Weekly Menu Planning - February 2024

Cooking Discussions Cooking, Cookbooks, Ingredients
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Oh wow, such great plans and news.

When I was in grad school in the SF Bay area decades, and I do mean decades, ago, as someone from the East coast (North Carolina and Boston), I remember with much fondness and enduring wonder at the strawberries and asparagus in season in February! I still have some ancient photos of picnics at Foothills park eating those things!

Sounds like you have had a wonderful time away and I hope when you get back to Chattanooga, you and DH go out or get take out as you adjust to the time and seasonal and cultural differences.

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Actuals for Feb 12 week, cooking for 2 in MN where winter snow found us, at last, on Wed. That Feb 6 pound of Costco spinach kept nicely in two tight sealed “leakproof” clear plastic containers (9.6 C/2.3 L each). After daily salads for husband (joined on alternating days by me), one final serving remains, 12 days later. A Friday excursion to the NordicWare factory outlet with my baking buddy resulted in additions to my Bundt collection - a pair of microwave mug-cake mini-pans and a factory-2nd loaf pan in their newest design - Pirouette.

Mon: Lunch - Hot ham & swiss on homemade wheat buns. Dinner - me -OUT, fancy fundraiser event, he - eggbake
Tues: lunch reheat Tamale Casserole & spinach. Supper OUT - Chick Fil A
Wed (Valentines Day): Cold shrimp w/ cocktail sauce. Steak, mushrooms, sweet potato, reheated spinach souffle, reheated mixed veggies. Red grapes. Strawberries w/ whipped cream.
Thurs: Sheetpan – Sausage/potatoes/peppers, sliced fresh orange
Fri: reheat Sheetpan – Sausage/potatoes/peppers, sliced fresh orange
Mug cakes microwaved in new Nordicware mini pans – more practice needed, they did not release cleanly/hold shape. But each had great flavor – Chocolate Peanut butter and Cinnamon Snickerdoodle
Sat/Sun - noon: Creamy Alfredo Tomato bacon pasta – Julia Pacheco. Spinach salad. Baguette. For Dinner: Curry Cod, coconut rice, peas with cashews

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It truly is wondrous!

Yep, I had to laugh at the “minestrone” I thawed: turned out to be a mixture of summer vegetables with no broth. (I will, someday, remember the importance of labels!)

Cooking for two adults, both vegetarian, in Pasadena, California. I tend to batch cook, due to some health issues that constrain energy, cognition, and physical abilities.

After giving my attempts at WMP some pondering, I’ve come to realize that my life/body/cognition are such that trying to hold myself to a daily plan is too stressful. In looking at how some of the rest of y’all approach things, I’m thinking of trying something different to see if it works for me. Instead of a daily plan I’m going to see if I do better with more flexibility.

With that in mind, for the next week I’d like to:

  • Bake two types of quick breads (for freezer and to send to FIL)
  • Make another batch of beige soup (to eat/freeze/send to FIL
  • Cook/make something with the pierogis that are taking up too much space in the freezer

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

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Whatever works best for you! Menu planning is the only thing in my life that needs to have some kind of order, mostly so I don’t get stuck in a food rut, and also to effectively use up everything in a very full freezer.

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This recipe? https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/crispy-black-bean-tacos-with-feta-and-cabbage-slaw

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Cooking for three in Asheville, one who eats primarily carbs and another who decided to eliminate a lot of them from his diet, while also lowering dietary fat to help cholesterol. Fun times. I’m not making myself crazy over it.

A bunch of ideas for the next 2-3 weeks. Many sides/veg still TBD.

-Tonight - Afghan-rubbed “lightly smoked” slow-roasted salmon, zhoug, sauteed coriander Brussels, and leftover brown rice stir-fried with shallot, and tossed with TJ’s lemon pesto, dried cherries/cranberries, pistachios, and chopped parsley. Leftover poppy seed slaw. Kiddo will have breaded fish filets with doctored leftover boxed shells n cheese, leftover corn pudding, and mini peppers with dip.

-Pulled chicken tacos/tostadas w creamy cilantro slaw. Kiddo’s fave in heavy rotation.

-Chipotle chicken chowder

Seared peppered tuna Niçoise salad with haricots, redskin potatoes, and Kalamata olives. Not authentic but :woman_shrugging:t2:

Grilled Kufta kebab in TJ’s handmade ww tortillas with hummus, feta, cukes, tomatoes, and turmeric yogurt sauce. Probably more zhoug.

Baked b/s chicken thighs with peppers, onion, garlic, and rice. Loosely based on this recipe, but I’m planning to use partially cooked brown basmati rice and add a little Schmaltz and powdered gelatin to make up for the missing skin and bone.

Amylu Teriyaki chicken meatball lettuce wraps with cucumber, pickled carrot, fresh chili, sticky rice, and hoisin sauce and garlic-chili vinegar. The meatballs weren’t the hit I’d expected, so hoping this disposes of them.

Ina Garten’s [chicken] meatloaf with cauliflower puree and sauteed haricots

Homestyle braised tofu with [crimini] mushrooms, carrots, and [sugar snaps] over rice

Shrimp burgers with Old Bay remoulade on sesame brioche buns

Peanut chicken stew (Azin Nsonou) with okra and bay-infused fonio. (“View details–>view all details” to see ingredient list).

Pinchos morunos and boxed red beans and rice.

Harissa-orange chicken thighs with freekeh

Chicken Rahmschnitzel with trofie and mushroom sauce from the freezer

Jackfruit crab cakes (can you sense my dwindling enthusiasm?)

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I’ve tried the Amylu meatballs before and I always want them to be better than they are. I think your lettuce wrap approach is sound, hope it works!

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I agree. For how much sodium they have they were rather bland. I think I stirred in some mango chutney to help things out

A bummer cause normally Amylu has pretty good stuff

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There’s a lot of delicious stuff there! Your menus are always so ambitious – I run out of steam after a couple of new things :joy:

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Sounds like a great plan. For me, this has really helped me with grocery shopping… I buy less and waste less this way. Meals seldom happen on the day planned, but most happen at some point in the week. I love that we can all make this work for us in some form.

Good luck with this week’s rain!

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The menus, yes. The executed meals less so. Things like leftovers, availability of ingredients, energy, and life get in the way​:face_with_hand_over_mouth::sweat_smile:

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Hi everyone

I feel like I’m hitting a bit of food wall. Thinking I need to simplify for a bit.

Canceled most of my plans over the week and weekend for weather and lack of motivation. Did however go to a fun Filipino meal with fellow Onions on Sunday, then walk around the Little Manila neighborhood and browse the Filipino and Thai markets.

Ideas for the week:
— Ants Climbing a Tree: Sichuan noodles with ground pork (but turkey)
(Made twice already with two different noodles – here and here)
— Cauliflower tart (inspired by this SK version of a Bon Appetit recipe, but modifying to what I have at hand) to use up a GIANT cauliflower
— Dal, rice, cauliflower sabzi, fish in chutney (really zhoug) or mustard
— Hainan or white-cooked chicken breast + rice cooked in the broth + tbd veg
— Chicken Quesadillas (using up flour tortillas from my tortilla pizza craving + leftover Hainan chicken)
— Hoppin John or Black-eyed pea Pulao
— Some kind of noodles (longevity, umami, miso butter) with mushrooms, and maybe steak on the side
— Ikea copycat broccoli & potato medallions (one of these days I’ll actually make this) + roasted salmon

Have a great week!

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When I first started making them, years ago, it was that recipe. But I have streamlined them to the point that they’re not the same. I doctor the beans (a bit of butter, cumin, lime juice, etc), then stick them in regular corn tacos shells with shredded cabbage and feta.

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So much sounds delicious here!

Sympathy on the various eating roadblocks!

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Greetings, People.

Cooking for two adults in the PNW:

FRI: A new-to-me chowder recipe: Swedish salmon soup from The Happy Foodie (UK). This one looks promising with spinach and tomatoes. Biscuits of some variety to go with.

SAT: Leftover Senate Bean Soup from the freezer. Leftover biscuits.

SUN: My turn for pinchos morunos. Couscous probably, and thinking of a grated carrot salad to go with.

MON: Pizza night. Variety TBD, but will be served with green salad.

TUE: NYT’s mac and cheese with greens – we like this best with spinach instead of kale (gift link).

WED: Ruth Reichl’s chicken diavolo (another gift link). Salad greens.

THUR: Steak on the grill. Green salad.

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I had another health wake-up call this week. LOL.

It’ll be healthier food at home. I already cook relatively healthy meals. So -

Wed:
We had salmon with lemon and dill, shrimp with garlic and oregano, eggplant parm from the freezer,
angel hair with garlic and tomatoes

Thu:
Probably baked biftekia
Russian cabbage soup
Maybe use up some Ukrainian mushrooms dumplings from the freezer
Pierogies (some are cabbage filled instead of potato)

Fri:
I guess it’ll be a white fish, either halibut or haddock. Style tbd. Probably some rice.

Sat:
Healthy-ish takeout for me.

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If it’s any help, I usually do once a month cooking during the winter months so I’ll make three different soups to have for weekday lunches then lots of stews and casseroles that I can heat up during the week. I make enough leftovers to last a month until the next cook off. It’s a lot of work the weekend I do my cook off but my future self thanks me for it and it’s a good way of reducing salt, fat and all the bad stuff we like to avoid. I can’t help with restaurant recommendations since I haven’t been to Toronto lately but if you like frozen dinners the Blue Menu ones are pretty good.

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:slight_smile: I guess I want specific dishes, rather than general approaches.

No worries re: restaurant recs. That healthiesh dinner will likely be Israeli, Mediterranean, Vietnamese or Japanese. Or maybe Mexican chicken soup ( Reddit Food Toronto ISO chicken soup to go ) LOL. I am probably one of the 3 the most prolific restaurant trier-outers on the Toronto board (ElvisAhmed also tries a lot of new restaurants, in terms of sheer quantity, as does DrJohn), in terms of number of new establishments tried each month.

Charles, estufarian, and DrJohn dine at more top quality restaurants than I do.

I’m not really a fan of frozen Blue dinners or other President’s Choice / Our Compliments / Irresistibles / Farm Boy / M& M frozen dinners. A lot of frozen prepared food contains an ingredient or preservative that gives me hives, so my frozen meal intake is much less than it was years ago. This year, one of the people I cook for decided the frozen pizzas and ribs were too salty, so right now the only frozen prepared foods I have been buying have been Chinese dumplings and pierogies.

Before I had to give up downhill skiing, I used to like Amy’s frozen meals (Mexican, Thai or Indian) and Indian Life frozen meals for a quick microwave dinner in a few minutes, after a long day trip. I haven’t bought any in 4 years. https://www.indianlife.ca/

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I want to like jackfruit preps, but have not found any that I’ve liked. If anyone can make jackfruit delicious, it’s you. Looking forward to hearing about this dish if you get around to it although I have to admit it sounds a bit weird.

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No pressure :sweat_smile:

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