For several months now, I’ve been operating under the “wing it” principle for dinners. It’s been too hot to want to eat, our schedule has been irregular what with summer camps etc., and the few times I’ve had something specific I wanted to make, I just… made it.
But it’s getting to the point, now, where the drudgery of discussing how to wing it each evening feels more onerous than the drudgery of planning out a week’s worth of meals. Also, I have been doing that thing where I end up needing to go to the grocery store multiple times per week, and then I end up spending way more money than I would have if I’d just taken ten minutes to think through a plan in the first place.
I still don’t want to cook anything, though. Well. Needs must. Here are some things I will make this week:
Dinners for the Week of July 13
- Couscous Salad with Some Sort of Protein: Chicken breast for my husband, and I will probably do a filet of salmon for myself and Carla; she will have her couscous salad deconstructed, without any feta.
- Szechuan Stir Fry: Literally the only thing that sounds appealing me to lately are fresh veggies. Of course, there is also the pesky cyclosporiasis outbreak hitting some 31 states right now, and no one seems to know where the parasite is coming from, just that it’s probably coming from veggies, so that’s fun. I love feeling like I’m taking my life in my hands every time I crunch down on a piece of cauliflower. Anyway, I have a bunch of fresh veggies and I’m going to wash them until they squeak and then throw them into a stir fry and then douse them in spicy sauce. I have some tofu that I may try to add to the mix. I am a little afraid of tofu, because I have made it only twice and very poorly, but the only way to improve a skill is to practice it.
- White Bean Enchilada Soup: It is 100% not soup weather, but this soup sounds good, so I’m leaning into it.
Okay, three meals is pretty much all I can muster up enthusiasm for. Hopefully they will generate enough leftovers that we can stave off the “what should we have for dinner” question for a few additional nights.
What are you eating for dinner lately?
I have a tip! Pan fry the tofu separately to make it crisp up and THEN add it to the stir fry. Yes, you will have an extra pan to clean but I promise you it will work out much better. Also, press the tofu before cutting it to get all the excess liquid out. What I do is wrap the block in an absorbent kitchen towel and then put it between two small plates, and put a weight (large can, stack of books) on top of it. I do this an hour or two before I’m going to use it and it works well. Then I cut it into cubes (make sure it’s extra-firm tofu and not medium or soft) and put them in a frying pan with a little oil. Flip when the cubes are brown on one side.
Basically everything I’m making this week is some sort of salad because it’s hot! Tonight is a quinoa/ spicy peanut salad.
I clicked on that link and wished I hadn’t. Well, most of my veggies are local right now so hopefully I too won’t meet the maker when I have a cucumber or what have you.
Ugh. Dinner. I front-loaded our meals this week since it’s going to be really hot/humid this week. The meals are lacking in veggies, though… On Sat night we had sear ahi tuna w/ asparagus and an Asian rice (adults only of course – although Will do eat some bites of our tuna.). Last night we made cheese burgers and corn on the cob and Will had a hotdog. Paul had rotisserie chicken which is the only animal protein he will eat. Tonight I am making ground turkey tacos which Phil, Will, and I will eat. Paul will eat banana protein pancakes. He doesn’t even like cheese quesadillas anymore. We should probably see an OT for his eating issues but first I need to get through his pediatric endo appt at the end of this month. Sigh.
We plan to go to the pool several nights after dinner this week since it will be so hot out. One night I might have them eat over-priced pizza at the pool. We’ll see.
There aren’t too many advantages to living alone, but meal planning (or lack thereof) is one of them! I love reading about your dinners though and would enjoy trying them out. I would just be eating them for a straight week.
I hear you! There is no winning with the dinner game. The veggie crisis doesn’t help.
I believe in you and you will win the tofu game. Do you have an air fryer? That’s the no brainer way, and cooking it in a skillet until the sides are a little tan is the next best way.
The white bean enchie soup sounds very good, even in this weather. Taking notes!
I’m going out of town so I only have three nights to cook this week. I’m going the sweet potato topped with taco fixings route on at least two of the three nights. As Margaret says, living alone most definitely has its perks!
The Husband made something yesterday that I absolutely love (and I always forget how much I love it until he makes it again) and he tells me it’s such an easy meal to make; so I thought I’d share – pasta with white clam sauce. SOO yummy. He also calls it a “pantry meal” because he always has the ingredients on hand; I informed him it is NOT a pantry meal in every house because most people do not, in fact, keep minced clams in the pantry. Much less multiple cans of them.
Oh goodness, Gigi’s comment reminds me of my favorite linguine and clam recipe. My husband is low carb and my daughter doesn’t like clams, so modifying it that much isn’t worth it, so I rarely get to eat it. SIGH.
I hate that people need to eat every darned day, and I wish we could just have PB&J every night or something. I enjoy cooking, but figuring out what to make is horrible. I’m guessing there are salads in our future this week, but not sure. I don’t really like soup in the summer too often, but I do like chili, which makes no sense.
It’s too hot to cook anything! And what is up with that horrible parasite? Your meals sound delicious, and I applaud your efforts! There is no effort happening here. Just basic salads and sandwiches, and praying that we don’t get the parasite here.
Saturday Noah and I made a soba noodle-veggie-tofu salad and last night I made quinoa-veggie-chickpea bowls and I am happy to say I probably won’t be cooking the rest of the week because of travel. Menu planning is one of my least favorite chores, though I don’t mind the actual cooking.
Couscous salad sounds really nice for summer. I’ll have to do that one. At the lake we usually grill when Rick is here but when he’s not, I eat pretty simply and since I’m laying off lettuce till this cyclo-whatever-it-is-called, easing up unless I know the history of the lettuce! Cooking cool is what it’s all about!
Okay, we had fallen into a world in which we were cooking the same three things over and over and over again and I was losing my mind. So I broached the idea of trying new foods to my husband and he was game as long as we tried them on the weekend. So we recently did sweet potato tacos and had a frozen pizza. I know that doesn’t seem really adventurous, but I was so excited not to make the same recipe again! So, anyway, I feel you. I wish I had more excitement for menu planning.
I have a tofu trick! Stick the package in the freezer. That’s it, that’s my trick. Freezing (and then thawing) it causes the water to turn into ice crystals that rearrange the protein network something something science, and it 100% changes the texture for the better in my opinion. When it thaws, it’s like a big sponge that you then squeeze the water out of. It soaks up marinades so much better, the texture gets denser, and it fries up super crispy because of the decreased water content.
I don’t eat tofu, but I’m stuck back on Kate’s advice to freeze it. I don’t pretend to understand the science behind it, but am FASCINATED.
At the best of times I don’t really enjoy cooking and right now, the LAST THING I WANT TO DO IS MAKE FOOD. Eating, I love. Preparing food. Not so much.
But, we must eat, so I’m trying to do a mix of grace (hotdogs, leftovers), and more nutritious meals (read: anything with at least one vegetable involved).
we make tofu a lot, and this is my method:
first, use extra firm tofu. Then press it – I wrap it in a kitchen towel and then put it on a plate and put a cast iron skillet on it for at least twenty minutes.
Next, cut it into 1″ cubes. Toss the cubes with soy sauce (maybe 3 tbsp per container of tofu). Then toss the tofu with cornstarch (about 1/4 cup).
Then heat the pan and the oil super hot and put the tofu in and fry each side until golden, turning to get all sides nice and crispy.
I usually serve it on the side so that it doesn’t get soggy in the stir fry. Sometimes my kids just eat the tofu.
Anyhow, our dinners lately are all pool dinners because of evening swim practice, so basically what can be eaten at room temperature from a plate in your lap. And cut up melon and a bag of chips on the side. So a lot of sandwiches and pasta/noodle salads. Thought today I made quesadillas for the pool….
you can do the same thing with tofu and bake it, if turning on the oven doesn’t make you pass out from extra heat. We do 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp oil per package of tofu, cut like Diane suggested (although I’m too lazy to press extra firm tofu and it turns out just fine!) with cornstarch. The trick to tofu is the sauce- add it after the tofu is fried or baked and the crunch will remain!
Nope. I still haven’t caved in and started cooking again. On Sunday I got all the ingredients to make homemade veggie burgers, then I got extremely depressed at the thought of actually making them. I ended up air frying slabs of tofu and telling everyone to make sandwiches with them.
You’ve got some great tofu advice here. I have one thing to add- if you can, get SUPER firm tofu. Not extra-firm, but super firm. Trader Joe’s sells it and so does Sprouts. Whole Foods and Publix both sell it as well, but it’s a little more expensive there. The texture is SUPERIOR. You can skip the whole pressing step. I think the super firm tofu at Trader Joe’s is also labeled as “high protein” or something, because it does have more protein than the regular kind. It’s in the refrigerated section, vacuum-packed- not in a tub of water like the regular tofu. If you use super firm tofu and follow Diane’s recipe above, you will have a delicious dish.
Seems to me that three menus ought to be enough in the summer.
We’ve had our own resident chef, with my youngest moving home for a month, in transition from grad school to a new job in a new town. It worked well, because she’s a good cook. That is about to come to an end though. Sob. I shall have to figure out dinners again, just for the two of us.
Now I am going to circle back and read all the advice about cooking tofu.
Lad and his gf came over for dinner last night. Coach grilled chicken and I made a sheet pan veggie and potato dish that I’d not made in a long time. Now we have tons of leftover veggie dish, so there’s that. I’m really trying to make my older kids handle a meal a week. Curly actually prepped most of the veggie dish, including going to the grocery store. Then when we sat down to eat, I realized that I sort of believed Coach was doing dinner and I was assisting with the veggie dish. Our plates were fairly empty and I was wishing I’d thought to do a salad or even dinner rolls. I was distracted by Mini’s job decision though. Lad’s gf said All good without a salad because of the outbreak in the lettuce or veggies or something. What I’m saying is, I think she’s a keeper. I appreciate her letting me off the hook.
Mini made a salmon pasta dish with ricotta cheese and cherry tomatoes and it was A. tasty and B. she didn’t kill any of us. These are new developments, and it is giving us hope.