Weekly Menu Planning - May 2024

Cooking Discussions Cooking, Cookbooks, Ingredients
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Let’s use this thread to share concise weekly dinner menus for each week in May. It’s helpful if you can include your location and how many people you are feeding. Links to recipes are always appreciated, and sources help. We all know plans can change, so it’s fine (practically expected) when your week gets rearranged from your posted plan. You may choose to report actuals for the prior week to share ideas with others.

May flowers and celebrations abound: Cinco de Mayo, Mothers Day, graduation parties and bridal showers. All are opportunities for extra time with family and friends. And after solemn remembrances on the final Monday (Memorial Day), most in the USA will be thinking “ahhh – Summer at last!!!”Are you hosting any celebration meals? What’s on the menu?

The April discussion is still available for reporting the last week and follow-ups.

Reminder – Keep your comments menu / food related. And in the interest of faster viewing times, please use the knife&fork under a comment to indicate you liked it or want to echo what was said by another, rather than posting a separate comment.

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Can’t believe it’ll be May on Wednesday! I’m ready, but not ready, for the semester to be over at the end of May.

For two adults in San Diego:

Breakfasts: I will bake scones today. I will bake scones today. I will bake scones today. (Hopefully this chant will bring good baking vibes.)

S: takeout - pizza, with enough for lunches the next few days.

Su: (tonight) Meatball subs made with TJs turkey meatballs on sourdough rolls

M: Shrimp quesadillas, with onions and peppers. Served with guacamole - seafood

T: Hummus topped with feta, tomato, cucumbers, avocado - salad/vegetarian

W: Spinach tortellini (purchased), ham, peas and Boursin cheese

Th: Chicken shawarma (TJs), yellow rice, veggies

F: Shawarma tacos with the leftover chicken, hummus, feta, and onions/peppers

Have a good week!

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Hi everyone, feeding 3 in the Boston burbs. Coming off a quiet (unremarkable) week and hoping for another.

Sun: chicken enchiladas, beans and rice
Mon: steak tips, baked potatoes, sautéed spinach (peas for DS who hates spinach)
Tues: chicken tortilla soup (SK), little baby cornbreads using the cute mini-loaf pan I bought recently. Dinner will be early as I’m going with friends to hear a speaker about teenagers and anxiety.
Weds: fried chicken salads. Cornbread croutons using the leftovers from Tues.
Thurs: spaghetti and meatballs. Might swap Tues and Thurs depending on how my Tues goes… though as I type this, no cornbread Tuesday means no cornbread croutons on Weds… :confused:

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Greetings, People.

It’s May, and now I have that song from Camelot stuck in my head.

Cooking for two adults in the PNW.

FRI: David Tanis’s spring chicken pasta with mushrooms, peas, fresh herbs, and lemon.

SAT: Char siu fried rice from Woks of Life. Pot-stickers (storebought). Sesame asparagus.

SUN: NYT’s spicy lemony chicken breasts with garden greens (gift link)

MON: Leftover fried rice. Leftover Tsukune meatballs from the freezer. Sesame spinach.

TUE: Going out for lunch to a local burger joint. Dinner will be light – I’m thinking last season’s spring pea soup from the freezer.

WED: Zuppa Toscana with garden kale. Mine is a mash-up of recipes from Budget Bytes and Natasha’s Kitchen.

THUR: Shrimp and asparagus stir-fry with a cider vinegar sauce.

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Love that soup! I have added white beans (as the Budget Bytes recipe does) and liked it but my best version happened when I had a pile of cooked wild rice and was short on time and used the wild rice in place of potatoes. Yum!

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That sounds really good - thanks for the tip!

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For two adults in San Diego:

Breakfasts: Let’s see if I can bake scones again this week!

S: (tonight) takeout - Japanese curry (chicken, veggies, rice), potstickers

Su: Salad (a bagged southwestern mix) with tomatoes, avocado, and cheese, served with a (purchased) crab cake. - seafood/salad

M: Pasta with a light cream sauce, bacon, spinach, and asparagus.

T: Croissant French toast with berries, bacon on the side. Had a great croissant French toast while in Indianapolis (at Cafe Patachou), and I’m curious to see what I can do at home. Will use this recipe as inspiration: https://www.dessertfortwo.com/croissant-french-toast/

W: Lentil soup - vegetarian/soup

Th: BBQ chicken sandwiches, slaw. Will buy a roasted chicken when grocery shopping to make life easier.

F: Chicken tacos

Have a good week!

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Actuals for the past week, cooking for 2 in MN. Where tulips and iris are starting to bloom, and cherry & apple blossoms are decorating the trees in our neighborhood. Another busy - for me as a retiree, nothing compared with those of you still working - week of meetings and I was grateful to have the meals planned to take advantage of both commercially frozen and homemade previously frozen mains.

Mon: Ground beef beefburgers (aka sloppy Joes) on buns, commercial potato salad, fruit
Tues: Ham and noodles (using up some of the Easter Ham I froze), peas, orange slices and fresh pear
Wed: me OUT for meeting with fancy appetizers and wine. he - beefburgers & fruit
Thurs: (commercial from freezer), egg rolls, fried rice with veggies
Fri: Curry cod with coconut rice, broccoli, fresh orange
Sat: (from freezer) Chimichangas, Rotel rice, heated canned chili beans (since I had no refried), tortilla chips
Sun: (today) - Day-trip to WI for brunch with my niece’s family (the twins are 7 months old already!). My brother and his wife from Iowa have been visiting the babies (OK, the rest of the family, too) this weekend and us travelling there saves them a stop on the way home.

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Hi everyone, hope you’re having a wonderful weekend. It’s a wet spring morning here in Chapel Hill, perfect for lazing in bed listening to raindrops hit the roof. Finally took a relaxing deep breath after months of college decision stress. LLD was so happy with the meals this week that he joked he wasn’t going to let us have a carry out night. Flattered, but … Here is what we ate this week:

Mon: LLD made burgers, mine impossible meat, tater tots. The college cake for dessert. Lulu was happy with the sprinkles representing her college. Phew!

Tues: savory bread pudding with asparagus, pesto, gruyere (Dinner in One), green salad with sharp dressing

Wed: butter chicken (recipetin eats), basmati rice, cucumber salad dressed in yogurt and mint

Thurs: carry out fancy pizza

Fri: fettuccini with zucchini and clams, my cheaters easy version of a Marcella recipe

Sat: LLD’s on a new kick! Burgers again, with tater tots

Sun: tonight will carry out

Hope you are enjoying your weekend, and have a great, delicious week!

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Hi, everyone, half-a$$edly planning meals for 3 in Boston because we need to eat but I don’t feel like cooking. Last week involved far too much adulting for my liking.

Sun: I made a batch of birria and we had tacos tonight, with black beans that were way bland. DS was a very helpful sous chef though.

Mon: bbq chicken breasts, corn pancakes, green beans

Tues: pasta, red sauce, ricotta. I have a haircut appt at 5:30 and then need to make two batches of cookies after dinner for a work bake sale.

Weds: dinner courtesy of TikTok - tater tot burgers. Basically, you thaw tots and then cook them in a waffle iron, make the burgers on a grill or cast iron skillet, and then assemble. Figured it’s worth a try!

Thurs: quesadillas with the rest of tonight’s birria meat

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Greetings, People.

Working hard in the garden: thinning fruit and transplanting starts. It seems overnight everything has kicked into high gear – yay! Optimism abounds. Vegetables of the week include spinach, romaine and asparagus.

Cooking for two adults in the PNW.

FRI: Pan-roasted chicken thighs. Caesar salad.

SAT: Steak on the grill. Creamed spinach. Pasta salad.

SUN: Food-cart-style chicken kebabs on the grill. Pita. Chopped salad. White sauce.

MON: Spinach salad with shrimp, bacon and hard-boiled eggs. Croutons or garlic bread.

TUE: French dip. Green salad. Pickled cukes.

WED: Salmon chowder of some variety. Caesar salad with garlic croutons

THUR: Chicken and asparagus stir-fry. Either Skinny Taste or Woks of Life – I’ve made them both before and they’re both good.

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I went to my last film society screening for the season last night not to resume until September. When I left the movie theatre at 8:15 last night there was still a sliver of sun on the horizon! It set within 20 minutes of me leaving but it sure was nice seeing a bit of sun later in the evening. I pass by some lilac bushes on my way home and they are in bloom now and smelling so fragrant. I love this time of year in Ottawa. It’s such a lovely place to be during the spring and summer months. Lots of green space, parks, and things to do. Now that a quiet week has passed, I have a busier couple of weeks coming up. The summer festivals are now underway and my meetup groups have a lot of interesting activities coming up so I have a feeling I will be busy this summer. On to my menus for this week:

Today: My take out lunch today was a spaghetti lunch from a nearby deli. I will have a salad for dinner.

Saturday: Clean out the fridge and freezer day. My CSA starts this week so I will rearrange the contents of both to make room for fresh veggies from the farm! I am very excited. Dinner will be pasta with a red kidney bean sauce.

Sunday: I’m going ton an artist talk this afternoon then home to make vegetable vermicelli for dinner although the recipe calls for using angel hair pasta. The sauce consists of an interesting assortment of stir fried veggies including turnip, mushrooms, snow peas, and zucchini. This recipe is sourced from one of my cookbooks (“City Cuisine” by Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken) that has intrigued me but keeps getting bumped. Today is the day I make it.

Monday: Shrimp salad. Today I get my first CSA newsletter of the season! The farm gives us updates on the crops, they tell us what is in our share this week and it includes a recipe. The farm has already sent us an email saying their cherry tomatoes were infected by a virus recently and had to be pulled out of the ground and the greenhouse disinfected so no cherry tomatoes this spring. I’m sure whatever we will get in its place will be delicious.

Tuesday: Off for dinner at an Indonesian restaurant. I will be going with my dinner club but a fellow diner will be guest hosting this outing since he lived in Indonesia for awhile and recommended this restaurant. The menu actually has a mix of Indonesian food and Malaysian food and I am looking forward to trying it.

Wednesday: Pork chop, green beans, potato.

Thursday: My first CSA pick up of the season! Did I say I was excited? I will have a gnocchi chicken skillet for dinner and probably spring mix on the side since I am expecting some in my share this week.

Have a nice week everyone.

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I have an absolutely wild week ahead. Meals that can make it to the table quickly are on the menu.

For two adults in San Diego:

Breakfasts: Need to pick up some bread from a favorite bakery, so I may get some pastries to help me start off this week.

S: (tonight) takeout - red beef and bean burritos. Restocked the freezer with emergency burritos, as well.

Su: Creamy chicken and vegetable soup, garlic bread to dip - soup

M: TJ’s chicken tamale with salad - salad

T: Sandwiches TBD - husband is having a craving for a “good” sandwich, so we’ll pick up whatever fixings he decides upon.

W: Pasta with red sauce, spinach, and cheese - vegetarian

Th: Egg scramble with chicken sausage, veggies, cheese, and hash browns

F: Spinach and crab dip with garlic bread - seafood

Have a good week!

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Hi, everyone. Too much adulting last week! And I don’t know what I was thinking going to Costco on a Saturday afternoon but I did yesterday and it took me 30 minutes just to get out of the parking lot to the main road - 1 mile total! That’s 2mph… I think I could have crawled on my hands and knees faster than I drove. I did find a few new things I’m excited to try - chicken tamales and frozen General Tso’s chicken, both gluten-free and brands I like.

Feeding 3 in the Boston burbs.

We will have a quiet day today (no Mother’s Day brunch craziness) and are going out for dinner tonight. I’m planning to make a chickpea curry for my lunches. Also need to call my mom - my brother was in charge of sending her flowers this time and somehow she got two sets of flowers… better too many than not enough, I guess?

Mon: stir-fried udon with ground chicken and either cabbage or bok choy, based on this recipe.

Tues: honey-garlic pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes, asparagus. I suspect I will need comfort food after an all-day workshop at work on Conversational Intelligence.

Weds: caprese chicken pasta. This feels like an awful lot of basil so I suspect I’ll scale it back.

Thurs: either tamales or General Tso’s :laughing:

Fri: leftover pork, this time with baked potatoes/sweet potatoes

Hope everyone has a great week!

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Hi everyone, so close to the finish line with school here, only one AP exam left and she’s done. Amazing. I keep thinking about her wonderful preschool teacher, her amazing first two babysitters, wonderful women who helped me more than I can say. On a different note, my knee is still just a little wonky, so I’m planning to hold back on tennis and pickleball for a few more days. The worst thing would be reinjuring it and having to wait another two weeks. LLD is leaving for a 10 day bike vacation in Mallorca tomorrow, so lots and lots of beans will be consumed over the next week and a half. Here’s what we ate this week:

Sun: carry out

Mon: roasted harissa red snapper and tomatoes (A. Roman), arugula salad, baguette. I braved serving them flaky white fish and they liked it!

Tues: linguine with greens, anchovies, garlic, chilies

Wed: old school tacos (shhhhh, I made with Impossible meat)

Thurs: burritos

Fri: spicy shrimp cilantro stir fry, rice, cabbage salad

Sat: chinese carry out

Sun: Lulu is making dinner! Not sure what it will be. I’m planning to be extravagantly lazy today.

Made a chocolate creme fraiche banana bread midweek. The first day it was ok, the next day it was excellent. Recipe was from Snackable Bakes.

Happy Mother’s Day! Have a wonderful week.

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It looks like a great week of food, and I’m looking to following along on a few of your ideas, especially the caprese chicken pasta, but also have Rachael Ray chickpea/spinach with India Spices on the list . Happy to read that your Mom got double-flowered; so much better than none!

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Actuals for May 6 week, cooking for 2 in MN. Where we are having a spectacular span of warm spring weather and blue skies. I got to see Northern lights /Aurora Borealis overnight Friday, just looking up from our driveway. And we’ll have our first back-deck meal of the season today. Buying and potting planters is on the to-do list for the upcoming week, along with 3 full days of meetings. The rhubarb is ready to harvest today - a few days earlier than I’d predicted - and I’ll be making upside down cake for supper.

Mon: Beef fajitas, rice, chili beans, limes, guac/salsa/sour cream - modified From Dinner’s in the Oven– by Rukmini Iyer – p. 86 “Flash-broiled spiced steak with peppers, chile & onion”
Tues: Baked Crab Cakes, recipe from Ruths Chris website. I use surimi Crab Delights for these. 1 large (3 oz) cake per serving, so we had a couple of lunches with the extras. dabs of sides – fresh mango slices, potato salad, fried rice, broccoli, fresh spinach
Wed: Baked pasta casserole - (commercial) meatballs in sauce as top layer, layered rotini pasta w sauce alternating with cottage cheese/egg,/parm and Italian seasoning. Inspired by and mash-up of 2 recipes Julia Pacheco and AllRecipes. Sides garlic buttered naan bread, mixed vegetables
Thurs: Reheat pasta casserole, garlic buttered naan bread, mixed vegetables
Fri: Turkey meatballs w ginger in coconut broth over rice, garnished with cashews. Grapes
half recipe meatballs, full recipe broth. Link is to the original in Oct 2015 Food and Wine, made by many on CH in 2016. Alternative version with spinach added was posted in 2019 by Smitten Kitchen
Sat: Reheated pasta with meatballs casserole, Caprese salad (Slice tomatoes, red onion, fresh mozz , basil, balsamic vinegar), lettuce, Grapes
Sun: (today) BAKE rhubarb upside down cake, last of the turkey meatballs with added chicken in coconut broth with (freshly cooked) brown rice, garnished with cashews

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Hi, all! Cooking for 2 back in Chattanooga after a fun week in California with family (I made Pozole, lamb koftas, pea spaetzle, and Bienenstich from Classic German Baking at various points) and then a cross-country drive with our new EV! Happy to be back in my own kitchen. An actual and some plans:
Saturday, May 11: Salmon with orange balsamic glaze, roasted broccoli, rice
Sunday (today): Uzbek rice and carrot pilaf, raisin sandwich cookies
Monday: Braised eggs with leeks and spinach
Tuesday: Leftovers
Wednesday: Salt-oil rice with coconut spinach from Family
Thursday/Friday: Scrounge/out
Happy Mother’s Day to those who are celebrating! Have a good week, and happy cooking!

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The curry recipe I made was super quick, so no real difference vs the Rachael Ray one you shared - I did consider throwing some spinach in though! It tasted good (quick taste) but I was annoyed that the recipe called for using the food processor… I did not, so the onions and (canned diced) tomatoes are a little chunkier.

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Hello Menu Planning Friends! I feel like I haven’t posted in forever and been in survival mode. Short version: Dishwasher has been dead for 2 months now (11 days out of warranty but Bosch is covering things after the initial diagnostic visit), skate show week, theater week just ended, and our home club’s skate competition is this weekend and I do not have half the volunteers I need. Possibly cause the emails for the sign up are all going to spam and then the program unsubscribes you. If I’m not getting my own emails. . . but back to food. And we have a new grill! Love said grill bur would rather have functioning dishwasher

Actuals and plans for skaters and family members and a rather stressed out volunteer chairperson (see: Me) But little one is doing well with her new ADHD meds and reading IEP!

Weds 8: grilled one of those premartinated pork loins that was on very good sale. Broccoli and starchy side I can’t recall

Thurs 9: First show! Lasagna from freezer for big kiddo, no idea what Mr Autumm did, little one and I went to Perkins. She wanted the rainbow pancakes:) I wanted to not cook

Fro 10: No school day but evening theater performance big kiddo. My parents visiting for the show so red sauce (freezer) and pasta, side salads. Thank you to my parents for driving her home! Grilled tube steak, potato salad, coleslaw and grilled asparagus from my mom’s garden for lunch

Sat11: Last evening of theater shows. Big kiddo out with friend between shows, us take out burgers. Little one and I went to the matinee and so proud of her for how hard she worked in something that should be so outside her comfort zone

Tonight: Pre completion exhibition skate. Girls did well. Take out famous daves. Not my preferred food but big kiddo has been asking of ribs for forever and I didn’t have to cook

Mon 13: Looking like a leftover clean out the fridge evening after both girls have their last skate lesson before the competition

TUes 14: Big kiddo’s band concert. Probably more leftovers/freezer dive

Weds 15: The diishwasher parts are scheduled to arrive! No idea but hooray! (if it happens)

Take care everyone and happy spring! We have a young bunny who loves eating dandelion blooms in our backyard. Work hard little bunny

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