a week of meals no. 35
meal plan for the second week of June 2024
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Hello, dear readers, and happy week-end to you. Forgive me if this email is a bit less in-depth than usual or if there are some typos, we are gone camping for a few days next week, so I’m busy preparing for that.
This was the last week of school for us, and thus felt very celebratory and summery. It is (maybe) the last year of homeschooling my oldest child, and I am feeling so bittersweet about it. Homeschooling has been both very hard and very wonderful, but I am so happy that we tried it- we homeschooled from 4th-9th grade and I think it allowed my daughter so much more autonomy and freedom, gave us a stronger relationship, and normalized a slower life. Other than school being out, we got out to the river for a picnic lunch and some dipping in the cold water, which felt beautiful.
Here are a few things enjoyed this week:
I just finished up the two books I was reading last week, Elena Ferrante’s Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (really excellent, as usual) and Louise Kennedy’s The End of the World Is a Cul-de-Sac (excellent writing; very, very depressing). Last night, I started Jhumpa Lahiri’s Roman Stories and am enjoying it so far from the very brief part I read- it’s a collection of short stories centered around Rome. I love Jhumpa Lahiri- I read Wherabouts last year and devoured it, I’m thinking to re-read it soon.
I’m currently watching Sex and The City once a week; I’ve never watched the whole series, just a few episodes here and there and I thought it might be fun. It’s wild watching a show from the late 90’s and thinking about how beauty standards have changed and not changed since then. In particular, I’ve been thinking about how the main character, a chic Manhattan socialite in her 30s (played by Sarah Jessica Parker) has wrinkles and hair with lots of frizz (love it)- would that happen now if Sex and the City had come out in 2024?
Painted serpent cucumbers, I’ve never tried this variety although I’ve seen them plenty of times at the market. We receieved some in our CSA box this week and wow! Not only are they beautiful- striped, twisty, a little velvety skin- but they are so so crunchy. I’m going to grow them next year.
These olive oil chocolate chip cookies were delicious, I made them as part of our river picnic this week.
I loved this 20 minute workout this week.
I forgot to take pictures of most food this week, but here’s a few things I really enjoyed eating this week (click on any picture to enlarge):
chickpea salad tartine with cucumber; avocado mash (avocado, basil, lemon, nutritional yeast, pepper, salt) mixed through with white beans on whole wheat toast; cardamom chia overnight oats with almond butter and berries
In this week’s meal plan, there’s burgers, pasta, blueberry baked goods, and a baked oatmeal, plus a refreshing campari cocktail. I hope you have a good weekend- talk soon xx A
the meal plan
weekend prep: make big batch of hummus for snacks and lunches; bake two loaves of sourdough- slice and freeze one for later in the week. soak and cook black beans.
Sunday: chipotle black bean burrito bowls
Monday: camping with friends
Tuesday: camping with friends
Wednesday: quinoa and white bean burgers with lime and cherry tomato salad
Thursday: pasta con crema di zucchine; little gem and radish salad with lime vinaigrette
Friday: pizza night; dough here; topped with zucchini, basil, and mozzarella (I saute the zucchini in olive oil and garlic first to reduce wateriness) + smashed cucumber and ginger salad
Saturday: soba noodle salad with cucumber and scallions
weekend bake: blueberry cardamom buns
midweek treat: spelt blueberry muffins
weekend breakfast: vanilla berry baked oatmeal
cocktail: bicicletta
Leaving you with a poem and a little bonus “recipe” or method for cooking the delicous, fresh zucchini of early summer.
Cut a few small, slender zucchini into coins. Slice a small fresh onion into thin half-moons. Slice a few cloves of garlic thinly. Heat up a few tablespoons olive oil in a wide skillet over high heat. Add the zucchini and the onion, nudge into a single layer, and sprinkle with salt. Let cook without stirring until the bottoms of the zucchini have caramelized a bit. Stir in the garlic and let cook another few minutes. Scatter over some fresh torn marjoram (we have a plant and it goes extraordinarily well with zucchini- oregano or basil great too). Devour.
new bones
we will wear
new bones again.
we will leave
these rainy days,
break out through
another mouth
into sun and honey time.
worlds buzz over us like bees,
we be splendid in new bones.
other people think they know
how long life is
how strong life is.
we know.
Lucille Clifton, Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir
Another lovely poem. If you ever felt like writing a post about camping, I would read that!