a week of meals no. 65
meal plan for the last 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.
Dear friends, happy week’s end and good morning! I hope your week has been filled with good things and that you are safe in this arctic blast hitting lots of the country. Here, we have had no rain for weeks and although the days have been clear and sunny with blue skies, the mornings are frosty and icy, I’ve been having to put sheets over some plants to protect them. We desperately need rain here in California.
The other news is that we’ve finally finished all the pruning and cutting back of the trees, roses, lavenders, salvias, and herbs in the garden, which is truly a big achievement. I’ve even managed to get the peach tree sprayed with copper for protection against leaf curl. Despite the frosty temperatures, the plants are starting to feel the lengthening daylight hours and are venturing forth to swell their buds as spring draws closer.
The swelling blossom buds of the tulip magnolias, almonds, and flowering pear are a delight I look forward to every year. It reminds me that spring is coming and things are stirring, renewal and freshness and a clean start. It is hope embodied.
This week, the meal plan includes lots of beans (of course), soups, salads, a repeat of those cauliflower tacos from last week, gnocchi, and apple cake. Plus gingerbread baked oatmeal and sourdough pizza. What’s on the menu in your home? How’s the weather where you are?
the meal plan
weekend prep work: soak and cook giant white beans (corona beans) and cannellini beans, 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: gnocchi and giant white beans in tomato sauce, fennel and orange salad
Monday: leek and potato soup with the leftover giant white beans stirred through each bowl; toasted spelt sourdough to dip
Tuesday: crispy cauliflower tacos with refried beans, cabbage slaw, and spicy mayo- a repeat from last week that everyone enjoyed!
Wednesday: kale and romaine caesar, roasted tomato white bean soup
Thursday: chickpea and chard saute with herb/lemon yogurt to top and whole wheat flatbreads
Friday: pizza night with sourdough pizza dough; red sauce, mozz, red onions, olives to top + cabbage/shredded kale/carrot salad with chunks of apple, dried tart cherries, toasted nuts, vinaigrette, veg feta
Saturday: white bean soup with pesto dumplings + simple green salad with shallot vinaigrette
weekend bake: date sweetened spelt apple cake
weekend breakfast: gingerbread baked oatmeal with walnut streusel
Enjoy the weekend and hope your week ahead is smooth and that you get to be outside a bit. Leaving you with this poem I’ve enjoyed reading lately xx A
In California: Morning, Evening, Late January
Pale, then enkindled,
light
advancing,
emblazoning
summits of palm and pine,
the dew
lingering,
scripture of
scintillas.
Soon the roar
of mowers
cropping the already short
grass of lawns,
men with long-nozzled
cylinders of pesticide
poking at weeds,
at moss in cracks of cement,
and louder roar
of helicopters off to spray
vineyards where braceros try
to hold their breath,
and in the distance, bulldozers, excavators,
babel of destructive construction.
Banded by deep
oakshadow, airy
shadow of eucalyptus,
miner’s lettuce,
tender, untasted,
and other grass, unmown,
luxuriant,
no green more brilliant.
Fragile paradise.
. . . .
At day’s end the whole sky,
vast, unstinting, flooded with transparent
mauve,
tint of wisteria,
cloudless
over the malls, the industrial parks,
the homes with the lights going on,
the homeless arranging their bundles.
. . . .
Who can utter
the poignance of all that is constantly
threatened, invaded, expended
and constantly
nevertheless
persists in beauty,
tranquil as this young moon
just risen and slowly
drinking light
from the vanished sun.
Who can utter
the praise of such generosity
or the shame?
“In California” By Denise Levertov, from A Door in the Hive, 1989
If you missed it:
fennel and orange salad sounds sooooo good🥰 my menu for this week includes taco leftovers, butternut squash & cashew mac and cheese, and probably some sort of soup (i make your ‘kale + cabbage soup’ recipe all the time! and have shared it with many friends). the weather where i am has been so cold that the high of 29F today feels like spring. thank you for sharing! it is always inspiring. i’ve been following you since ~2017 but have only left a few comments over the years🩷
The quantity of soup here is very my vibe!
The cauliflower tacos look great but like a lot of work. Is it a big hassle?