We have houseguests this week, so my meal plan is intended to be easy. But also Planned, because I do not like other people cooking in my kitchen and I know if I have no plans, one of the guests will want to cook. Which is a KIND and GENEROUS thing, I recognize this, and yet I do not like it.
So! Onto dinners!
Dinners for the Week of February 27-March 5
Sheet Pan Chili-Honey Chicken and Sweet Potatoes with Cilantro Yogurt: I think I can make the cilantro yogurt in advance, and maybe I can even get Carla to try the chicken and sweet potatoes? Probably I will try to serve some steamed broccoli on the side, just to have something green.
Slow Cooker Balsamic Pork: I have been craving this. I have definitely served it to these particular houseguests before, but that is not a reason to take it off the list. They do not expect New and Extraordinary Meals every time they visit. I am saying this for my benefit; if I write it perhaps it will feel true. (IT IS TRUE.) We serve the tangy shredded with caramelized onions, feta cheese, and I do Kalamata olives and my husband does sun-dried tomatoes. Sometimes if I am feeling fancy I will include some hummus and pita, and maybe some artichoke hearts. There is nothing green with this meal but that is also okay. (IT IS.)
Baked Pork Chops and Asparagus: This is another one that maybe Carla would eat. Hard to say. Some days she is a fan of pork and other days she won’t touch it. We can do rice or quinoa or couscous alongside this.
Tandoori Sheet Pan Chicken and Cauliflower: Yes, this yet another sheet pan dinner. Sheet pan dinners are good and easy. I will have to buy a LOT of vegetables this week though. Maybe I will make two trips to the grocery store.
Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry: This is leftover from last week’s meal plan – I didn’t end up making it because Carla, out of nowhere, decided SHE wanted to make tacos for dinner one night… and she did! I supervised, and helped remove the taco shells from the oven, but she did it ALL, including chopping all the veggies. Anyway, I don’t normally make stir fry for company for some reason. But this sounds good and fairly easy and there’s no reason I can’t make a stir fry for houseguests. (NO REASON.) Also, I want to indoctrinate as many people as possible to the joy of broccoli slaw.
Do you have any weird houseguest-related cooking blockages? Foods you love but don’t think are “Guest Worthy”? What’s your favorite sheet pan meal?
My blockage with house guests is quantity. There are a lot of meals that don’t scale up very well. For example, last night I made beef stroganoff and we loved it, but it took forever to brown the steak and cook down a pound of mushrooms…and that was a meal for four people. It would have taken a lot of extra time to double that recipe for guests. Something like tacos is easy to scale from one person to 20.
I agree with doing repeat meals for guests. Every time that we visit my SIL in Chicago she usually makes ham one night and a flank steak the next. I would really miss those meals if she decided to change it up.
Yes, you are so right. It is very difficult to adjust quantity appropriately. I feel like I always overcompensate and make way too much food.
I want to try this stir fry. Yum. I just stir fried some veggies for dinner on Ash Wednedsay and I served it with quinoa. So good.
We don’t really do house guests, unless you count the occasional college group. College kids will eat anything and are always so grateful. I do have frets about inviting people over for dinner. In recent years, I’ve worried that dinner I might offer other people might be too simple/too casserole-ish.
My fav sheet pan is the cuban chicken sheet pan dinner and I have not made that in quite a while. I think I tend to do simpler meals when there are less of people home.
Ohhhhh yes I LOVE that Cuban sheet pan meal! It is so delicious. You were the one who turned me on to that and I love it!
It depends on the house guest. If it’s my mom, she is free to do as much as she would like in the kitchen!! She’ll be there this weekend so I will be leaning on her to help w/ party prep and will probably have her decorate the cookie cake because I’m awful at stuff like that! But when my friend Kyria was here earlier this month, I don’t think I let her do anything. She offered to help with meal prep but we kept things pretty easy/basic so I didn’t really need help? But I enjoyed having her company in the kitchen while I chopped things!
Happy belated birthday! We need an update on the birthday cake/cupcake situation!!!
My mom, I don’t mind as much… but I still prefer to have Total Kitchen Control.
Yes! I should probably stop stuffing cupcakes down my face and take a picture of one to share with the blogiverse!
I adore when the kids make dinner even hough it is a mess, of course., Jack is the only one who can be counted on to consistently do this, but it is lovely. I adore sheet pan dinners and for some reason only just discovered them, which makes me mourn the years I have missed eating easily and deliciously.
For some reason, I will go months without sheet panning a dinner, and when I suddenly remember sheet pan meals exist I feel shocked and delighted all over again.
We do a sheet pan meal with roasted chickpeas, carrots, asparagus, and it’s delicious. I imagine you could do this with some chicken if you’re not into the vegetarian thing. We usually serve this with some sort of carb (roast some potatoes on a different sheet, make some rice, etc.) and call it dinner. I’m pretty sure it’s intended to be a side, but who here is standing on convention, you know?
https://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/279229/sheet-pan-balsamic-parmesan-roasted-chickpeas-vegetables/
That sounds delicious!!! Thanks for the link!
I think I’ve mentioned this on your blog before, but I have a weird fear or anxiety around hosting meals for houseguests. We don’t have houseguests very often besides my parents (and when they come, we often go out to eat or order a pizza!), or my MIL from Mexico, and she usually will just cook then because she likes to and she makes stuff my husband wants. But if we are going to host other people, my mind immediately starts fretting over the meals. I think it’s in part because although I cook often, I don’t know that I necessarily cook “the right way” or what I consider to be “real meals”. I often don’t use recipes and many of our meals are kind of random hodgepodge mixes that work for us- but might not really be like, a formal sit down meal for guests, if that makes sense. I also fret about ingredients and how do I know what they like? I definitely think that making an actual meal plan is smart, and what I would do, too. My worst nightmare would be having people suddenly in my house and I have to “throw something together” for them, in a way that I feel is an appropriate meal to be feeding guests. I 100% overthink this, though, I am certain, and I’m sure I worry about it way too much.
“if we are going to host other people, my mind immediately starts fretting over the meals. I think it’s in part because although I cook often, I don’t know that I necessarily cook “the right way” or what I consider to be “real meals”.” YES to all of this. And also to this: “I 100% overthink this, though, I am certain, and I’m sure I worry about it way too much.” Although knowing that one worries needlessly is not enough to shut down the worrying, sadly!
Hmmm, sheet pan meals! I kind of forgot about those. I looked at the recipe Engie shared above and it looks good (and easy.)
I haven’t had houseguests in a long time, which is a good thing, as our house is small and not really conducive to people staying over (although we can do it if we have to.). My kitchen is also pretty small (I hate it) so it’s really annoying if someone tries to help cook. I better start thinking about this and Planning though, because my sister is going to be visiting this summer. Good luck!
Thanks, Jenny!
We never have houseguests (although I’m guessing that will change when we move and are in a really nice location with a much bigger house, complete with guest room) but we do have dinner guests often. Here’s what I don’t like: when someone (very kindly, very politely, very sweetly) helps me clean up the kitchen. I really, really don’t like it. I would much rather someone just chat and keep me company while I clean, but people always (kindly, politely, sweetly) try to pitch in and I would just rather they didn’t. I had one friend over and she tried to help and then looked at me and said “you really, really don’t want help, do you?” and I said no, I really didn’t, and we both burst out laughing. She chatted with me and refilled my wine as I loaded the dishwasher, and it was the best thing ever.
Perfect recipes! I am going to make both sheet pan dinners this week and maybe even the stir fry. We are in a small Mexican town for 3 months and have been eating out a lot as we’ve had friends coming & going for 6 weeks. Soon we will be on our own and eating in. I love to cook but ingredients, tools & spices are hit and miss. But I think I can do these three with a few variations. I can’t figure out broil on the oven so I may not get the carmelized finish but what the heck! No food processor so I’ll be chopping cilantro (or maybe I’ll try in the blender (usually dedicated to margaritas ) with some of the yogurt). Either way it will be yummy I’m sure. Thanks!
Yay! Sheet pan twinsies! Your situation does sound challenging, but I hope these work for you.
We haven’t had guests in so long… but so much of our weekdays are crockpot proteins + farro or brown rice and that seems entirely too informal for guests. I could never! For a sheet pan, I love to do marinated chicken with a mixture of vegetables, then pull the chicken to rest and roast / crisp up the veggies with some parmesan.
I am here to tell you that it IS TRUE that house guests do not expect New and Extraordinary Meals when they visit. And it is also TRUE that every dinner does not require a green vegetable. As for sheet pan meals, if I did the cooking around here, I would probably rely heavily on them because they sound so yummy and, even better, easy.
We never have houseguests. When Beth’s mom visits, she stays in a hotel and we eat out. When my West coast family comes East, we meet at a beach house. And when I cook for them at the beach, I usually only am responsible for one night, so I haven’t thought about blocks much. Beth even less so, I imagine, because she makes the same meal every year (gazpacho, salt-crusted potatoes, and fancy cheeses) and the group loves it so much there would be a revolt it she didn’t make it.
I also love Brocolli slaw! Kudos to Carla for preparing a meal. Carl chops veggies? That’s so awesome!
I love looking at your menu and have been trying one or two myself since I tend to make the same things over and over.
I don’t mind if people come over and cook. My inlaws come and bring a cooler full of food; prepared or needing to prepare and I sit back and relax a bit. It’s nice!
You are much more relaxed than I am, Suz! And yes, Carla chops vegetables. She is very careful about it and has good knife technique (and obviously I supervise carefully).
I’ve printed off the Slow Cooker Balsamic Pork because that sounds delicious. I do have some less than kind things to say about the website it’s on though. What’s with all the ads? You are a patient person to have found anything on that website.
It’s so good, Ally! I have to admit I have never noticed the quality or lack thereof of that website! A friend made this recipe for us years ago and it has been a solid standby in my repertoire ever since.
I hate figuring out what to eat. I’m in charge 4 nights a week. Actually, sometimes I really enjoy it. Enjoy finding new recipes, enjoy being in control and being the one to decide, getting to make what I want, not what someone else wants. Other times I would be happy with cheese and crackers. Alas. For guests, we often make pasta. My husband is low carb, so that gets tricky, but he generally figures it out somehow. We haven’t had house guests in ages. Part of living in a little 2 bedroom townhouse, where ‘house guest’ means sleeping on the sofa.
Yes, we cannot make pasta for any of our family members as they are all low carb! And I agree with you that the finding of the new recipes and the choosing of said recipes is pleasurable… but I do really stress about whether other people like it at all. My husband is always so agreeable but also he will eat anything, so I don’t know if he is the most reliable tester!
I only have one regular houseguest, and it’s one of my oldest friends and I don’t feel any anxiety at all when she’s here (I still get a tiny bit of anxiety before). For anyone else I would stress over meals. These all sound wonderful and I’m definitely going to try the first one. Funnily enough, my brother in law and his family are in town for a few months on sabbatical (they usually live far far away) and he flew back into town and missed his train so is crashing with us for the night. I just served him canned sweet potato coconut milk thai soup from a can and that butter-soaked pre-made garlic bread, so maybe I’m getting over it?
“Houseguest cooking blockages” reminds me of an interview I once heard with a plumber who said that Thanksgiving was always his busiest week…
I feel like I always stress when my brother or my husband’s sister visit because they are vegetarians. I do cook a lot of vegetarian meals, but sometimes it never seems enough to feed a crowd.
I love sheetpan dinners because I can prep them before I go to work and then my Husband can put them in the oven when he gets home.
Some favorites:
-Sheet pan gnocchi with roasted vegetables (There are a lot of recipes out there for this… I usually look at what’s in the fridge and google “sheetpan gnocchi + whatever veggie I have” for inspiration.)
-Roasted Broccoli and shrimp from the NYTimes website. I’ve also made it with chicken with some success too, but you have to fiddle with the timing. (you can find the recipe here, though it’s not the NYTimes site b/c … paywall… https://www.thewednesdaychef.com/the_wednesday_chef/2009/01/melissa-clarks-roasted-broccoli-with-shrimp.html)
-Sweet potato and Poblano tacos from Dinner Illustrated (Not strictly sheet pan because you still have to warm the tortillas and mash the avocado, but everything else is cooked in the oven.)
Yum! These all sound so good! I can’t serve gnocchi to these particular houseguests, but I will save that idea for myself.
HELP ME TO GET OVER IT ALSO PLEASE! I love that your friend’s visits are anxiety free. I hope that would be the case with my friends, but… probably not. It’s not in my nature to be chill about anything.
I have the same with houseguests – I don’t like other people cooking in my kitchen. And I think if someone came to see me I would rather make food quickly (I am a speed cooker) rather than watch them awkwardly navigate my too small kitchen. I also like cooking for people.
Sheet pan meals are the best. Also, thanks for the slow cooker recomendations too! I’m not a big pork fan BUT I am a big slow cooker fan….
It makes me SO uncomfortable. Especially because I am a Clean As You Go cooker and it drives me nuts when other people aren’t. (Even though that is a perfectly valid cooking style!)
I think that slow cooker recipe would work just as well with chicken. It is so simple and so yummy.
Favorite sheet pan meal: chicken sausage, red onion, cubed potatoes, mushrooms and brussels sprouts with a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika. Yum!
I am terrified of feeding people. The first time we hosted friends (a whole family) for dinner, shortly after we were married (obviously this is a long time ago…), I was up all night terrified that I’d given someone food poisoning. Fun times. I avoid it if at all possible. (And I am descended from an Enthusiastic Entertainer, so this is… unusual, to say the least.) So I hear you on the what-the-heck-to-do-with-houseguests thing. I guess that’s why I avoid them at all costs. 😉