Notes From The Kitchen Table
Notes From the Kitchen Table is the weekly newsletter featuring all the latest and greatest and best tips from WhatLisaCooks.com. Click here to subscribe to get my meal plans, lunch packing tips, dinner ideas, kitchen shortcuts, and more - delivered to your inbox.
Notes from the kitchen table: no. 08
A couple weeks of family meal plans and lots of new recipe links!
Welcome to another week of Notes From the Kitchen Table!
I’m skipping a few of my usual weekly features in this edition of the newsletter. I’ve got a lot of recipes and meal plans to share this week and I think that will take up enough space!
Things have been busy here. I feel like I say that every week, but I guess it’s always true. We are into October which means costume season and some of my kids are getting very creative with their costume requests. I love a good challenge though, and I love to sew, so while it’s a lot of work and somewhat exhausting, I do have fun making costumes for them. I shared a pic this week on Threads of a costume I’m working on for one of my kids. I’m pretty pleased with how it’s coming along.
I understand that it’s autumn in some parts of the northern hemisphere? We’re not seeing any evidence of that yet here. We’ve been having sunny 90+ degree days here in the Sierra foothills in California and I’m still loving every minute of it. I’m sure I won’t love the electric bill from needing to still be running the air conditioner in October, but I’m happy to still be having nice pool weather.
My garden is loving the warm weather too! We got off to a late start, and I think the super hot July stunted things a bit, but my tomato plants are seriously popping off now so we’re having all things tomatoes in our meals lately. Read on for a link to my freshest ever roasted tomato sauce.
OK, what’s in this week’s issue:
This week I’ve got two weeks of meal plans and links to several new recipes. I’m trying to get better about actually writing out recipes for the things I cook and I’m happy to be able to share those with you.
Remember my recipes aren’t quite like what you find on a lot of other food sites - my recipes are documenting how I actually cook for my family. The photos aren’t staged, I’m not cooking food just to take photos of it. I’m taking pics of our actual meals and I’m telling you exactly how I made them.
Make sure you don’t miss a weekly update - click here to subscribe to my substack and you’ll get these updates in your inbox. The archive of all my weekly updates and past meal plans will always be available on the blog as well.
Let’s dig in!
Featured Blog Posts:
New recipe posts!
In the last newsletter I shared a link to my Moroccan inspired spice mix, and this week I have a new super easy slow cooker dinner recipe that uses that same spice blend. You’ll definitely want to try this Slow Cooker Moroccan Spiced Chicken with Chickpeas and Potatoes - it’s so flavorful and I think is a new favorite.
I’ve also written up recipes for a couple of the main components of one of our favorite meals: Seared Ahi Tuna Bowls. The main parts of this meal are the seared ahi tuna and the crispy salt and pepper tofu, and the rest of of the bowl can be whatever you like. I love making the tuna this way because it feels fancy and high end restaurant quality, but it really is so easy and fast to make. And the tofu recipe is one of my family’s favorite. Whenever anyone asks for suggestions of how to cook tofu, this is always my go-to. I shared some more details about this meal including loose instructions for how I make the cucumber salad and the soy ginger dressing in last week’s meal plan post.
I’ve talked before about how we like to keep a supply of muffins in the freezer for easy grab-and-go breakfasts and this week I wrote up a new recipe version of the banana bread / banana chocolate chip muffins I’ve been making that my kids love. Also if you missed the egg bites recipe I shared last time you’ll want to check that out too - it’s another of our weekday breakfast favorites.
And finally, as I mentioned above, I’ve been making all kind of things with our fresh tomatoes from the garden, including an amazing roasted tomato sauce. Roasting the tomatoes is a simple way to bring out so much sweetness and flavor and I tell you all about how I do it in this blog post.
Let me know if you try any of these!
Meal Planning Updates:
Menus from the last two weeks are posted now, you can click here for last week’s and click here for the week before. Both of them have some pictures, links to IG posts with some details, and a few recipe links.
As for this week, here’s what’s currently on the menu.
Check back next week for the details.
Chicken and dumplings. I actually already made this - you can see it here on IG.
Chili lime chicken tacos - I have some chicken that I marinated a few weeks ago and didn’t get around to using so I stuck it in the freezer.
Teriyaki tofu and broccoli with steamed rice. You can see my teriyaki recipe here.
Pizza, not sure yet if it will be homemade.
The husband is away for the weekend so I’ll probably indulge myself in several big salads and let the kids have some favorite comfort foods like nuggets and pasta, we also have a couple of frozen lasagnas taking up space that I might use. Momma’s taking the weekend off!
Ideas for dinners later in the month:
I like to keep a running list of dinner ideas as I think of things or as someone in the family makes requests, then when I’m making a meal plan it’s even easier because I’ve got some ideas ready to just fill in. Here are some things that are on my list and will probably make an appearance sometime soon.
I still haven’t used the whole chickens I bought at Costco, so I plan on doing some kind of whole chicken recipe. Either Jamie Oliver’s chicken in milk, or maybe Samran Nosrat’s Buttermilk Chicken. I shared a post recently with favorite whole chicken recipes and I’ve been craving several of them ever since. This might be related to the weather - roasting whole chickens feels like a cool weather activity and we’re not there yet.
I also still haven’t tried this chicken saag recipe from Nom Nom Paleo that I saw recently and I’ve been dying to try it.
I recently saw recipe for a coconut curry meatballs dish that sounds amazing. My family are sort of obsessed with meatballs lately so I’m always looking for new meatball ideas to try.
We also still have a big pork shoulder in our freezer so we will plan on smoking that sometime soon. Smoked meats also sound best to me when the weather is cooler, so I’m kinda waiting from some of that autumn cool weather to actually show up before I declare it smoking season.
A kid has been requesting that I make that gumbo again soon, or what I called more like gumbo adjacent but definitely not authentic.
And I got thinking this morning about how I will eat literally almost anything if you put a fried egg on top of it, which then got me thinking about things with fried eggs on top, which got me craving Loco Moco, so I’ve added that to my list as well. This is how my mind works. ;-)
Social Media Highlights:
I’ve been so busy with costume making that I haven’t done a lot of exciting social media interacting lately. But be sure to check out my instagram for all the latest from the kitchen.
Also if you missed my last update - I’m back to posting on my Facebook page too! A lot of the content is the same as what I post on Instagram, but there may be some differences, and it’s another option for keeping up with the latest if you aren’t into Instagram.
That’s it for this week. I hope you’ve enjoyed my updates!
Have a Question?
Ask me anything. Do you need lunch packing advice or meal planning suggestions? Or do you have other food or family management related questions? My goal is to be your resource for tips and advice - from a mom who has been there, and done that.
Reply to this email, post a comment, or hit me up on social media, and your question could be featured in next week’s newsletter.
Don’t forget to follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads for daily tips and inspiration.
➡️ Follow Me on Instagram | ➡️ Follow Me on Facebook | ➡️ Follow Me on Threads
Wishing you an easy week ahead!
– Lisa
Notes from the kitchen table: no. 07
Thoughts about self care, a birthday, easy lunch ideas, and meal planning.
Welcome to another week of Notes From the Kitchen Table!
I actually missed a week here, things have been busy. We’ve had house guests, theater auditions, scout and school camping trips, volunteer time, a birthday, and plenty more. The time gets filled so easily that sometimes I have to just push the pause button and take a break from anything extra.
The good news is that two of my girls auditioned and got roles in local theater productions this fall. (For a small town, we have an amazing local arts scene.) The bad news is that it’s two separate productions at two different locations with sometimes overlapping and conflicting rehearsal schedules. Sh*t’s about to get real as far as crazy schedules go!
I’ve learned over the years as a busy mom that pushing pause and taking breaks is really the simplest and often the best kind of self care. Especially when schedules get this busy, I have to take little breaks wherever I can find them. I think my kids have all learned this kind of self care skill too, they all really appreciate the value of down time and saying no, especially now that they are in high school and have a lot of demands on their time.
What do you do for self care? I’d love to hear from you.
In other news - we had a birthday this past week!
My oldest set of twins are 17. It’s crazy to think that I’ve been a mom for seventeen years. The time has flown by. I asked them if they wanted to do anything special for their birthday, but we’ve all been so busy lately that everyone agreed that a weekend of doing nothing was exactly what they wanted. So a weekend at home, pizza and pancakes, pool time and movies, and of course plenty of cake, was just what we all needed.
We have a birthday tradition at our house of a birthday pancake stack for breakfast, complete with candle and whipped cream and sprinkles. It’s a fun little way to start the day. I usually make homemade pancakes, but in extra busy years I have used frozen pancakes for this instead and the kids love it just as much.
What birthday traditions do you have at your house?
(I don't share current pics of my kids publicly, but here's a throwback one from a fun birthday many years ago.)
OK, what’s in this week’s issue:
I’m sticking with the birthday theme for some of the updates this week. For school lunch packing I’ve got some really simple lunches to show you for making a school day special occasion just a little more fun, plus my answer to a really common reader question about packing lunches ahead. We’re going to talk a little about birthday cake and birthday dinners, social media and blog post highlights, and of course updates on family meal planning.
Make sure you don’t miss a weekly update - click here to subscribe to my substack and you’ll get these updates in your inbox. The archive of all my weekly updates and past meal plans will always be available on the blog as well.
Let’s dig in!
Tip of the Week:
For this week’s tip I thought I’d talk about birthday cake, and how as busy moms we’ve really got enough going on without pressuring ourselves to feel like we have to make a homemade cake. Hop on over to this tip to read my thoughts about grocery store birthday cakes, and my favorite homemade cake recipe if you really do want to make one from scratch.
This is a grocery store cake!
Ask Lisa - Reader Q&A:
My answers to frequently asked questions from social media, blog posts, and more.
Q: How do I keep sandwiches from getting soggy when I pack them ahead of time?
A: This is another one of the questions I get the most when I talk about packing lunches ahead, so I guess it must be a common problem for a lot of you. If you struggle with how to pack lunches ahead of time I am so here for you. This is my thing!
I pack sandwiches days in advance all the time, I definitely have some tricks that can help! They mostly come down to putting just a little more thought into the construction of your sandwich, and what ingredients and methods are causing it to be soggy. I’ve put all my best tips for packing sandwiches ahead of time in a whole new blog post for you. I promise you that you will definitely want to try these tips because packing lunch ahead of time is one of the best things you can do to make school day mornings easier and less stressful. ➡️ Click here to read that post now.
If you want more tips about packing all kinds of lunches ahead of time, you’ll definitely want to hop over and read this post with all of my tips, because packing lunches ahead is such a time saver and a massive school day morning stress reliever that it’s worth figuring out a few little tweaks to your lunch packing to make this work for you. ➡️ Click here to read that post now.
Lunchbox Inspiration:
Let’s talk about birthday lunches!
When kiddos have to be at school on their birthday, why not make their lunch just a little more special? It’s really easy to add a couple of fun little touches to a lunch to make it feel like a special occasion.
Simple birthday cupcake toppers stuck in a sandwich, maybe a fun cut sandwich, a cute napkin, an extra sweet treat - just a few ideas for how you can really quickly an easily make the birthday school lunch feel just a little more fun and special.
I shared a couple of examples of these ideas on my Instagram this week, so be sure to ➡️ check them out.
I also have a post on the blog with even more of my favorite tips for making lunch packing (and eating) just a little more FUN - great ideas you can use for birthdays, holidays, or any time you need to make school lunch time feel a little more special. ➡️ Check out this post and let me know what you think.
Featured Blog Posts:
Several posts I want to share with you this week!
I’ve already mentioned a few - the one about packing lunch ahead of time, and the new post about how to pack sandwiches ahead of time, AND the new post about how to pack some special fun lunches. (I have been busy!)
I’ve got a few more to share this week too!
I’ve been trying very hard to get better about writing down recipes of things I make regularly, and I’ve actually got a few new recipes posted for you.
My egg bites recipe: one of my secrets for school day breakfast meal prep for high schoolers.
Quick and simple homemade teriyaki sauce that is great on everything from chicken to tofu to veggies.
A delicious Moroccan spiced pork shoulder, with my Moroccan inspired spice rub - one of my favorite meals for impressing dinner guests
Let me know if you try any of these!
Meal Planning Updates:
Last week’s menu is up on the blog. You can click here to go read that post, with links to some pics, a couple recipes, and a bit more detail about a few of the meals.
I never got around to sharing a meal plan for this week, since I skipped the newsletter last week. But I’ve been sharing a lot lately on Instagram and Facebook, so pop on over to either of those to see some pics of what we are having for dinners this week.
For the big birthday I wanted to try combining a couple of family favorites into one meal - so I made Chicken Parm Meatballs. I’m going to have to make this again soon to write down an actual recipe, because they were so good! I made lots extra (as I always do) because we love leftover meatballs! You can see the pic and description here, and hopefully I’ll get a recipe written soon.
Seriously how are we already looking down the barrel at October?
I like to do a rough meal plan for a month at a time. Those big ones often end up evolving over the course of the month, but I think it helps to at least start out with a big picture view of what we have going on during the month and what we want to eat, and then it’s easier to move things around than it is to start from scratch every week. I haven’t done my monthly plan for October yet, that month is kinda sneaking up on me. But hopefully next week I will have more info about monthly meal planning to share.
For now, I’ve got a list of a few things I am planning to cook next week, mostly items that were on my September plan but got kicked down the road due to busy schedules and calendar changes. Check this space next week to see if I figured it all out.
Ideas for next week’s menu:
Some kind of whole chicken. Either Jamie Oliver’s chicken in milk, or maybe Samran Nosrat’s Buttermilk Chicken. I shared a post last week with favorite whole chicken recipes and I’ve been craving several of them ever since.
Sheet pan sausages and veggies. I’m going to Costco this week and my family loves those chicken and apple sausages that they carry, and it’s an easy weeknight meal paired with some veggies and maybe pasta or rice.
Pozole - this is a delicious Mexican inspired stew that we just love. I have a super shortcut recipe here that makes it a quick weeknight dinner and I think it’s just as good as the more time consuming original version. Depending on what chicken recipe I make, I might end up making a chicken pozole with the leftovers.
I saw this chicken saag recipe from Nom Nom Paleo recently and I’ve been dying to try it, maybe just with rice or maybe with paired another vegetable curry.
Our Friday pizza night is probably going to be frozen pizza because schedules are out of hand and I think I’ll be too tired to make homemade, but I’ll try to make a nice big salad with it.
On the weekend, we’re thinking it might be time to start smoking some meat again, I’ve got some tri-tips and a pork butt in the freezer so we might do one of those. I love doing either of those with the Moroccan inspired spice rub recipe that I shared above.
Social Media Highlights:
I’m headed to Costco this week. I don’t go as often as I used to when we lived in the city because Costco is an hour away now, so it’s kind of a special field trip. I like to ask my followers what their favorite Costco finds are, and I always get some great suggestions of fun new things to look for. Take a look at the most recent Thread about that, and let me know if you have any other ideas to add. I would love to know what you buy at Costco. ➡️ Click here to read that thread.
I mentioned above that I shared some fun birthday lunches on Instagram if you want to check those out, and I’ve shared several of our recent dinners. Check out my Instagram feed to see those.
The other big social media news is that I’m back to posting on my Facebook page too! A lot of the content is the same as what I post on Instagram, but there may be some differences, and it’s another option for keeping up with the latest if you aren’t into Instagram.
Coming Next Week:
I realize now that when I pushed the pause button last week I never got around to sharing the things I said I’d share in this section last time. So here’s that list again and hopefully I’ll keep on track this time…
Next week I thought I would share some of my favorite protein packed lunch ideas, maybe school day breakfast suggestions, and some of my favorite household cleaning hacks. And always my quick tips, answers to reader questions, meal plan updates, and more.
Be sure to check back and subscribe so you never miss an update.
Have a Question?
Ask me anything. Do you need lunch packing advice or meal planning suggestions? Or do you have other food or family management related questions? My goal is to be your resource for tips and advice - from a mom who has been there, and done that.
Reply to this email, post a comment, or hit me up on social media, and your question could be featured in next week’s newsletter.
Don’t forget to follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads for daily tips and inspiration.
➡️ Follow Me on Instagram | ➡️ Follow Me on Facebook | ➡️ Follow Me on Threads
Wishing you an easy week ahead!
– Lisa
Notes from the kitchen table: no. 06
Welcome back to school season, a simple but super important cooking tip, help with meal planning for picky eaters, and more.
Hi there,
Everyone who is going back to school is back now, right?
This is when it gets crazy for a lot of us. I have three in school now, and one still homeschooling. We’ve started having a family meeting once a week just to review the calendar, because it has exploded. With school events, scout activities, social activities, our calendar is suddenly full, and we even make an effort to not sign up for a lot of stuff.
Do you do family meetings? I would love to hear about those, or other strategies that work for organizing your busy family.
Are you getting fall weather yet? Here in the Sierra foothills we are definitely still having summer, and still loving it. I love every season here, but it seems like whatever season we are in becomes my current favorite. I love the warm days and clear nights, the swimming pool weather, the garden at its peak.
My homeschooler and I are working on getting back into our homeschool schedule and we’ve started planning weekly field trips. Planning is so much easier with just one. Last week we visited the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento - it’s one of our favorite spots, so well done with so much interesting history.
Once nice thing about having three back in school is that I have time again finally to get back to this blogging thing, and I am really enjoying the process of bringing this old blog back to life for you. I’ve been working hard lately refreshing things, updating old posts, and getting some new content up there.
Ok, so what’s in this week’s issue:
First up this week is a simple tip that applies to both family dinner and lunch packing, plus my thoughts on a common a reader question about a challenge that so many parents face, a fun lunch idea, a few blog posts and social media highlights, and as always our weekly meal plans.
Make sure you don’t miss a weekly update - click here to subscribe to my substack and you’ll get these updates in your inbox. The archive of all my weekly updates and past meal plans will always be available on the blog as well.
Let’s dig in!
Tip of the Week:
This weeks tip is a short one at first, so let’s unpack this because there’s so much more to it.
Always Double The Recipe.
I know, doesn’t sound like much of a tip, right? But I’m a busy mom, and any time I can take a shortcut that saves me time in the kitchen, I’m definitely going to do it. Cooking extra is one of those shortcuts, and for me it is the foundation of a lot of good things.
First, I think leftovers are what makes the world go ‘round and what keeps the trains running on time. We often eat leftovers for breakfast and lunch, I love having healthy homemade foods in the fridge that my family just needs to heat up. Some of my kids prefer having warmed up leftovers for breakfast instead of more traditional breakfast foods. My husband works from home, and I’m still here homeschooling one kid, so it’s really nice to not have to make lunch every day. And we do a clean-out-the-fridge leftover night once a week. It gives me a night off from cooking.
Second, some of our favorite home cooked meals take a bit of mess and time to make. But it’s not twice as messy or twice as time consuming to make twice as much. So double that recipe. Make enough meatballs for two dinners and stick half in the freezer. Prep an extra bag of marinated chicken. Make an extra meatloaf. Cut up extra meat for that sheet pan dinner. Freeze all these things and so many more. Future you will be so happy to already have some prepped meals in the freezer during those weeks when the family schedule gets out of control, If you prep extra at the same time that you’re cooking that dinner then you can fill your freezer one meal at a time without having to spend a whole weekend afternoon on meal prep.
Third, making extra is one of my keys to lunch packing success. When I say double the recipe, I’m not just talking about dinner. I’m talking about everything. If you’ve browsed my lunches you’ll see that a lot of them are based on homemade items - I pack muffins, pancakes, pasta, meatballs, quesadillas, pizza, even cheeseburgers, and so much more. All of these things can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge or freezer. Lunch packing is quick and easy if you have healthy homemade items ready to just grab and go. I even pack just straight up dinner leftovers directly into lunch containers instead of putting them away in bigger storage containers. I make several dozen muffins at a time, mountains of pancakes and waffles. I make extra sandwiches if I’m making them for lunch at home, also extra quesadillas. Especially as kids get older, having a stack of pre-made sandwiches in the fridge is great. Now that I’ve got a mix of kids at school and at home, when I’m making a sandwich for my homeschooler I always make a few extra for my high schoolers for lunch the next day.
Fourth - Cooking extra of popular kids foods is really helpful if you have a picky eater. Keep reading below for more thoughts about that.
You will never regret having extra sandwiches in the fridge, especially if you have teenagers.
Featured Blog Posts:
Several posts I want to share with you this week!
In keeping with the leftovers and cooking extra theme above - here’s a popular post on my blog featuring a school lunch made of dinner leftovers. I show you in this post how easy it can be to pack a lunch while you’re cleaning up from dinner. Check it out ➡️ Easy Leftovers for Lunch
I promised last week that I would share my tips and ideas for after school snacks. I’ve got a long blog post with loads of snack ideas that I’ve just refreshed and updated for you. Check that one out here ➡️ Quick and Easy After School Snack Ideas
Last week in my social media highlights section I mentioned a thread where I asked for suggestions for meals using ground beef and got lots of great ideas. I compiled all those ideas into a blog post with links to loads of recipes. There are so many good ideas here, you’ll definitely want to bookmark this to refer to when you are meal planning. ➡️ Read the blog post
I also told you about the thread where I asked about favorite cookbooks - and I’ve got those books now all listed in one blog post and I also created an amazon list with all the books, so you can go right now and add them all to your wish list. ➡️ Read the post, or shop the Amazon List.
Reader Q&A:
Q: How do I plan family meals when one of my kids is such a picky eater?
A: I see this question so much in social media and parenting groups. It can be really hard to manage family meal planning when some of you like a wide variety of foods and some of you have a very limited list of what feels safe to eat, but I have figured out several ways to navigate this that work for my diverse family. Here are my top suggestions:
1) Make deconstructed meals.
Plan to make the foods you like to eat and cook, but figure out how to deconstruct the components of that meal and serve it as a make-your-own bar style of dinner. The easiest example of this is instead of a loaded one pot pasta with the noodles and sauce and meatballs and veggies all mixed together and topped with cheese, serve all of those components separate. If someone just wants pasta with cheese, they can do that. If someone wants just meatballs and sauce and veggies but no pasta they can do that. But if the meal you wanted was all of it together, then you still get to have that. Everybody is happy.
Other ideas for this type of meal include taco bar, baked potato bar, ramen soup bar, rice bowl bar. Make a list of all the meals you like and see how many you can figure out how to separate into a deconstructed bar. You’ll probably be surprised at how many you come up with.
Cooking this way is also awesome for meal prep, because if you’ve made extra of the separate components each night, then you can easily combine those things in new ways for probably several more different meals.
2) Have an available safe food for the picky eater.
I always try to make sure there is something available for the meal that my pickiest eater will eat.
If I really wanted to make that one pot pasta or a loaded casserole or spicy gumbo, then I will always have something available that is separate. This brings us back to my tip above about making extra. Did you know that plain pasta and rice freeze really well? Make extra when you’re cooking and freeze some in single serving portions. Then you can always pull out a bag of cooked pasta for that one kid who is going through their “nothing but buttered noodles” phase. I also recently discovered these pouches of single serving pre-cooked pasta and I always make sure I have some in my pantry. My picky eater makes this for herself often, just a minute in the microwave and a little butter and she has a dinner she is happy with.
3) A bowl of cheerios is not an unhealthy dinner.
Maybe an unpopular opinion, and I don’t care what your mother-in-law says, it’s ok to let them eat cereal for dinner sometimes. I don’t buy cereal that I’m not ok with my kids eating, so super sugared cereals aren’t an option here, but a healthier whole grain cereal is always an available meal choice.
Teach them how to slice a banana, or have some cut fruit or a container of blueberries available. Have them set their place and bring their cereal bowl and a pitcher of milk and their fruit to the dinner table and eat it with the rest of the family. They are getting a balanced meal, and they are still learning about healthy eating by seeing what you serve and what the family is eating, nobody is feeling shamed for their food choices, and you’re not feeling guilty about them not getting a healthy meal. I can almost guarantee you that eventually they will feel brave enough to try what the family is eating because you are leading by example and without pressure or shaming.
Lunchbox Inspiration:
Weekly lunch packing inspiration and ideas.
Here is a quick and easy lunchbox idea: Sandwiches don’t always have to be boring. A fun twist on a simple sandwich is to use mini bagels instead of bread. Kids love bagels. Making lunch fun and cute isn’t hard, really takes no extra time, but does make it much more likely that your kiddo is going to want to eat it.
I shared an example of this lunch on my Instagram today - check it out ➡️ Easy Bagel Lunch
I also wrote a quick blog post with this lunch - and even included a fun little video about how to make it and links to supplies I use to make it easy and fun.
Meal planning:
Updates on our weekly meal plans.
I’m doing Whole30 this month, which means I’m not having any grain or dairy or sugar or alcohol, and a few other things. But I still have a family to feed so I just have to get a little extra creative with my meal planning. If you’ve planned ahead it’s pretty easy to adapt your meals to work. My biggest meal planning tip for when you are trying to eat a little different from the family is the same as my first tip above - deconstructed meals. I’m planning meals for this month that are easy to take apart into components. So the family can still have spaghetti and meatballs, and I am very content with my bowl of spinach and meatballs.
Here’s an overview of what we had for dinner last week, and a peek at what is on my list for the coming week. I’ve included links to pictures and recipes where I have them.
Last week’s menu:
If you compare the actual to what I had planned from last week’s update, there are always some differences. But the beauty of meal planning is that you’ve already got some ideas figured out, so even if you need to rearrange or change things up, you aren’t starting from zero. Here’s what we actually ate last week:
Sunday: Salmon, pasta, green salad with berries & lemon vinaigrette.
Monday: Chicken with basil and garlic, zucchini patties, sliced tomatoes
Tuesday: Fish tacos (fish sticks for kids, leftover salmon for adults, I had mine as a salad)
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Baked pasta with cheese sauce, chicken, tomatoes & basil; Cobb salad
Friday: A frozen pizza for the boy, a salad for me (the others were camping)
Saturday: Leftovers for the boy, a salad for me
On the menu this week:
Here’s the menu this week. Check back next week for the actual list of what we ate, we’ll see how well I managed to stick to the plan.
Sunday: Big meatballs, pasta, spinach
Monday: Teriyaki chicken, rice, broccoli
Tuesday: Chicken tacos
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Thai basil, chicken, & lemongrass soup (my garden is overflowing with Thai basil)
Friday: Homemade pizza
Saturday: Chicken shawarma, flatbread, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, etc.
Sunday: (we have company) Moroccan spiced pork shoulder, roasted veggies, couscous, maybe a kale salad
Social Media Highlights:
Here are some highlights from my recent social media activity.
If you’re not already on Threads, come on over and join the conversation!
This week I asked for ideas for cooking a whole chicken, and folks came through with some awesome recipe links that you’ll definitely want to grab. ➡️ Click here to read that thread.
Seems like the excitement is mostly happening on Threads these days, but I’m posting almost daily on instagram too. That’s the spot to see what we’re having for dinner in almost real time, so be sure to follow me there too.
Here’s a fun one - this is my first year with a garden at our since we moved here three years ago. Something I’ve always wanted to grow is melons, but I never could grow them where we lived before because it wasn’t warm enough. I have finally had success with growing melons and I’m seriously giddy about it. I shared a couple of pics of my melon bounty here and here.
Coming Next Week:
Next week I thought I would share some of my favorite protein packed lunch ideas, maybe some school day breakfast suggestions, and some of my favorite household cleaning hacks. And always answers to reader questions, meal plan updates, and more. What would you like to hear more about? Be sure to check back and subscribe so you never miss an update.
And coming soon - hopefully - I’m working on a series of blog posts all about my simple meal planning method. What’s funny is that the method is really simple but somehow writing the blog posts isn’t.
Have a Question?
Ask me anything. Do you need lunch packing advice or meal planning suggestions? Or do you have other food or family management related questions? My goal is to be your resource for tips and advice - from a mom who has been there, and done that.
Reply to this email, post a comment, or hit me up on social media, and your question could be featured in next week’s newsletter.
Don’t forget to follow along on Instagram and Threads for daily tips and inspiration.
➡️ Follow Me on Instagram | ➡️ Follow Me on Threads
Wishing you a delicious and stress-free week ahead!
– Lisa
Notes from the kitchen table: no. 05
top lunch packing tips, reader questions, what we've been eating, meal plans, and more.
Hi there,
If you’re in the US (which I think most of my followers are) - I hope you enjoyed a relaxing Labor Day weekend!
Some of us have already started back to school, but for many of you, this week marks the start of back-to-school season—so it’s the perfect time to focus on making our days as stress-free as possible. In this week’s letter, I’m sharing my top tips for easy lunch packing, the most frequently asked lunch packing reader question, a super simple lunch idea, and an update on our weekly meal plans.
Make sure you don’t miss a weekly update - click here to subscribe to my substack if you aren’t already, and you’ll get these updates in your inbox. The archive of all my weekly updates and past meal plans will always be available on the blog as well.
So let’s get into this tasty week!
Tip of the Week:
I’m going to start sharing some of my favorite time saving tips with you every week.
This week, sticking with the back-to-school theme, it’s actually 5 tips to get you started: my top five tips for easy school lunch packing. Packing lunches doesn’t have to be a hassle, and these tips are my favorite ways to make lunch packing easier, quicker, and more enjoyable for both you and your kids.
Here are my top five tips for easy school lunch packing:
Don’t overthink it.
Have a plan.
Shop and prep ahead of time.
Buy the right lunch packing supplies.
Pack lunch ahead of time.
If you want to know the detail behind each of these tips and how I implement them - click on over to the blog to read my full blog post.
Check out the full tips here ➡️ Top 5 Tips for Easy School Lunch Packing
Want even more? Download my Top Five Tips for Easy School Lunch Packing eBook for an in-depth guide to making school lunches a breeze.
Reader Q&A:
Answers to your questions!
Q: How Do I Keep Apples from Turning Brown in My Kids' Lunches?
A: This is the question I get most often when I share lunches on my social media! Seems like brown apples is a big concern for a lot of folks. Keeping apples fresh and crisp in your child’s lunchbox is easier than you might think! I’ve seen lots of folks share all kinds of tips for this, but I’ve never seen anyone else recommend my method. My go-to method is so simple, and has always worked for me, and is basically just involves using a really sharp knife. I’ve got a whole blog post about this if you want to read more.
For more details, check out the full post here: How to Keep Apples from Turning Brown.
Lunchbox Inspiration:
Weekly lunch packing inspiration and ideas for you.
Here is a quick and easy lunchbox idea: Try leftover pizza for lunch! Kids love pizza, and if you plan ahead and make extra it makes for a super simple lunch. Cut into strips or bites to make it easy for them to eat fast at lunch time, pair with some fruit and maybe a veggie, and lunch is done. You can check out an example of this in my latest instagram post. If you don’t have leftover, but you want to send pizza for lunch - just cook a frozen pizza, there are loads of good ones out there.
I shared an example of this lunch on my Instagram today - check it out ➡️ Pizza bites for lunch
Meal planning:
Updates on our weekly meal plans.
Here’s an overview of what we had for dinner last week, and a peek at what is on my list for the coming week. Feel free to borrow our menu or use these ideas as inspiration for your own meal planning. I’ve included links to pictures and recipes where I have them.
Last week’s menu:
I don’t usually make separate dinners for adults and kids. We had guests over the weekend so our weekend meals were a little different than usual. Here’s what we actually ate:
Monday: Gumbo (maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t? see below)
Tuesday: Ground beef tacos
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: chicken & tofu stir fry
Friday: the kids had frozen pizza, the adults had the Costco street taco kit
Saturday: the kids had Costco chicken pot pie, the adults went out
Sunday: Salmon, rice, green salad with berries & lemon vinaigrette.
Monday: Chicken thighs with basil & garlic, zucchini patties, sliced tomatoes, white pasta.
On the menu this week:
Here’s a sneak peek at what’s on the menu for my family this week. Once again our weekend is a little off, I’ve got four out of six of us gone on scout camping this weekend. Check back next week for the actual list of what we ate - sometimes I don’t follow the plan exactly.
Tuesday: Fish tacos. Fish sticks and Salmon, with all the taco fixings
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Seared ahi tuna bowls, with greens, rice, edamame, cucumbers.
Friday: Pizza for the boy, chop salad for mom
Saturday: Mac & cheese for the boy, another big salad for mom
Sunday: Meatloaf, probably some roasted veggies and pasta
Social Media Highlights:
Here are some highlights from my recent social media activity.
This week it’s all about Threads - I love asking questions there, I get such a great variety of answers from people. If you’re not already on Threads, come on over and join the conversation!
Regarding the gumbo mentioned above - I wasn’t able to get okra, and I asked my followers if it’s still gumbo without okra. As you can imagine, the answers varied. ➡️ Click here to read that thread.
Recently I asked followers about their absolute favorite cookbook, and the responses were great. I’ve now got a whole new wish list of books I want, and I’ll probably summarize these into an upcoming blog post soon. ➡️ Click here to read that thread.
I also asked for suggestions for meals using ground beef and got lots of great ideas. Meat is so expensive these days, but ground meat is usually a bit less, so it’s great to have some fresh ideas for how to use it. ➡️ Click here to read that thread.
Finally - here’s one where I asked folks about their favorite last minute dinner to make when they haven’t planned ahead. You know I’m big on meal planning, but sometimes plans change or I get behind. This is a great list of ideas. ➡️ Click here to read that thread.
Coming Next Week:
Next week I plan to share some of my best ideas for after school snacking, more lunch packing tips and ideas, answers to another common reader questions, meal plan updates, and more. Be sure to check back and subscribe so you never miss an update.
Have a Question?
Ask me anything. Do you need lunch packing advice or meal planning suggestions? Or do you have other food or family management related questions? My goal is to be your resource for tips and advice - from a mom who has been there, and done that.
Reply to this email, post a comment, or hit me up on social media, and your question could be featured in next week’s newsletter.
Don’t forget to follow along on Instagram and Threads for daily tips and inspiration.
➡️ Follow Me on Instagram | ➡️ Follow Me on Threads
Wishing you a delicious and stress-free week ahead!
– Lisa
Notes from the kitchen table: No. 04
What we're having for dinner, a little garden update, a fun announcement, and some pictures.
It’s been an interesting week here in the Sierra foothills - after the hottest July in California ever, we are now having some very unusually cool weather. I’m not ready for summer to be over, but I will admit that it’s a nice change from the heat for a few days. We’re supposed to get back to summer weather next week, but here’s today’s view from the kitchen table, with some actual rain falling on the pool in august.
We’ve had a full week of three back in school full time and that’s taking some getting used to. It’s so strange to have the house so empty all day - after 5 years of homeschooling it is an adjustment to have them gone all day.
I realized another aspect of having three of four kids in school that I hadn’t anticipated - we are going through the leftovers much more slowly. I always cook a lot so we have leftovers to eat for lunch. With all 6 of us home all day (homeschooling and husband working from home) we eat a lot of leftovers for lunch. But now with three in school and just three of us at home for lunch we suddenly have too many leftovers in the fridge. I’m going to have to adjust my cooking a bit.
Now that I have more time on my hands with three out of four kids out of the house, I am working on getting this blog. and my social media back in fighting shape. If you aren’t following me on Instagram and Threads, now would be a great time to start. I am posting a lot more regularly now, including sharing a lot of my past lunch pictures. You can find me on both platforms at @whatliscooks.
Things are getting interesting in my little garden. My melon plants have taken off. I planted a variety of small watermelon and a variety of cantaloupe. There are a couple of surprises here - first of which is the size. I thought these varieties were both for small melons. But I’ve got some huge and still growing melons out there. Second is I’ve realized I have no idea how to tell when they are ripe, so some googling is in order. And third, I had no idea how these vines would spread all over everything. It’s fine, it was an empty space and it looks nice all green, it was just a surprise. As far as the rest of the garden goes, I think the hottest ever July affected things a bit, a lot of the plants definitely struggled with the heat. But now that the weather has been a bit more normal the last couple of weeks, they are looking better.
The other awesome surprise in the garden has been the zinnias. This is my first time ever growing zinnias and wow they just don’t quit. I have had fresh flowers every day. I absolutely love them. Unfortunately so do my cats. It’s like catnip to them. They will not leave them alone, so I have had to put the bouquets in my bedroom and keep the door closed. But having a nice bouquet of flowers on your dresser is not the worst thing ever.
We are still enjoying lots of pool time, except for those few cooler days. Another thing I love about living here is all our little wildlife sightings. This past week I saw a bobcat, which are very rare to see here, and a giant jackrabbit. And always the deer. But I finally saw a baby deer, the first one so far this year. Their mommas keep them very well hidden for so long. I also finally saw a preying mantis for the first time this year. In years past we have seen dozens and dozens of them all summer, so I’m not sure why they are so scarce this year.
Here’s the big news: I’ve written an ebook! This is hopefully the first of many. Ebooks seem popular now and I thought it would be a great way to share all my 15+ years of experience in packing school lunches. The first book is just a taste of all the wealth of knowledge I’ve gathered in packing lunches over the years - my top 5 tips for school lunch packing. I hope you’ll check it out. I’ve also updated a few of my basic lunch planning printable, and I’ve created a new section of the website to start offering all of my printable things for downloading. I make templates and pages for everything around here - packing lists and meal plans and chore charts and more. People always seem impressed when they see them so why not share. Look for more to be added there over time.
Ok, now on to the meal planning section.
On the menu this past week:
Sunday: oven roasted salmon and veggie fried rice
Monday: pasta with bolognese sauce, garlic bread
Tuesday: enchiladas - chicken, and black bean (two separate kinds, not combined)
Wednesday: leftovers
Thursday: lasagna, made with the bolognese and a béchamel and roasted eggplant and squash
Friday: frozen pizza and bagged caesar salad
Saturday: leftovers again because we are swimming in them and we don’t waste food here
For the upcoming week here is my current plan:
Sunday: pasta with ground pork & sautéed cabbage
Monday: gumbo, or something gumbo adjacent but I won’t claim it’s authentic
Tuesday: ground beef tacos (are we calling these white people tacos now?)
Wednesday: leftovers
Thursday: seared ahi tuna bowls, with greens, edamame, tofu, rice
Friday: pizza, probably homemade
Saturday: still debating between shawarma or butter chicken
That’s all for this week.
A gallery of pics from the week, in no particular order, is below. See you soon.
Lisa
Notes from the Kitchen Table: no. 03
A lot of stuff about food - meal plans for a crowd - the end of summer break.
Well it seems I still haven’t gotten into a regular schedule here, but I’m working on it. That might have been an ambitious goal during summer break. The last two weeks of summer break were very busy, trying to cram it all in before three of mine went back to school.
We had friends visiting, a family of five, so I was cooking dinners for 11 people, details on all the meals are below. And lots of pictures of some of the fun we’ve had.
We had lots of pool time, a couple of trips to our beautiful Yuba River, went to the county fair. We did a couple of movie nights by the pool which was utterly amazing - the best movie viewing experience ever. Such a perfect summer night activity. It was a super fun way to close out the end of summer break.
I got my crazy little dog in the pool. Well almost in the pool. He has discovered that he likes floating on an inflatable with me and it’s totally adorable.
The deer have come back, we didn’t see them as much for the past month or so, maybe because it was so hot. But these last few days have been cooler and I’ve seen a lot of deer.
Cooking for the crowd was fun. I enjoy the challenge of figuring out what to cook that will 1) appeal to a lot of people, and 2) not have me in the kitchen for hours and hours. So it’s all about easy, crowd-pleasing dinners, which are some of my favorite kind to cook.
Here’s the recap of what we had, with more details following below:
Sunday: burgers
Monday: budget paella
Tuesday: carnitas taco bar
Wednesday: oven fried chicken, potato salad, kale salad
Thursday: takeout Chinese
Friday: our company left and we were all exhausted so it was frozen pizza
Saturday: leftovers
Sunday: carbonara
Now to the start of another week, and the last couple days before school started.
One of my girls has been in high school for two years, and my next two were about to start high school after homeschooling for five years. To say they were nervous was an understatement. We’d done everything we could to get them ready, so we tried to enjoy the last couple of quiet days at home.
I did a lot of food prep to get ready for school. My goal is to make it easy for my teens to get up and have a healthy breakfast and grab a healthy lunch, and to help minimize their stress especially at the start of a big new adventure.
Here’s what I prepped for them for school days:
Smoothie packs: bags of of frozen fruit & greens, just the right amount to dump in a bullet blender and combine with a yogurt and a juice for two servings of smoothie.
Egg bites: I’ll share my recipe for these soon, but you can google plenty if you want.
Burritos: When I make Mexican rice and black beans I always make extra and then I can make up a stack of bean burritos. They freeze great so the kids can just take one out of the freezer to defrost before School.
Tuna salad: Easy to make quick sandwiches for a few days if the tuna is already made.
Boiled eggs: Great for snacks or quick egg salad.
Rice crispy treats: A first week of school treat!
For dinner this week I’ve stuck to some comforting favorites:
Comfort food is what kids need the first week of school.
Monday: baked potato bar
Tuesday: chicken taco bar
Wednesday: leftovers
Thursday: egg roll in a bowl stir fry
Friday: homemade pizza
Saturday: Mac & cheese & nuggets
Sunday: roasted salmon and veggie fried rice, and I’m making homemade ice cream, by request from a couple of kids.
In other news:
I have for the first time in my life, at 53 years old, successfully fried eggs in a cast iron pan with exactly zero sticking. If you’ve tried and failed with cast iron, you’ll know what an accomplishment this is. It’s now my new favorite thing.
Back to lunch packing:
Now that I have three back in school I thought I’d get back to sharing some of my old lunch packing pics and tips. If you need help figuring out lunch ideas, you should definitely follow me on Instagram because I’l be sharing there. And as always you can find all my lunch posts here on the website.
Meal planning for the coming week:
Here’s what’s on our menu this week. I’m trying to get back to having my kids each help with dinner one night a week. They are all teens now so I have three motivations for this:
They really do need to start learning how to cook.
It’s nice to have a little help and they are actually helpful now that they are older.
Selfishly, it’s a really nice way to get 1:1 time with each teenager. That’s a rare commodity these days.
So I let my helpers choose which night they wanted, and I’m trying to have them participate a bit in choosing the meal we are cooking on their night. Here’s the menu:
Sunday was roasted salmon and veggie fried rice.
Monday: Pasta with bolognese sauce, garlic bread
Tuesday: Chicken & black bean enchilada (using leftover chicken and black beans). Not sure yet if I’ll do real rolled enchiladas, or a layered enchilada casserole. Or sometimes I more of what some people would call a wet burrito, where the fillings are wrapped up in flour tortillas. It’s usually a game time decision.
Wednesday: leftovers
Thursday: Lasagna, made with the bolognese from Monday and a béchamel, and probably some grilled zucchini or eggplant, or maybe both.
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: probably burgers, I have some salmon and some chicken burgers from Costco.
More detail about the meals I cooked the past two weeks:
Paella:
I called this budget paella because I kinda did it on the cheap and took some shortcuts. I asked for ideas on Threads about meals to feed a crowd and someone suggested they made paella with packaged yellow rice. Well I had just happened to buy some so I thought I would try it. It was super easy and turned out great. I made the yellow rice per the package, with some chicken broth and diced veggies, and I added pieces of Costco rotisserie chicken and cut up polish sausage. I kept it not spicy because I was feeding kids, and served it with a bottle of hot sauce on the side.
Carnitas taco bar:
This is my favorite thing to make for a crowd. It’s so easy to make and everyone always loves it. To make carnitas I use pork butt or shoulder. I usually by the whole big ones, but lately I have been getting what is called country style pork ribs, which aren’t actually ribs but are just thick cut strips of the pork butt. It's nice because it just shortens a step and the pieces cook faster. I season the pork well with cumin, chili powder, garlic, onion, salt, and pepper. Sometimes I throw in a cut up onion and a cut up orange, and then I cook until the pork is falling apart. Low and slow in the oven is my favorite way, 300 for 5-6 hours. I keep it covered for most of the time and then uncovered for about the last hour to let the juices concentrate. If you like some little crispy bits you can turn up the heat for the last little bit. Shred it up with tongs and serve with all your favorite taco fixings.
Oven fried chicken, potato salad, kale salad:
I had actually intended to actually fry this chicken, but I got lazy at the last minute and stuck it in the oven instead. I did you classic buttermilk overnight marinade, which makes it so tender and juicy. You can find plenty of recipes for this online, but I just did buttermilk with a little salt and pepper, and then I made a mixture of flour, seasoned bread crumbs, salt to coat the chicken pieces in. On the side was my classic potato salad for which no recipe exists but maybe someday I’ll write it. The secret is the juice from a jar of dill pickles. I mixed that with mayo, chopped up boiled egg, chopped celery, some dill, salt, pepper, and a little celery salt. I cannot abide sweet potato salad, it must be tangy and salty. I also strongly recommend you cook the potatoes in very salty water, it adds so much flavor. Some famous chef said salt should be IN the food, not just ON the food and I totally agree.
Carbonara:
I think I’ve written about this before, so just a quick recap. I use my one pot pasta method for this, and add about a half cup extra water because the carbonara sauce is made with starchy pasta water. Cook the bacon ahead of time, leave a little bacon grease in the pan, and add the pasta and water. When the pasta is mostly done I take out a half a cup or so of that starchy water and whisk it with several eggs and a generous handful of shredded parmesan or Romano, some salt and pepper. Turn off the burner and then pour that “sauce” back into the hot pasta, along with chopped bacon, and toss it around with tongs to cook the eggs and coat the pasta. Top with a little more cheese and fresh ground pepper. Some people add cream to this, but I don’t think it’s strictly necessary.
Baked potato bar:
There are plenty of ways to cook baked potatoes, but I’ll keep coming back to the old school oven method. Perfect potatoes that are creamy on the inside with flavorful and slightly crisped skin. I wash the potatoes, dry them, poke with a fork, rub all over with olive oil and then generously season with kosher salt. Baked on a parchment lined baking sheet for one hour. I do 350 for small/medium potatoes and 375 if I get the really big ones. I try to get all the potatoes about the same size so the cooking time is the same for all. I serve these with a variety of toppings to suit everyone’s taste. I made extra bacon the night before to have on the potatoes, and I had some extra polish sausage to use. My husband and I like cheesy broccoli on ours, I used to buy frozen broccoli in cheese sauce, but really it’s just as easy to microwave plain broccoli and then stir in a little American cheese to melt and become the cheese sauce.
Chicken taco bar:
Easiest dinner ever - frozen pieces of chicken and a can of enchilada sauce. This time was boneless thighs and red enchilada sauce, but I do it with all kinds. You can do this in the instant pot, in a pot on the stove, slow cooker, or in the oven. Just cook until the chicken is falling apart.
Egg roll in a bowl:
Another one that’s always a hit and so easy. You can google recipes, but I don’t use one. It’s a great way to make an asian rice bowl type meal when you have ground meat you want to use. I use the food processor to chop up whatever veggies I’ve got - this one had broccoli, carrots, cabbage, mushrooms, onions. Saute it all together in sesame oil and season generously with ginger, garlic, soy sauce, white pepper, sometimes a little fish sauce and lime juice is nice.
Roasted salmon:
People do too much to salmon, in my opinion. I don’t need elaborate recipes or lots of seasoning. I want to taste the salmon. I season with just salt. I pretty much always cook whole filets. I like to start with the fish at room temp, it cooks more evenly. Take it out of the fridge about an hour before you want to cook, put in on a baking sheet on a piece of foil or parchment, and season generously with salt. To cook in the oven I do it very hot, like 500 degrees or as hot as your oven will go. This gets you as close to grilling as you can get in the oven. Put the pan in the upper third of the oven, for about 7 minutes for a thinner piece and maybe 9-10 minutes if it’s very thick.
Ice cream:
We really should be making more homemade ice cream. It actually is quite easy. And ice cream maker is one of the few single use gadgets I keep in my kitchen. I’ve kinda perfected my recipe over the years and my technique is a bit unconventional. I make a custard style ice cream but I’ve figure out how to not fuss with having to temper the eggs yolks. I make this base and usually divide it into three containers for three flavors.
Lisa’s Easy Custard Ice Cream Base
Ingredients:
4 cups of heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 large egg yolks
Instructions:
My technique is a little different but I think it’s much easier than having to add hot liquid a tiny bit at a time to temper the eggs.
Combine milk, sugar, and salt in a pot and heat over low heat just enough to get the sugar and salt fully dissolved.
Turn off the heat and stir in your cold cream.
Add the egg yolks directly to this mixture and whisk well to combine.
Turn the burner back on to medium/low and whisk / stir constantly as this heats up and begins to thicken, to about 175 degrees.
Turn off heat and continue to stir for a few minutes as it starts to cool.
Transfer to containers and let cool completely in the fridge before freezing in your ice cream maker.
Now you have your cooked ice cream custard base that you can add flavors to. Of course you need an ice cream maker. I have had mine for 20 years and it’s still going strong, here is the current model of the one I have.
Until next week!
Phew, I think that’s all for this time. Lots of pictures!
Notes from the kitchen table: no. 02
What’s happening in the home and kitchen this week, and some meal plans.
Hello -
A shorter update today than I plan to normally do, and more of just a brain dump, and a bit late, because I’ve got a lot going on this week.
I have three heading to school in a couple of weeks. This is new for us - we’ve been homeschooling for many years now. One started high school two years ago, but I was still homeschooling three. Now I’ve got two more going to high school and I will just have one left at home this year. It’s an exciting new phase for all us. I’m not a fan of school starting in August though, if we’re being honest. When we lived in Seattle school still started after Labor Day, and that still seems more right to me. Middle of august still feels like the middle of summer. Oh well, it is what it is so we’re making the best of it.
So a theme in our house this week is getting ready for school. Especially for the two that haven’t been since third grade - there’s a lot of uncertainty happening and a bit of stress. I think they will do great though. We’ve done a bit of school shopping, we need to figure out what they want to do about lunch. I’m sure the first few weeks will be a little exhausting as they adjust to the schedule.
We have lots of critters around our place. It’s one of our favorite things about living here. Very common visitors are deer, small birds, ravens, butterflies, squirrels, frogs, lizards. Sometimes we see skunks, eagles and hawks. Less often and more exciting are when we get to glimpse the occasional owl, bear, coyote, fox, raccoon. We wait excitedly for the baby deer, their mommas keep them well hidden. And just the other day for the first time we got to see a little bobcat. A few critter pictures are in the album at the end.
Two of my kids are involved in local theater, and one is currently in a summer production. This is tech week, and if you’ve got theater kids you probably know that it’s a bit like finals week or crunch time. Rehearsals every day leading up to opening night of the show. It’s her first musical and we are really excited to see how she does.
We’ve had big wildfire burning a ways north of here. No danger to us but the view of the smoke clouds have been impressive.
Out in the yard we’ve been doing a bit of clean up in preparation for friends coming to visit - we’ve raked a new path through our woods and my husband put in some steps up to the path and to the house from where our friends will be parking their RV while they visit.
I’ve made a trip to Costco in preparation for having a house full. I have a love / hate relationship with that place. It can be fun, but also so overwhelming. I try very hard not to impulse buy and focus just on the bulk food that really is a better deal than elsewhere. But it is a bit fun to browse. ;-)
On the menu this week:
Sunday: pasta with bolognese sauce, salad with berries & lemon vinaigrette
Monday: chicken & thai basil stir fry, coconut rice, crispy salt and pepper tofu
Tuesday: fish tacos
Wednesday: leftovers
Thursday: lasagna with béchamel and leftover bolognese
Friday: pizza
Saturday: salmon
Next week we’ve got houseguests, friends from Seattle visiting, a family of 5. So I’ll be cooking for 11 people. My goal when cooking for a crowd is to make things that are easy to feed a lot of people but don’t require working in the kitchen for hours and hours. I like to enjoy my time with my friends. I’m still tweaking the details but my tentative plan includes burgers, carnitas, fried chicken, maybe gumbo or paella, pizza, and maybe we’ll all go out one night.
Just a quick one so signing off. More next week.
Notes from the kitchen table: no. 01
Weekly thoughts and updates, plus our meal plan for the week.
New feature here that I am really going to try to keep up with. This will be back to more of an old school blog style - longer form writing about what’s on my mind each week. I’ll write about what’s happening in the kitchen, in the garden, things I’m loving, and who knows what else. This one is a bit more than a week because I’m catching up, but I’ll try to find a regular week day moving forward.
Notes from the kitchen table because that’s literally where I sit when I write. It’s my favorite spot in the house, next to a big window that looks out over my swimming pool and forest. I’ll tell you some stories about what we’ve been up to, talk a lot about the food, and reward you with some pictures at the end.
Last week was a mix of activity. Summer time, we’re trying to beat the heat and enjoy the pool, and take advantage of the slow unscheduled days while we can. We had a house guest for part of the week so that influences my cooking a bit. When we have guests my goal is to figure out meals that will feel special, something that the guest(s) might not normally have, but that don’t have me working in the kitchen for hours. I like to be able to actually enjoy time with my guests, and not exhaust myself working. But I also like it when our friends and family get to experience what our real life is like, so I don’t try to cook things that I normally wouldn’t make.
This particular week we had one guest - my younger brother visiting who lives in Italy. I try to avoid making pasta for Italians, because I feel like I could never even come close to what they eat at home. But they don’t get as much Asian or Mexican style meals at home, so we focus on more in that direction.
I did make our usual Friday pizza, not something I would do for a lot of guests because it is a bit of work, but for just one extra person it’s ok. Keep reading to see what I cooked for the week.
Besides cooking, here’s just a bit of what’s been happening around here: (some pictures at the end)
My garden is starting to come along nicely. Learning to garden in the California heat is a bit different. Some things seem to really be liking the heat and a few are struggling. I’m super excited about my melons. Living in Seattle we never had enough heat to grow melons so it’s fun to try something new. I’ve had a few little tomatoes already, but hopefully lots more to come. I’ve picked lots of bunches of herbs already. I’ve got a baby eggplant and some tiny cucumbers and a couple of tiny squash. Lots of promise. The weather is not quite as hot for the next week so we’ll see how things do.
We’re in the heart of wildfire season now, but we haven’t had anything near us that was bad so far. There is a big fire burning now up by Chico, and we had scouts at a scout camp near there. My oldest scout was working at the camp for the summer but she had just come home a few days before that fire broke out. They did finally shut down and evacuate the whole camp though, so all the other staff and scouts are out safe. We’re in the flight path out of the air attack base for this part of the state, so we an always tell when a fire is kicking up because the Cal Fire aircraft head out right over our house.
We’ve been spending time in the pool basically every day. Having a pool is a lifelong dream of mine and we finally made that come true last year. It wasn’t finished in time to enjoy it most of the summer, so this is really our first full summer with the pool. It’s totally changed our lives and I feel so incredibly lucky to have it.
Where we live is a close drive to the amazingly beautiful South Yuba River. This is one of my favorite things about our move to California - being able to go swim in a river in the summer with water that is actually warm. It’s truly amazing. It’s not usually warm enough, or low enough to be safe for swimming, until late July, so we’ve just started our river swimming this week and we’ve been twice. Even though we have a swimming pool now which I LOVE, there’s still always going to be something extra special about swimming in a natural body of water. It’s healing for the mind and spirit. I can be in the worst mood ever and after swimming in the river I feel like a new person.
Now on to the food content. Here’s what we ate this past week:
Thursday: Chicken & vegetable stir fry, with crispy salt and pepper tofu
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Salmon, mixed green salad with strawberries
Sunday: Carnitas taco bar
Monday: Salmon patties (with leftover salmon)
Tuesday: Green enchiladas (with leftover carnitas)
Wednesday: leftovers
Thursday: pasta with pork & veggies
Friday: Pizza again
We also made beignets for a treat.
A bit more about each meal:
Thursday: stir fry and crispy tofu.
I don’t have a recipe for stir fry, you can find plenty on google or pinterest, but I think it’s one of those things that once you’ve made it a couple times you really don’t need a recipe. I cut up whatever meat I’m using into bit size pieces, and then I season that with a bit of salt and pepper, a little sesame oil, sometimes a little soy sauce, and then I add a couple spoons of corn starch to coat it - and here’s the real trick: baking soda. There’s chemistry here that I don’t bother to get into, but I think it changes the pH of the meat and tenderizes it. The amount I use depends on the type of meat. For chicken that’s already pretty tender, I use just a little, maybe a teaspoon. For beef or pork I will use a bit more. Mix it all well to coat and refrigerate for a few hours until ready to cook. Then I just brown all those bites of meat in batches in a little oil. Meanwhile I’ve chopped all my veggies, and the selection is a little different every time. This week I had onions, celery, carrots, cabbage, a little zucchini, some broccoli, and always plenty of garlic and ginger. After the meat is done I dump all the chopped veggies in the pan and saute them until they are starting to get tender. Then add the meat back in and a little something for sauce. Sometimes I just use a little bottle oyster or hoison or black bean sauce. This week I mixed about a cup of chicken broth with a little cornstarch, some soy sauce, white pepper, and a little oyster sauce and stirred that all in to coat everything. Easy and pretty fast. Although I always make a mess of the stove.
Crispy salt and pepper tofu is one of our current favorite things. It seems like no matter how much I make, it always gets devoured. I’ve written up my recipe and that will be posted soon.
Friday is pizza day.
Always and forever. My people expect pizza on friday. Sometimes it’s delivery, sometimes it’s frozen, but most of the time it’s homemade. I make a lot, usually 4 or 5 pizzas, because we love leftover pizza. We have a mix of preferences here so I usually make two thicker crust, and two or three thin crust. The thicker crust are usually cheese, or sometimes one will be half cheese and half with other toppings. Most of the time these days I am using my sourdough for the crust which is just done by feel and no recipe, but my basic yeast bread and pizza dough recipe can be found here. This is my tried and true basic recipe that never fails. The toppings are a bit different each time, there’s always some pepperoni and onion and tomatoes in the mix, and then it’s whatever else I have that I sounds edible on a pizza. My sauce is a simple one: crushed tomatoes, a little olive oil, salt, thyme, rosemary, garlic. I’ll post an actual recipe one of these days.
Saturday: salmon and salad
I’ve cooked salmon a million ways and I will always come back to my stance that simplest is best. I like to actually taste the fish. Lately my seasoning is just salt, nothing else. I usually get whole filets, season them well with salt, and then cook in a very hot oven (like 550 convection) for 5-10 minutes depending on how thick the fish is.
The salad is one I’m obsessed with this summer. Spring mix greens, blueberries, strawberries, pickled red onion, salted pistachios, bacon crumbles, and a lemon vinaigrette dressing.
I also made a simple white pasta for the kids. My one-pot pasta method, with some butter, cream, and salt. Never fails to please the kids, and I’ve found that even though they don’t like to admit it, most adults love this pasta too.
Sunday: carnitas
Tuesday is usually taco day at our house and my kids were a little stressed that I was serving tacos on a sunday. But our guest was leaving monday and I knew he wanted some mexican so I did it anyway.
Don’t leave me nasty comments about how any of this is not traditional, I never pretend to be Mexican or to make anything the traditional way. I cook what tastes good to me.
So anyway, my latest method for carnitas is to buy the pork country style ribs at costco. They’re not actually ribs - it’s just cut strips of the pork shoulder. I used to always buy the whole shoulder, but it’s a mountain of meat and I don’t always want that much. The ribs cut is usually the same cost per pound and it’s a more manageable quantity. I season these pretty simply - salt, pepper, cumin, a little chili powder, sometimes a bit of garlic and onion. Sometimes I cut up an onion to throw in there, sometimes I quarter an orange. I use all kinds of different cooking methods, but this time it was in a deep casserole dish, covered well with foil, and in the oven at 300 degrees for several hours, until the meat was falling apart. Then uncover and turn up the oven to about 375, use tongs to break up the meat, and cook another half hour or so to let the juices evaporate and the meat brown a bit.
We serve this with a selection of usual taco fixings - tortillas, cheese, sour cream, tomatoes, lettuce, salsa, chips - as a taco bar and everyone makes their own. It’s one of my favorite meals to make for a crowd.
Monday: salmon patties
I know some will scoff at the idea of even having leftover fish, but I always buy a little extra salmon and cook more than we will eat that night because I want to make salmon patties. I keep them simple, the fish, a little diced onion, egg, breadcrumbs, a bit of garlic salt.
We had these with a kale & quinoa salad and the leftover pasta from the salmon dinner, reheated with a bit of cream.
Tuesday: enchiladas
Another meal made with the leftovers - the extra meat from the carnitas dinner, mixed with chopped onion and shredded jack cheese, and layered with green enchilada sauce, tortillas, and more jack cheese, cooked until browned and bubbling. This is a very easy meal to make if you have extra cooked meat of any kind. Sometimes I roll them into ‘real’ enchiladas, but sometimes I just layer it all like a casserole because it’s much faster and tastes just as good. Just go easy on the cheese. I know as Americans we love our cheese, and I love to drape everything in cheese just as much as the rest of you, but meat enchiladas really should be mostly about the meat and sauce and tortilla, with just a little cheese at each layer.
Wednesday is always leftover night here. We have scout meetings that night and need to eat fast and get going, so it’s nice to have lots of options we can easily heat up. I always make extra of everything so we have plenty.
Thursday: pasta with pork & veggies
This was an accidental dinner once that my family loved so much that it’s now become something that is regularly requested. It’s a great one to make when you need to clean the veggies out of your fridge and you don’t have a whole lot of other stuff. I brown some kind of ground meat, usually pork, or a pork sausage is best. This week I had a package of breakfast sausage so I used that. After the meat is browned I add a variety of chopped veggies. The first iteration of this had just onions and cabbage, and that is a really great combo with pork. These days I find it a fun challenge to see just how much veggies I can pack in here and have the kids still love it. This week I had onions, cabbage, zucchini, baby kale, mushrooms. I feel like there was more but I’m not remembering now. Get all the veggies sautéed until soft, sometimes I add a little butter, and then the real secret is canned soup. I don’t use a whole lot of this stuff but this is one occasion where I love it. It’s a quick way to make a yummy meal. My choice for this is Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom with Roasted Garlic. It’s all about the roasted garlic flavor here, so try to find that one and always keep some in your pantry. I usually don’t add any salt until after I’ve added the soup, because the sausage + canned soup is often all the salt you need. After the sauce (aka, soup) is in, then it’s time for the pasta and there are two ways I do this. You can either just cook pasta separately (or it’s a great way to use up leftover pasta), or you can now do my one pot pasta method - just add it all right in the pan: one pound of pasta and four cups of water. It soaks up the flavor of the meat and veggies and soup as it cooks and it’s delicious and always a crowd pleaser.
That brings us back to friday and pizza again.
Extra treat: beignets
This is a fun one that we’ve made a few times now. My kids love the beignets that we get in New Orleans Square at Disneyland, so when we found the recipe in the Unofficial Disney Parks Cookbook we definitely had to make them. While this isn’t a fast recipe to make, it isn’t hard. And it makes a lot. We made the mistake of doubling the recipe the first time and we ended up delivering beignets to all our neighbors because there was no way we could eat them all. Sometimes we even make them Mickey shaped using a Mickey cutter, sometimes we just cut them in squares. They all taste great no matter what. This dough also holds well in the fridge for a couple days, which I recommend because they really are best when they are fresh, so don’t cook more than you plan to eat while hot. We made the dough and cooked half on Thursday, and then cooked the second half on Sunday. Deep frying can be intimidating at first, but if you have a good thermometer that makes it easier. I don’t have a deep fryer, I just use a pot on the stove.
For next week:
If you’re still reading this far, here are some thoughts about what might make it on the menu next week.
I’ll probably make a similar stir fry and tofu again, because it was so good and I keep thinking about it. But I have an overabundance of Thai basil, so I need to figure out if that will be good in the stir fry. Tuesday is always tacos, and I try to mix it up. We haven’t had fish tacos in a while so maybe we will do that. We have guests again coming next weekend so I will try to make a trip to Costco later in the week, which usually means I’ll get a couple of rotisserie chickens and we will have a couple of meals out of that. Sometimes when I’m feeling uninspired I will ask the family what they’ve been craving. Recent requests have included spaghetti with meat sauce, some kind of curry, grilled sausages, turkey burgers, so some of those items might show up on the menu next week.
