Weekly Menu Planning - February 2026

Cooking Discussions
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Welcome to the February 2026 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.

February is the shortest month but the days are steadily getting longer, with many of us adding over an hour of daylight over the course of the month. Is that extra light changing what goes on your table this month? Or are you still cooking winter favorites?

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

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Greetings, People.

I bought avocados last week to make avo hummus. The hummus came out great, but why did I purchase 5 avocados?

Cooking for two adults in the PNW:

FRI: Old school chicken tacos with the works, including avocado.

SAT: Chicken-and-zucchini meatballs. Pasta with pesto sauce. A shout-out to @ieatalotoficecream.

SUN: Potato soup with a Cajun-style shrimp garnish (ala shrimp and grits). Green salad.

MON: Burgers on the grill. Fries. Avocado optional.

TUE: More fish tacos. More avocado.

WED: Kielbasa. Fondant potatoes. Salad.

THUR: Spend-with-Pennies’ chicken stew. Thanks to @lindawhit for this one.

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Avocados freeze well because of the fat content. Whole or mashed (frozen guac is actually very handy in individual portions).

There’s also chocolate avocado mousse, if you want to give that a spin.

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You’re killin’ me…. :yum:

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Taverna Tony in Malibu makes an avocado tzatziki, if that turns your crank.

I guess it’s a thing in Greece , too

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oh my, happy post . . . new revelation!

we/err, I , , , like avocado on toast. bread toast, Eng muffin toast, with slice of onion or tomato or both . . . smoke salmon known to become present . . .

the problem has long time been “timing” the grocery store rock-like-avocado to “edible stage” in a buy-sit-ripen-eat situation.

that avocado will ‘freeze’ well mean . . . I can slurp up 2-3 avocados and as they ‘soften’ to ‘eat now’ stage . . . . I can open/extract the flesh, mash, freeze . . . for a more controlled ‘on demand’ usage?

I’ve gotten pretty adept at judging ‘hard’ to ‘ripe’ to ‘dang! gone too far’ by feel.
but I sure could adapt to having ‘a frozen portion’ ready to thaw and use ‘on demand’

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I’ve had an absolutely fantastic frozen blueberry dessert once that was avocado-based to make it vegan. This was at a party well over a decade ago, and it was so good I still remember it (yet haven’t ever bothered to make it :grimacing:).

Creamy, rich, delicious. You’d never know avocado was the base, although… they are creamy, rich, delicious :slight_smile:

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There are recipes using either melted chocolate or cocoa or both, in the latter there’s usually some liquid (milk or cream). I think cocoa intensifies the chocolate flavor so I might use both.

Sweeteners also vary, vegan recipes sometimes use maple syrup, “healthy” recipes honey over sugar.

Some enhancement might be nice too — a bit of booze, coffee powder, vanilla, etc.

I recall one recipe recommending whipping the pureed / processed mouse before chilling for better texture.

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The challenge is remembering to use them up from the freezer :joy:

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Still delegating most of the cooking duties to my PIC these days, although I noticed I’m not too shabby chopping stuff with my left hand :flexed_biceps:t2: I try to help out as much as possible without over-expending my shoulder / messing with the healing process, which is slooooowwwww :roll_eyes:

Today is my dude’s long day on campus, and he’s meeting up with our pesca buddy & some rando for HH, so he’ll be home even later than usual.

Dinner options floated earlier included takeout from a popular fried chicken place, sushi, or assorted dumplings from the casa lingua freezer plus maybe stir-fried snow peas I originally got for Monday’s Thai curry, but never used. But after heating up a bowl of that fab chowdah I made Tuesday — which was even better than the first time around — I decided it’s gonna be leftovers.

Tomorrow we’re meeting a friend from PGH who’s in town for a hockey game for lunch at our favorite taco purveyor. Unless someone’s hosting a poker game tomorrow we might opt for hot pot or dumplings & stir-fried veg on the side for dinner. IF my PIC’s ready for “Asian” food again :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Saturday I was thinking of either roasting the BISO chickie boob that’s in our freezer with Greek seasoning and sides (lemon potatoes, maroulosalata), or pan-searing the two duck breasts also in our freezer. Side for those would be Rotkohl aka braised red cabbage with grated apples & caramelized onions, and maybe the rare mash.

Sunday will be ssssspicy, one way or another. Maybe a kicky black bean soup with one of the chicken stock quarts from the freezer. NYT had a recipe that sounded quite appealing.

Monday TBD. Cheeseburgers maybe, or takeout Korean fried chicken that also happens to be pretty dang spicy.

Tuesday TBD, tho if it’s still cold as ballz here I wouldn’t mind some Chinese beef noodle soup, or ramen — both from local places.

Wednesday I’m having my gals over to make up for canceling yesterday’s gathering. Hopefully I’ll feel more social by then, as we have two bdays to celebrate :slight_smile: We might order Detroit-style pizza cuz I ain’t cooking for 8+ peeps RN :smiley:

Thursday TBD

Stay warm, stay strong, stay sane, fellow HOs — and eat & drink the things that bring you joy.

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Hi, all! Cooking for 2 in Chattanooga, where once again we wait to see whether the snow hits us or not. We got lucky last week, but our friends in Nashville weren’t so lucky, and I guess some there still don’t have power…
Friday, January 30 (today): Ham and cheese “picnic sandwiches”, a play on muffuletta from Cook’s Country, and potato salad
Breakfast: Indian-style semolina seems warm and comforting
Saturday: Invited to a birthday BBQ and bourbon tasting. I’m bringing a Maida Heatter Kentucky Whiskey cake and will happily be the designated driver
Sunday: Chili from Melissa Clark’s IP cookbook, biscuits, cucumber salad, chocolate turtle cookies
Tuesday: Sticky rice with seaweed and vegetables, the last savory recipe I have left from Family
Thursday: Ravioli with green olive, almond, and orange pesto from Cook’s Illustrated
Other days TBD.
I will echo Natascha in encouraging everyone to stay strong, warm, and sane! Happy cooking!

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Hello friends and happy freezing Friday! The cold spell continues however when I ran out to pick up my lunch my lungs didn’t freeze! It’s been so cold lately I can feel the cold air going down into my lungs :frowning: We get cold snaps every January but never for this long. I hope it ends soon… Last night I went to the Italian grocer I frequent and took a class in making mocktails. The two instructors are from Montreal and they own their own company that makes non alcoholic drinks. They made five drinks using their sodas and some non alcoholic spirits and they gave us the recipes. I look forward to having the spritzer during the summer months and the aperativo and the Moscow mule we made were top notch. The store had their products out for sale and they were offering 10% off last night only so I bought some of their products to take home so now I can make my own fancy drinks!

Onto my menus/plans for this week:

Today: I got a take out lunch (fettucine al pesto) from the deli nearby because it’s too cold to go any further to pick up lunch. I will have cabbage soup for dinner. I made some last weekend and left it in the fridge to eat over the course of the week.

Tomorrow: Off to the west end for dim sum with a group of foodies from the Ottawa subreddit then possibly shopping if it isn’t freezing. There are two discount grocers and a Costco near the restaurant we are going to so I will head off to get missing ingredients while I’m in the area. I will have a salad for dinner.

Sunday: Stay-at-home day to do laundry and meal prep. I will have another shrimp salad for dinner (repeat of last Sunday).

Monday: Fried cabbage and noodles.

Tuesday: Chicken zucchini stir fry.

Wednesday: I have a drawing class after work so I will have dinner when I get home at 8:30. I haven’t planned anything yet so I will have to poke around in my fridge when I am at home on Sunday to see if there is anything I can make then reheat when I get home from class. So dinner will be a surprise :slight_smile:

Thursday: Linguine with zucchini and mint, tomato cucumber salad on the side.

Stay warm everyone. I hope you are all managing through this crazy weather we’ve been getting this winter.

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I’ve always wanted to make that Kentucky whiskey cake. Thanks for the reminder.

What a great weekly plan.

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Their ratios must result in a much wetter outcome than the version we make – our semolina to liquid ratio is 1:3 vs 1:5.

We also use milk, or a mix of milk & water. Ghee can be dialed up or down depending on the richness you want.

And the semolina is never browned, just lightly toasted on low heat till the aroma releases with the (it stays a creamy color).

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That mocktail class sounds like fun! I’m with you re: this cold spell. It’s absolutely ludicrously fuh-REEEZing cold.

MAKE IT GO AWAY!

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My mother used to make an avocado cream pie way back in the day. The trick was not telling my brother about the avocado factor when he was a youngun.

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That mocktail class was indeed fun. They sold out awfully fast and it was interesting to see a wide variety of ages present. I would say half of the class was 60+ and the other half looked like they were in their 20s and 30s. Apparently they’re planning on offering more classes like it.

And I’m done with this cold :enraged_face: I’m looking forward to long sunny days and warm temperatures.

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Last day to vote for Cookbooks of the Month(s)!

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We enjoyed it a lot, and the mixture actually ended up quite tight, not soupy at all–maybe adding hot liquid to the hot semolina caused a lot of evaporation? I also cut down a bit on the ghee…

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Hi everyone

Squeezed in a few more days for fam and work, and am trying to make the most of it.

Ended up with more social activity than I wanted, but others enjoyed so I went along. Mom took out her best friend from grad school – great fun when several 80-somethings spend an entire lunch telling the young’uns that we don’t know how to have fun like they did :rofl:. Today we had a big family lunch with some of the visiting family we saw a couple of weeks back, who wanted to spend more time together (I ended up cooking most of this as it was very last-minute and mom preferred to have them come home instead of going out like last time). We left the looong lunch to get to a talk featuring one of my grandparents, and met a bunch more family. And there’s a mothers-and-daughters tea coming up with one set of family friends. So much for my pronouncement :sweat_smile:.

Recent actuals, and some ideas for the week:
— Yesterday: “Lobster” rolls with prawns (veggie hot dog for mom) + butter lettuce salad
— Today: Winter specialty Undhiyu (mixed vegetables in an intense cilantro, green garlic, and fresh coconut spice mix), puris, cauliflower and peas (second vegetable because my aunt wanted something “light” but then ate everything not light :rofl:), kadhi (yogurt “soup”), shrikhand (sweet drained & whipped yogurt with saffron and cardamom), green peas kachori (crisp, stuffed mini empanada-like pastries), chicken curry (for my cousin SIL who needs meat but married into a vegetarian family :rofl:), and dessert: rasgullas and chocolate orange date cake (technically so was the shrikhand but we don’t count it like that because it pairs with puri :woman_shrugging:t2: :laughing:)
Ideas:
— More pizza, with a softer crust for one
— Lasagna (or roll-ups) – last week’s stuffed shells were a big hit for separate two meals
— Tandoori chicken & butter chicken – my fix of the real deal before I leave
— Crab curry a la mom or butter garlic crabs
— Mexican is still pending for everyone else (enchiladas or quesadillas with Mexican rice), but I’ll see whether they want that or more pasta (most likely more pasta)

Also have to bake banana bread before I leave.

Wish you all a good week ahead.

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