Make your own veg sandwich. I get home later on Mondays so the winter meal plan was to make a soup while I cooked dinner on Sunday to eat leftover (which worked out perfectly). But, we are starting to transition out of soup season. This week I tried a new approach and prepped every vegetable in the fridge that could go in a sandwich, including radicchio, cucumbers, sprouts, carrots, avocado, and red onion. There were a variety of spreads (hummus, herby goat cheese, whipped feta) and bread (pita, wheat, rolls). Everyone got to make something they liked and there was no actual cooking involved. I can see this being a regular summer meal.

Barley risotto with beans and greens. This tragically used the last of the stock in the freezer, but came together under an hour, packed in a lot of vegetables (I added in carrots and celery with the onions, and used kale for the greens), and ended up being the perfect meal for a rainy spring day when you want something warming but not more soup.

Roast chicken with lemon, roasted potatoes with dill, and roasted asparagus. I used the basic roast chicken recipe from The Homemade Kitchen (rub chicken with oil, squeeze lemon over, roast at 425). The real revelation was in the pan gravy which I made with cream at Alana’s suggestion since I was out of stock (see: the previous night’s dinner) and it was incredible. So rich and luxurious. I finished the roasted potatoes with dill (inspired by this recipe, but I didn’t use the rest of the fun bits) and just made basic roasted asparagus. I was feeling ambitious and made an aioli to go with the asparagus, but it tasted off. I used 2 garlic cloves but one was big, and it tasted way too strongly of garlic. I added more lemon to tone down the garlic, but I think the olive oil just was too flavorful or maybe going off because it still didn’t taste right. Next time!

Beef tacos with tortillas, salsa de arbol, rice, refried beans, guacamole, lime crema, and quick pickled cabbage (taco filling and rice recipes from Mexico: The Cookbook, refried beans from How to Cook Everything: The Basics, and quick pickled cabbage from The Homemade Kitchen). This is the second time in two weeks I’ve made tacos for a dinner party and it should happen even more often. These were a bit more elaborate since I made the tortillas (with help rolling), but the rest of the components were fairly simple. The salsa takes a bit more work, but it was my favorite thing on the table (and will be making its way on to my eggs this week!).

The breakfast burritos were a little less traditional this week, but still easy as anything. I used scrambled eggs, red beans (which I cooked to use in the barley risotto), cooked broccoli, and avocado. (And easy breakfasts don’t have to be pretty breakfasts.)