April meal plan #2
Featuring spring pasta salad & homemade burgers (sourdough potato buns optional!)
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Good morning! Katie here. We’re in the midst of a pretty heafty renovation on a house we bought in November. My husband has taken on the brunt of it, and I couldn’t be more grateful. Not only is this all happening in my second language, but I’m more of a big picture girl anyway. I liked choosing our floors and looking at tiles, and I insisted on motorized black-out blinds for the whole house. But if I’m being honest, what I’ve loved the most was designing our new kitchen. This week, I got to see how everything came together. (Meredith: I saw a quick video and am obsessed).
The kitchen will be my happy place. It’ll also be the place where I sometimes argue with my husband, and where I flee to when I need a break. There will be laughter, spills, giggles, sadness—a little bit of everything in what I hope will be the heart of our home.
And it’ll certainly be the place I continue to cook. I’ll stir oatmeal in the mornings, make cakes for special occasions, simmer soups, stews, and meaty sauces on lazy Sunday mornings, pull warm loaves of bread from the oven.
There’s still dust everywhere and not a piece of furniture in sight. But I’m holding onto that glimpse into my new kitchen and the many years of cooking to come.
This is our honest feedback on what worked (or more likely, didn’t) from last week’s meal plan.
Little victories
Meredith: The carnitas were, as always, delicious. I had them with rice, black beans, and avocado. I didn’t buy a big enough piece of meat for leftovers, so I also made that one skillet chicken orzo again. Another hit!
Katie: Golden chicken noodle soup! This is the kind of meal I make week in and week out that my whole family just loves. At this point, I don’t even open up my recipe. My kids have no idea that the broth has so many blended veggies in it, and they eat every last drop every single time. Also it was a really comforting lunch for my husband and I when the rain decided to make another (very annoying) appearance. (Meredith: Alright, adding this to my meal plan!)
Meredith: Oh my goodness, you guys. The tahini sauce in these grain bowls was unbelieveable. I could’ve licked the bowl!
Katie: My kids ate these juicy turkey burgers! Well, Clara had a handful of bites (I’ll take it), and Noelia ate the entire thing. My sauce- and spice-averse kids ate CILANTRO! CURRY POWDER! CHILI POWDER! MANGO CHUTNEY! I still can’t believe it, but I’m calling it a win!
Meredith: We had banana pancakes two ways: Whole wheat ones for the older crowd and mushier, eggier ones for our little learner. Everybody loved them!
Humbling moments
Katie: My husband went snowboarding with friends one day this week, which couldn’t have made me happier. It’s so necessary to take time away from the daily grind! However…that was the night I served the soup, and my 1-year-old refused to let me feed her and entered into a continuous cycle of taking hot bites, burning her mouth, and crying, while my oldest seemed to have somehow forgotten to use a spoon. It wasn’t the easy night I had in mind, and I did lose my cool for a second with them. But I took a moment to take a deep breath, life went on, and the girls finished their soup.
Meredith: Fernandito’s usual favorites (spaghetti with meatballs, edamame and gyozas, chicken) did not cut it this week. I’m willing to bet it’s due to the time change and general sleepiness, but it was frustrating nonetheless. (Katie: Been there, it’s the worst. Here’s to next week!)
Katie: Perhaps you saw the orange muffins I wanted to make in this week’s top 10 list! Well, I made them, and Clara, upon tasting them, promptly let me know they were not for her. Cool cool cool. I, on the other hand, am obsessed. They’re so good!
Monday: Crispy gnocchi with sausage and broccoli (via NYT Cooking)
Tuesday: Spring tuna pasta salad (via Sara Tane)
Wednesday: Sheet pan chicken tikka (via Smitten Kitchen)
Thursday: Juicy burgers (via Simple Home Edit) on potato buns I made (and froze!) this week
Friday: Leftovers
Other: I know I’m a walking stereotype with the sourdough, but I’ll be pulling out my starter again this week to make some flatbread to go with the sheet pan chicken. I’m also going to give this lemon yogurt cheesecake a try for my lemon dessert-loving husband whose birthday it is this weekend!
Monday: Crispy chicken cutlets with sweet potato fries and broccoli
Tuesday: Golden chicken noodle soup (via Katie on Always Olives)
Wednesday: Leftovers or omelettes
Thursday: Juicy burgers (via Simple Home Edit) on store-bought buns because I haven’t gotten on Katie’s sourdough train yet :) (Katie: Here for you whenever you’re ready to come to the dark side!)
Friday: Asparagus and parmesan risotto (via What’s Gaby Cooking)
Other: I have a jar full of blueberries staring at me every time I open the fridge. I think I’ll make another batch of these muffins.
Meredith: I started reading “Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?” and am really enjoying it. I’ve been reading every night before bed since I was a child (just like my mom, my Nana, and my Grandpa). I am doing my best to keep that tradition strong with my little ones!
Katie: Confession to make: I ran out of this Vitamin C serum a couple months ago and decided not to re-buy. Does it really do anything? Do I really need to drop 40€ on this? Well, friends, I made a rash decision to buy it again this week, and the first day I put it on, my daughter’s daycare teacher asked me what I’d done to my face and told me I looked like I was 20. So yeah… never not buying that again.
Meredith: This week took a lot out of me. I was recovering from mastitis, had a string of bad nights of sleep, and just generally felt like I could not catch up at work. I ordered grocery delivery because I didn’t have time to get to the store, and I hate spending more money on ok-quality food. (I’m hoping next week will be a little less chaotic (although looking at my calendar full of meetings and birthday parties… I think not).
Katie: I don’t know how I’ve only now just discovered The Dinner SOS podcast by Bon Appetit, but I’m obsessed. I’m also SO inspired by their recipe suggestions and have been bookmarking and saving PDFs to print like crazy. Also, this Chris Morocco comment on cooking for kids made me laugh out loud on my run: “Shilpa, get in the zone. We’re feeding children here, you can’t just have a caper laying in full view.”