I have been really enjoying having my meal plan set each week, as well as having the time and energy to actually adhere to it. That wasn’t alway the case, so if it’s not in the cards for you these days to stick to a meal plan, don’t worry. I’m in a season of life where it’s possible and also fun for me to cook a lot. We’ve gone through seasons where we were doing a lot of “fending” for ourselves, or scraping together whatever, or picking up dinner on the way home. The best way to ensure you hate cooking is to hold yourself to some arbitrary standard that doesn’t fit in with your current life.

So, if you’ll remember from last week’s post, I planned to make roast cod with chermoula and broccolini on Monday, peanut and veggie soup from the freezer on Tuesday, pasta with zucchini and tomatoes with a salad with Marcona almonds and manchego cheese on Wednesday, Eat for Equity on Thursday and Saturday (we got hot pot! Some beef and some vegan with tofu), over to friends on Friday and Crappy Dinner Party on Sunday. How did it go? Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday went according to plan. When I went to make the pasta on Wednesday, I realized I didn’t have enough fresh tomatoes, so I broke out a jar of Rao’s (seriously, it really is the best tasting jarred pasta you can get, and it’s available at Costco) and did a little riffing. It turned out delicious. Make sure to check out the post from last week if you want recipes. So, what didn’t go according to plan? By Saturday we had eaten most of the Eat for Equity food, our daughter was out, and we had hosted friends for cocktails and bites (olives, cheese and crackers, veggies and hummus) so we didn’t need a full dinner. I had a bowl of Trader Joe’s O’s cereal. Sunday, our Crappy Dinner Party was postponed so we pivoted and ordered from one of our favorite places, Edina Grill. We got two Thai chicken and brown rice bowls (so delicious) and a chopped Italian salad. Here are some photos from dinners last week.

On to this week’s plan. All recipes are from America’s Test Kitchen Complete Mediterranean Cookbook, but I have found the same or very similar recipe links elsewhere. As you can see, my pattern is to make dinner Mon/Tues/Wednesday and then the rest of the week is sort of loosey goosey. We are so lucky to have Eat for Equity to fill in some gaps, and I keep stuff in the freezer and pantry that we can make meals out of.

MONDAY – Farrotto with pancetta, asparagus and peas, and an arugula and pear salad with goat cheese

TUESDAY – Tuscan bean soup with bruschetta

WEDNESDAY – Seared scallops with orange lime dressing and skillet-roasted cauliflower with capers and pine nuts

THURSDAY – Eat for Equity

FRIDAY – Either more Eat for Equity, or go out

SATURDAY – Pizza and paddle (click here if you’re wondering what paddle tennis is. We play it in the winter here in Minnesota).

SUNDAY – TBD, not sure if we are doing Crappy Dinner Party. It’s the Oscars so maybe we will do something fun around that.

I hope you all have a great week ahead and feed yourselves well, whatever that means to you.