Fall Dinner Queue

Here is our Fall Dinner Queue, a list of meals for us to pick from when planning out the week's meals. I used Kendra's Decide Once principle to choose the veggie that goes along with each main so it doesn't have to be something we have to come up with each time. 

Comment below with your favorite fall crowd pleasers! 

Asian-ish

• pork egg omelette + cauli
• chicken pho + broccoli
• beef pho + kale
• thit kho + mustard greens
• xuxu soup
• butter chicken + cauli
• viet coconut curry
• spring rolls (shrimp, cha lua, or chk) / bun bowls (rotisserie chk or bulgogi)
• baked salmon + green beans
• baked kalbi chicken + salad
• bulgogi + kale
• mapo tofu + cauli
• hainanese chicken + cuke
• oxtail soup + kale
• kalua pork + cabbage
• larb
• bo kho
• seaweed soup w/ ground beef
• pork shrimp meaballs
• tilapia with ginger, green onions, cilantro
• peruvian steak

American

• cabbage patch soup
• spaghetti
• ham + beans
• burgers
• sheet pan chicken
• Sunday Night Stew
• pork chops + kale
• baked potatoes + broccoli
• nachos
• brussels sprouts fettucine (I can't find the link; I could have sworn it was on Orangette...)
• Sultze meatloaf + broccoli
• quiche + salad

Stupid easy

• take-out fried chicken (Heaven Sent does GF!) and coleslaw
• Pho Asia
• Costco rotisserie chicken + salad kit
• sandwiches + chips
• frozen pizza

RIP

Our meals have been pretty sad lately, but I am accepting that this might just be a season. Whether it was motherhood or the pandemic that led to the death of finding joy in preparing food, I won't ever know. At this point, the best thing I can do is accept the reality, hope that it's just for a season, and create room in my life for other more satisfying creative outlets.

Not only does the New Lisa tolerate Tupperware, she also actually scrubs toilets and has been known to swipe at a baseboard with a rag every once in a while

I share this here in case any of you are struggling with boring dinner rotations or lack of novelty around the dinner table. You're not alone.

Without further ado, here is our ultra-boring dinner schedule we followed surprisingly religiously for about a couple months this winter. 

Perhaps a more fun way to think of this is as a capsule meal plan. Like, we haven't given up entirely on life.

Saturday: take-out (usually Mexican or Vietnamese) -- this is a new addition, and it's been super nice (albeit counter intuitive) to pair grocery shopping day with take-out
Sunday: sheet pan chicken OR pork chops and kale

Monday: tacos OR spaghetti (we got 1/4 cow last fall and it helps to just have one day a week I need to remember to defrost meat)

Tuesday: leftovers

Wednesday: xuxu soup OR cheater hainanese chicken

Thursday: leftovers -- pre-pandemic we rarely had leftovers night; now it's twice a week and I'm pleasantly surprised to find out I haven't (actually) died from this.

Friday: spam and egg w/ rice and cauliflower

(The overall concept of a fixed meal plan is a marriage of Kendra Adachi's "Decide Once" principle to reduce decision fatigue, and Zombie Mode, which is a schedule that the Alive version of yourself writes for yourself on the days you feel dead.)

In the past couple weeks I've definitely started to feel a slight desire to cook other things (er, more precisely, to eat other things). But instead of switching up the whole schedule--because the schedule has helped create more sanity for me--I'm slowly introducing the option to try something different on a Wednesday night (e.g., cast-iron roasted chicken). This seems to strike the right balance between routine and novelty for me in this season.

I'm thinking that when it's actually spring, I will have a mostly different meal plan (capsule?) for the week, and possibly with more free choice days. In the meantime, this has been serving us decently well.

P.S. Shockingly, we have been following our nmemonic breakfast schedule for five years (!!!), with only one change. On Tuesdays we have tater tots and scrambled eggs. 

Exponentially better

I wanted to share a little bit about how our meal planning paradigm has slowly shifted. I recently took a course with the Lazy Genius called The Meal Plan. It costed actual cash dollars, and while I would have gladly paid for it even if it didn't work (because everything else I've already learned from her has been worth it), it did help me a lot and I'm really thankful.

I have complained so much about meal planning and tried many different methods. And while my currently meal planning game is far from 100% right now, it's exponentially better, and I have Kendra to thank for it.

It's awkward, because I want to share, but I don't want to give away for free what she has worked hard on and is part of her business and livelihood... does that make sense? So I emailed her to see how I might do this respectfully. She basically gave me the green light and simply asked that I include a link to the course. There's a wait list currently, but you can sign up to be notified when it opens up again. I highly recommend it.

I hope that by sharing what I've learned, it might help you, and also, I'm really interested in more conversations about food, culture, and family. Perhaps you'll read through the lines to see what I mean, and what I've been thinking and wrestling about lately.

--

One huge component of Kendra's Meal Plan is to have in your arsenal a list of Brainless Crowd Pleasers. This is a physical list of meals that please your crowd - your people, your family, you. You draw from this when you are making your meal plan.

It's so simple and obvious that I missed it. I kept thinking about what "normal" families eat (or what they "should" eat, or what kid might like to eat) instead of thinking, What does my family truly like to eat?

Thinking about this turned on its head the question I usually ask. And now, instead of trying to figure out to modify the meals I want to cook/eat into meals my family will eat, I now think about how to plan meals around the foods I know my family will eat.

I can safely say that Kathy, Theo, and Emilyn are more particular and more limited in their preferences than are David and I. Instead of seeing this change as catering to them in a "selling out" sort of way, I am now relieved that when I cook something I know Kathy likes, it usually turns out that Theo, Emilyn, David, and I all love it, too.

And these foods tend to fall in the Asian (and particularly, Southern Chinese and Vietnamese) spectrum.

(Theo doesn't care for tomato sauce, so spaghetti is off our rotation. It doesn't mean we never eat it, but I try to change my default mentality that it could be incorporated with regularity. I'll just find myself banging my head on the wall if I do so.)

Don't get me wrong, I am *happy* to eat Asian food. I just don't usually think of it first when I think of what I'm craving. Ironically, this is because it is like background noise to me, like water to a fish. When I think about what I want to eat, it's Mexican, Indian, or Mediterranean. (Or, lbh, McDonald's.)

But eating Asian? It just doesn't come to mind.

However, when I smell julienned ginger hitting a hot pan with sesame oil, I am immediately transported to my mom's kitchen, Ratatouille-style. The same goes for preparing green onions, cilantro, ginger: the Chinese Holy Trinity.

In our second- and third- generation Asian-American household, I used to think of making bao or steamed anything was a special occasion.

Now I take out the steamer on a weekly basis, and it feels surprisingly natural.

Everyone is happier food-wise, and as the kitchen's chief executive director/operator, I couldn't be more pleased.

This is the game changer.

Yes, it's fascinating to me that where we landed was: what works for us is to plan, cook, and eat more Asian food. But it's maybe even more interesting to me that choosing to "settle" for What My Family Eats (even if it's not what I always feel like cooking or eating) is ultimately way easier for me because it takes the anxiety/pressure off wondering if my family will appreciate the effort I put into meals.

--

And so begins what may become a series of posts on food and meal planning. List of our Brainless Crown Pleasers (BCPs) forthcoming.

Tell me about you! How are your food habits similar/different to when you grew up? How has your environment, geography, and intercultural/interracial connections shaped your development of food habits?

--

P.S. This article entitled "Our Idea of Healthy Eating Excludes Other Cultures, And That's A Problem"* was an interesting one sent to me by my friend Marla after we talked about intuitive eating and how that could help us better take into account cultural differences.

*Marla, I'm getting self-conscious about referencing an article in front of an English professor... it's supposed to be in quotes and not italicized, right? ;P

P.P.S. I'm happy to report that more than a year later, we are pretty much still using our days-of-the-week mnemonic for our breakfast routine. The slight modification is that Tuesdays may have more tater tots than tacos, and that Friday's Fried Eggs sometimes come in the form of French Toast.

"All you hungry people..."

Inspired by both a podcast episode and a book I recently read, I've started incorporating more routine into our meal planning. Instead of seeing that as giving in (i.e., not having the freedom to come up with whatever I want, and exploring new recipes), which I've felt in the past, I've had a mindset shift in seeing it as a way to love my family and love myself better.

Instead of waiting for life to feel less chaotic, I'm proactively injecting a rhythm to inspire margin and calm, something we can all count on. Fewer choices so that we can spend our energy on other things. Less decision fatigue.

I'm still tweaking the system but I wanted to share what has been working for us so far.

Lunches and dinner have a more varied routine, which I may share later, but breakfasts are pretty much set, which is what I really need, at a time of day during which I am not functioning at my peak, and when David is already at work so it's just me and the kids.

We use a mnemonic device for the weekdays, which helps the kids remember what we're eating, and gives them a sense of the pace of the week.

Monday Mush - we alternate between this oatmeal and "grits" (Bob's Red Mill 10-grain cereal that we usually stir shredded cheddar into). Theo loves to tell me he's "hungry for grits."
Tuesday Tacos - breakfast burritos with scrambled eggs, cheese, salsa
Wednesday Waffles - frozen waffles and breakfast sausage
Thursday Toast - sourdough toast with soft-boiled eggs (British-Malaysian style with soy sauce and white pepper) which Theo calls "soup eggs"
Friday Fried Eggs - fried eggs (either over-easy or scrambled) and polish sausage, toast is optional
Saturday - pancakes and bacon (David makes everything)
Sunday - bagels with smoked salmon and all the fixins' (red onion! cucumber! tomato!)

What I love about this is:

• I'm excited about every day because we're never eating the same thing twice in a row, and I get to look forward to the next time we have it.
• Similarly, there's something to anticipate every new day; we're not just living for the weekends.
• I always know what we need to add to our grocery list since we're have staple breakfasts.
• We can incorporate cheats like frozen waffles without guilt because it's just once a week.
• I can prepare the night before where needed.
• The kids eat well because they know that what's in front of them is the option for the day. And if they don't like it, they know they'll get something they like better on a different day. But honestly I think they love everything because I've chosen seven things we all love.
• There are intentional days where we're not stuffing ourselves with gluten, but then there are days we get to enjoy bread.
• I get to have smoked salmon every week! Talk about living your vacation life!

We've been doing this for a month and I'd say it's working well for us. My guess is that when we get tired of one thing, we can swap out that day with something else, and we won't have to toss out the whole plan. The template is there to serve us, not the other way around.

Another ritual we practice during breakfast is to listen to a hymns station on Pandora. It seems to provide us with a soothing way to start the day.

If any of this helps encourage you to incorporate more rhythm and peace into your life, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Pho-sho!

Life is full and life is good right now.

The sun is finally here and while we're still making tons of popsicles (these and these currently encompass our repertoire), we are true Asians who can enjoy hot soup even during the summer.

I already loved Andrea Nyugen for her Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, so I was delighted to discover that she had written a book dedicated entirely to pho.

In Pho, she offers three levels of complexity for entering the world of cooking your own pho: quick weeknight pho, pressure cooker pho, and the real deal pho. I appreciate the backdrop of authenticity with shortcuts to make a daunting meal slightly more accessible.

Kayla had no idea I had just checked the book out from the library when she surprised me with this notebook at church on Sunday!

Classic pho with beef is an all-day (if not more) affair, so it's rare that I will endeavor to make it, though I'm always so pleased with myself when I do. When the older kids started living with us, I figured out a cheater rotisserie chicken pho, where I boiled the leftover carcass, added fish sauce, and served it with simple garnishes. I wasn't sure it was a thing (faux pho?) but when I saw Nguyen's inclusion of it in her cookbook I felt vindicated.

Chicken has such a light flavor compared to beef, so it can handle a lighter broth without all the spices that normally accompany the standard beef broth.

I've mentioned before how we love to do noodle bowl (bun) and spring rolls with rotisserie chicken, and this is what we usually do with the carcass and any meat if there is some leftover! You can't beat a cooked chicken for $4.99 (at Costco) that can be stretched into two meals.

I'm including my oversimplified recipe here, even though Nguyen's version is simple enough. I don't even bother to char ginger and onion for the base.

Super basic rotisserie chicken pho

Depending on what we have done with the chicken, we don't always have enough meat for the soup, so I supplement with other proteins like tofu or egg, and I love serving this with broccoli as well, which I blanch in the broth.

1 rotisserie chicken carcass
any leftover meat you have
broccoli or other vegetables (optional)
fish sauce
cilantro, green onions, sliced yellow onion (soak in cold water for 10 minutes)
Thai basil, and limes for garnish
black pepper
sriracha

Boil the carcass in a pot of water (use some or all stock if you have some), at least 1 hour but for as many hours as you have time for. I often add 1/2-1 t of salt, but not too much, as you will season with fish sauce later.

Soak 1 16oz package of banh pho noodles in a pot of (cool) water. I use the same pan that I will later boil them in. (In case you didn't know - which I didn't when I first started making Viet food in 2011 - you want to boil rice noodles in separate water from your broth because of all the starch. Also, the pre-soak is not necessary, but I do find that if I can remember to soak them, it creates a more chewy texture, emulating the fresh version.)

Prep all your garnishes. Before serving, boil the noodles until tender (it takes less time if you've done the pre-soak), and divide the noodles into the diners' bowls. Add chicken, cooked broccoli (if using), cilantro, green onions, yellow onion, and a few grinds of black pepper to all the bowls.

Taste the broth, adding 1-2 T fish sauce to season. Bring it to a good boil and ladle into bowls. Serve with Thai basil and limes, and any of your other favorite garnishes. (I'm not a huge bean sprout person, so...)

Enjoy! :)

Even easier

I've been dragging my feet with regards to posting these days, but I think I have a good excuse.



It's finally (finally!!!!!!!) summer!

I have had big plans to tell you about rediscovering one of my favorite Chinese cookbook authors, and about The Glory That Is Laundry Day, and of course, we are more than overdue on a Theo update.

But the days are getting brighter, longer, and lazier, and so all I have to offer you today is these.

After finding some winter refuge at the computer, I feel the tug to spend more of my time unplugged and outside. We have too many popsicles to eat and too few days.

Ever since I saw Molly Orangette write about these I have been dreaming about making them. For some reason I thought they were more complicated than they really are. But in fact they are really easy, like boozy pudding (something else I need to tell you about later*) but even easier.

(*ehhh, if you're new around here, I've talked about it plenty on the old food blog with Stephie. You're welcome. So embarrassing.)

Anyway, without further ado, and so that I can get back to laying out on the deck, here are the fudgsicles you need in your life today.

Fudgsicles
adapted from Orangette

If you're fancy, you should definitely read up on Molly's recipe to get all the details about chocolate, because she's obviously thought it through. I've tried to keep it simple and easy here, and it's more for my reference to make it again. She also called for heavy cream and milk; I had lots of half and half so I've simplified it here. Obviously, you can use your brain and do things differently.

8 oz chocolate chips (preferably mixed in with some bittersweet, but don't go all dark)
2 1/2 cups half and half
2 T unsweetened cocoa powder
2 t vanilla extract, or (spiced) rum since vanilla extract costs a million dollars these days

Heat up half and half on the stove with cocoa powder, whisking to dissolve. Remove pan from heat, and after a minute, dump chocolate chips into the pan, whisking until it's all incorporated. Add in vanilla extract and then pour into popsicle molds. Freeze until hard.

P.S. Comment below with a caption for the second picture in this post. The winner gets a fudgsicle!

Speaking of

[Alternate title: 15 things on the 15th, (More than) a few randoms]

1. What we're eating this week:

bún / sunday night stew

2. A favorite meal from last week: Chinese-inspired beef and pork bone soup with lotus root, shiitake mushroom, goji berries, and red dates. I didn't expect at this point in my life to be cooking Asian food 80-90% of the time (and of that, mostly Chinese/Vietnamese, sorry David!), but it's one of those things where I've learned that there's way less drama at the table when we eat these foods. It's weird because I don't feel like I technically even know how to cook Asian food. (I learned it by eating, and when I learned to cook I didn't learn Asian food.) When I do feel in flow, it's cool to know that it's somehow just in my blood and also in my brain, the repetition of it hitting my taste buds on an almost-daily basis for 18 years (my mom is an amazing cook, of all different cuisines, too). I still have a LOT to learn.

3. Speaking of mothers, and in light of Mother's Day last weekend, I found something I made twenty years ago.

When I called her to show her, she laughed and said, "Why do you have this and not me?"

4. Re-reading To Kill a Mockingbird... 'nuff said.

5. My pattern of thin slices of joy is: time with people, sunshine, good food/drink, thifting, good conversation.

5b. We had a picnic on the deck this Saturday and we realized our meals are especially happy when they are a hybrid between take-out and home-made. This was pizza and steak, and the day before we brought over take-out roast duck and chicken wings with home-made cabbage, salad, and rice to a family's move.

Not pictured: me taking the photo, Theo searching for worms 

6. Speaking of slimy things, I've successfully brewed my first really good batch of kombucha. Let a sista know if you'd like a SCOBY!

7. This simple matchstick solution has been bringing me disproportionate amounts of joy. I've made three or four of them already out of old votive holders or baby food jars and I can't get over how amazing it is.

We have been loving candles here... I don't know why it took me so long to realize that candles can take a day from gloomy to cozy! Tip: TJMaxx seems to have a great selection and for cheap.

8. Speaking of making the storage of things look pretty, I've been trying to do a lot of that in the house lately. Last-year-me dismissed the Nate Berkuss method of taking the labels off of things, but this-year-me is all about this. A friend was telling me about a family member who will only accept wooden toys in her house, which led her to call them, jokingly, "high-end granola." I laughed, but then later I was, like, that's what I want to be! (Insert thinking emoji.) When I told David that story, he said, "granola is expensive!" Indeed, it is.

9. Speaking of granola, I need to make a batch. Molly's No. 5 is the best, but I need to leave out nuts for the baby, so I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do yet. Even if I hadn't mention #8 above, I've been thinking about granola and other breakfast items because I need more breakfast ideas. I've been avoiding eggs and also nuts, so my protein choices feel limited. We've been eating more sausage for breakfast but I need a little more variety so I've been thinking about prepping grain bowls (like this) or other savory meals (like this) that I can have in the AM - essentially, eating lunch or dinner for breakfast. If anyone has ideas for non-sweet breakfasts that don't involve eggs, I'm all ears!

10. Speaking of oats, have you ever had baked oatmeal? It was better than expected. One person called it the bread pudding of oatmeal, and I know not everyone likes bread pudding, but thinking about it that way made me like this even more.

11. An inspiring typography video of Ira Glass that could be applied to any creative endeavor / learning curve.

12. Princess Kate + vulnerability + social media + mental health awareness

13. A sweet home tour of a blogger I've been following for a while.

14. Speaking of homes, I'm taking The Nester's decorating class right now and my head is buzzing with ideas. It's hard to slow down and know that this just takes time.

15. David and I had a great conversation about rest, quality over quantity, spiritual wealth, and contentedness. What rhythms help you (and your families, if applicable) balance achievement and rest?

One hundred

Here are my "thin slices of joy" from the last week:

1 | visiting with an old friend from out of town (Hi Molly!)
2 | eating homemade whole wheat chocolate chip muffins with the kids on the front deck for a breakfast picnic; having dinner with neighbors
3 | aforementioned neighbors giving us two perfect kid-sized chairs {and the day before a different neighbor walked over and offered to give us her old electric trimmer because she saw David cutting some hedges manually and she didn't need hers anymore}
4 | fun playdate with an old friend from work; sunshine and two boys playing really well together in the dirt for hours
5 | painting Theo's room; also, watching Theo pluck basil for his pizza

Pro tip: get a cup of chopped onions from the hot dog condiments area the next time you order a Costco pizza.

6 | the tulip festival! and ice cream cones the size of our heads!

mud puddles > tulips

7 | sunbathing during naptime; dinner on the deck with a friend whose husband also had to work on Sunday; watching one 11-month-old take a nice mud bath

And here's our menu for the week:

This is my 100th published post! I'm still not sure what this blog is, but I'm glad I'm doing it. I suppose, then, that this is a good reminder that it takes a lot of doing to get somewhere. And that the more you do, the less pressure there is on each instance of doing.

I read somewhere that instead of thinking "One day..." you can say instead "Day One." I like that fresh and hope-filled vision. Instead of thinking "One day, I'm going to live a creative life," I have the choice to say, "This is Day One (or Day Two, Three, or Ten Thousand) of living a creative life." Thanks for following along!

This reversal

I recently stumbled across a recipe for Vietnamese chicken curry that captures that brothiness I so love in my food. (In case you've haven't noticed.)

My maternal grandfather's quick-and-dirty Malaysian chicken curry recipe uses a whole can of coconut milk and not very much water (in fact, as little as you can get by without burning the food), but I liked this reversal I found on Hungry Huy.

It calls for only half a cup of coconut milk to 4-5 cups of liquid. He uses a mix of chicken broth and water, but since I stock (couldn't help myself*) Costco's organic stock which isn't very salty, I use all stock in my version for extra flavor.

(*When the cartons of chicken stock in your pantry notice you checking on your supply a lot, do they say, "Are you stocking me?" Souper sorry for that. Not.)

I was pleasantly surprised with how far that half cup of coconut milk went, giving the whole pot just the right amount of creaminess and Southeast Asian flair, and so instead of disregarding the recipe and just throwing the rest of the can in, I decided to make coconut sticky rice with mangoes, because obviously.

One last note on the curry before I share both recipes. While you can serve this over rice, the Viet way to enjoy this is with (Vietnamese, if possible) French bread.

You will be floating like this French bread after eating this.

(Okay that was not the last note because I have one more thing to say, as always:)

The leftovers are also amazing with noodles - such as vermicelli, udon, or by making a packet of ramen (spicy or regular) with some of the seasoning and broth, and throwing the curry into it, plus a poached-in-the-pot egg.

Actually, the egg can be eaten on any version of this dish. SEAsians were "putting an egg on it" way before it was the trendy thing to do. If you've never had a crispy fried egg with an oozing egg yolk over a bowl of curry rice, well, then, stop everything you're doing right now and get thee to a kitchen.

Vietnamese Chicken Curry (cà ri gà)
adapted from Hungry Huy

2 lb bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks, marinated in 2 t salt and 2 T curry powder
1 large yellow onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks lemongrass, cut into 5" lengths (smash the base to expose more flavor, and cut lengthwise in half, if desired)
3 bay leaves, or a few stalks of curry leaves, if you are so lucky to have access
1 1/2 lb potatoes, cubed (~2")
3-4 carrots, cut into 3" lengths (the chunky look is nice for this soupy curry)
1/2 cup canned coconut milk (full-fat, try to use a Thai - not American - brand)
1 tsp sugar
4 cups chicken broth
extra curry powder to taste (I like Baba's, which can be found at Ranch 99, but a Vietnamese Madras curry powder would be great, too)
fish sauce and/or fermented shrimp paste, to taste
squeeze of lemon and/or cilantro, optional, for garnish

Marinate the chicken at least two hours in advance, or overnight. Don't be afraid to over-salt. This flavor will be dispersed into a pot of broth with over two pounds of vegetables, and salting the pot later can never match the level of flavor you get from pre-marination. (Pre-marinated murder?)

In a heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven, sear the chicken pieces in batches and set aside on a plate. Heat up more oil and sweat the onions in the pan. Add minced garlic, stir a few times, then add broth. Return chicken to the pot, along with sugar, bay leaves, lemongrass, carrots and potatoes.

(Hungry Huy has you par-fry the potatoes and carrots so they don't disintegrate into the broth, but I'm giving you the lazier version. Just cut your vegetables larger, and watch them so they don't melt.)

Bring to a boil, then lower and let simmer until everything is cooked, probably about 20 minutes. Stir in coconut milk. Taste for salt and add fish/shrimp sauce if it needs some extra funk. Serve with cilantro and lemon and with French bread.



Coconut Sticky Rice with Mangoes

1 1/2 to 2 cups Thai sweet rice
1 1/2 cups coconut milk (conveniently, what you will have leftover after you make the above recipe)
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 t sea salt
2 mangoes (Champagne/Manila/Ataulfo are the best for this, as they are sweeter and less fibrous), cubed or sliced

Make sticky rice however it is that you make sticky rice. I'm lucky that my Zojirushi makes it for me, but if you have to use a steamer, this looks like a reliable method.

While the rice is cooking, simmer coconut milk, sugar, and salt together on the stove top. Taste it and make sure it has a good hit of salt. (I like it with the salt and feel that it makes up for the reduced amount of sugar I use compared to restaurant versions of this dish.)

When the rice is done, stir in about 1 cup of the coconut-sugar mixture into the warm rice, reserving the rest for serving when you plate.

To serve, you can mold the rice into a small bowl or some other mold, then invert it onto your serving plate(s). Arrange mango on the side and drizzle more coconut mixture on everything. It can be served warm or at room temperature.

Share, if you're generous, or destroy the evidence, if you're not.

--

And for what we're eating this week:

P.S. Writing about coconut prepared two ways reminded me of the time I wrote about pumpkin: sweet+savory.

P.P.S. One other coconut PSA. Saw this recipe and I'm tempted to try it out!

Well worth the effort

Last week's menu was ambitious, but a couple of the meals turned out really well. 

The Vietnamese turmeric-dill salmon was awesome. I didn't do the sauteed vegetables on the side but we did bún bowls / spring rolls. I recommend the marinade and cooking method even just for having the salmon with rice. I had a pretty big filet, so I separated and removed the belly portion (which was thinner and thus cooked more quickly) when it was cooked and let the rest of it cook for longer. It isn't as pretty for presentation (or the blog, ha), but to have everything perfectly cooked was more important. The fish was buttery and moist.

In place of a picture of the salmon, here is some tempura shrimp Kathy made!

The other meal I really enjoyed was the Russian cabbage soup. I merged a bunch of recipes together and, even though it's a little counter-intuitive, I slow-cooked a roast the same day I made the soup. It felt awkward, because doing two lazy-in-theory meals in one day added up to a bunch of work. But the soup was delicious and in the end, well worth the effort.

I was prepared to add vinegar and sugar to give the sweet-and-sour taste I've had in Russian cabbage soups before, but the blended diced tomato (Kayla you are amazing) gave it the perfect brightness and sweetness it needed. I also added an extra can of tomato sauce but I think one or the other would be sufficient.

If you have leftover meat from a roast, or want to do this recipe with ground beef, I think those alternative methods would be great. It is, admittedly, a bit labor-intensive to do it the way I did.

Either way, I enjoyed experimenting this week and I will probably be making a borscht sometime soon to satisfy that perennial craving I have for all things sour.

Russian Cabbage Soup

the equivalent of one cooked beef roast, cubed. I used a ~2-3 lb bone roast that I salt-and-peppered-and-seared, then cooked in a crock pot with one beef bouillon cube and one cup of water.
1 onion, diced
1-2 carrots, diced
1-2 stalks celery, sliced, optional (I think I wouldn't put this in next time)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can tomato sauce and/or 1 can diced tomatoes, blended
1 head of cabbage, sliced
1-2 quarts chicken and/or beef stock (I prefer chicken stock if you have to use pre-made; beef stock can be tinny)
s+p
handful chopped dill
sour cream and chopped dill for garnish

Saute chopped onion in oil, then add carrots, celery, and garlic. Salt and pepper as you go. Add in tomato, cabbage, and chicken stock. Add cubed beef pieces, and any bones you might have. Adjust level of liquid so everything is covered. Bring to a boil, then lower and let simmer about 45 min to an hour. Stir in chopped dill (or leave entirely on the side if you have picky eaters) and serve with extra sour cream and dill.

Another random picture!



Sorry there are no pictures in reference to the food I talked about today!

And here's this week's menu:

mac 'n' cheese / excited to have sheet pan chicken again now that we have a working oven.

And always, please let me know what you're eating, especially for breakfasts and lunches (those meals are killing me slowly).

What we're eating, II

m: braised pork belly and egg (similar)
tu: slow-cooker chicken tacos
w: russian cabbage soup (still looking for a good recipe but probably will make it up as I go; craving something borscht-y but without the beets, but not because I don't like beets, because I do)
th: Chinese ground pork omelettes over rice
f: baked potatoes
sa: turmeric dill salmon (trying out a new recipe that looks fun!)
su: burgers / korean tacos

What we're eating

Here are a few pictures from what we ate last week.

Hainanese chicken rice with ginger-scallion sauce and sauteed spinach

Corned beef + cabbage, potato, and carrots

Last week seemed to drag on forever, so when it was Friday, I loaded up the kids and took them out to Mexican food by myself for lunch. They did really well.

Maybe too well. See the missing flauta in picture above, and the flauta thief below.

I literally tried to take pictures as soon as the food was laid down. I was eager to eat too. But apparently not quick enough.

David made beignets from scratch on Saturday. 

There's no way I could have married better.

Made these mini breakfast kabobs for Theo and he gobbled them right up.

And here's our menu for this week.

I need 497 xiao long baos.

Freedom + discipline = being an adult

tu: Lo shee fun is the Malaysian dish that inspired last week's post, and was good enough that Kathy requested it again this week / f: corned beef and cabbage for St. Patty's / sa: I can't share my grandmother's recipe for Hainanese Chicken Rice or I'd have to kill you, but here's a pretty good internet recipe, 

We had a busy weekend so I'm just barely getting to this post now on Tuesday. I also had to scramble to come up with a menu for this week but the blog is keeping me accountable.

Besides choosing to post here as a method of staying on top of meal planning, I've been using Trello, which Slai had suggested to me in a comment five months ago. I've come around to using it almost two months ago, when I mentioned The Menu-Planning Reboot of 2017, and I'm loving it. I really wanted to make sure my new system was sticking before I wrote about it here.

Honestly, it's been great to have a menu plan. I mean, the worse thing that can happen is, like:

Lisa to self: Really, we're going to eat __________ again today?
Self: Well, do you have any better ideas?
Lisa: Uhhh...
Self: That's what I thought.

So, the way I'm starting to see it, menu planning is just one part of #adulting. One more place where freedom and discipline do a good little dance.

If you're curious for the nitty gritty (nerdy dirty?) on how I use Trello, read on.

I only have two lists on my menu board: a list for this week's meals, and then a list for previous meals.

When I start planning for the next week, I archive the items from this week into previous, so they automatically get pushed to the bottom.

When I'm planning the current week I get ideas from our past favorites. Here's this week's menu.

I only use Trello for the initial pull, and then when I put it up on the kitchen chalkboard, I think about the best order for the week. 

I only spend a few minutes doing this, so it's relatively painless. Like I said, once it's decided, I can either go along with it and be grateful to my grown-a** self that I did this, or I can be like, "Oh, let's have _____ instead" and then run with that new idea. It's no biggie.

Also, one last CRITICAL step to this whole system working is that I then write up the shopping list and my lovely David helps me with all the shopping. SO WONDERFUL. <3

Let me know, as always, if you have any other menu planning tips, meal ideas, questions or anything you need help with!

P.S. Slai, we need this in our life, right??

P.P.S. Happy Pi Day!

The life raft I've needed

Somewhat abashedly, I bring you this post that has been sitting in my drafts for a couple months now: The Three Most Influential Books I Read in 2016. 2016 was a big year for me, and the biggest gift - besides the birth of my daughter, obvs - was learning about Overdrive and getting access to a library (#literally) of books at my fingertips. 

I'm thankful for all the discoveries I made through falling in love with reading again this last year; there was so much magic in it (#literallyagain), and I look forward to reading and sharing more in 2017!

1. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

I keep thinking I need to write a separate post about this because it is changing my life, as well as still kicking my butt because I am not done with it (i.e., the tidying, not the book).

I'm sure you have heard enough about Kondo's concepts from everyone else on the internet already, but it has been the one method that has really worked for getting me to confront the underlying reasons of why I can't always do the things I need to do to get to the place I want to be.

A few of you texted me after I wrote The Secret Sauce. I still really struggle with scarcity mentality, and I've been thinking a lot about how if I let go of fear, what will be left?

2. Essentialism by Greg McKeown

Oddly, I can't remember exactly why I loved this book so much (other than having it read to me by the author; I've since changed Siri to a UK man voice so I can pretend that Greg McKeown is with me always).

The most convicting point was when he challenged his readers with the question (paraphrased): are you going to look back on your life and regret not doing the one thing you were made to do, because you were so busy chasing the meaningless other things you thought you needed to do (or that you thought other people expected you to do)?

3. Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

This was another good one to have read aloud (Christine rightly recommended the audio version, and I am SO not an audiobook person), because it's also read by the author, and Liz Gilbert has thee most soothing and encouraging voice ever.

I loved everything Gilbert had to say, but the most important takeaway for me was: don't take yourself so seriously / don't be a tormented artist / follow inspiration and curiosity / don't worry so much about the outcome / enjoy the process / have fun with your art.

This is the message that I've been carrying into my life for the past half-year now, and am incorporating here by showing up on my blog, starting to Instagram more, doing random art projects, and working on some diy projects around the house.

I think she really gets it right when she talks about how inspiration is from the Divine, and that if we want more opportunities for it, we have to take action on the ones we are given.

This seems like a bold statement to make, but I feel like Big Magic has been the life raft I've needed ever since graduating from college.

Please let me know what you've been reading and loving!

--

And this week's menu!

Miso mapo tofu is my own creation to make mapo tofu without gluten (so many black bean sauces have wheat in them, didn't know that before!). Miso works really well (not soy free, however) and makes a flavorful dish that incidentally serves as a non-spicy version great for kids! Another standby is to have rotisserie chicken from the grocery store on one night and make broth with the carcass the following day for pho (just add fish sauce!). For bún (i.e., Viet noodle bowls), we work off of Molly's recipe from Delancey.

P.S. I am so giddy because apparently on February 23 I got my first two Amazon Affiliate purchases from this blog. Besides feeling giddy, I am so curious who that was, so if that was you and this wouldn't embarrass you, would you please let me know either by comment or email what you got?? Thanks, on all counts!

P.P.S. Shout-out to Christine, whose What I'm Reading series inspired this post, and which will inspire you as well.

How I trick myself into "cleaning"

I am not very good about chores and cleaning. I think I heard Kendra Adachi once mention that what Martha Stewart says to do once a week, she does once a month, and what MS says to do once a month, she does once a year, and what MS says to do once a year, she never does. I think I'm like that, but probably one notch even worse.

So I'm writing this because I desperately need more tips. I'll share a couple tricks I use to get myself to clean, and if you have anything to add, please let me know in the comments!

1. Set a timer.

This is usually a good stand-by. If I don't feel like cleaning, I set a timer for 5 or 10 minutes and just see how much I can get done. Usually I end up either finishing what I need to get done, or getting really into it, and working past the timer until everything is done.

2. Tell myself to pick up five things.

I don't tell myself what exactly I need to do (no one likes to be bossed around). I just pick a number (usually five) and then I do one thing, a second thing, a third thing, and so on until I reach the number. And if I've gotten momentum from doing the first five, and I start over again with five more.

3. The Dave Ramsey snowball method.

Lol, The Lazy Genius wrote about using the snowball method to pay off your TV debt (i.e., Netflix queue), and I have used the same method to clean my house. I start with the smallest mess: the dining table, and sometimes just move everything to the counter, then clean the counters, and then finish off with the sink.

Perhaps this is more a method of geography than size, but sometimes just getting something accomplished gives me that emotional boost to keep moving.

4. Address the thing that will give me the most bang for my buck.

I've recently realized that if I clear off the living room rug of toys (we don't have a coffee table because more horizontal surfaces = more clutter) I immediately feel better about the living room.

5. Have a specific order in which I do things, every single time.

I think this is one I could improve on. I find that my morning routine (i.e., the order in which I open the curtains, make the bed, change and put away my clothes, and start my coffee) really helps me be mindless about things (especially at a time of the day that I am pre-coffee). So I think I could benefit also with some other set routines for other house chores.

6. A home for everything.

This is one that I am really stuck on. It takes the most work, but I do also see that there is a ton of payoff in doing it. Any ideas on how to work on this one?

--

After I wrote this I saw this funny article entitled A Real Mom's Guide to a Clean House and it's the perfect conclusion for this.

Also, we are three week's strong on menu planning so I'm going to keep sharing it here.

m: pad thai / t: bbq chicken / w: spaghetti / th: sirloin tip roast / f: pumpkin chili / s: lentil falafel / su: lazy genius ribs

Black bean not-burgers

Inspired by the cilantro-turmeric salmon patties I wrote about a couple weeks ago, I set out to make a black bean burger that I'd actually like. I think the key is to not try to make a burger per se, or to think that, when you are eating one, that it is supposed to be anything like a burger. You will just be disappointed, like I always am.

But when I packed these with chopped cilantro and quinoa, the whole concept changed for me. It didn't hurt that I fried them in that morning's bacon grease.

I served these with buns for those who wished, but just having it with tomato, avocado, and onion - similar to the salmon patties with salad concept - was, imho, perfect.

Black Bean not-Burgers (patties? fritters?)
inspired by these salmon patties

I made my first and only batch so far* with egg because we were challenging eggs last week, but the mixture was very wet (maybe I didn't drain my beans too well, either) and I had to add in gluten-free flour to dry it up. So I'd probably just skip the egg, and add flour only as needed to make a slightly thick batter.

2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup cooked quinoa
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 t salt
freshly ground pepper
1 egg (optional, see note above)

Throw everything in the food processor and blend together. Add a little flour if it looks way too watery. It's not going to be firm because we're not making burgers, but you do want it to hold some shape. Start with 1/4 cup flour and go from there. Too much flour makes it bready and dilutes the impact of the flavor you're going for here.

Heat up olive oil (or bacon grease!) on medium-high, and fry patties in batches. Serve on buns and/or with salad ingredients

_______________________________
* Yes, it was on the menu for last week but we didn't get to it.

And here's this week's meal plan, while we're talking about it:

Challenging soy, hence the tofu and soy-sauced based recipes. Also, changed the structure to put Sat and Sun at the end because it's stressful to have to plan Sunday's meal on Saturday night without groceries when there is church on Sunday morning.

Sheet pan roasted chicken and vegetables

I am so late to the party, but: sheet pan meals. Of course I had seen these all over the internetz before (it may seem like my head is buried in the sand but I'm not completely unaware), but what changed the game for me was watching Kendra Adachi (@thelazygenius) explain her version on Instagram Stories last week. Her method makes THEE most sense. (I've made it twice in seven days so that tells you how good it is.)

This is her method and I asked her if I could share it on the blog. She was super sweet and said yes, that she'd probably write about it on her blog at some point, too, so when she does I'll link to it here as well. (Update: Here it is!)

Sheet pan roasted chicken and vegetables
from Kendra Adachi

Note: Kendra didn't specify these exact vegetables, but here's what we did with what we had that day.

6-8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
1 red and/or yellow onion, 1-inch dice (I think shallots would be beautiful too)
1 lb green beans, trimmed
1-2 carrots, sliced on the bias (I don't like cooked carrots, so I grated 1/2 of one for salad and put 1.5 in the pan)
1 large Russet potato or two Yukon golds, cubed about 1-inch plus
olive oil
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 500. This (high temperature) is a brilliant move that I've not seen mentioned on other sheet pan recipes, but it makes so much sense (tastes better, cooks faster), and is what inspired me to even try this.

Cover a sheet pan (get yourself an over-sized one already if you don't have one!) with parchment or foil, and throw the veggies into a pile in the middle. Drizzle over generously with olive oil as you would for roasted vegetables and sprinkle on a nice amount of sea salt and black pepper. Massage it all together (I like to use a plastic kitchen glove) and then spread it out on the pan.

Lay the chicken thighs on top skin-side down and salt and pepper underneath.

Then, and - here's the magic - flip them over and generously salt and pepper underneath the skin. (I've always heard about this with roasting whole chickens but it seemed like too much work. Thighs are a great place to try this method out.) Don't be scared to over-salt. Good salting makes all the difference.

(My salting tip: Because I may be getting my hands all chicken-y while marinating, I usually scoop about 1.5-2 t of salt into a bowl, grind the pepper into it with my clean hands, and then stir it together. Then I can grab from there with my chicken-y hands and marinate away, without having to get the pepper grinder all gross.)

Pat the skins dry, then toss it in the oven and let it go for 40-50 minutes. I check mine at 40 and it seems to need 5-10 minutes extra at that point. The second time we made it, I even broiled it for a minute at the end.

This method produces some soft vegetables and few crispy ones. The amounts I've listed in my ingredients list above may be a little crowded, especially if you're using a standard sheet pan. Reduce slightly if you want things more on the crunchy side.

We served it with rice. (Surprise!)

The beans are my fave. It reminded me of this recipe I posted before and I think a marriage of these two would be amazing!

The second time we made it I left out the carrots and didn't have red onion so it's less pretty, but we did get to focus on what we really liked, which was the green beans.

There are so many glorious things about this meal: there are no prep bowls to wash because you prep it on the pan you bake it in; it's meat and vegetables all in one dish; you put it in the oven and forget about it until dinner; and perhaps most importantly, the fat from the chicken melts and gives extra flavor to the vegetables.

P.S. While we're talking about chicken, remember that time I told you about how to cut up a whole chicken like a master?

P.P.S. And, an inside joke that David turned into a family portrait the other day. Related because we're talking chicken today.

Emilyn Jack Jack, Kathy Chicken Noodle Nuna Hearts, Father Chicken Hearts, Mother Chicken Hearts, Mr. Chicken Hearts