Weekly Menu Planning - August 2025

Cooking Discussions
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Welcome to the August 2025 edition of the thread where we share our weekly menus and more.

Some of us share a day by day plan, others report last week’s actual meals, and some put together a list of ideas to work from the week. You do you, and take comfort that the best laid plans do change for all of us!

If you have recipe links or sources, do share them, as we all love picking up new ideas from everyone else’s menus! For context and because we’re interested, please include your location and how many you plan and/or cook for.

Are you grilling and chilling? Eating mostly salads? Plotting how many fruit pies you can make per week? What’s in your plans for this month?

(The July thread remains available for reporting actuals and any follow-up discussions.)

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It’s August already! Where does the summer go? And it has finally cooled down to a comfortable 23 degrees Celsius (73 Farenheit). When I was running errands earlier I saw quite a few people wearing sweaters - I guess the sudden drop in temperature makes it feel cooler than it really is. It’s a long weekend in Ontario this weekend since it’s our civic holiday on Monday. Possible activities involve meeting up with a silent book club tomorrow afternoon to join them on an outdoor meetup to sit in a park and read together for a couple of hours. I messaged the organizer to ask how I will be able to find the group so I am patiently waiting for a response… I am hoping to go on a museum visit or two on my other days off. My menu plans for this week look like this:

Today: Take out lunch was a sausage roll. My craving for one is now over so I can move on with my life :slight_smile: I will have a salad for dinner probably including cucumbers. I now have five of them in my fridge :slight_smile:

Saturday: Pasta with red kidney bean sauce. Side salad tbd.

Sunday: Salade nicoise.

Monday: Pork chop, squash, potato

Tuesday: Thai red curry cauliflower.

Wednesday: Rice pilaf that got bumped from last week.

Thursday: I have some goat cheese to finish up and it’s pasta night tonight. I’ve found a couple of tomato based sauces in my cookbooks that call for adding goat cheese so I now have almost a week to decide which one I want to make :slight_smile: Side salad tbd.

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Let’s see. Still cooking for two adults in Central PA. Like @ottawaoperadiva, we are relieved that the heat and humidity seem to be giving us a break for a few days, after disgustingly swampy weeks pretty much since our return from Berlin. Hey — we might even be able to grill / dine al fresco without melting :crossed_fingers:t2:

Today we shared our traditional Friday taco flight of two Cajun shrimp tacos and one roast pork taco for lunch; tonight we’re invited to a poker game at our buddy’s place where there will be homemade pizza and supermarket fried chicken that is apparently very good.

SAT or SUN: my dude marinated lamb shoulder chops and riblets from our share today, so they’ll be on the menu this weekend or Monday at the latest. I’ll be contributing tzatziki, melitsanosalata, and horiatiki — whenever this happens :smiley:

SUN or MON: Pla Goong OR pad kra pao gai with jasmine rice and maybe some “Thai” cuke salad on the side.

MON: BLT salad or a Cobb salad with HBEs, bacon, blue cheese, roti chicken.

TUE: Air-fryer Lao sausage & stir-fried mung bean sprouts.

WED: hosting my gals for a showing of Moonage Daydream on the big screen & ordering Detroit-style pizza. Popcorn. Drinks courtesy of my PIC.

THUR: is typically the day a lot of Asian restaurants & markets in town get their deliveries from NYC and Philly, so I’m either picking up stuff at the market to make… whatever looks good, or we might order sushi.

FRI: our HK buddy & his boo are tying the knot, and we are invited for the mid-day ceremony followed by a champagne brunch at their abode, and later on for a proper celebration. No doubt the food will be great, even if he’s not doing the cooking this time (he catered our bday/anni event with 70 guests all by himself!!!).

Looks like another week of good eats & less shweddiness. Here for it :slight_smile:

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Friday (tonight): harissa-marinated steak tip, herby rice, green beans

Saturday: fish and Green Goddess salad (will see what looks good at the fishmonger)

Sunday: Green Goddess salad with leftover steak tip

Monday: stir-fried noodles with roasted mushrooms or Salade Niçoise

Tuesday: Salade Niçoise or scrounge

Wednesday: something from the nice butcher in the town where I have a doctors appointment plus good veg from the farm I will pass on the way back

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I just bought some Thai red curry paste for a swordfish recipes and need to find another recipe. I like the cauliflower idea… thanks

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Friday
Tomato, green onion and white cheddar spaetzle and cheese

Zucchini briam with dill and basil

Local corn on the cob

Wild blueberry, peach, strawberry and bing cherry salad with cream

Saturday
Fried pickerel on a patio, near a lake.

Sunday
Stuffed tomatoes and eggplant, Greek style. This is the stuffing I use

Vegetables from the garden, including roasted beets

Monday
To be determined. It’s the Civic Holiday, which means a Bank Holiday and Holiday Monday, in Ontario and most parts of Canada.

Tuesday
New Italian restaurant for us near Lake Erie for lunch, stopping at my favourite fishmonger on the way home to buy lobster for lobster rolls Tue night.

Wednesday
Roasted chicken thighs
New potatoes

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This is also a wonderful use for red curry (although I rarely have leftover curry paste cuz I use the whole can).

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Cooking for 2 in Chattanooga after a lovely if very hot 5 days in Arkansas with my teaching colleagues from the 2000s. I made grilled nachos with carnitas, tomato salad, and a blueberry pie, and my friends also made delicious food. Now back home for a while…

Menus so far:

Friday: a big Greek panzanella-type salad from Milk Street; more carnitas if that’s not enough.

Saturday, August 2: Roast chicken, Boursin mashed potatoes , maybe “BBQ” carrots with yogurt sauce

Sunday: Fish stew with ginger, peach and almond tart from one of my Maida Heatter cookbooks

Monday-Tuesday: TBD

Wednesday: Curry with whatever vegetables the farmer’s market has to offer

Thursday-Friday: TBD

Hope everyone enjoys their week. Happy cooking!

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My PIC and I were just talking about wanting to make carnitas again soon! Do you have a favorite recipe? I base mine loosely on a friend’s notes.

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I immediately clicked on the kidney bean pasta link. Not sure what to think, but you can bet I will be trying it when I’m on my own.

It’s 73 here right now, and feels chilly! I absolutely understand the sweaters.

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Happy August everyone!

I’m back from HK and with fam for a bit, plotting about my usual “secret” menu plan with the otherwise impromptu planners :rofl:.

Ideas for the week:
– Hong Kong redux – I brought roast goose and char siu back with me, add veg and this will make a fabulous dinner (or two)
– Momo / dumpling night: my friend sent me back from HK with fresh dumpling wrappers, and I’ve made mixed mushroom and paneer & veg dumplings (from COTM Meera Sodha’s Fresh India) so far
– A Simple Lasagna from COTM Turshen (I never got to this before I left for my trip) + focaccia + salad
– Sushi bowls – probably spicy shrimp, avocado, sesame carrots, and wasabi slaw
– Pork tenderloin probably made like Spanish pinchos morunos (a la Milk Street) + Vinegret salad (beets, potato, carrots, onion) + fresh dinner rolls / pao
– Steakhouse dinner at home – steak + mashed or scalloped potatoes + spinach
– Gambas al ajillo (garlicky shrimp inspired by @MunchkinRedux) + tbd veg + mushroom pasta for mom (maybe the cacciatore @LulusMom1 described from COTM)

I baked a few things today for the brother-sister holiday being celebrated this weekend, because my cousin who is hosting dislikes the traditional Indian sweets usually exchanged. He got chocolate banana bread (a bit extra with chocolate ganache for the special occasion) and jam bread & butter pudding (because the hot milk cake I had planned to sandwich with jam failed due to dead baking powder). Will bake some more banana bread (eggless this time for mom) and get new baking powder for take 2 on the hot milk cake (once we finish the dud version as cake & custard).

Have a lovely weekend, and a good week ahead!

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I was thinking that Meera Sodha’s kidney bean curry would be pretty good over pasta (as kheema tends to be)!

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The fish stew sounds lovely (and a bit reminiscent of a simple tomato fish my mom used to make when she didn’t want to fuss with fish curry).

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Yum. I may have to improvise shrimp rolls on fresh bread rolls while I’m here.

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Leftover Thai curry paste freezes really well, if you don’t get around to using it up.

Not terribly seasonal, but I love this chicken curry noodle soup that starts with red curry paste (it doesn’t usually need additional aromatics if the paste is potent, and you can vary the noodles, protein, and veg to whatever is at hand).

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That’s my absolute favorite thing from the book, but my mouth is not letting me imagine it over pasta. However I just remembered one of my favorite VERY easy Smitten Kitchen recipes, which is marinated artichoke hearts, garlic, chilies, and white beans over either toast or pasta, and it’s not too far from that.

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You brought roast goose from Hong Kong into the States? I thought customs didn’t allow that.

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For two adults in San Diego:

Breakfasts: Starting off with some good pastries from a favorite bakery. Then, granola, fruit, and almond milk. My husband has been in charge of prepping the fruit in the morning (currently strawberries, blueberries, and bananas).

S: (tonight) takeout - Pizza

Su: Pancakes topped with fruit, chicken breakfast sausage

M: Lentil soup - vegetarian

T: Kielbasa with onions and peppers, hash browns

W: Chicken and veggie stirfry with noodles

Th: Beans and greens with leftover kielbasa, garlic bread

F: Shrimp tacos, with all the fixings - seafood

Take care of yourselves!

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A riff on Lamb Korma tonight, and Aloo Gobi, with local cauliflower and homegrown potatoes.

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