Weekly Menu Planning January 2025

Topic is ready for your February meal plans later next week.

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For two adults in San Diego:

Breakfasts: Ended up having toasted good bakery bread last week. Might start off this week with a piece of leftover birthday cake (vanilla with chocolate frosting). And then scones, because even I cannot handle frosting for breakfast. :joy:

S: (tonight) Takeout - A flight of individual pizzas for my husband’s birthday dinner. Lotsa good leftovers for lunches. He chose pepperoni & spinach, pear & gorgonzola, rosemary chicken potato, and the works. :slight_smile:

Su: Pasta with bolognese sauce

M: Shrimp tacos - seafood

T: Spinach ravioli with ham and spinach and/or peas

W: TJs orange chicken with veggies, noodles

Th:Tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches - vegetarian/soup

F: Tostadas with steak fajitas and beans

Take care of yourselves!

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A flight of pizzas is such a fun birthday idea - I am going to float this to LLD, who has a bday in early March.

I love a vanilla cake with chocolate icing. Would happily eat for breakfast.

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Hi everyone, hope you’re well and warm. It’s been quite a week, hasn’t it? I’m avoiding the news as much as possible. The snowstorm hit right along I95, and made it just unsafe feeling enough that I didn’t make it to my cousin’s wedding. Sad about that, but I texted a lot during the party with another cousin and almost felt like I was there. I’m relieved that temperatures are supposed to rise a bit this week. Here’s what we ate:

Mon: pasta with butter and cheese on my own

Tues: LLD back, spicy tomato leek toasts with fried eggs (Dinner in French)

Wed: chicken stew with mustard, brandy, smoked paprika (Milk Street) over orzo

Thurs: LLD cooked. Filet, roast potatoes, grilled onions, salad

Fri: roasted sausages, potatoes, peppers, and tomatoes (D. Henry)

I read the new Stanley Tucci book this week, What I ate in One Year, and thought of you all. It’s a fun, light read with lots of delicious sounding food. I have a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread baking right now, and the house smells wonderful. Hope it’s a good and delicious week for everyone.

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Actuals for Jan 20 week, cooking for 2 in MN. Where temperatures are now above zero again after a week of serious cold. I used the time indoors to collect/post/give away dozens of items on the local FB Buy Nothing group, and am planning to continue to clear out “stuff”. But taking photos, responding, and tracking pickup times for so many items was more work than I’d expected; I’ll do fewer at at time going forward.
Mon: French Cabbage & Sausage soup, naan bread, red grapes. Apple cider.
Tues: BAKED Bread machine whole wheat buns, dinner - (deli) smoked pulled pork on homemade buns, roasted cubed sweet potato, canned pineapple & cottage cheese
Wed: Reheat French Cabbage & Sausage soup, cheese bread (commercial), sliced tomato. Spinach & lettuce shreds.
Thurs: Slow cooker Chicken with wild rice and vegetables. which needed 3.5 hours - not the recipe’s 2.5 hours - to fully cook, spinach/lettuce salad w sliced tomato, pineapple
Fri: Sheetpan sausage, potatoes & peppers. Sliced fresh oranges, kiwi
Sat: Curry Cod over white rice, peas w/cashews
Sunday (today) : mid-day Italian pie crescent beef hotdish (w/mushrooms & cottage cheese), supper -
Hot Ham & Swiss sandwich both meals providing plenty of leftovers for lunches this upcoming week.

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That’s really cute! Did you make all those?

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Omg yes… I like being able to get stuff to new homes, but it’s so much more work than it would be to drop everything off at once at a donation/resale shop or at the “give and take” area at our town recycling facility, which isn’t open in the winter.

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Hi everyone

We’ve been impromptu with meal planning as there were several high priority things that needed to be done before I leave, and which I then postponed my return to deal with.

Actuals:
– Homemade kathi rolls but in quesadilla shape – large whole wheat chapatis, paneer and mixed vegetable cutlets, quick-pickled onions, green chutney, and a red garlic chutney yogurt sauce. This was delicious, and everything was homemade and healthy, vs the takeout version.
– Potato chops (ie lamb rack chops cooked, covered in mashed potato, and pan-fried) with beet and red onion salad and bread and butter. Mom had leftover gratin of mixed vegetables with the beet salad.
– Indian Chinese from the favorite place near my grandparents’ home – so different than the one we get these days! Paneer Manchurian, mixed vegetable fried rice, and Hakka noodles.
– Momo night again – vegetable and paneer momos, chicken momos, 3 sauces, vegetable soup.
Kheema Biryani – used up leftover Kheema aloo from the freezer, win-win.
– Parsi navjote dinner – a wonderful, traditional meal that I hope to eventually write up.
– One of my favorite chicken “curries” – Mom’s chicken Xacuti, a Goan specialty.

Only a few days left before I head back, so we are in our usual feed-everything-before-departure mode now :rofl:

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True, but at the same time, it can be easy to find new homes for things on BN that thrift stores might not even want for resale, just random smaller stuff that needs to go.

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Yes, absolutely - I’m just bemoaning how much time and energy it takes to do the environmentally sound thing :joy:

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Cooking for three in the Boston burbs, where it was a balmy 39 today and our driveway has finally melted! We did clear the 6” of snow we got last week, but there’s always that little bit left post-snowblower, and our driveway faces north and doesn’t get a lot of sun. I was considering rebranding it as a skating rink!

Sun: chicken cutlets in the air fryer, hot crash potatoes, glazed carrots. I also made: granola for breakfast, chili for tomorrow’s dinner, and a loaf of bread which smells really good but isn’t cool enough to cut into and try.

Mon: chili (ground pork and black beans), chips on the side - rolled from last week

Tues: Cajun chicken pasta

Weds: DS has the day off so he’s making dinner - mozzarella en carrozza, which he made in cooking class a few weeks ago and has wanted to make for us. Day off + gluten-free bread for me = finally time. We should probably have a vegetable too.

Thurs: skillet enchiladas, an ATK recipe, but ground chicken instead of beef.

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Greetings, People.

Cooking for two adults in the PNW.

FRI: Garlicky mushroom chicken with bacon, as introduced by @BeefeaterRocks on the WFD thread. Egg noodles. Salad.

SAT: Old school chicken tacos. Refries. Leftover red rice.

SUN: Lion’s head soup with pork meatballs and bok choy over ramen.

MON: NYT’s shrimp scampi and orzo (gift link).

TUE: Chicken soup.

WED: ATK’s Japanese steakhouse dinnerwith veg, and hibachi-style fried rice (apologies for the paywall).

THUR: Lamb kebabs on the grill. Scallion couscous. Veg TBD.

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I hope you try the pizza flight idea. It was quite a success and provided a good amount of leftovers for a hectic week. He liked the cake, too! Been awhile since I made a frosted cake.

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A mix of actuals and plans for 2 adults and 2 kids, no restrictions in the midwest. I realize we went heavy on meat this week. I am hoping I will get better at meal planning if I start posting it!

Sunday: Blue cheese steak salad with tomatoes, cukes, charred scallion dressing

Monday: Taco salads with all the fixings and esquites

Tuesday: Burgers, roasted cauliflower and broccoli with garlic and anchovies (Taste and Technique), maroulosalata

Wednesday: Black cod rice bowls with broccoli, edamame, cucumber, gomae

Thursday: Blue cheese filets, Minnesotan wild rice (iykyk) and roasted brussels with pancetta vinaigrette (Six Seasons)

Friday: Pasta with clams and shrimp (Nothing Fancy) - new to us recipe

Saturday: Faux carpaccio with leftover cooked meat, crudite with homemade ranch, cheese & charcuterie

Sunday: Sourdough pizza, clam chowder

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A brutal month -g lad today is the last day.

Thanks to those who checked in on LA and me in particular. My house is still standing but many of my friends were not so lucky, and many, many of my favorite haunts are gone.

Tonight we are hosting friends who lost their home in the fire. Dinner will be something comforting because it is finally chilly here in LA. Last week’s rain helped usher in some normalcy, at least for me.

I am serving a Milo and Olive inspired salad(local restaurant, Rustic Canyon Group) , brisket chili with black beans on the side. Dessert will be princess cake from Sweet Lady Jane. Oh, and flatbread using Lodge bread pizza dough embellished with Jamie Oliver inspired toppings.

I am not as fancy as some of you, so I don’t know how to link my recipe in a way that it appears bold and you can click on it and see the recipe (tutorial please) so I will just add the black bean recipe is from Isabel’s Cantina (buy it) and the Chili recipe is a mash up of online recipes, but relies heavily on The Homesick Texan, as she is a genius at these kinds of things.

Earlier this week I made Kismet’s roasted chicken over smashed potatoes (another local restaurant, cookbook is insanely good) and I have leftovers in the fridge. I served a new item for TJs alongside, frozen plantains and they were surprisingly good. Add them to your shopping list.

Friends are coming this morning to play Mah Jong, and I am serving a yogurt berry bowl, banana bread, spanakopita (frozen, from TJs, also surprisingly good) and my favorite cheesy bread, also from Lodge. I think I feel the need to call out all the great places in LA right now as I know so many businesses are suffering.

Signing off feeling lucky and guilty and mostly sad.

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Oh and I forgot to mention my beans are of course from Rancho Gordo and are on the stove right now. My house smell amazing - the beans are happily simmering in my Mixteca pot also available at Rancho Gordo.

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Everything sounds delicious! I hear your sadness though and it is heart-breaking.

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It’s good to hear from you, Diana. Thanks for the update. Such a sad and traumatic time for all in your area, especially those who lost their homes. Sending hope and golden light for recovery on all fronts.

It’s easy to link recipes once you have the link, of course! I googled “Isabel’s Cantina recipe black beans” and came up with this in San Diego Magazine. I copied the link and paste it in here. I hope making the comfort food for friends for both morning and dinner helps you all feel like a linked community.

I also have that Rancho Gordo bean pot and I love it! It’s so beautiful and is also beautifully functional.

Take care.

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My heart hurts for you. It’s good of you to help your friends and come together. Hopefully it helps things feel more normal for everyone. :revolving_hearts:

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Greetings from the Greater Boston Area, where I am cooking for two adults (and dishing food for one, small black cat)! I have here the actuals from this past week and what we are anticipating for this coming week:

1/26 (Sunday) - Bengali Fish Pulao, steamed cauliflower, yogurt

1/27 (Monday) - Leftover pulao, roasted green beans

1/28 (Tuesday) - Delivery from a local favorite Mexican place - Chicken tinga quesadilla for him, Shrimp quesadilla for me, refried beans, guacamole, chips, salsa

1/29 (Wednesday) - Roasted Whole Sea Bass with Sweet and Sour Sauce, roasted broccolini, jasmine rice

1/30 (Thursday) - Monkfish, potato, and peas in saffron broth

1/31 (Friday) - Delivery of sushi and sashimi from our favorite local place.

2/1 (Saturday) - Anticipating making the KA No Fuss Focaccia and topping it with thinly shaved red onion, pecorino, rosemary, and pistachios, a charcuterie tray, and some cheese (probably pepper jack and Brie).

2/2 (Sunday) - Stir fried squid and peppers in black bean sauce, jasmine rice

2/3 (Monday) - Mac and cheese, not sure whose yet, salad

2/4 (Tuesday) - either leftover mac and cheese or flounder tacos

2/5 (Wednesday) - Shrimp and orzo (Ottolenghi Simple), maybe more salad. I’m putting fennel bulb in the casserole, so I might just count that and the tomato as the veggies for the meal.

2/6 (Thursday) - either leftover shrimp and orzo or cod and potatoes in some capacity

Stay warm everyone!

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