Weekly Menu Planning - September 2025

So finicky, and yet they lick their own buttholes…

Hi folks

Very busy amid a bit of usual sadness all around as departure date approaches. This week will have All The Things that I must be fed before I leave – and All The Things that I must feed or cook and freeze before I leave too

Ideas for the week:
– Butter garlic crab
– Mom’s biryani
– Another whole roast chicken
– Masala-stuffed whole pomfret fry
– Fondue with accompaniments (finally, now that all participating tummies have settled)
– Chaat fest – pani puri, dahi batata puri, sev puri, bhel, maybe also ragda pattice to max out the excess
– Stuffed shells (for the freezer)

Also a few meals scheduled out with cousins and friends:
– Dim sum feast (aka unlimited dim sum lunch at our spot, eat till it hurts )
– Modern Indian
– Indian Chinese

And I hope to finally get to a bit of baking before I leave – banana bread and a no-knead boule, maybe focaccia too.

Have a great weekend, and a peaceful week ahead.

Hi Everyone, from my sick bed. I dropped Lulu off at the airport on her way back to college and got sick the next day. Assuming these things are somehow related (in other words, maybe some stress left me vulnerable). So there has been almost no cooking this week. Won’t be tonight either, as it seems maybe LLD has caught this bug too. But here is what I did manage to make:

Sun: pasta with raw tomato sauce, kalamata olives, capers, garlic, sherry vinegar, evoo (because of the tennis I changed from my earlier planned meal to this incredibly easy one)

Mon: L out to dinner, made one of my old favorites- a baked potato and a salad

Tues: soyrizo, chickpea, tomato skillet with a fried egg on top, yogurt plopped on the side

Wed: Lulu to the airport in the morning, LLD home after bedtime. Coffee date with a good friend (met via Chowhound when Lulu was a toddler - how great is that?). She brought homemade coconut tres leches cake, and it was fantastic. I wasn’t very hungry for dinner so just had a slice of leftover pizza.

Thurs: started feeling the bug. Canceled everything and stayed in bed. LLD picked up peruvian chicken and sides.

Fri: cheese and crackers was about all I could handle

No idea how we’ll handle tonight.

The world isn’t at its best right now, but I do appreciate all of you - the camaraderie, the dinner ideas, the kindness. Have a great week!

Sorry you’re sick (plus down from Lulu’s departure too, I’m sure).

Thanks for the raw tomato sauce reminder – mom loves it, and I haven’t made it yet.

Hope you feel better soon. (And yes to all the rest.)

I wish I could bring you a bowl of warm chicken soup I hope you feel well soon.

My young adult (adopted at age 7 with severe food deprivation and other trauma) is also finicky and from the beginning, not abiding by his food preferences was quickly something we discovered was Not a Good Idea At All. I’m glad your sweet little one has foods he is willing to eat, such a necessity! You must feel so glad, relieved, and gratified when you find something he tolerates.

Well, their buttholes are THEIRS!

I hope you can find something that seems appealing to you and LLD and get it delivered! And that you recover soon from the illness and LL’s departure. Lots of bugs going around here in Boston.

Oh, no! Hope you feel better very very soon!

Any link you have for this?

So sorry you were sick!

Lots of low-salt home cooking ahead:

Saturday: roasted lemon oregano paprika chicken thighs, maple ginger baked beans, Armenian pilaf, tomato basil salad.

Purchased custard tarts.

Sunday: roast leg of lamb, roast potatoes, dilled green beans, green salad

Monday: roast spaghetti squash, leftovers

Tuesday: maybe tuna cakes, maybe Macher / Machh’er / Maacher Chops

I think I’ll make Oaxacan lamb barbacoa instead

For two adults in San Diego:

Breakfasts: granola with fruit and almond milk

S: (tonight) Pizza before Gregory Alan Isakov concert

Su: Chicken and rice soup with lots of veggies

M: Pasta with chicken and asparagus

T: Leftover pasta after evening event on campus

W: Chicken sausage with onions and peppers on rolls, fruit on the side

Th: TJs pumpkin brioche made into French toast, eggs on the side - vegetarian

F: TBD - in Los Angeles for Nine Inch Nails concert

Take care of yourselves!

Yes! His food dislikes at this point are just who he is, but he is so much more than his finickiness

There’s a stomach bug going around the high school I teach at already!

Oy. Schools and daycare are such germ factories. Hope you can avoid catching anything!

It’s basically my easified take on an Allison Roman recipe. 6 oz. soyrizo (obviously chorizo is fine) sauteed with a small chopped onion and cumin until browned, add a can of diced tomatoes, simmer for a bit, then add a can of drained chickpeas and 1/4 cup water. Cook some more until everything has melded, maybe 5-10 minutes. Add fried (or poached) egg on top of each serving and add a dollop of plain yogurt on the side, serve with good buttered toast. It’s dead easy, very satisfying, and delicious.

Feeding three in the Boston burbs, as usual. I’m already exhausted by the coming week and it’s just Sunday afternoon! I spent much of the day doing kitchen stuff to prep for the week (and listening to the Steelers game, which wasn’t on TV here). I’ll be in the office Mon, Tues, Weds, AND Thurs this week so I’m trying to mentally prepare for four consecutive days of grown-up clothes, rather than my standard “business on top, yoga pants on the bottom” attire.

Yesterday DH and I went to the library and I picked up a copy of What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking, which I’d heard of from a Smitten Kitchen newsletter. So this week’s menu includes three recipes from it (shown below with **).

Sun: lunch was a ham and cheese “croissant”** using puff pastry (Sweet Loren’s GF), ham, and Swiss - it looked like a giant pop-tart. It was pretty tasty! Then I:

• roasted BISO chicken breasts for Weds, then shredded the meat (and got stabbed in the pinky by a stray rib bone )
• made a huge batch of granola (less sugar and oil though)
• baked a loaf of bread because I didn’t have any in the freezer and really wanted a grilled cheese sandwich yesterday
• cleaned a huge package of strawberries

Dinner will be panko chicken with roasted broccoli**

Mon: sesame beef noodles** using rice ramen instead of spaghetti

Tues: sheet pan chicken fajitas

Weds: chicken nachos

Thurs: pasta, red sauce, meatballs a la Wegmans; green beans

Great, thank you!

Owwww! Freak accident.