Meal Plan: Week of January 12, 2020

First meal plan of the decade!

What to do this weekend to get ready for the week

• Clean kale and cauliflower for the Evergreen Soup
• Rinse basil & parsley for Better Than Celery Juice
• Brine Chicken for Coq Au Vin
• Feed Tina

Coq Au Vin

Zak’s life can be divided into two eras, the before and after of having Buvette‘s Coq Au Vin.  Ever since that moment his life has been defined by the constant seeking and recreation of that meal.  All to no avail. (He says the same thing about a zuppe di pesce once had at Parm so maybe take it with a grain of salt).  This Sunday we dive into another attempt at summoning that heavenly poultry. There will be there will be tears, chicken, and a full bottle of wine.  Relationships may be sundered, lives ruined, but maybe, just maybe, the result will be a delicious wine braised chicken that reminds us of that meal we once had at Buvette. (BA Alternative)

Cranberry Molasses Porridge

Despite Zak’s cynicism, all the new year’s resolution articles have us feeling more upbeat and inspired! Upon reading The Meat-Lover’s Guide to Eating Less Meat, Jane insists that we’re going to be drinking tonics and eating vegan cheese for the foreseeable future.  Zak insists that’s not cheese. This Cranberry Molasses Porridge seems to strike just the right balance of “super healthy” and “pantry staples”. The only odd ingredient in here is Cranberry Seed Oil – thankfully Amazon has 1-day shipping (this blog brought to you by Prime and the convenient ignorance of poor working conditions). The porridge can also be used as a face moisturizer during these dry winter months!

Superhero Muffins

OK next breakfast item. Since Zak has been getting breakfast at his new job, I’ve really been left out in the cold, unable to muster up the energy to smoothie-myself. So, in the spirit of knowing thyself and thy morning sleepiness, I’m whipping up a batch of these extraordinary muffins to keep in the freezer. I found these via Mollie Chen’s newsletter; she’s a co-founder of Birchbox, lives in Brooklyn with her two kids, and has excellent recommendations. Needless to say I religiously follow on Instagram. She’s really talked up these muffins, so we’re going to give them a try. FYI – she also introduced me to Bad on Paper Podcast, for sure check them out!

Mocktail: Better Than Celery Juice

Continuing with the theme of a new year, new healthy us, we have a non-alcoholic drink recipe that we’re going to try out. We have an aversion to super strict diets / challenges – but do appreciate the reasoning behind many of them. So instead of going hardcore, we try to incorporate their lessons into the day-to-day. On a Wednesday typically we’ll reach for a cold 365 grapefruit seltzer instead of a cocktail, this week, we’re taking it a step further and are mixing up a batch of Better Than Celery Juice as a nice alternative that will feel a little more special.

Eve Persak’s Evergreen Soup

This soup looks ridiculously easy and healthy – we’re reserving judgment and giving it a shot! Really feeling ourselves, we might roast the veggies beforehand to pump up the flavor – feeling emboldened after that decadent roasting we’ll likely serve it with some plain greek yogurt and a slice or two of sourdough to fill our bellies.

Shrimp Noodle Salad

We still have some shrimp in our freezer from some delicious shrimp towers that were more Pisa than Eiffel and we were looking for a recipe to use them up. This one looks weeknight-friendly and it’ll be nice to have a noodle dish during the week – since none of the other recipes have a ton of carbs in them. The spicy brightness of this (⅓ cup of lime juice is hella bright) will help to freshen up our cooking and remind us that all winter meals don’t have to be heavy.

Advertisement