Weekly Menu Planning - January 2026

Cooking Discussions
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Welcome to the January 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.

January, the start of a new year, darkness ever so slightly decreasing in the Northern Hemisphere, and for some of us cold and snow, while for others a welcome respite from heat. What will you be cooking this month?

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

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Weekly Menu Planning - February 2026
Weekly Menu Planning - December 2025
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Thank you!

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Hi everyone

We have been enjoying family time here for the past week, with lots of eating peppered with card games and some sightseeing. The two traveling folks return today, so we will be back to a full house for the next few days, until everyone but me leaves and it feels very empty suddenly.

Plan:
— Mom’s roast chicken & potatoes — maybe for New Year’s Eve
— Round 2 of mom’s Mutton Korma + Mom’s “everyday” mutton kababs
— Puris + potato + chhole (chickpeas) + mango pulp + shrikhand / sweet yogurt
— Tandoori Chicken + Fish Tikka + Dal Makhani / Maaki Dal from the specialist tandoori place
— Cheese toast in the sandwich toaster & open-faced masala cheese toast
— Out for Udipi — South Indian and Chhole Bhatura
Actuals:
— Christmas Eve lunch out at our favorite celebratory Chinese restaurant — So Much Food: asparagus and mushroom cheung fun, shrimp har gow, shiu mai, vegetable spring rolls, turnip cake with crispy garlic, spicy wontons, sweet corn soup, young chow fried rice, Hong Kong noodles, spicy crunchy lotus root, beef with black bean sauce, lamb with spring onion and ginger, pork char siu, and dessert (sticky toffee pudding, chocolate lava cake, creme brulee). Pics here.
— Tikka Mac & Cheese / Mac Makhani made with leftover butter chicken and paneer makhani, homemade béchamel sauce, and an assortment of cheese. Also Kheema Macaroni made with leftover homemade Kheema (spiced ground mutton).
— Khichdi (rice + lentils) with a side of colossal prawns.
— Pizza! Mostly Margherita, with a spicy Calabrese sausage pie thrown in for good measure.
— Parsi food out — Mutton Dhansak with brown rice & kababs, Mutton Salli Boti, Chicken Farcha, Kheema, Lagan nu Custard (Wedding Custard), Caramel Custard, and Lemongrass Tea.
— Indo Chinese ordered in — Chilli Chicken, Chicken Manchurian, Chilli Beef, Hakka Noodles, Teppan Noodles, Burnt Garlic Fried Rice, and Sweet Corn Soup.
— Regular Mac & Cheese + many, many leftovers.
— Seafood & more from another family favorite: Fish Tikka, Malvani Fish Curry, Palak Paneer, Paneer Makhanwala, naan, parathas, rice.
— Assorted North Indian (out): Mutton Rogan Josh, Mutton Dhansak, Paneer Makhanwala, Kababs, a winter mixed vegetable special (Undhiyu), and assorted breads.

I baked a bit (shortbread, chocolate chip cookies) and we’ve made several rounds of Indian homemade snacks, more to come till departure.

Have a wonderful week, and a happy new year to everyone here!

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The kiddo recently showed enthusiasm for seared tuna, so I’m trying to capitalize on that in the next week or two. Hoping to balance eating plant-forward with utilizing leftovers and freezer/panty contents. Here’s the plan for us three in Asheville, NC:

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And links:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/listered-chicken-garlic-urfa-chile-orange/

https://www.slenderkitchen.com/recipe/chicken-shawarma-slow-cooker-instant-pot-or-grill

And for NYE I’m planning on bringing to a party beef empanadas from the freezer with TJ’s “guacasalsa” and chimichurri, and German almond apple cake.

Happy New Year to each of you! :clinking_glasses:

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Greetings, People, and welcome to 2026.

Two more nights of holiday fare to clear out the fridge (tonight and tomorrow), and then starting Saturday, it’ll be Soup Week (first of two this month).

Cooking for two adults in the PNW:

FRI: Hot wings on the grill. The last of the mac-and-cheese. Celery sticks.

SAT: Milk Street’s Turkish Lentil Soup. Yogurt naan.

SUN: Tomato-basil soup (from frozen). Grilled cheese.

MON: NYT’s Easiest Chicken Soup (gift link). Saltines.

TUE: Shrimp bisque (shrimp stock already made). Herbed biscuits.

WED: An ad hoc beef stew using some grilled beef DH made last season which we found too tough. I’ll take the frozen leftovers and simmer the crap out of them for hours in beef stock, add veg and starch, and hope it’s edible. If not: scrounge.

THUR: Cajun potato soup with kielbasa, as I couldn’t find a decent andouille at any of the 3 different stores I visited. Will add some spicy Cajun seasoning to the soup to make up for the difference (potato soup base from frozen).

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Happy New Year, HOs! Here’s wishing you fabulous foods & good health for the next 365 days!

Actual meals @casa lingua deviated a bit from our plans — most notably I canceled movie night on Monday, and we didn’t solely subsist on soup :wink:

In fact, no soup today, either. My PIC made pizza dough 2 days ago, I’m contributing the sawce. TJ’s quattro formaggi & mozzarella for cheez, and toppings will be green pepper, shrooms, roasted red pepper, red onion, basil.

Tomorrow is Friday, even though I keep thinking it is Monday. It is not :zany_face:
It being the weekend, a poker game might be in the cards (CWIDT?). Should we end up hosting there might be Korean fried chicken from an excellent new place on the horizon.

Saturday Not a clue. Maybe takeout / delivery. Been a while since we had Indian food.

Sssspicy Sssssunday is back in the running, what with my PIC’s insides having finally settled TF down. It’s been a while since I made laab, but a Thai curry is also very much a possibility, especially if it stays this cold :cold_face:

Monday is the postponed movie night with a bunch of my gal pals. The OG plan was to order Detroit-style pizza, but if the place is closed I’ll make Tuscan soup instead.

Tuesday could be cheeborgerz & fries, which also haven’t been on the menu for quite a while.

Wednesday or Thursday (depending on which day the majority chooses) will be our first Sichuan jour fixe of 2026. Already drooling in anticipation.

Friday TBD. Mayhaps I can do a better job this year at cooking my way through my many saved recipes on WoL & the NYT.

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It’s close to impossible to find a spicy Andouille sausage in Toronto, too. I have used kielbasa or ham.

Sometimes, I make a gumbo or jambalaya with Italian sausage, and take the whole thing in a more Italian direction, using the roux, celery, onion and green pepper, but skipping the Cajun seasoning part.

I think Soup Week is a souper idea.

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Lol! I’m pretty sure I got the idea from you!

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Hi everyone

We are working our way through assorted leftovers, and eating dishes / cuisines we missed because the menu was geared to the visitors for the past two weeks.

Taking a couple of recovery days before we buckle down on some things that need to get done.

Actuals for the past few days:
— Repeat of Mom’s Mutton Korma (the teens’ favorite “new” dish)
— Assorted last day eats (with a complimentary side of digestive enzymes supplements from my mom :rofl:)
(a) Out for lunch: Tandoori chicken (second favorite), Indo Chinese, assorted Bombay Chaat (sev puri, bhel, dahi batata puri, pani puri), Goan Fish Curry, Fish Fingers, and more
(b) At home with tea: Fry fest — Puris, Bhajiyas (potato, onion, green chilli — separate), Moong Dal (yellow lentil) Pakodas
(c) At home for dinner before late departure: Cheesetoast — in the sandwich toaster (closed) as well as open-faced (the latter “masala”-ed up with onion, green chilli, and green chutney)
— Maggi (Indian ramen) — recovery meal for those remaining, lol
— Fridge leftovers clean-out

This week:
— Aloo paratha / potato-stuffed flatbreads
— Thai curry (vegetable & chicken versions)
— Mom’s roast chicken & potatoes
— Homemade Frankie / Quesadilla (vegetable & chicken versions) using leftover parathas
— Butter Garlic colossal Prawns & heads (extras frozen from Christmas)
— Something Korean or Sichuan tbd, because I am craving it
— Some kind of pasta for mom (stuffed shells or lasagne probably)

Good week to all.

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Yay for a delicious soup week!

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Need to be extra frugal this month due to veterinary bills, so I’ll be focusing on meals I can make out of our freezer and pantry.

For two adults in San Diego:

Breakfasts: Granola and fruit with almond milk.

S: Takeout - BBQ chicken salad wrap from pub on the corner

Su: (tonight) Green chile chowder (thinning out our leftover au gratin with broth) - soup/vegetarian

M: Meatball (TJs turkey), spinach, and ricotta pizza with salad

T: TJs green chile tamales with Hatch enchilada sauce, shrimp, cheese, avocado, and salad - seafood

W: Leftover pizza

Th: Eggs scrambled with (leftover Thanksgiving) ham, cheese, and spinach with hash browns

F: Macaroni and cheese with ham and peas

Take care of yourselves!

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Hi all, feeding 2-3 in the Boston burbs, where we started off the new year with a case of flu (DS) - so far DH and I are mostly fine, and he’s feeling somewhat better, though it’s hard to tell who in the house is the least excited about going back to work/school tomorrow.

This is going to be a doozy of a week with schlepping around and more evening wrestling practices (assuming DS is healthy enough), so I’ve planned mostly easy meals.

Sun: ramen - crispy pork, sautéed spinach and carrots, scallions, and a doctored chicken broth. This was a composite of two recipes - one labor intensive and one quick, and used the plain pulled pork I made last week (the rest went into the freezer).

Mon: roasted chicken breasts (marinating right now), carrots, and potatoes - I’m thinking sheet pan-ish but need to check cooking times and temps to see if that’s feasible.

Tues: Mongolian beef, rice, steamed broccoli

Weds: stuffed peppers

Thurs: chicken fajita bowls

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feeding 3 people in southwestern Ontario

Monday: chicken thigh piccata with rice, leftover cabbage soup

Tuesday: Italian veal and beef meatballs with pasta TBD. also, chicken orzo soup.

Wednesday: tuna cakes with potatoes. soup to be determined.

Thursday: lamb chops, maybe with polenta

Friday: fish stew, maybe a Bouillabaisse-style

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Soup of The Day — Did You Have Some Soup Today?
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Greetings, People.

Last week’s soup week was a hit. We’ll do it again very soon. In the meantime, it’s going to be a week of comfort food here.

Having made - at New Year’s - only a half-batch of our traditional holiday mac and cheese, we found ourselves wanty for the other half. With still about a pound of Cougar Gold to use up, it was an easy call. Between that and a roast chicken, we’ll eat well for days with not much heavy lifting and I’ll get a batch of stock out of it at the end of the week.

Cooking for two adults in the PNW.

FRI: Mac and cheese. Salad greens in vinaigrette with cranberries and candied pecans.

SAT: Roast chicken. Potato gratin. Salad (or peas).

SUN: Repeat of the M&C dinner.

MON: Repeat of the chicken dinner.

TUE: Repeat of the M&C dinner.

WED: Salmon Caesar.

THUR: Tomato-basil soup. Grilled cheese.

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As usual, actual meals last week differed somewhat from my plans, but we still ate well :smiling_face:

Continuing to cook for 2 adults in Happy Valley.

Tonight is our first Sichuan jour fixe of the year, and we have 12 peeps total signed up to delight in delicious spicy food.

Tomorrow might hafta be a pasta night with one of the new fun shapes I picked up yesterday. Probz a shroom or meat sauce of sorts (still have tomato sauce left to use up, plus possibly ground lamb in the freezer)… unless I come up with something even MOAR interesting :zany_face:

Saturday or Sunday we’ll have our pescatarian buddy over for dinner, who’s just returned from his HK trip and is at the tail end of a cold. We have two sizable filets in the freezer — halibut and Arctic Char, either of which could be the main attraction, along with sautéed spinach or salad. I think I also still have a bag of FM green beans in the freezer, so our side options are a-plenty. Whichever day we aren’t hosting him will be a sssssspicy meal. No cap!

Monday I might make something with the ample amounts of chicken broth I parked in the basement freezer recently & another Sam’s Club roti chicken to be picked up — avgolemono, perhaps? Something not too salty since I’m not allowed any liquids after midnight :roll_eyes:

Tuesday I finally have my shoulder surgery in the AM, so dinner will be my PIC’s duty. I could go for some cheeborgerz & fries, fo’ sho’!

Wednesday might be takeout sushi if we wanna be lazy, or some of the various dumplings I restocked our freezer with — simply steamed with dipping sauces on the side.

Thursday this spicy tofu recipe, mabez, or mapo doufu. Smacked cuke salad on the side.

Friday we’re invited over to our city friends’ house for a lamb dinner. Already drooling at the prospect, as the host is a very good cook :face_savoring_food:

Stay warm, stay sane (if you can), stay engaged. And keep eating the good things!

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Good luck with your shoulder surgery next Tuesday!

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Thank you kindly! Looking forward to (eventually) being fully functional again :slight_smile:

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Hope all goes well with the surgery!

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Thank you! A tendon I tore in 2021 (!) on a post-dinner stroll (good intentions, hell, etc.) that got worse when I started lifting this spring needs to be reattached, rotator cuff fixed, and some arthritis cleaned out.

It’s arthroscopic, so it shouldn’t be a big deal at all. PT on the next day already!

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This sounds very painful to me but I am lucky I have never needed surgery. Glad to hear you are taking things in stride!