Weekly Menu Planning - April 2024

Cooking Discussions Cooking, Cookbooks, Ingredients
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So, is it a bizarrely busy Spring for anyone else? All the faculty and students at my college are having a wildly hectic semester.

Adding a salad back into my weekly categories, bring us to: vegetarian, seafood, salad, soup. Occasionally I may let the soup double count for one of the others.

For two adults in San Diego:

Breakfasts: Starting off with TJs chocolate croissants.

S: My husband was at the LA Times Festival of Books, so I just grabbed something from the freezer.
Su: (tonight) TJs Santa Maria tri-tip, creamed spinach, hash browns
M: Potstickers (purchased) in homemade chicken stock with veggies - soup
T: Salad with leftover tri-tip, cheese, tomatoes, avocado. Topped with Fritos - salad
W: Leftover refried beans and green enchilada sauce from the freezer, combined with lots of cheese to make a dip. Top with tomatoes and avocado. Scoop with Fritos. - vegetarian
Th: Eggs scrambled with last of the tri-tip, onions, peppers, cheese with hash browns.
F: Crab cakes (purchased) with chipotle mayo, esquites. - seafood

Have a good week!

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102

I think it is imperative that you buy them suits for their birthdays!

I don’t love swordfish, but like it, and this was a tasty way to serve it.

And yes, that is exactly the recipe! I used to make it fairly often - I love the use of frozen hash browns as the carb. I think next time I might use Madras curry powder. Anyway, it is such an easy, different dish, and I really like it.

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Thank you Madrid … trying not to get too emotional here, but yeah, it’s been a crazy few months. In very happy news, she made finals at the national debate event (happening now).

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My assessment of PVD is that it was charming. We did not see a ton of the city in our ~24hr visit, but we really enjoyed what we did see. And we had a delicious lunch at the Malted Barley!

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The recipe comes from one of my cookbooks (“Edamame” by Anne Egan) so I don’t have a link to share but I could paraphrase with my tweaks.

In a bowl, toss scallops with s&p, lemon zest and chives or scallions.

Toss mesclun mix with a vinaigrette of evoo and white wine vinegar or white balsamic vinegar then plate. Add yellow bell pepper strips and cooked edamame.

Pan fry the scallops then add to salad.

The cookbook author pan fries the scallops then removes them from the heat then sautées the pepper and edamame. I prefer to eat the veggies raw.

I make this salad most often during the summer when it is too hot to cook so I usually use the spring mix and pepper in my CSA plus an extra vegetable or two using whatever salad-like veggies I get in my box that week. I add some edamame (purchased in Chinatown) and I steam the scallops.

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Thank you!

I was thinking it might be nice with a slightly asian vinaigrette too.

Love scallops, don’t remember to eat them nearly enough!

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Recommend this — very tasty for not too much effort.

Made it for dinner last night ( (with simplifications bec the NYT recipe is overly fussy — happy to share if anyone wants to try it).

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Dinner plans for two adults and a kid in Asheville, NC:

Sunday: cavatelli with broccolini, grape, tomatoes, chicken Italian sausage and creamy Parmesan sauce.

Monday: leftover black bean and ham soup with tortilla chips, sour cream, lime wedges, and avocado

Tuesday: Low Country boil with shrimp (crispy popcorn shrimp and plain COTC for kiddo)

Wednesday: pesto pizza with fresh mozz and asparagus (+ bacon?), arugula salad

Thursday: Thai penang curry with chicken breast, assorted veg, and rice

Friday: brewery plans out with friends; probably food truck

Saturday: chicken potstickers, garden chard flashed with hot oil, scallion, and garlic

Sunday: easy fish tacos and slaw

Monday: peanut tofu Buddha bowls (double batch - half for a teacher meal train)

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I’d love the simplifications!

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Sending

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I usually just lurk and like but I thought I would share what we had last night. Better than it sounds and easy.

I wish we still had a weekly plan but our situation has changed we are happily doing one day at a time!

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The May discussion is ready for next week and month.

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113

Greetings, People.

Spring-green cooking this last week of April. Two adults in the PNW.

FRI: Stir-fried asparagus and steak salad, loosely based on an LA Times stir-fry recipe (with thanks to @tcamp for introducing me to this dish).

SAT: Fish tacos – yay!

SUN: NYT’s Spring veg minestrone (gift link) with pesto garnish. Garlic bread.

MON: Bon Appetit’s Korean rice bowl with steak, asparagus, and fried egg (bibimbap).

TUE: James Beard’s Pleasant Pasta – more green stuff, this time with bacon. NYT gift link here.

WED: Salmon Caesar salad with homemade croutons.

THUR: Spring herb kachapuri (rolled from a week or two ago). Inspired by a recipe from Saveur.

Enjoy the season - eat your veggies!

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114

Hello friends it is finally warm and sunny out! It has been raining and very cool in Ottawa this week, cool enough to bundle up in my parka again. I think the weatherman is predicting more rain this weekend but warm so I will take it! Last Wednesday I went to an impromptu jazz concert on Wednesday night. We have a food hall downtown with a stage set up at one end and live concerts in the evenings and on the weekends. On Wednesday nights they have free jazz concerts and since I like jazz and I managed to finish dinner early then I headed up and took in a lovely concert. Onto my menus for this week:

Today: My take out lunch today is a spaghetti and meatball dish from the nearby deli. Off to get my taxes done after work then I will pop into the grocery store next door to pick up salad ingredients for dinner.

Saturday: I’m going to a lecture at the library this afternoon and we will be learning about the Karsh brothers (famous Canadian photographers). Salmon fillet and Greek salad for dinner.

Sunday: I am going to a food and book expo today. I didn’t realize we had one in Ottawa until a few weeks ago and since I like to read and I like to eat I will spend the day browsing through books and food. I’m not sure how the food situation works (samples vs. café onsite) so I have no plans for dinner. If there is sampling I will probably have another salad for dinner, if not I will be passing by two grocery stores on the way home so I’m sure I will find something to eat!

Monday: Ginger bok choy soup to finish up the last of the Asian vegetables in the fridge.

Tuesday: Peanut butter noodles with cucumbers.

Wednesday: Masoor dal that I have left in the freezer, rice on the side. I am planning on going back to the food hall to see another jazz concert, this time seeing a musician who I am familiar with and I’m looking forward to the show!

Thursday: I’m going to the second to last film society screening this year so I will have dinner on the way to the movie theatre.

I hope everyone has a warm (and hopefully sunny) week ahead.

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As a follow up to the Karsh lecture I will be going to tomorrow, Yousuf Karsh (the more famous of the two brothers) is best known for his photograph of Churchill.

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My mom’s trick for freshening up leftover / frozen dal is to add fresh tempering (vaghar / tadka) after reheating – it really does give it new life! Even the simplest ghee/butter/oil plus smashed garlic and cumin seeds is plenty flavorful.

Of late, I’ve been cooking vegetables in my dal and pureeing them in. Enhances the flavor and also makes me less guilty if I don’t have time to add a veg on the side. (My favorite blend-ins are cauliflower stem or zucchini, but any squash or root veg works, as do greens.)

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Good to know! I think I still have some cumin handy but if all else fails I still have lots of ghee in the fridge.

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Actuals for April 22 week, cooking for 2 in MN. Where we celebrated our anniversary with meals out Tuesday, plus a walk amid cherry blossoms at the nearby small Japanese Garden. I’ve started some very minor spring cleaning of kitchen cupboards and used the local Buy Nothing FB group to redeploy an extra springform pan, large plastic serving bowls, glass banana split dishes and miscellaneous small bowls and plates. I was celebrating until one of the recipients (in a thank you message) told me she planned to repurpose 2 cute antique small relish dishes, still in perfect condition, into fused glass art. Ah, well - the hazards of gifting.

Mon: lunch -Takeout BBQ w sides and corn muffin, dinner - Gado Gado which we first tasted in the Netherlands as Dutch Rijsttafel (“rice table”) - Hot peanut sauce over rice, shredded chicken, steamed veggies (cauliflower, corn, black beans, garbanzos), tossed salad
Tues: OUT – our Anniversary –– Seafood (shrimp, scallops, lump crab) Cannelloni in cream sauce, Caesar salad, flourless chocolate torte. Wine.
Wed: reheat of Monday meals
Thurs: Salmon, asparagus, rice, spinach salad
Fri: Skillet Pork chops with apples and red onion, baked potato, iceberg lettuce salad w tomatoes and croutons
Sat: reheat Skillet Pork chops with apples and red onion, mashed potato, iceberg lettuce salad w tomatoes and croutons
Sun (today): Mahi Mahi, fruit (pear, grapes), spinach salad, hot parmesan corn dip with tortilla chips. Corn dip is a fusion of mostly an Emeril corn dip recipe with a can of drained green chilies per a Deep South blogger adaptation of a Trisha Yearwood recipe.

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Happy anniversary!

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Hi everyone! A college decision has been made, and we are all very happy about and with it. Between her belated birthday celebrations and the big decision, it has been a very festive week. And apparently (it has been strongly hinted), I should be baking a cake with the school colors to celebrate (is this really a thing?). Just when we finally finished off the birthday carrot cake cupcakes… Here is what we ate:

Sun: solo. Smoky white beans & cauliflower with aioli from I Dream of Dinner. This was so incredibly good, like patatas bravas. I love this book, especially the bean chapter.

Mon: solo again, and another recipe from I Dream. Turmeric shrimp with cucumber, citrus, avocado. Easy, refreshing, healthy, tasty.

Tues: Lulu and her dad home. Curried coconut chicken soup, rice, salad with Asian dressing. Cupcakes.

Wed: tomato and dumpling salad with chili crisp dressing (NYT), cupcakes

Thurs: sushi feast out along with one of Lulu’s friends.

Fri: SK’s chicken gyro salad, pita, tzatziki, cupcakes.

Sat: orzo shrimp scampi with cherry tomatoes and spinach (Dinner in One, delicious). Last of the cupcakes.

Sun: going to Lulu’s middle school reunion dinner. Probably not going to be great food-wise, so we may pick something up on the way home. Shake Shack?

Unfortunately somehow I hurt my knee, and the doctor has advised me to stay off it for a couple weeks. No tennis, pickleball, etc. Going to try to silver lining this situation by getting other things done. The house could certainly use some cleaning! Will try to find a way for the knee to make that impossible.

Have a great week!

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