Weekly Menu Planning - October 2025

Thx. I was derailed by tidying up the house for our guests. That looks delish.

Enjoy your Oaxaca vacation! What’s on tap?

This sounds very good (I am back on a mustard salmon kick, it would be a nice variation :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:)

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Hi everyone

I’m back in my kitchen, and armed with a semi-inventory of the freezer of things to be used up :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:.

The weather is pretty perfect right now in new york – it’s my absolute favorite time of year! Slightly cool but so pleasant also means anything goes food-wise, from salads to soups & stews.

I’m excited about Maangchi being COTM, having been somewhat Korean food deprived through my travels. Also a few Chrissy Teigen recipes bookmarked from her second book, while I wait on the library for the newest.

October is also peak Indian festival season this year, with Dashera / Dussehra just gone and Diwali around the corner, so there will be some prep on that front too.

Ideas for the week:
— Assorted Korean banchan / sides & muchim / salads to eat with Korean mains: spinach, beansprouts, scallions, broccoli, bok choy, snow peas to prep & keep ready to eat. Then Vegetable Bibimbap with all the prepped veg & maybe an egg.
Soy butter pan-grilled chicken from COTM Maangchi (blog recipe has more garlic + ginger than the book, so I’ll use that)
— Bulgogi with noodles (a japchae-meets-bulgogi bonanza combining two of my favorites) also from COTM Maangchi (will likely cheat and use TJ’s frozen bulgogi but make the japchae myself)
Lazy shrimp and pork “wonton” soup from COTM Chrissy Teigen – this is so clever! The dumpling mixture becomes meatballs, and wonton wrappers are cut into noodles. (I may use the shumai seasonings I love from NYT for the meatballs, and will swap pork for turkey.)
— Chicken quesadillas &/or Chicken “Junglee” salad (red onion, green chilli, cilantro) with tortilla crisps-- I have a bunch of cooked chicken in the freezer to use up.
— Either Tom Kha Gai or Curry Chicken Noodle soup, adding assorted veg I picked up in Chinatown and using up more of the frozen cooked chicken.
— Chicken cooked in whey – I’ve got a pasta jar full of whey from the paneer I made the day I got home (turns out I had left a gallon of milk in the very cold fridge, and while it smelled fine, I didn’t think it would last any longer). Thinking I can apply the chicken-cooked-in-milk idea but using whey and adding some whole spices and herbs.

I might also use some of the whey to bake a small loaf of bread. No other baking on the horizon until I have to take something somewhere.

Will start working on those three college care packages this week, as I’d like them to arrive before Diwali and midterms both.

Wish you all a restful weekend, and a calm and delicious week ahead.

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One of my closest friends went to Oaxaca about a year ago and absolutely loved it. I hope you feel the same!

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Hello Everyone! I came to HO from Chowhound a while back but have never gotten very involved. I am retiring from the corporate world soon so plan to join COTM, etc. I think I’ll “get my feet wet” by trying to post weekly in this thread starting now!

I prep dishes/ingredients on the weekends to use in the upcoming week, though that strategy will probably morph once I retire. I am cooking for two adults in (still hot) San Antonio, TX. Anyhow, this weekend I am making:

SAT (tonight): Grilled Flounder, Steamed Brown Rice (Masa Organics from Rancho Gordo) and a Cabbage Salad with Sunflower Seeds

SUN: Gratin of Ground Beef and Eggplant from Bake Until Bubbly by Clifford A. Wright, Green Beans and Quinoa Chia Bread … I have made the Gratin countless times and I dare anybody who thinks they don’t like eggplant to try it in this dish! The bread I previously made from Bread Toast Crumbs by Alexandra Stafford and put one loaf in the freezer.

MON-THU:
Leftover Gratin of Ground Beef and Eggplant

Cold Salmon (grilled with the flounder SAT evening)

Spaghetti with previously homemade Tomato Meat Sauce (taken from the freezer)

Turkey/Swiss Sandwiches made with our own Smoked Turkey Breast (from the freezer)

Cream of Black Bean Soup from The Best Soups in the World also by Clifford A. Wright (total coincidence that I am making recipes from 2 of his books this week!). This is a new recipe to me; I will make it on Sunday to enjoy during the work week. I will use Rancho Gordo Midnight Black Beans (I’m a member of RG Bean Club).

I usually prep salad ingredients (generally from my farm co-op) on the weekends for use all week.

Fridays we generally order Pizza and open a nice bottle of wine.

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Welcome to the thread @PennyG!! Sounds like a tasty week with good planning for relatively stress-free meals! I’m looking forward to how you like that soup - love those Midnight Black Beans!

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@PennyG You and my family could be separated at birth. Well, except for our 10-year-old. He prefers milk or lemonade.

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Welcome, @PennyG! You’ll like it here.

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Welcome @PennyG!

Nope, tried many times but it’s not gonna happen :joy:

I like that bread too, been ages since I made it though, might be time.

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For two adults in San Diego:

Breakfasts: Pastries from a favorite bakery, granola and fruit after that.

S: Craving burgers. Decided to make them at home instead of going out.

Su: Salad with grilled chicken, apples, cheddar, and pecans. Garlic bread on the side - salad

M: Chicken quesadillas

T: Spinach and caramelized onion pizza - vegetarian

W: Chicken tortilla - soup

Th: Shrimp stirfry with veggies and rice - seafood

F: “Hamburger helper” with leftover sloppy Joe filling from the freezer

Take care of yourselves!

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Me! :woman_raising_hand: I don’t like eggplant. I’ve tried it all sorts of ways. But in this dish it is delicious - pretty much the only place I use it.

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It became obvious to me last night after dinner that I will be making Salmon Bowls this week with the Grilled Salmon and leftover Brown Rice. I have some shredded cabbage and other bits and bobs and will be making some Sriracha Mayo today.

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I’ve not been motivated to do much of anything — let alone meal planning, so it was good that there was a lot of takeout / delivery / bar food / parties to attend last week.

Still not particularly motivated, but the wild & crazy kids at casa lingua gotta eat, so here goes anyway:

While I’ve had stews and braises on my mind, the weather in Central Penna has other plans: high 70s till the sun goes down for the next few days, which for me screams grilled stuff.
So, at least for tonight that means a Greek meal: grilled swordfish steaks with ladolemono and choriatiki on the side,TJ’s gigantes & maybe dolmades, too.

Tomorrow I am finally getting that cortisone shot for my shoulder the sports doc briefly mentioned during my visit (yet never provided), so that should make for some easier movement overall. One possibility is spicy egg-fried rice with the leftover rice from Friday night’s pokah game, 2 of the last Lao sausages from the freezer, bok choy from the crisper & other veg TBD. Another is to go out with the generous gift card my gal pals gave me for my bday last week & celebrate our 26th smooch-a-versary. Ve shall see :wink:

Tuesday I’m trying my hand at pork chile verde with some of the hatch chilies I froze. I’ve never made it before and will be seeking inspiration in this thread.

Wednesday we might try a hand-pulled noodle place that our favorite taco purveyor raved about when we had lunch at his joint Friday. The lamb skewers are also supposed to be amazing. Unless my ride to PGH for the Violent Femmes show materializes, whom I saw first and last in '92 (!). In that case, my boo is on his own :partying_face:

Thursday I have a gig, which likely means leftover pork chile verde afterwards.

Fri/Sat/Sun entirely depends on whether we are renting out our house for the weekend. Given our beloved hand-egg team’s abysmal performance so far that seems less and less likely.

Happy eatings, my dear HOs, have a great week & stay sane.

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Hi, friends. Cooking for 3 in the Boston burbs, where although the calendar says fall, the thermometer says summer (it’s in the upper 80s). :sun:

Sun: I was out for the earlier part of the day, brunch with a friend and then grocery shopping, so now we’re all just relaxing with various screens. Dinner will be chicken, cacio e pepe twice baked potatoes (What Goes With What), and green beans.

Mon: sweet potato and beef flautas (rolled from when I planned to make them a few years ago), refried beans

Tues: fried chicken salads

Weds: pasta with ricotta, broccoli, and rotisserie chicken

Thurs: tbd, it’s Back to School Night and so there may be takeout

Fri: tbd as always

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I’m having the soup now for lunch today (made yesterday). It is very tasty! Followed the recipe other than I did not add ALL of the bean-cooking liquid when pureeing the beans into soup - if I had it would not be a “cream of …” soup but a broth! I wanted it to have a bit of body. Since making this as a simple lunch, I topped it with what I had on hand: queso fresco. I think it would definitely benefit from the roasted chiles, cilantro and/or tortilla chips called for in the recipe.

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Greetings, People.

Straddling the culinary fence between summer and fall, I want it all: the lighter fare offered by Tex Mex and Mediterranean dishes, and the solid comfort of roasted savories and gravy. This week’s menu plan is a muddle of both.

Cooking for two adults in the PNW.

FRI: Going to the new DiCaprio movie in the afternoon, where much popcorn will be consumed. Dinner will be a repeat of last week’s pork-and-potato tacos with the usual suspects.

SAT: SE’s French bread pizza. Cream of zucchini soup.

SUN: Pork and sage pelmeni. Roasted carrots. Baby garden peas. Maybe I’ll pull a gravy from the freezer?

MON: Old school tacos with leftover peri-peri chicken. Refried beans. Red rice. Pico de gallo. Roast sweet potatoes with a yogurt & lime drizzle (I’ve made these sweet potatoes before – they’re awesome).

TUE: French onion soup. Roast chicken pieces. Salad greens with goat cheese, pear, dried cranberry, and caramelized pecans.

WED: Shrimp scampi linguini with garden tomatoes. Roast zucchini.

THUR: NYT’s beef fried rice (gift link).

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Hi everybody!

It’s Thanksgiving weekend in Canada. I’m in the mood for Thanksgiving food already. I treated myself to a Pumpkin Spice Latte and a Pumpkin Scone on Monday.

I’m cooking for 3 in a lower salt household in southwestern Ontario.

We had our first frost warning last night, and I picked all remaining eggplants, peppers , okra, tomatoes, and tomatillos, green onions, and beets in the garden. The beets themselves would be fine after a frost, but their lovely greens would be damaged.

Tonight, we will have leftover roast pork from last night . I started a shoulder roast with quatre épices, and braised it in local Delhaven apple cider, covered loosely, at 275⁰F for 3 hours while I gardened. I also roasted slices of Delicata squash dusted with cinnamon and dotted with butter, and baked 12 new potatoes in a foil packet while the roast was roasting.

Tomorrow, Friday, I think l will make some sort of creamy seafood chowder or fish soup. I had made maple ginger sesame salmon on Tuesday, and cod last Friday. I will probably make haddock or another white fleshed fish. It turns out my DC prefers cod, haddock, and sea bass to halibut. Fresh halibut is costing $39.99 CAD/ lb, when fresh haddock and fresh cod are costing less than $15 CAD/ lb, so not much point in me spending more on a fish the DCs don’t like that much.
Salad with romaine lettuce from the garden.

Saturday, my cousins from Indiana, Halifax NS, and Saskatchewan are meeting at a VRBO cottage they rented on Lake Huron, and we are supposed to meet up with them. I’ll be bringing frittata squares and meatballs as snacks for everyone.

Sunday, I will make most of our Thanksgiving meal. A roast turkey, bread stuffing with dried apricots and apples, roast parsnips that I will pick on Sunday, cranberry cumberland sauce that I will make for the first time, and potatoes of some sort. I think I might make an old school salad, like ambrosia or a Watergate Salad.

I will buy the pumpkin pie, have not figured out which bakery. I would like to go to my favourite bakery in Listowel, Ontario , which is open Monday to Saturday, but I doubt I will have time to drive the 99 km to Listowel with the commitments I have today, on Friday, and on Saturday.

Monday, I might make spanakopita, maybe cauliflower cheese. Maybe Hungarian cherry soup.

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Sounds like a lovely fall afternoon! :turkey: :leaf_fluttering_in_wind: :leafless_tree:

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it definitely feels like fall!

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Hello friends and a happy fall! I woke up to frost on the rooftops this morning and learned that it was 2 degrees celsius (35 Fahrenheit) outside which is considerably cooler than the temperatures we’ve been getting the last few weeks. Fall was bound to arrive sooner or later :slight_smile: I had a sleep test on Monday night and I’m glad it’s over. The clinic was quiet and the bed was comfortable but it’s hard to get a proper night’s sleep when one isn’t in one’s own bed. I also had lots of electrodes stuck to me and one of them kept falling away so the doctor had to come into my room 3 or 4 times during the night to tape it back to my head. Oh well it’s over and I have a follow up appointment on November 10th so they will tell me at that time if I need a CPAP machine. I’m pretty sure I will need one.

I would also like to thank everyone for squash stuffing suggestions. The recipes you shared look good and they also got my creative juices flowing! I have a couple of ideas of my own down post. Onto my menus for this week:

Today: I had a disappointing pesto pasta salad for lunch from the Italian grocer today. The pesto sauce had no flavour to it and they mixed in pickled banana peppers in with the pasta. Odd. Tonight I will have a salad for dinner.

Saturday: I got a delicata squash in my CSA last week so I will bake it for dinner tonight. Half will go in the freezer for future use and the other half will get stuffed with a ground beef/rice mixture that I usually stuff peppers with. And I will add a little tomato sauce to top it off.

Sunday: Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! I will have a dinner I ordered from the pricey butcher. I think we are getting turkey, scalloped potatoes, stuffing and one other veg. There is a deli down the street from the butcher I go to that has my favourite cheesecake so I plan on having a piece for dessert.

Monday: I plan on baking a butternut squash I got in last Thursday’s share so I will freeze half for future use and eat the other half for dinner, stuffing it with something. I am leaning towards aloo gobi since I have lots of potatoes and cauliflower to use up although I haven’t quite made up my mind. I was thinking of chat masala or saag paneer if I feel like keeping with the Indian theme or a Thai dish using up some of the coconut milk I have left in the fridge.

Tuesday: I have a watercolour class so I will have some leftover peanut soup when I get home.

Wednesday: Singapore noodle chicken salad.

Thursday: I pick up my second to last CSA today then head off to a screening with the Ottawa Film Society. I will have dinner on my way to the movie theatre.

Have a nice week everyone and happy Thanksgiving.

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