Weekly Menu Planning – September 2023

Cooking Discussions Cooking, Cookbooks, Ingredients
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Let’s use this thread to share concise weekly dinner menus for each week in September. 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.

September brings an abundance of produce, new cooking options from (slightly) cooler temperatures, and for many of us big changes in juggling “who’s home to eat what when” as activities at school, work or volunteering ramp up. Planning by looking at the calendar of activities is a huge stress-reliever – knowing what days will need quick sandwich meals or long-cooking slow cooker dishes. For me, September will bring travel - a high school reunion and a weekend fill-the-freezer cooking session as my niece and her family get ready to welcome twins.

The August 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 “like” 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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Both these sound wonderful!

I remember when PistachioPeas started a thread for pre-baby freezer stocking on CH — hope some of that is archived somewhere (I had had zero luck trying to access things I archived via the Internet Archive, but it may be user error on my part).

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For me, Week 1 will be Southern summertime, and will include this meal: summer vegetable and tofu kebabs with pomegranate-peach BBQ sauce (p. 72); a wheat berry and pecan pilaf; some sauteed greens; and the vanilla spice ice cream that uses white beans and cashews (p. 175).

Week 2 will explore Xinjiang flavors and will include this meal: spicy griddled tofu steaks; some rice cooked with onions and dried apricots but meat-free; charred Chinese eggplant; and a tiger salad.

Week 3 will have Indonesian standards, including this meal: tinutuan but with brown rice and broiled tofu; sambal badjak; and tamarind cooler.

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Has anyone heard from PistachioPeas? I think her twin boys would be around 5 or 6 now.

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I’m struggling a bit to find another Xinjiang or Uyghur protein dish to round out a second meal during my Week 2 - if anyone knows of a great, non-meat dish that would fit (or a solid source for good Xinjiang/Uyghur recipes) please let me know! Possibly something that would go with wood ear mushrooms braised with green onions (p. 40 in All Under Heaven), and tossed cilantro and peanut salad (p. 323)?

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Fascinated by this. I don’t know much about Uyghur culture or food, but I was under the impression they’re big meat eaters. Please let us know what you find out. Good luck.

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If you eat meat subs, a cumin-scented stir-fry / dry pot could work. If not, pressed tofu could stand in. I bet chickpeas or gigantes beans would work with those flavors too.

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You might get some ideas looking at the menu here: Dolan Uyghur Restaurant

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Greetings, People.

Take note!

I awoke yesterday to find TWO of our bank accounts had been compromised, with clear implications that the cyber-crook had my SS# (I had a healthcare account hacked about a decade ago, when ALL my details were harvested - mine, and those of several hundred thousand others).

Spent the morning frantically contacting ALL the financial institutions with which we work to update passwords, change account numbers where needed, cancel unauthorized credit card applications which had been made in my name, re-affirm two factor authentications, place fraud alerts and re-confirm freezes on my credit reports. My email box was fire-bombed with subscription confirmations from over 1500 different entities – I assume this was done to bury the confirmations coming in from the banks as to changes made to our accounts and the credit applications submitted. FAIL!

We were fairly well fire-walled when this happened - more than most - but all it takes is a minor leak somewhere for nefarious individuals to cause havoc. Fortunately, it looks like we got a handle on everything in time, but only because we had taken many precautions in advance. We’ll be dealing with the administrative fall-out for months. THIS IS A REMINDER TO SAFE-GUARD YOUR ONLINE DEETS AND PERSONAL INFORMATION!

This week, cooking for two or more adults in the PNW:

FRI: Scallion roast chicken and garden veggie cleanout: green beans, peas, potatoes, what not.

SAT: Summer minestrone with more veg cleanout, and leftover frozen lamb meatballs. Homemade pita bread from the freezer.

SUN: Roast salmon. A gratin with potatoes, caramelized onions, apples and gruyere. Green peas.

MON: TBD. Our house guests might or might not be arriving for dinner on Monday. If not this day, then the next. I have a list of good options ready for when I have more info about schedules, preferences, etc. Wish me luck!

TUE: TBD

WED: TBD

THUR: TBD

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Wow what a scary experience. My wallet was stolen a few years ago and I spent half a day cancelling my bank card and credit cards, notifying the police, etc. I could only imagine what a nightmare it was for you dealing with compromised bank accounts.

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It’s finally Friday and I’m gearing up for a long weekend in Ottawa, Canada and a busy one at that. I plan on heading out tomorrow to hit up the big box stores to see if anyone has blankets at this time of year. The threads on the one I have on my bed are pulled and in need of replacement. I’ve had it for over 30 years and it has served me well so it’s time to find a new one. On Sunday morning I signed up for another walking tour this time learning about the Rideau Canal (our local canal system) then off to a matinee movie in the afternoon (“Golda” about the life of Golda Meir). On Monday our local labour council is organizing their annual Labour Day parade. My union has a delegation in the parade every year so I thought this year I will participate. On to my menus for this week:

Today: Take out lunch is Korean fried chicken. I ordered some just a few weeks ago and I’ve been getting a hankering for them again. I have now decided they are my favourite chicken wings in all of Ottawa! :slight_smile: Tonight will be a caesar style salad from one of my Sunset recipe books - broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and red pepper with a caesar salad dressing. Nothing like crunchy vegetables to counteract the deep fried deliciousness I had for lunch. :slight_smile:

Saturday: All day shopping trip. Lunch undecided. I will probably have a deli sandwich so dinner will be a repeat of last night’s caesar style salad.

Sunday: Basa fillet with a risotto on the side.

Monday: Labour Day parade. We start at City Hall and end at a park about a 45 minute walk away. Apparently refreshments will be provided so dinner on Monday night depends on what kind of refreshments will be offered. (If it’s snacky type foods I will probably make something substantial for dinner. Otherwise another salad.)

Tuesday: Hamburger casserole (repeat of last week) except I will make two servings so I can reheat the other portion tomorrow night.

Wednesday: Re-heated casserole then off to a symphony. One of the meetup groups I am in is organizing an evening out to see a Korean symphony. They will be performing at a cultural centre within a short walking distance from my apartment so I will have enough time to heat up dinner then head off to the symphony.

Thursday: Pasta night. I will probably have stir fried veggies as the sauce.

Have a nice long weekend everyone!

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That is so horrible and scary! I had about $40,000 taken from my bank account a bit over 20 years ago and am still very nervous about it happening again. I hope there aren’t any more problems for you.

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OMG! Were you not able to recover it? That’s terrible!!

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:scream_cat: :no_entry_sign: This is scary, yet encouraging to read how you handled it. I just got notified that details got harvested and have put a credit monitoring and repair service in place for 18 months (funded by them). But it’s sobering to realize even 10 years later that info release could bite us.

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Hi, all! Cooking for 2 in Chattanooga, where we have 3 steam table trays of ribs par-cooking and 2 more to go–fingers crossed that things turn out tomorrow!
Breakfast: Gingerbread waffles
Saturday, September 2: Our friend’s big birthday party, featuring those ribs, along with some chicken breasts, a tomato-olive-feta relish, grilled halloumi, and grilled oyster mushrooms. Someone else is doing sides, I assume!
Sunday: Chicken legs with garlicky greens and beans from a recent Cook’s’ Country, berry tart
Monday: Fried rice and any leftover proteins we might have; tomato salad if I have the energy
Tuesday: Pizza and trivia
Wednesday: Tuna zucchini casserole
Thursday: Scrounge
Friday: White beans with tomatoes

Happy Labor Day to all who celebrate! Have a great week and happy cooking!

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Oh gosh, that’s so scary. I’m glad you were able to catch the breach quickly and take action. Fingers crossed that the evil-doers rot in their bad karma…

Side note, during our week in exile, we ordered so much takeout via Grubhub, Uber Eats, etc. as well as groceries and various sundries via Instacart. And a second week of hotel charges. And one-way plane tickets. Do you know what finally tripped our credit card fraud alert sensor? A $40 lunch order on our last day. :woman_shrugging:

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The bank nonchalantly replaced it. This made me think a lot about banking fees. But I was very grateful. People think I’m crazy but I still refuse to use online banking.

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Good luck with the party. So kind of you.

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Oh! I’m happy for you that they replaced it - that must have been a HUGE relief!

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So sorry that happened to you, and what a shock! I’m glad the bank did replace it. That’s a huge amount of money!

20 years ago bank and credit card fraud detection were at about -1000. Banks and credit cards are much better now, and so are fraudsters.

This is relevant here because we finally figured out a local restaurant, which wrote checks by hand, added totals and tax by hand (sometimes inaccurately). gave hand written itemized receipts only on request, and used no automated debit or credit card system, is the likely culprit for two separate fraudulent uses of one of our bank debit cards on occasions about 2 months apart. Which we discovered within 36 hours of the fraud attempt by checking online banking charges and balances frequently. The bank called us about the same time we discovered it. The debit card number, not the bank account number, was compromised, so we had to go in immediately to get a new debit card and revise any auto payments. The checking account number was safe.

Security online is much better in some ways, especially with use of 1password or other password management programs, and two-way security authentication. I was told fraudsters consider unauthorized debit card charges to be more likely go undetected than unauthorized credit card charges, because credit card companies are considered more aggressive in contesting charges. There are many sophisticated ways to steal debit card numbers, including photographing their use at ATMs and gas stations, and for us, a local restaurant where fraud is part of the culture.

Having our suspicions about this particular restaurant, we investigated further. There is an ongoing court case against them for not paying servers and staff overtime when legally required. We won’t go back there, although the owner was very friendly and our son loved the food.

I won’t use my phone to pay for anything and I don’t keep my financial information on my phone. So I’m really a Luddite that way. The default settings on Venmo are very scary to us. I get it helps a group to split restaurant and other charges.

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