a week of meals no. 87
meal plan for the first week of July 2025
Welcome to mamaeats, 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—if you are not already, and are able to do so, please consider becoming a subscriber to support my work here, which takes time and effort. Doing so 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. If a recurring payment is too much for you right now, but you’d still like to contribute, I’d be delighted to receive a one-off tip via my ko-fi. As always, thank you for being here, reading this newsletter, and sending me your thoughts.
Hello friends, welcome to Saturday morning, the last one in June! I can’t believe we’re already hurtling towards July and peak summer. I’m sitting here at my desk with a hot cappuccino and a list of the usual Saturday chores to be done after breakfast: mopping the floors, cleaning the bathrooms, mowing the lawn. There’s a load of laundry spinning in the washer which I’ll hang out soon to dry under the summer sun, a batch of granola in the oven, and I’ve already been out for a walk while it’s cool— all very satisfying things.
Our week has been wonderfully, luxuriously slow and relaxed. We saw friends, cooked good food, worked in the garden, and got cool in both pools and the creek. I just love the relaxed nature of time in summer, saying yes to more things and stretching out the hours. No need to rush, or for anything to be overwrought, complicated. I’m reminded of Virgina Woolf, from A Room of One’s Own:
a few small, simple pleasures enjoyed this week:
Impromptu picnic dinner with a friend: a dear friend of mine texted asking if I wanted to meet up, but I wasn't feeling up to driving somewhere, so she drove to me, I packed us up two bowls of dinner, and we walked to the green park by my house, where we spread a quilt and ate dinner and chatted until it got dark. Pure summer bliss!
cherry tomatoes: M brought me cherry tomatoes from her garden, which were so sweet and beautiful and delicious— mixed saturated reds and oranges. Our tomatoes are barely, barely, starting to color this week, so it was such a treat!
focaccia eaten outside: I baked focaccia twice this week, once on Wednesday for our nature group creek meetup, and once for a toddler playdate pool party; it was well loved both times, and reminded me how lovely it is to share baked goods with friends.
reading: I finished up both of last week’s books and thus was in need of two more. Last week, I was down to my last book in my TBR stack (which made me feel, ahhh, !!!) and ordered a huge amount from the library from my summer reading list; thus, I happily have a lot to choose from! I went with Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys for my fiction read (have been wanting to read this after re-reading Jane Eyre last year), and Children at Play by Heidi Britz-Crecelius for non-fiction. Both good so far.
records: I’ve been using my record player a lot more often as I find it supremely annoying to have to dig up wherever my phone and the speaker are, and find the playlist I want on Spotify before I can listen to music. It’s lovely and fun and tactile and such a different feeling listening to a whole record through instead of a playlist skipping artist to artist, song to song. I thrifted my record player a few years back, and it’s not the best quality, so I am on the lookout for a better one (suggestions?) but it’s great for right now.
some delicious lunches and snacks enjoyed this week:
the meal plan
notes: this week, there’s loads of crunchy, cooling salads to make the most of summer produce and combat the heat. An apricot tart and more honey roasted apricots to go with weekend waffles— to use up the last of the beautiful apricots from our tree.
weekend prep work: clean out the fridge, go to the farmer’s market and grocery store to re-stock pantry and fridge. Soak and cook chickpeas; cook lentils. Make bread dough to bake sourdough boules on Monday morning. Bake granola for breakfasts/snacks.
Sunday: greek salad with crispy gnocchi; cold cantaloupe drizzled with olive oil and salt
Monday: zucchini chickpea fritters, tzatziki, tomato nectarine salad, baguette
Tuesday: spiced couscous, cherry tomato, herb salad: will add some lentils to this to round out the meal
Wednesday: mango and red cabbage vermicelli salad; will add pan fried tofu to this
Thursday: panzanella using the sourdough from earlier in the week; steamed green beans drizzled with olive oil, salt.
Friday: out with friends for our town’s annual firework show/picnic dinner
Saturday: kale and romaine caesar with crispy chickpeas
weekend bake: apricot tart; recipe coming in the tuesday newsletter!
weekend breakfast: gf whole grain waffles with honey roasted apricots, pistachios, and coco yogurt
p.s.—leaving you with a poem for the week, as always. This one always a favorite, a sweet ode to summer. x A
If you missed it:
Beautifully, unrushed days with amazing nourishing meals. You inspire me! Love your writing & lifestyle. I’m still looking for those cloth food storage bags. Do you have a source for purchasing? Thank you Amanda!
I love that poem so much