The Succulent

That light is coming back to us – the kind that feels restorative, and lasts past 6 in the evening. It’s sweet relief after this brutal winter, although I won’t presume that we’ve seen the last of the snow in New England! My meal plan this week is short, as I’ll be flying to the nation’s capital on Wednesday for a re-charge with Wellesley friends. I’m looking forward to lots of fabulous meals, and hopefully some real spring-like weather!

Simple meals this week, mostly built off a protein and a vegetable – the kind of dinners that come about when I shop without a grocery list. I decided to swing by the market *before* making my weekly meal plan today (usually my planning is an elaborate affair of my own volition where I surround myself with my cookbooks and get lost in them for hours) – so to avoid over-purchasing, I simply picked a few random proteins, vegetables I know we’ll both eat, some extra lettuce and spinach for salads, and hightailed out of there before I spent a paycheck on chocolate covered potato chips, matcha powder, fancy olives or some other superfluous treat.

Week of Saturday, March 15th

Saturday: Eggs, brussels sprouts, pancetta and a little bit of cheese. When in doubt – eggs for dinner. I think I might make a regular habit of a weekend egg dinner, instead of an extra meal out that too often occurs when I’m tired from batch cooking.

Sunday: Chicken thighs, brussels sprouts, and new potatoes. A variation of what I go to week after week. I picked up a few new cookbooks this weekend including Anya von Bremzen’s The New Spanish Table and David Leite’s The New Portuguese Table, so I’m guessing we’ll be having some seasoning from that general region to spice things up – maybe a large dollop of homemade mayo to bring it all together.

Monday: Marinated Pork tenderloin and broccoli.  A little boring. I’ll be coming home from an evening yoga class, so I needed something quick and relatively hands off.

Tuesday: Vietnamese-ish beef and carrot salad with mint. My everyday favorite: ground beef with five spice, and a carrot and mint salad with a basic Nuoc Cham, a dressing of fish sauce, a little sugar, and lime.

What’s on your table this week?

–– Sam