recommended in 2018 on WFD by Cerise1. We’ve had several times – half recipe gives us 2 meals
Fri - Oven Italian Beef “my way” shredded for sandwiches. Recipe posted on HO What's For Dinner #79 - the Carly Simon "An-ti-ci-pay-yay-shun" Edition - March 2022 - #670 by MidwesternerTT with fresh apple/orange salad and chips
Sat - Skillet-cooked cod fillet in lemon oil with lemon-pepper. Side of brown rice/black beans/ Rotel casserole. Recipe posted on HO What's For Dinner #79 - the Carly Simon "An-ti-ci-pay-yay-shun" Edition - March 2022 - #702 by MidwesternerTT
Sun (today) - Marinated pork tenderloin, brown rice/black beans/rotel side dish, fresh apple & oranges salad. Dessert pumpkin muffin
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