another week of actual dinners!
inc. reinventing leftovers, cornbread secrets + more!
Hi friends! Last month I shared a newsletter full of details about everything I enjoyed for dinner over the course of the week:
It was very fun to put together and your responses were enthusiastic so I thought I’d share another week of dinners with you today! I think it’s a fun way to show how I approach cooking/eating in a real, day-to-day way and a chance for me to share mini recipes + tips, too.
Before I get into the dinner of it all — a quick poll:
Feel free to elaborate in the comments!! Also let us know if you had anything you really loved for dinner this past week. Anything particularly time-saving or a clever reinvention of some leftovers? Go out anywhere great? Tell us!!! I’m leaving the comments open today to everyone, not just paid subscribers!!
Sunday 4/27:
I taught a fun class this afternoon: An Easy Meal for a Picky Group (available here!) that featured rice bowls with various vegetables, shredded chicken from a store-bought rotisserie chicken, and a creamy cashew + miso sauce. Plus a pitcher of Jennie’s sorrel (basically iced hibiscus tea with tons of ginger and clove). So that’s what we had for dinner! In my favorite shallow bowls from East Fork which you’ll see over and over because I use them every single day lol.
Monday 4/28:
I still had some shredded chicken leftover and lots of sliced scallions so I sautéed them together in a tiny bit of olive oil to heat them up and then added a big glug of BBQ sauce (my fave is Sweet Baby Ray’s).
Served the chicken with greens — kale and spinach from Long Season Farm that I sautéed in olive oil with garlic and more scallions.
And cornbread! I made a big batch — two boxes of Jiffy (Jiffy 4ever!) mixed according to the box directions plus a 15 oz. of creamed corn mixed in. I preheated my largest cast iron skillet in the oven and then hit it with oil when it was hottttt and then poured the batter in. This is how you get a great crust! I continued to enjoyed toasted cornbread nearly every morning this past week with coffee for my first breakfast…
Tuesday 4/29:
Leftover rice from Sunday’s rice bowls heated up in the microwave plus:
a block of extra-firm tofu I cut into planks, slathered with all of the leftover cashew-miso sauce from Sunday and cooked in my air fryer for 20 minutes at 400ºF (flipped halfway through) — served topped with some chili crisp!!
leftover greens from last night + leftover broccoli from Sunday heated up together in a skillet with a tiny splash of water and a pat of butter :)
Wednesday 4/30:
Some of our friends who we hadn’t seen in too long came over and brought pizza with them!
Thursday 5/1:
Sweet potatoes wedges, first-of-the-season asparagus + sausage, all in the air fryer! Here are the details:
I cut the sweet potatoes into thick wedges, tossed with EVOO, salt + garlic powder. Cooked for 15 mins at 400ºF (flipped them halfway through cooking).
The sausages I had (local pork sausages with garlic) were frozen and I didn’t know I was in the mood for them until it was dinnertime….so while the sweet potatoes were cooking, I put the frozen sausages in a skillet with some water and let them boil until they were nearly cooked through. Then I drained them, put them in the 400ºF air fryer and put oiled/salted asparagus on top. The sausages acted almost like a rack for the asparagus. I took out asparagus after about 5 minuets when they were perfectly cooked through, then I let sausages go until they were totally browned on both sides, an additional 5 minutes per side.
Served it all with my favorite of Molly Baz’s Ayoh sauces — Dijonayo (it’s got mayo, mustard, chopped cornichons, and mustard seeds).
Friday 5/2:
Grace and I went out! Date night!
Saturday 5/3:
Yummy beef burritos made with:
flour tortillas warmed on the open flames of our gas stove
ground beef seasoned with taco seasoning (I think
’s is very good — see here!)crumbled cotija cheese
a simple slaw made with shredded red cabbage, carrots, scallions, a pinch each of salt and sugar, fresh lime juice, and a little mayo
hot sauce!
Sunday 5/4:
I taught a fun “¡Quatro de Mayo!” class and we made my Chicken + Roasted Tomato Enchiladas (from Now & Again)! The class is available here if you’d like. Anyway, we ate those for dinner for extra sour cream and hot sauce on top, plus the pineapple margaritas I also made in class…and mango popsicles with lime juice, lime zest + Tajín for dessert which I HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!
Monday 4/5:
Deeeeelicious sweet-and-spicy pineapple pork, plus coconut rice + some sautéed spinach. Details will be in an upcoming Tuesday “I Love Lunch” newsletter! Stay tuned!
Remember the comments are open to everyone today! Tell us about your dinner wins!!
Can I help you find something useful?!
Here’s my video library of over 120 cooking classes!
Here’s my all-time favorite class: a tour of my kitchen and also my mind! It includes a 2+ hour recording and an incredibly detailed companion document that details all of the tools, ingredients + more (it's over 20 pages long!) I use, plus a ton of tips for day-to-day cooking (lots of mini recipes within).
Check out my ShopMy page for my favorite kitchen tools, ingredients, and even clothing items — it’s all there!
And I catalog all of my favorite books right here at bookshop.org.
Thanks for being here friends! Talk to you next week!! oxoxox
P.S. Just a reminder that there is no class this coming weekend, but on Sunday May 18th at 2p EST I’m offering: “One Can of Chickpeas, So Many Possibilities!” It will be my final class before I pause teaching for June - August. Come join me and Haley!!!! All info below / signup here / FAQs here / portion of proceeds will be given to the ACLU. See you there!!
These are my favorite! All I ever want to do when I meet new people is to ask what they eat for breakfast - I love a little glimpse into their secret lives. So a week of dinners is my absolute dream!
A fav weeknight staple in my house is gnocchi with brussels sprouts and stewed cannellini beans. The gnocchi is loosely based on a NYT Cooking recipe (chopped lemon zest and a little honey cooked in butter are the stars!) and on the side I fry up onions and peppers and garlic, throw in some chopped tomatoes and a can of cannellini beans, and let it simmer while I make the gnocchi.
This is nothing groundbreaking but I always make more "taco night" stuff (seasoned ground beef or turkey, black beans, corn, rice) than we need because it's so easy to repurpose them into other things. Burritos, nachos, taco bowls, quesadillas, and taco salads are on regular rotation for lunches or busy night dinners!