a week of meals no. 64
meal plan for the fourth week of Jan. 2025
Welcome to mama eats, a twice-weekly newsletter (Tues. & Sat.) inspired by a simple + seasonal home life. I’m a mother of three, avid reader, gardener, and home cook who focuses on nourishing, whole food meals with a focus on plants. This newsletter is my labor of love, and it means so much that you are here. If you are not already, and are able to do so, please consider becoming a subscriber to support my work here. This gives you access to all the archives and recipes (find the recipe index here), as well as cook-along videos which go along with most recipes.
Hello my lovely readers. I hope this Saturday morning newsletter finds you well, and that you are settling into the weekend slowly and with a warm drink or two. On the docket for me today is my usual Saturday routine: a sunrise walk, a little stretching, a warm breakfast, then cleaning the house while listening to some good music. The rest of the day is for procuring groceries, visiting family, and maybe some yard work if I get the time. I need to spray my peach and apricot tree with copper before they bud out, to combat the leaf curl that can plague them. I have a few roses to finish pruning, as well. I even need to do some watering, which I’m sure lots of you will find very curious. It hasn’t rained in a few weeks, and we’ve had lovely full sun, which means that shallow rooted plants like my lettuces and herbs need water. I know some of you are under thick snow and really in the thick of winter, so maybe my garden tasks of January seem alien to you. It’s a luxury I never take for granted, the ability to garden year round here. But just so you know, I also envy the slowness of pace that I envision the snow must bring? And the beauty of an outdoors frosted in white.
As I mentioned previously, I’ve been reading for a good hour before bed, which I look forward to throughout the day. Right now, I’m finishing up A Separation by Katie Kitamura. Interestingly, I didn’t love Intimacies, which I think she is most well known for, but I really have loved this one. My reading goal this year is to savor the books I’m reading, I can tend towards rushing as I’m a fast reader. This book really invites slow and thoughtful reading, the writing is a pleasure to read- the sentence structure, the choice of words, the storyline. It’s a sort of psychological thriller that is still literary, elegant, and taut with dry humor. I don’t want it to end! I saw that she has a new book coming out in April that I’m pre-ordering from my local bookstore.
Onto the food, the meal plan for this week includes pasta, tacos, soup, noodles and pizza plus a semolina cake and a morning glory loaf! All kinds of creature comforts to delight the palate are essential in the dark dinners of winter. Do you have candles for your dinner table? If not, I highly recommend picking up a few tapers. Lovely candlesticks can be easily found at thrift stores and add to the ambience. Frilly edged carnation bouquets have also been a mood booster this month for me- they’re texturally beautiful, inexpensive, and last ages in the vase.
the meal plan
weekend prep work: soak and cook chickpeas, bake 2 loaves of sourdough and slice/freeze one for later this week, go to the farmer’s market and grocer to restock on produce and pantry, clean out the fridge.
Sunday: mushroom and walnut bolognese + green salad with carrot ribbons, dill, parsley, and shallot vinaigrette
Monday: 30 minute coconut, chickpea, and tomato curry soup
Tuesday: crispy cauliflower tacos with refried beans, cabbage slaw, and spicy mayo
Wednesday: sheet pan japchae
Thursday: french lentil, winter greens, feta salad with olives and spices
Friday: pizza night with sourdough pizza dough; red sauce, mozz, arugula to top
Saturday: peanut noodles with cabbage and gochujang, will add some simple pan seared tofu. Side of simple sauteed broccoli for extra veg.
weekend bake: Turkish semolina almond cake
weekend breakfast: morning glory breakfast loaf, going off of this recipe. To be eaten with yogurt and fresh oranges, which are incredible right now.
date night mocktail: winter citrus spritz
Wishing you a wonderful three day weekend, and a peaceful week ahead. Leaving you with a poem for the month, by one of my favorites, W.S. Merwin. xx A
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