Another week, another meal plan!
Before I tell you what I plan to make and eat this week, I need to give a shout out to one of the meals I made last week. (You’re probably not reading, baby, but if you are, this one’s for you.)
The Cold Noodle Salad with Spicy Peanut Sauce is my new love. It is totally not something I normally eat. Have I ever even had soba noodles before? (Yes, one time, when I was doing a summer study in Prague. I did not know they would be served cold and was not pleased.) Certainly I’ve never cooked them before. Plus, I don’t like cold noodles, kind of as a rule. Plus, I dislike peanut butter. So this is NOT the salad for me.
But! It was SO GOOD. The recipe, just for reference, makes twelve gallons of sauce/dressing, so I would pare that down a bit next time. I did not have radishes to hand, and I cannot imagine eating a piece of raw zucchini, so the veggies I used were: red bell pepper, cucumber, shredded carrot, and edamame. I topped the salad with red Fresno pepper, scallion, and cilantro. (My husband also added crushed peanuts to the top of his salad.)
Because my husband likes meat with dinner, and because I am continuing my project of Use Up Things We Already Own, I made steak to go with this salad. What I did was defrost the steak in a bowl of soy sauce. I also added a couple of cubes of frozen minced ginger. Then I reverse seared the steak in the oven, which is the easiest and best way to cook steak in my opinion. (Oven at 275 degrees Fahrenheit, stick a wireless thermometer in it until it comes up to temperature, then broil it for a couple of minutes to get some color on the top.) It was delicious. Tender and flavorful. And it went so well with the noodle salad, which was cold and creamy and spicy with lots of crunchy freshness from the veggies.
The day after I made it, I had leftovers of the salad (not the steak) and I ate it for lunch with grilled shrimp. ALSO delicious. I only made half the allotted amount of noodles, and next time I would make the full amount because this is so great as leftovers.
Okay! Now that I am done rhapsodizing over this salad, I should think about dinners for THIS week, the last week in July (HOW?!?!).
Dinners for the Week of July 24-30
- (Not) Skillet Chicken Enchiladas: I make these in a 9×13 pan, in the oven, and I haven’t had them in a very long time and they sound sooooooo yummy.
- Poached Salmon in Coconut Lime Sauce: Here’s another one I haven’t made in too long!
- Tacos: Yes.
- Chipotle Marinated Pork Chops: We have a package of pork chops to use up, and this sounds tasty. Vegetable to be determined.
What are you eating this week? Have you eaten anything recently that blew you away? Or something that was better (or worse, I suppose!) than expected?
That salad sounds so amazing – I’m putting it on my list-of-dinners-to-try-when-recipes-don’t-sound-too-daunting! We made burger bowls for the first time ever last night in an effort to stop the madness of being overscheduled; I was worried my daughter would be horrified and I’d be trying to find a backup dinner in a hurry, but she LOVED it! She even asked for MORE! Small wins, huge joys!
Nice! So great when the family gets on board with an easy meal!
Yay for spicy noodles! That was one of my go-to dinners in grad school when I had night classes and no time to stop between work and school. I made something similar for one of my road trips a few months ago. It’s such a flexible recipe that you can make based on what you have (and leave out anything weird like uncooked zucchini…srsly?)
We’re on vacation with the whole fam and everyone is rotating dinner duty. I’m not sure what we’re going to make for our night yet.
Okay, so glad I am not the only person who looks askance at uncooked zucchini. It is NOT A CUCUMBER.
Good luck with your rotating family meal plan! That sounds challenging but potentially quite fun!
Okay, i’m going to look at that recipe. I also don’t immediately gravitate towards cold salads, but this one sounds really good. I would also leave out the raw zucchini (ew.)
I can’t even think about dinners for this week- the kitchen is going to all torn up and I have no idea how long it’s going to take. We did make baked ziti last night, which we can het up for tonight and tomorrow. After that it might just be takeout.
Right?! Raw zucchini?!?!?! No thank you. Takeout seems like the very best way to endure a kitchen reno! Good luck!
When Noah’s home we eat soba noodles about once a week, because he’s a pasta fiend and they’re made of buckwheat, which is better for my blood sugar than white or even whole-wheat pasta.
I had no idea! That’s very good to know. Maybe my FIL can eat them, too!
I’ve had a can of chipotle peppers/adobo sauce in my pantry for a while; I need to try those (not) skillet enchiladas.
Last night I made the famous BBQ salmon bowls w/mango salsa. https://pinchofyum.com/bbq-salmon-mango-salsa I’ve decided it’s one of the best things I now make. 🙂
YUM. So delish! I haven’t had mango salsa in far too long and need to remedy that.
I am also married to a meat eater. But my hubby would never eat soba noodles. We both love tacos. and enchiladas though. Love the pork chop idea. And I had to laugh at your “project” because I do that too and that is certainly what it feels like sometimes. Thanks for the inspiration!
Tacos definitely bridge a lot of difference! 🙂
The ad at the end of your post says something about toenail fungus and I was just reading aloud wondering about the exceedingly fast topic change. Ha!
I made some blueberry muffins for book club last night and they were a big hit. I just used the Joy of Cooking recipe, but I subbed in a GF flour. I was VERY pleased with them!
Yay! So glad your blueberry muffins were a hit after the pie fiasco and the inedible cookies.
I would swap out the peppers for the raw zucchini, which I love. I’m a fan of peanut sauce to start with, especially if it has a little kick to it. It’s a popular component of West African cuisine where my older daughter spent a lot of time. I was excited to go out for ice cream after a kids’ event and ordered blueberry crisp. It was inedible. Fake blueberry flavor, no crisp taste and a weird texture–crunchy instead of creamy. My older daughter, who makes her own ice cream, says that they may have just used milk instead of making a custard. It was such a disappointment!
That does sound terribly disappointing! Boo!
Ah, I’m always SO inspired by your religious, diligent weekly meal plans!! I am currently REALLY wanting to get back on some sort of meal planning schedule, bc life has been so all over the place lately for us that I’m actually really craving some time cooking in the kitchen!! We’ve had a lot, lot of meals out recently. Which I generally enjoy, but there are limits. 🙂 I used to make a marinated Chipotle pork tenderloin frequently for more special occasions. We used to always pair it with roasted red potatoes and some kind of green veggie. The more spicy, the better for us, so we are big fans of anything like this. We usually always have canned chipotle peppers on hand too. My husband actually likes to smoosh one up and put them on sandwiches as well!
I looooove a chipotle. Although I am weird about the texture. So I blend up a can of chipotles and adobo until smooth, then freeze it in ice cube trays and store it in the freezer. Then I can just pop an ice cube or two into whatever I’m making.
We are at my parents so pretty much all meals are taken care of!! My eldest brother is here, too, and is very into cooking so he made dinner last night (a spatchcocked chicken) and tonight he’s making pizza’s in a Ooni pizza oven. We will probably not make a meal this week but we will see!
That noodle salad sounds awesome. I could sub rice noodles for Soba to make it Gf.
It was so good, Lisa! I hope you give it a try. Honestly, it would be delicious with broccoli slaw, too. I don’t think the noodles were that necessary (although they were good). How fun that your brother is cooking for you! Here’s hoping you don’t have to cook AT ALL.
Lisa, I thought that some soba is already GF, although I know you would know more than I would! However, I always thought that buckwheat, despite the name, was not really wheat and could be GF as long as they don’t add wheat flour… However,, even if it is, I think your idea is great, as I actually do make a similar version of Suzanne’s dish using those vermicelli rice noodles and it is just as good! So either way, it is a win!
You know these posts about dinners make me hungry, right? Is that your intention? 😉
Hahaha – yes! And then to have options with which to treat the hunger!
Your dinners sound great and that salad especially! I make a similar one using vermicelli rice noodles which is also very good, but as you said, unless I was eating it hot, I would probably skip the raw zucchini. If I made it from what I currently have, mine would almost be like yours…carrots, edamame, maybe some tofu…
Lately since it is summer I am eating a lot of fruit and basically just throwing something in the instant pot and eating it all week. This week it was pork chops and potatoes. The issues is that not only is it hot, but I am away a lot and I find it easier to take the thought out of it and just eat the same (or similar) thing day after day for the next few weeks.
I am curious about your instant pot meals! I have an instant pot but find it very intimidating, and therefore have only ever made a handful of things… and only one recipe regularly. (Plus I make my husband operate it!)
It is SO easy! I am sometimes a lazy chef so my go to would be something like this: two chicken breasts, a container of salsa, 20 minutes later, shred chicken, add a huge dollop of sour cream, serve over rice, or serve in a tortilla with cheese and lettuce and tomato, or eat on a salad or just eat it plain. “Recipe” number two: any meat that you have in chop/breast form, a handful of potatoes, several carrots VERY rough chopped, salt, pepper. 20 minutes later, fish out what you want and eat it. Optional: brown meat under broiler for crispy top. “Recipe” number three: various cans of beans (or dried beans, but that takes a little longer), diced tomatoes, chili flakes, cumin, olives, corn, salt, pepper, 20 minutes later, you have chili. Eat plain or put over rice. Optional: shredded cheese or ground beef.
You make it sound so simple!
I gave coach some dinner ideas while I am on the art museum bucket list tour. One idea was tacos. I know he grilled salmon last night. I don’t like fish so glad he got that out of his system. I am enjoying eating out the last few days.
Yes! Must be nice to have a break from cooking!
OK, I have saved the cold peanut noodle salad. (Side note: the people who comment on the NY Times recipes who write, “I made it but subbed peanut butter for butter, and sriracha for soy sauce, and I left out the noodles and used bread. This didn’t taste anything like the recipe” are… a recipe developer’s nightmare. Seriously.)
Also, I am, apparently, the only person on earth (or, um, the only person who reads this blog and comments) who will deign to eat uncooked zucchini. I like it on veggie platters – it’s great with dip! That said, I’d go for cucumber here, and radish and maybe celery. 🙂
I absolutely love raw zucchini. On a veggie platter with ranch dip.
Oh, thank goodness. I was beginning to think I was the only one. Thanks for stepping forward. 🙂