a week of meals no. 91
fresh herb falafels, choc pudding pie, summer rolls for 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.
Good morning, and welcome to another Saturday morning newsletter. It’s been such a nice week for us. We visited the beach, I had a dinner out with lovely girlfriends, we had guests for dinner on Sunday, gardened and ate excellent fresh food. As I wrote earlier this week, we are deep into the feeling of “summering” and all the luxury of time that that entails. Coupled with my very successful efforts at using my iPhone as just that, a telephone to make calls and texts with (largely due to removing any “fun” or distracting apps off of my phone: esp. any social media (incl. Substack and Goodreads lol) and the email app + muting group chats- sorry, summer mum chat)
I keep my phone in the kitchen “junk” drawer instead of on my body, or in my bag while I’m out, instead of in my pocket. I’ve been so inspired by reading a newsletter here called Hanging Up, her essays are wonderful.
Anyways, this week I finally finished washing the last few of our woolens (I have a few very heavy sweaters that I was putting off washing because it’s supremely annoying to do), which felt great to finally get done instead of staring at them every week and mentally berating myself for not continuing to put it off (lol).
The weather continues to be unseasonably cool here, with temperatures in the 80s and low 90s instead of 100-110s like we are usually roasting in. I can’t tell you how lovely this has been, and how much more enjoyable the summer when you can be comfortably outside at any time of day. I feel like we are in a new climate! The garden has taken much less upkeep than usual, I feel, due to less watering and that plants staying fresher, although the tomato plants haven’t been as vigorous as they normally are.
I started on the Copenhagen Trilogy, Tove Ditlevsen’s series of memoirs from childhood to adulthood, earlier this week, and have been enjoying it so much. The writing is absolutely beautiful and intense and honest. From the first few sentences, I fell in love. I’d definitely recommend it. After that, I plan to read Elena Ferrante’s The Lying Life of Adults. I read all of the Neapolitan novels last summer, one after another, and her other fiction the year before that, but have saved this last one for this summer. Something about her books feel like summer to me—the searing intensity, the juicy depth.
What we’re eating continues to be very summery and produce-heavy. This week I’m making a big batch of falafels to have for several nights, and continuing with specific nights for tacos, pizza, summer rolls, and burgers. It’s so easy when you have kids to have a small cast of rotating meals that you know they’ll love and come to anticipate. I hope the meal plans aren’t boring you, though, as they stay a bit more consistent in content through the summer months. One exciting new thing, though, was the chocolate pudding pie (linked below under “weekend bake”. I made it last Sunday when we had guests for dinner, and it was such a hit with everyone that my kids requested for me to make it again, so they could have it all to themselves ;)
the meal plan
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 for hummus. Bake a batch of sourdough, and granola for breakfasts/snacks.
Sunday: eggplant parmigiana + salad and overnight, no-knead ciabatta (from Jim Lahey’s excellent book My Bread). My method for the eggplant parm is to make a very good red sauce (very good 28 oz can of canned tomatoes such as Bianco di Napoli— splurge here, it’s really worth it— a few garlic cloves, olive oil, salt) and then to slice 3 large Italian eggplants up, drizzle them with oil on both sides, and broil them on a sheet pan, flipping once, till each side is golden brown, more cooked than you’d think it should be. Slice up a chub of mozzarella and some grated parmesan. On the bottom, layer some eggplant, then some red sauce, then the cheese. Place a big handful of whole basil leaves over. Then repeat, ending with a layer of eggplant topped with some red sauce. Drizzle the top with some olive oil and bake for 30 minutes or until bubbling.
Monday: falafels, sourdough discard pitas, tahini sauce (tahini thinned with lemon juice and water, flavored with garlic and salt), romaine and cherry tomatoes
Tuesday: tacos with homemade corn tortillas, filled with refried black beans, sauteed red Jimmy Nardello peppers and sweet corn, cilantro sauce (cilantro, lime, a dollop of sour cream or yogurt, salt, garlic all whizzed up in a blender) + mango avocado salsa and blue corn chips
Wednesday: leftover falafels from Monday night, in a salad with green lettuce tossed with vinaigrette, toasted sunflower seeds, cherry tomatoes, and a bottom layer of hummus on the plate before the salad is put on top (this is a favorite meal at a local restaurant!)
Thursday: summer rolls with spicy hoisin dipping sauce, will do tofu in these
Friday: pizza night and cinema club (watching A Tale of Summer): Roberta’s pizza crust, shisito, cherry tomato, corn, mozzarella, pesto // chickpea caesar salad
Saturday: burger night! These buns (I use olive oil and a flax egg), special sauce, thick slices of tomato, sweet red onion, lettuce etc. + corn on the cob and watermelon!
weekend bake: chocolate pudding pie
weekend breakfast: sorghum pancakes with butter, maple syrup, and roasted prune plums
p.s.—leaving you with a poem for the week, as always. This time by the lovely Mary Oliver. “there is no end, / believe me! to the inventions of summer, / to the happiness your body / is willing to bear” (!!)
x A
The Roses Mary Oliver One day in summer when everything has already been more than enough the wild beds start exploding open along the berm of the sea; day after day you sit near them; day after day the honey keeps on coming in the red cups and the bees like amber drops roll in the petals: there is no end, believe me! to the inventions of summer, to the happiness your body is willing to bear. from American Primitive, Mary Oliver, 1978
If you missed it:
ahhh ciabatta, the king of sandwich breads
Always inspired by your meal plan posts! And I loooved A Tale Of Summer, so cute and funny. I enjoyed the spring one too, but loved the summer one! Can’t wait to keep on the tradition and watch the Fall and Winter ones! (Assuming they exist lol).