a week of meals no. 2

a meal plan for the fourth week of October 2023

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Oh, what a week. For both personal and worldwide reasons, this week, I have cried alot. Cried on the way to my childs school, cried on the phone calling my representative, cried listening to the news, stood in the garden and cried quietly while picking vegetables for dinner, cried especially as I go in before bed to tuck James in another time before I go to sleep, while looking at his perfect tiny body, safe and happy and alive. Cried while reading poetry and talking over the news with my teenager, cried tears of frustration and grief and anger and sadness. I have also experienced moments of joy and peace, which simultaneously made me feel guilty and grateful. Sometimes the world feels an unbearable place, and sometimes I have so much hope for the future. It feels unmooring, these things both existing at once.

How are you all doing? Besides the crying, we canned tomatoes, visited the creek and spent hours playing in the water, planted seeds (which always feels so hopeful), and connected with friends+neighbors, sharing our sorrows between us, sifting it and picking over- breaking up- the large bits that won’t go through.

Here is our meal plan for the week, a lot of you wondered if the meal plan changes once I write it. Yes, sometimes it happens that we dont feel like making the meal I have slotted, and we make something else. Or, we have lots of leftovers, and I push the meals planned forward a day to catch up. I just make sure that whatever ingredients I have purchased for the meal are going to get used up in a different way, so that nothing goes to waste.

Sunday: chard, corn, and pinto bean enchiladas (entomatadas?) with avocado, lime crema, and onion to top, perhaps rice on the side? The recipe for this is in my “recipe'“ highlight on Instagram.

Monday: Butternut rigatoni with crispy sage leaves and toasted hazelnuts. // I’m just planning to wing this, and basically make a pureed sauce out of roasted butternut, cashews, nutmeg, garlic, with a touch of pasta water to thin it out. Will serve with either sauteed brussels + red onion, or a big green salad with pear and toasted nuts and pomegranates and vinaigrette.

Tuesday: autumn minestrone + squash and sage foccacia // I need to write up a recipe for the foccacia, but basically its just a normal foccacia recipe with added pureed squash, with some of the water left out of the recipe to compensate, and sage leaves pressed into the top before baking.

Wednesday: pesto pasta + white bean salad // I have a lot of basil to use in the garden right now, so pesto with pasta it is. If I can still find green beans, I may add those. For the bean salad, it’s cooked white beans, diced cucumber, green onions, parsley, basil, red onion, olive oil, red wine vinegar, and salt.

Thursday: pasta e ceci + pomegranate, fennel, orange salad // one of my kids all time favorite dishes, we make pasta e ceci all the time. My recipe’s in my ebook, I thought it was in my highlights, too, but cant find it- I’ll screenshot it and add it to the bottom of this post. The salad is just what it sounds like- thinly sliced fennel, segmented oranges, pomegranate arils, some good olive oil and falky salt strewn over the top. Red onions nice here too, especially soaked in 1/2 and 1/2 vinegar and cold water for 10 minutes or so to remove some fire whilst giving them a little acid kick.

Friday: pizza night, probably one a simple margherita + the other a marinated eggplant, artichoke heart, olive, arugula..

Saturday: black bean soup with coconut, plus pickled onions, lime crema, cilantro to top. Chips + salsa cascabel.

bake: pumpkin pie, I always make my first one of the year for Halloween. I make the puree for it like this: Halve a sugar pie pumpkin or red kuri squash (seed+skin on) and roast, cut sides down, on a baking sheet at 400 for about 45 min until extremely tender, then scoop out seeds, and scoop flesh away from skin. Puree flesh very smooth, and save seeds for baking till crunchy with salt and pepper and oil. This puree to me is so much tastier than canned. Also, still have lots of pears, so thinking to make a pear + rosemary foccacia with lots of black pepper, olive oil, and flaky salt.

midweek treat: an apple, pear, or mix of apple and pear galette. I like to spread a layer of homemade frangipane on the bottom for extra flavor: I make a paste with ground almonds, almond extract, sugar, and butter, and a pinch of salt.

cocktail: ginger, pear, and bourbon spritzers, something like this, except Joel may switch out the sage for cinnamon or another spice, nutmeg perhaps?

How has your week been, and what are you cooking this week? I’d love to know.

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Until next time,

xx A