a week of meals no. 66
meal plan for the first week of Feb. 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.
Good morning lovely readers, and happy weekend. I hope you have the luxury of having a slow and cozy Saturday morning. It’s been a doozy of a week. Here, it’s a rainy dark morning, but I’ve got a few loaves of bread baking off in the oven, and it’s warming the kitchen nicely. Bread baking is the most delightful smell, isn’t it! When it comes out of the oven, I plan to run out to the farmer’s market, to restock us on vegetables and fruits, and then come home and clean the fridge out before the new produce goes in. After that, the usual Saturday chores.
I’m glad for the rain, we’ve been dry most of this winter- it’s been great for taking walks, though. This week, my walks were especially pleasurable, as there are some early blossoms that are barely unfurling around our neighborhood. Tulip magnolias, almond trees, flowering pear trees: they are all beginning to stretch out and bare themselves to the winter sun. Truly a delight of the senses and a joy bringer to remind us that spring is coming, and with it, a return of the light!
This week I’ve been reading Elena Ferrante’s Troubling Love (which I perhaps wouldn’t recommend? The storyline is bizarre but the writing is superb as usual) and Natalia Ginzburg’s essays from the collection entitled, A Place to Live (absolutely wonderful). It’s nice to have a few different types of books going at the same time so that I can match my mood. Mostly I swap between fiction and essays/poems/nonfiction. I’m more of a daytime nonfiction reader and a nighttime fiction, I have a hard time reading nonfiction at night- it makes my brain too active. Are you like this too? Or do you like to stick with one book at a time? What are you reading?
Here are a few winter-y themed picture books James I I have been enjoying, from the library:
This week, the meal plan includes lots of quinoa- I have been going through my pantry and trying to use up things that have been around a while, to clear them out without wasting. I’ve got a surplus of brown rice flour, too, and barley- any ideas? Besides plenty of quinoa dishes this week, there’s also a few good soups and salads, lots of chickpeas and tofu, plus pizza and chocolate and cookies to round it out.
Periodically I get messages asking if my kids all eat these dinners, and the answer is yes. We all eat the same thing. I particularly choose things that I know all of us will like, and if there’s something I know to be iffy with one of the kids (things with mushrooms, squash, caramelized onions, chiles) then I make sure it’s easy to eat around, or a side dish that they get served a tiny amount of, even if it’s something they’ve previously rejected. The rule in our house is that you have to taste it each time before you can say you don’t like it, and it’s served us well over the years- all three of my kids are largely well-rounded eaters. Even my middle child, who is more picky than any of us, has really come around to a lot of things he previously rejected, largely through repeated exposure, I think. I wrote a lot more about family dinner here, if you’d like to read it:
I wonder what you’ll be making and serving at the dinner table this week? Dinner can feel relentless sometimes, can’t it? It happens everyday, without fail. Often times I’m happy to make dinner, and find it a pleasurable wind down activity at the end of the day—and the meal plan helps me a lot with not feeling frantic about what’s for dinner— but sometimes I get into a slump of feeling beat down by the constant cycle of cooking, eating, dishwashing, planning, shopping… with three children I am always amazed by how quickly food goes in our house. I loved this piece my friend shared with me, from The Atlantic, entitled, “You’ll Never Get Off The Dinner Treadmill”, haha.
Without further ado, here are the recipes for the week.
the meal plan
weekend prep work: soak and cook chickpeas, cut up cauliflower for Tuesday, make soy vinaigrette for Monday, 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: peruvian quinoa and vegetable soup, like this one- will add chickpeas, and avocado/lime/cilantro to garnish
Monday: baby bok choy and avocado salad with soy dressing and roasted cashews, will also add shelled edamame and pan fried tofu
Tuesday: crockpot moroccan lentil and chickpea soup, sourdough, roasted cauliflower (I cut up the cauliflower the night before or earlier in the week, then just dump on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper (add any other spice you like!) and roast at 400f/200c till golden and tender, about the same time as the soup takes. Easy, delicious, extra vegetables and fiber)
Wednesday: crispy tofu with coconut quinoa and broccolini
Thursday: white bean soup with pesto dumplings (repeat from last week, we all loved this one) + simple green salad with thinly sliced radishes, torn dill leaves, and shallot vinaigrette
Friday: pizza night with sourdough pizza dough; red sauce, mozz, artichoke hearts, red onions, olives to top + kale and romaine caesar
Saturday: quinoa salad with harissa dressing, carrots, roasted chickpeas, hummus
weekend bake: flourless chocolate tahini cookies
weekend breakfast: chocolate orange waffles
Leaving you with a wish for a good week ahead, and this poem which I’ve been thinking about this week. xx A
If you missed it:
Not sure if you've read Oxanna Ullapat's Mother Grains but she has a kimchi fried barley recipe that is wonderful! I believe there's a rice chapter which would probably have some ideas for the flour too.
I lost my old sourdough starter, which I'd had for about 5 years. I used your directions to start a new one with rye--thank you! We'll probably have sourdough pancakes for dinner once this week because I, too, need to switch things up.