June meal plan #3

Oven-roasted chicken shawarma, sheet-pan beef tacos, and making a house a home

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Friends, hello! Katie here, and I’m writing to you from our new house! Things are chaotic—workers are in and out, our downstairs bathroom just got a new coat of paint (because I chose a color I hated the first time around, oops!), and there are many things floating around our new space that haven’t quite found their place yet.

Our new place has more space, a pool out back, a kitchen we got to design from scratch. A front porch, a yard, a lemon tree. Truly, I’m still pinching myself that we get to make this house our home. But that’s the thing. Right now—and I think for the foreseeable future—this isn’t quite yet our home.

In our old apartment, I could make coffee with my eyes half open; at this house, I bumble around, lost and unsure of where I put things. At our apartment, I knew which cupboard door creaked and which drawer needed a heavy kick with my foot to close correctly. It’s also the home where I watched my girls take their first steps, where—as chubby little babies—they happily ate in their high chairs, and where they ran from their bedrooms to the living room on Christmas morning. It’s where I brought home my second daughter, and it’s where we found our rhythm as a family of four.

We did so much living there, and I very much miss that apartment with the creaky cupboard and the faulty drawer and the place that kept us safe and warm for almost four years.

I know this is simply a question of time. Little by little, moving around my kitchen will become second nature once again, and we’ll all start collecting little life moments here, too. In fact, we’ve already started. I love that my girls can color at the kitchen counter while I prepare breakfast, and I don’t think I’ll forget their little faces lighting up when they saw we were finally filling up the pool yesterday.

In the meantime, I’m embracing the change and chaos as we all settle in. And, yes, we’re already eating some delicious meals (even if we’re still waiting for our kitchen table to arrive!)

Top, from left: Hella green sauce pizza, white bean salad, copycat Chipotle bowl. Middle: Hella green pasta. Bottom, from left: little Chipotle bowl, dumpling tomato salad, and yet another Chipotle bowl (can you tell we liked it?)

This is our honest feedback on what worked (or more likely, didn’t) from last week’s meal plan.

Little victories

• Meredith: The copycat Chipotle bowls were so, so good. Even Fernandito agreed! I can’t believe I haven’t made these before. I doubled the amount of chicken so we could have it for lunch the following day, and I defrosted some black beans I made a few weeks ago. I will be making this again for sure. (Katie: Yes!! We loved them, too!)

• Meredith: This dumpling tomato salad with chili crisp vinaigrette wasn’t on my meal plan, but oh my goodness, it was incredible. I used up the rest of my chili crisp to make the dressing (this is one of the ingredients I always buy when I’m in the US).

• Katie: This week was a simple one—no complicated recipes or new flavors—and we ate so well. Pablo’s white bean salad always hits the spot and is just so easy to throw together. Another day, we ate our salmon with quick pickled carrots and cucumbers and spicy mayo, and the girls had it for dinner that night with plain rice. It’s a good reminder that simple is wonderful.

Humbling moments

• Katie: On Wednesday, we had workers in the house, and the company who did our kitchen sent a guy to fix a leaky faucet. A lot of chaos for lunchtime, and I had to practice some deep breaths and letting go when he told me I couldn’t use my sink for the rest of the day.

• Meredith: I thought Fernandito was going to eat the “Hulk pasta." He’s had it and loved it before, but this week he only had a few bites. Womp, womp. I did use the sauce on pizza later in the week, and that was great!

• Katie: I made a decision to use bacon that expired in September 2024 for this pasta, and I still don’t know why I followed through with it?! (I am the queen of erring on the side of caution when it comes to expiration dates!) The pasta would’ve been delicious if I wasn’t worried about getting botulism the entire time. (Meredith: But it seems you lived to tell the tale? Iron stomach!)

This week’s game plan: Before it gets tooooo hot, I’m turning on my oven (for the first time ever in the new house!) Everything is so clean and white and new in my kitchen still that it feels a bit wrong, so I’m forcing myself to dive in this week.

Monday: Leftover chipotle chicken that I froze this week, turned into sheet-pan tacos (following the method in the recipe Meredith shares below!)
Tuesday: Tortilla de patatas and salmorejo (via What’s on Your Plate)
Wednesday: Oven-roasted chicken shawarma (via NYT Cooking) with the white sauce described in the headnote & homemade pitas
Thursday: My husband’s boiled salad (This is another one of our go-tos in the summer—Boil green beans, potatoes, carrots, and eggs. Chop everything up, and add chopped fresh onion, olive oil, vinegar, a can of olive-oil packed tuna, and salt. Let chill in the fridge for as long as possible before eating. It’s so light and refreshing.
Friday: Leftover shawarma
Other: Homemade popsicles with my girls! I just blend yogurt, milk, and fruit, and then put it into a unicorn popsicle mold. .I’m also thinking some chocolate chip cookies or blondies are in order! Ah, and I’m totally inspired to do a weeknight crepe party this week, too! I’m thinking I can make them for my kids, put them in bed, and then get the batter out later for my husband and me.

This week’s game plan: Clear out the fridge! We’re heading out of town for over a month on Saturday, and I don’t want to come back to any science experiments. Our freezer has been acting up lately, so we’ll clear that out, too.

Monday: Sheet-pan beef tacos with avocado lime crema (via Brita Cooks)
Tuesday: Fried chicken cutlets and croquetas from the freezer with gazpacho (recipe coming to your inbox on Wednesday!)
Wednesday: Chopped salad with quinoa to use up all of the open jars (roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, olives) and feta in the fridge.
Thursday: Tiny tomato pasta (via What to Cook)
Friday: Dinner out to celebrate Fernandito’s last day of school!
Other: Granola bars or mini protein muffins for my son’s class because they are supposed to bring breakfast to share on Wednesday. Fun fact: I thought this day was two months ago and found myself making muffins before we rushed out the door for school in the morning… only to find them all still in his backpack at the end of the day 🙃

• Katie: My husband and I took the girls to my in-laws’ one afternoon this week for an express trip to the mall where I tried on and fell in love with these linen pants. They are so comfortable, and I think they’ll be perfect for late night dinners at the beach this summer, just when the temps start drop for the night.

• Meredith: I loved this piece about enjoying the summer with little ones. The internet is full of reminders that time is fleeting and screens are bad, but this piece has real, actionable things you can do to make the summer more enjoyable for parents and kids. (Katie: PREACH!)

• Katie: Even though I could happily eat eggs and buttered sourdough for breakfast every day for the rest of my life, I’m trying to add a bit more variety into my diet. This week I tried overnight oats but made the mistake of not following a recipe. They came out impossibly thick. I ate them, but I wouldn’t say I particularly enjoyed them. I’ll be following a recipe next—this recipe (and all of its variations) look wonderful.

• Katie: This look at six cookbooks for frugal cooking was so refreshing to read. I also discovered a few cookbooks I’d never heard of! I love cooking frugally, and it’s once again such a great reminder that good food doesn’t need to be complicated, fancy, or expensive.