CityMama™

Let's Meal Plan Together for the week of 2/14

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Tonight I made one of my family's favorite meals. J. had leftover barbecued tri-tip and asparagus with his salad since he tries to avoid carbs, but he couldn't resist a bowl of bolognese on its own. It's like Italian chili! The rest of the week is a little topsy-turvy because family is in town and the girls have Thursday and Friday off.

I think I'll spend the rest of the week cooking things for the freezer so that we have yummy things on hand for when the Bundle is born.

Monday: Spaghetti Bolognese (but made with ground turkey), butter lettuce salad with strawberry tomatoes and goat cheese. Chocolate pudding with whipped cream. (I'm freezing half the sauce.)

The rest of the week, I'm cooking things for the freezer like:

• White turkey chili with green chiles and hominy
• Foodmomiac's Meatloaf
• Korean Bulgogi Chicken

In general, I'm just trying to take it easy since the baby is due in just a few weeks.

What are you making this week?

 

 

Have you checked out Foodily?

The newly launched recipe site, Foodily, is one of Clever Girls Collective's (my company's) most DELICIOUS clients, and in celebration of Valentine's Day, we've been immersed in their site planning our perfect Valentine's Day dinners.  If you love cooking a special meal for your loved ones (or you just plain forgot to make reservations) on Valentine's Day, Foodily has you covered.

Search the most recipes on the web from food sites AS WELL AS blogs, presented in a beautiful, magazine-like browser. "Like" recipes and share them with your friends. See what your friends like and try their recommendations. And if you have allergies or aversions, custom-tailor any recipe to suit your preferences.

I used Foodily to create this menu that I think J. will love: http://foodily.com/m/2631.

How about you?

 I'd like to invite you to share your favorite Valentine's Day menus, too!  Here's how:

 1. Go to Foodily.com and login with Facebook Connect (or create a login).

2. Play around with recipes and find your favorites to create a perfectly delish Valentine’s Day meal!

3. Once you’ve selected a recipe save it to a menu:

• From the recipe, select the “save” button, save it as an appetizer, main, etc., and then it’ll ask you to name your menu. Create your special Valentine’s menu title.
• Continue adding recipes and saving to that menu

4. View your menu (either from tab at top or from your profile) and grab the URL (you can also share your menu on Facebook and grab the URL there). Note: the URL will look similar to this example: http://foodily.com/m/ 1234

5.Tweet the following and be sure to include the #foodilyvdaymenu hashtag at the end:

 Check out my @foodily Valentine’s Day menu! Create one of your own+share! http//(your menu URL here) #foodilyvdaymenu

 6. Foodily will be watching and selecting menu winners daily to be featured on the Foodily site!

 Note: You can also enter by sharing your menu on Foodily’s Facebook wall.

Let's Meal Plan Together for the Week of 1/31

I desperately need to be inspired. Please share what you are cooking this week (doesn't have to be a week's worth of meals, just a dish or two) and help me end my week and, perhaps, kick-start next week!

Also, I know I need to start cooking double meals and freezing one for when the Bundle is due (in about a month--yikes!). What are your favorite freezable meals? Soups? Stews? Casseroles?  Recipes or links most welcome.

• Monday-Ziti with vodka sauce, green salad (leftover barbecued salmon and halibut for J.)
• Tuesday—White Turkey Chili with fixins
• Wednesday—Pan-fried Korean dumplings, rice, cucumber salad, maybe some grilled chicken too?

And then?

 

Let's Meal Plan Together for the week of 1/24

This is kind of a topsy-turvy week, so I'm not planning a full week of meals. Which feels kind of nice.

• Monday—Meatloaf, rice, and salad. HOWEVER, The Bundle has been jonesing for chicken wings so J. is going to pick up some wangz at Wingstop on his way home. I HEART PREGNANCY!
• Tuesday—Work dinner, kids will have dinner with Tata. J. will likely be eating moar meatloaf.
• Wednesday—Will be coming back from an all-day work meeting so will likely pick something up on my way home
• Thursday—Fred's Steak (a local legend), baked potatoes, and this amazing-sounding pancetta and parsley salad (from one of my favorite restaurants/chefs)
• Friday—Celebrating Glennia's 50th birthday!
• Saturday & Sunday—As usual, I'm not sure yet.

What do you have going on this week?

Meal Planning Monday for the week of 1/17

My meal plan this week is informed by my feeling a litle dodgy (thanks a lot, Baby Bundle!). I was looking forward to starting a period of vegetarian eating, but that's out the window until I feel like my body can handle it. Instead, this week is about comfort.

When I'm feeling terrible, it's hard to accomodate J.'s preferred Cross-Fit/Caveman Diet low-carb way of eating (and mine, too, when not pg), so I just try to make sure I have lots of salad fixins on hand. (And cheese, canned tuna and hard-boiled eggs, too.) If he doesn't want to eat what I'm making for dinner, he has salad-y options.

• Monday—Pasta with peas from Depression Cooking, salad. If you haven't ever watched Depression Cooking on YouTube, I highly recommend it. The simple recipes are made better with the addition of Great Grandma Clara's stories of how her family made it through the Depression. She says, they didn't have a lot, but they always had good food.
• Tuesday—Leftover Sausages, Cabbage and Potatoes. (I made this dinner for our Golden Globes party last night and it was great. A perfect Sunday night meal—with bonus leftovers!)
• Wednesday—Lentil Soup (more like a stew), dark German rye bread and butter, green salad
• Thursday—Coconut and Chicken Curry Soup, basmati rice (how good does this look?!)

PS I'm so glad my family loves soup. I could eat some form of it every single day.

• Friday—Family Movie Night (take out)
• Saturday & Sunday—not sure quite yet

What have you got on deck this week? Any favorite winter soups to share?

Meal Planning Monday for the week of January 10, 2011

Ten days into the new year and I am finally back to planning my weekly meals. I took a break over the holidays because we did a lot of group meals with family and dining out. Which, not gonna lie, was awesome.

But now I am fully "fooded out" and ready to get back to some simpler, more comforting fare. At least for the next week or so.

Tonight I'm cooking up some white truffle polenta with spicy Italian sausages.  Polenta and sausage is a dinner we had often while growing up and I never much liked it. I don't know why, because nowadays, come fall, I can't get enough polenta. Come to think of it, my kids are starting to say, "Polenta agaaaaiinnnn?" so I guess I am getting a glimpse into why I got so sick of it growing up. (Too bad, kids!)

Here's what I've got coming up this week. It's sort of a clean out the freezer and pantry week, because I'd like to do a month's worth of mostly vegetarian cooking starting next week. I'm heading into the final 8-9 weeks of being pregnant and aside from my daily pastry (a practice that is going bye-bye realquicklike when I get back on Weight Watchers post-partum), I'm trying to eat as simply and as healthfully as possible.

• Monday: Baked chicken legs and thighs; roasted cauliflower tossed with capers, olives, and parsley; quinoa with garbanzos, sun-dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts (making enough of this to last through a few days'-worth of lunches)
• Tuesday: Penne alla vodka, a big green salad
• Wednesday: Oprah's favorite Centerville chicken pie, mashed potatoes, broccoli
• Thursday: something from my Christmas present cookbook (Thanks, J.!), The Indian Slow Cooker. (I love that the author is as obsessed with raw onions as I am. I am the person who orders extra raw onions with my burgers.)
• Friday Family Movie Night: Leftover New Year's Hoppin John' and sauteed collard greens
• Saturday-Sunday: Playing it fast and loose. Not sure yet, but I think I will make a big batch of bean soup.

How about you? How were your holidays? What are you cooking to get back to normal?

 

 

Let's Meal Plan Together for the week of 12/13/10 AND A SONY DASH GIVEAWAY!

Image credit @sukhjit

This is the last week of school for my gals before the winter break. How it is possible that Christmas is almost here?  Wasn't it just Thanksgiving? In planning this week's menu, I'm trying to be sensitive to the fact that we're about to embark on another round of crazy holiday eating. I've also not been feeling good—constant upset stomach—that I hear has to do with surging boy hormones.  (Did anyone else who had a boy feel this awful?)  It's like I don't want to eat anything and fear I'll be "BRAT" dieting for the remainder of this pregnancy.  So, keeping all that in mind, this week it's:

• Monday—Picked up some treats at the Korean Market: pan-fried fish and mung bean pancakes, rice, salad
• Tuesday—Steak, mashed potatoes, a big salad
• Wednesday—I think some kind of veggie soup (any good ideas?), bread and cheese
• Thursday—Grilled chicken breasts, rice, and broccoli
• Friday Family Movie Night—most likely pizza
• Saturday and Sunday: Not sure yet.

Now for the fun stuff!

WIN A SONY DASH!

Recently I co-hosted an event with my pal Roxane of Rox and Roll in celebration of the launch of the NEW SONY DASH. A bunch of San Francisco Bay Area bloggers gathered together at Roxane's, along with reps from Sony, to have an amazing lunch (prepared by Jennifer Puccio, Chef/Owner of Marlowe restaurant in SF) and to learn more about the Sony Dash. Note: see all my fabulous photos of the event on my Flickr.

What is the Sony Dash?  Only one of this season's hottest holiday gadgets. It's perfect for cooks, perfect for families, perfect for anyone!  Want to know more?  Watch this short and informative video of our event (and catch glimpses of me and Rox). It explains all!

Want to win one for yourself?  All you have to do is:

1. Leave a comment below letting me know where'd you'd put your Sony Dash and what you'd use it for.

2. Tweet this statement (including the link) for an additional chance to win. Just copy and paste!:

I entered to win a SONY DASH from @sonyelectronics on @citymama and you can too! http://bit.ly/g3ghvb #contest

Notes:

• One winner will be picked at random.
• Contest ends on Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 6pm PST/California time.
• One comment per person please (and be sure to include a working email so I can contact you if you win!)
• Prize is valued at $199. (I am paying for the shipping myself.)
• I will try, but there is no guarantee you will receive it before Christmas.

 

Let's Meal Plan Together for the week of 12/6/10

 

Here's what's on deck for the week!

Monday: Pan-seared steaks (shown below), raw kale and avocado salad (See? Obsession.), salad with Oregon pears and gorgonzola.

Tuesday: Grilled chicken breasts, cous cous + garbanzo salad

Wednesday: Something simple, probably Spaghetti Cacio e Pepe and a simple green salad (after Clever Girls aka my compnay holiday lunch)

Thursday: Annual ox tails and polenta dinner

Friday Family Movie Night: Take out something

Saturday: J.'s company holiday party

Sunday: The steaks were so good on Monday, maybe we'll do them again.

My fool-proof method for steaks (these are NY strips, about 1-1.5 inches thick):

1. Season steaks on both sides with Hawaiian (preferably) salt (coarse, not rock) and fresh ground pepper. Or Montreal Seasoning, or whatever you like. Keep it simple, though. Let steaks come to room temperature.

2. Preheat oven to 400º.

3. When steaks are ready to cook, lightly oil a large cast-iron pan and set it heat over medium-high (on my stove I turn the dial exactly halfway between off and high) until it just starts smoking. Place steaks in the pan. Set a timer for 5 minutes. Do not touch them.

4. When timer goes off, flip steaks then immediately stick the entire pan into the hot oven. Set timer for 4 minutes.

5. When timer goes off carefully remove pan from oven. Let steaks cook in pan for up 1 minute more (or remove them right away for a rarer steak), then remove them to a cutting board or plate. Let them rest for about 5 minutes or so, then slice and serve. This is the only way I will do steaks indoors and they come out perfectly medium rare every single time.

What are you cookin'?

Let's Meal Plan Together for the week of 11/29

I don't know about you, but this week the meals I've planned are going to be the opposite of turkey. (How was your Thanksgiving, by the way?)

• Monday: Spaghetti with Muir Glen Reserve tomato sauce (made by Bunny and Wallie), salad (Thank you for sending these to me, Muir Glen!)
• Tuesday: Pan-fried Snapper, Rice, Steamed artichokes with garlic aioli
• Wednesday: Yummy Balls, Latkes for Hanukkah, Raw Kale and Avocado Salad
• Thursday: Grilled marinated chicken breasts, Brown Rice, Broccoli
• Friday Family Movie Night: Hoping for Five Guys Burgers n Fries!
• Saturday and Sunday: Not sure yet but know it will involve, yes, vegetarian Indian at some point. We should just name this kid Masala Dosa and call it a day.

We're going to put our Christmas tree up on Sunday so I'm thinking of a noshy dinner that we can nibble on while we decorate. Maybe fondue? I LOVE CHRISTMAS!

How about you?

Let's Meal Plan Together for the week of 11/22—Our Thanksgiving Menu (What's yours?)

We eat our Thanksgiving meal at dinner time so we like to have plenty of noshy things on hand throughout the afternoon, especially if there is a football game on. We also like lots of side dishes so that's what this meal is all about!

HORS D'OEUVRES

• Tuna Mousse
• Clam Dip and Chips
• Crudites and Hummus
• Champagne

MAIN MEAL

• Grilled Champagne-Orange Turkey (Xiaolinmama's recipe), going to try barding it with salt pork this year, too (saw the technique on America's Test Kitchen)
• Traditional Bread Stuffing
• Oyster Dressing
• Joël Rubochon Puree de Pommes de Terre-style Mashed Potatoes (only not as much butter)
• Turkey Pan Gravy
• Homemade Fresh Cranberry-Orange Sauce
• Savory Sweet Potato Gratin
• Green Beans with Lemon and Garlic
• Fresh English Peas with Cipolline Onions
• Jalapeño Corn Pudding
• Fall Chicory Salad with Crispy Apples and Goat Cheese
• Pumpkin Pie
• Sour Cherry Pie
• Fresh Whipped Cream

This menu may change ever-so-slightly between now and Thanksgiving (thinking about a zucchini casserole), but this is the general plan. So excited! Please share your Thanksgiving menu with me! I love to know what others are cooking!

Happy Thanksgiving!