Welcome to mama eats, a twice-weekly newsletter inspired by a simple + seasonal home life. This week’s post, a week of meals, is free to all readers. I try to provide as much free content as possible, however, this newsletter is a labor of love and I am a busy mother to three. If you have the means, and find value in what I share, please consider becoming a paid subscriber, which also gives you access to the growing archive of posts older than a month.
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Hello everyone and happy Saturday. It’s another weekend and we are already halfway through June, if you can believe it. Camping was lovely (though of course not without its moments- think sick kid, vomit, an afternoon of humid heat…) we went with a dear friend and her children and explored a new-to-us campsite which had wonderfully clean bathrooms, what a luxury! We had coffee in a quiet redwood grove in the mornings and ate lunch by the creek. How energizing and re-setting to spend a few nights in nature.
What have you been reading? I’ve been slowing down a bit on reading lately, as the nights get longer and I’m outside more of the day. I started reading Makenna Goodman’s The Shame this week whilst camping. It’s good, but not great, so far. When we got home, I also started the fourth and final book in the Neapolitan series by Elena Ferrante, The Story of the Lost Child, which I’ve enjoyed as much as the other three so far- no surprise there. Also, here’s our library haul this week of picture books to read to James: Pockets for Two // Home // Sonya’s Chickens // Something, Someday // The Very Busy Spider.
This week Joel and I put in quite a bit of work in the garden, we had to put in all the stakes for the tomatoes and weave a jute trellis for the pole beans (I use the florida weave trellising method for my tomatoes, which routinely reach ten feet in my climate). I also made moats around my plants for easy deep watering (I water by hand) and planted more pole bean seeds in the empty spots where some died from heat and some got stepped on by James. I also finally tracked down a six pack of Jimmy Nardello pepper starts at our local nursery, which I am so happy about- they’re my favorite pepper and I was too late to start them by seeds this year. I also ordered my tulip bulbs for next year- I prefer to buy from Johnny’s, Brent and Becky’s, and John Scheeper’s for excellent quality.
The community garden is doing really well, we have loads of grapes and volunteer sweet potatoes in addition to the tomatoes, peppers, pole beans, winter squash, and pickling cucumbers that I planted a month back. It’s been a really rich experience meeting the huge range of people who garden there- everyone is so friendly and giving.
Below you’ll find the meal plan for the week, which is not hard and fast but rather exactly what it is called, a plan. It’s pretty normal for me to veer off course from what I’ve planned at least once a week, especially in summer, but having to structure there regularly saves me from the “what’s for dinner” 5 pm crisis zone. I try to vary our meals and base them on seasonal local produce, legumes, and whole grains. This week, we’ve got plenty of warm weather meals: foccacia and tomato salad, spring rolls, tabbouleh, plus our first summer minestrone of the year. It’s a good week.
the meal plan
weekend prep: soak and cook cannellini beans, bake sourdough, make hummus
Sunday: foccacia, cut into squares and split in half, to fill with green olive tapenade; alongside a chickpea, cherry tomato, basil, mozz, salad dressed with red wine vinegar + olive oil
Monday: summer minestrone with zucchini, green beans, cannellini, basil, cherry tomatoes + spelt sourdough
Tuesday: summer rolls with almond dip
Wednesday: tabbouleh and hummus, mixed olives
Thursday: toasted coconut and cashew greens noodle salad
Friday: pizza night; dough here; topped with zucchini, basil, and mozzarella +
Saturday: rigatoni with zucchini, mushrooms, and red onion (we have lots of fresh sweet red tropea onions from the garden to use up)
weekend bake: cherry clafoutis; we are going u-picking this weekend for berries and hoping some cherries are left to make a clafoutis, it’s our annual tradition to eat this after going picking!
midweek treat: cherry coconut popsicles
weekend breakfast: raspberry orange muffins with sprouted flour; we have the luxurious problem of having lots of raspberries in the garden this year!
cocktail: a nice chilled glass of sparkling rosé
Leaving you with a poem, as always. I’ll write again on Tuesday with either a recipe or summer reading recommendations - which would you prefer? Have a beautiful week, I hope your summer is off on a good foot. xx A