I just spent an entire week enjoying someone else cooking dinner. It was spectacular. Also, I am I awe of my mother’s planning skills. She fed six people three meals a day for eight days and we only needed to supplement her shopping twice – once with tomatoes and a head of lettuce, once with sandwich rolls and milk. (And – this boggles my mind – she only has one fridge! She does have a chest freezer, though, so I think that helps.)
She made sure to make ALL our favorites: ribs and potato salad, tacos, pizza (from scratch). My dad made steak and Caesar salad one night and from-scratch waffles for brunch one morning. Carla and my dad made ice cream another night. YUM. We ate so well.
After basking in the feeling of being well-fed and well-loved, I feel refreshed and ready to tackle meal planning for my own family again.
Dinners for the Week of August 12-18
- Mediterranean Bowl with Salmon: Yum. I am all over this, this week. Probably I will make a chicken breast for my husband, but I am stocked up with frozen Costco salmon fillets and ready to eat them.
- My Favorite Summer Salad: Yesssss. This sounds amazing to me right now. I want to eat ALL the veggies: lettuce and avocado and corn and peppers. Gotta soak up summer while it lingers, right?
- Charred Corn and Chickpea Salad with Lime Crema + Some Sort of Meat, Maybe?: Speaking of soaking up summer, I am ready to eat all the corn.
- Something with Pesto: We recently had dinner at our neighbors’ house (have I already told this story before? I feel like I have…) and they made a pasta salad with pesto that was TO DIE FOR. They are amazing cooks, and this pesto was fantastic. Well, I have three flourishing basil plants, so I want to make some pesto. Not quite sure what I should put it on/in, though. I kind of want to make a pasta with zucchini and corn… but that’s a lot of corn for one week. Maybe this charred shrimp and quinoa bowl? Oh my goodness – or this pesto, artichoke, and burrata pizza? Ooooh… maybe a pesto variation on Nicole’s lemon basil pasta with zucchini? I have had nowhere near enough zucchini this summer. What’s your favorite thing to do with pesto?
- Caprese Salad with Balsamic Chicken and Balsamic Dressing: Speaking of basil, this is such a good way to incorporate fresh basil! And we can use homegrown grape tomatoes if they choose to ripen.
What are you eating this week?
Costco’s pesto jars are excellent. I put mine in the freezer and scoop out when I need some.
highly recommend slather it on salmon then bake in the oven. Bonus if you sprinkles some feta on top before you bake.
Feta and pesto on salmon sounds amazing!
I made a pesto pasta salad a couple of weeks ago (I HAVE SO MUCH BASIL) and I think that’s going to be on the menu this week. I have a houseguest coming later in the week, and so that sounds like a plan for when she’s here. Also, omg, so much zucchini. SO MUCH ZUCCHINI
I cannot wait to hear how you address your zucchini proliferation! There have to be a million ways to prepare and eat zucchini, and I am here for ALL of them. (Unless they involve tomatoes.)
Ah, it’s so nice to go home and have your mom feed you again!!! I’m glad you had a good time, and I’m glad you came back ready to tackle your own dinner situation again. Pesto is always a good thing- we just had it the other night, on bowtie pasta with roasted cauliflower. A pasta salad with pesto sounds amazing though.
Yum – pesto with roasted cauliflower sounds delicious!
We also had roasted cauli and pesto pasta one night last week! It was amazing! This was the recipe – all that spice on the cauliflower was *chef’s kiss* https://www.rabbitandwolves.com/vegan-blackened-cauliflower/
I also just got back from a week of eating other people’s cooking (contributing just a little KP to two meals) and unfortunately, I have no enthusiasm for a return to my role as main cook of the family. I know what we’re eating tonight (veggie burgers with a cucumber-tomato-basil salad with what ripened in the garden while we were gone) but beyond that I have no idea what we’re eating this week.
I fully expect my enthusiasm to wane any moment now.
On your last post, I forgot to comment on planting more zucchini plants next year. I feel like you are the first person to not get ENOUGH zucchini from your plant. I was giving so much away when I had a garden. I swear I could have sat there and watched the zucchini grow! Maybe there was something off with the seeds? I would not plant multiple zucchini plants, though. You might end up with like a bazillion zucchini!
Now back to the topic at hand… I am glad you were treated to a week of delicious meals. My mom loves to cook and plan meals. We eat so well when we are there – too well really. Like she’ll make a big breakfast and then a big lunch and then a big dinner and I”m like – ahhh, I’m not hungry yet! But I know it’s her love language and the food is all fantastic so we are very lucky. We try to treat them to a meal or 2 out while we are there which is more enjoyable to do now that the kids are a bit better at eating out. Our meal our in July actually went really well. Taco was such a card and entertained my parents with all his chatter.
Yesterday I made a corn chowder in the instant pot from a milk street kitchen instant pot cook book. It’s in our regular rotation and it’s SO GOOD. We are all about fresh corn, too, so we will have corn on the cob w/ burgers this week as well. For our other meal I am making shrimp tacos, probably in a grill basket on the grill. And then we go to my parents on Monday and I will not have to cook that week – and they are keeping the kids for another week so I will only need to feed myself and Phil. Hooray!
Yes to all the salads. I rarely put corn in my salads. Not a fan. But it looks like you are not using canned one? How do you prepare that if not?
Being cooked for for an entire week is such a luxury. I am sitting here trying to figure out what my meals are looking this week…
YES YES YES to having someone else cook dinner for a week!
The last time I had “something with pesto” I just made plain pasta and kept adding more and more pesto. It almost doesn’t matter what the “something” is.
We are making gnocchi with grilled chicken and pesto this week. A few weeks ago we had tortellini with grilled chicken and pesto. It’s so good! I am going to try your pesto recipe this time because I didn’t love the one I used previously.
The kids are only here for one more week so I’ve made peanut chicken and vietnamese caramelized pork bowls and salmon for them. I’ve had so much grilled corn this summer I’m almost done with it – almost. The peaches are amazing right now so we’re mainlining peaches. I’m not exactly refreshed and ready to resume feeding everyone, but it’s not making me want to end it all like it sometimes does, so… win? And thanks for the reminder, we should have pesto something before Eve goes back.
I don’t even want to address the question of “what do you want to eat this week?” because I am giving it up. I will no longer cook or plan meals. I’m an adult and I get to choose what I do with my life. (Sigh. We’re doing a soup, a frittata, and a chickpea tray bake with carrots and asparagus. And I’ll cook it all. Begrudgingly.)
Now that you mention pesto I suddenly want some, could make some. On the menu this week is a fish curry and some cheese tortellinis. After that it’s anyone’s guess what we’ll be eating.
I do like to cook but isn’t it nice if someone else does the – mental and physical – labor and just presents you with delicious food? 🙂
You could put pesto on a piece of cardboard and it would be delicious. Hope you a) made it, and b) put it to good use! And yes, the best part about visiting someone who loves to cook AND who loves YOU is that…they feed you. A lot. And well. I’m so glad you enjoyed it. <3