Welcome to mamaeats, a twice-weekly newsletter (Tues. & Sat.) inspired by a simple + seasonal home life. I’m a mother of three, avid reader, gardener, and home cook who focuses on nourishing, plant based, whole food meals. Subscribe below for weekly meal plans, reading and garden talk, and simple living inspiration.
Good morning lovely readers, and happy Saturday. This is our second to last weekend before school starts, and it’s abuzz with energy. Fresh school supplies, backpacks spruced up and ready to go (if you need a high quality backpack, I reccomend the LL Bean Original, which last almost forever in our experience) and rooms/dressers gone through and cleaned out in anticipation. James turns 5 (!!) next week so we are preparing for that as well.
Other than that, it’s been quite a slow week over here. We got back from camping mid-week and settled back in to the last bit of our slow summer with playdates, reading, friends over for dinner, and cooking. The garden sadly has partially died back; we had a terrible bout with powdery mildew and spider mites this year, which caused the cucumbers, green beans, raspberries, and zucchini to die prematurely. I think because of what a wet and cool spring we had? I’m not sure.
It was quite discouraging, but I have to remind myself gardening is like this sometimes, and that we still are rolling in tomatoes, basil, and peppers, which is nothing to scoff at. We are harvesting concord grapes, and our pomegranates are also swelling in readiness for their mid autumn harvest, so that is something to look forward to.
During camping, we visited the Gravenstein Apple Fair and came home with 60 lbs of apples (30 to share with family, 30 for us) and thus you’ll see in the meal plan lots of apple things. Every couple days I’ve been making up a pot of chunky applesauce to top our morning porridge or yogurt bowls or to enjoy cold in the afternoon. What a delicious taste of the season! The weather the last few days has turned cool and windy, emphasizing the feel of autumn on its way. I pulled my first sweater out of the closet on a few mornings. I’m planning to revisit my “transitioning to autumn” newlsetter to begin preparing for the season ahead.
As far as book news, I’ve been reading slowly along in Di Lampedusa’s The Leopard and Hemingway’s In Our Time— have you read either? I picked up East of Eden from the library but haven’t started it yet as I’m wanting to finish The Leopard first.
In the meals this week: a very fresh tomato pasta, a summer soup, a favorite lentils dish made creamy with tahini, and apple pancakes. A tray of sticky butter & date baked apples and a Paloma ends the week in the most delicious way!
notes: I make a meal plan every week based on what’s in season, always focusing on getting a wide variety of plants, legumes, lots of fiber (and overall satisfaction!). You can read about my meal plan process here.
I cook for 5; 2 adults, 2 teens, and a 4 year old with a big appetite. I always make extra food (often doubling recipes or components of recipes; for example, if I am roasting potatoes I will roast some extra, if I’m baking baguettes I will double and freeze the extra), as at least 3 of us eat leftovers for lunch the next day, whether packed or at home, and I hate cooking a new lunch from scratch. This makes cooking more sustainable for our family and ensures we are eating healthy, home cooked food the majority of the time.
Breakfasts: everyone is on their own except for weekends, as everyone has their particular favorites and eat at different times. We always sit down and eat dinner together, which you can read about here.
Sunday: very simple pasta with fresh Juliette tomatoes from our garden. Boil them to split the skins, then pass through a food mill. In a pan, fry a little minced red onion and a whole, small red chile trimmed of both ends for a few minutes. Add the pureed tomatoes and two pinches salt and simmer until cooked and thickened. Toss with pasta. Serving this with a tomato/cucumber/red onion white bean salad with added chunks of tofu feta.
prep before bed: soak black beans
Monday: summer minestrone made with leftover white beans cooked on Sun., whole grain sourdough, peach and tomato salad with added leftover tofu feta from Sun.
prep before bed: make the bean mix for tacos
Tuesday: crispy black bean tacos with slaw and crema
Wednesday: Ottolenghi’s crushed lentils with tahini and cumin + sourdough discard pitas + cucumber, yogurt, red onion salad and grilled eggplant (I brush a layer of oil and a sprinkle of salt on each side of the eggplant slices, then broil till golden on each side)
prep before bed: mix together seasonings for the tofu crumble
Thursday: burrito bowls using three leftovers from Tues: the pickled onions, whole black beans, crema. Plus three new components: crispy potatoes- scroll down in this post for the recipe, quick pico de gallo, and a batch of tofu crumbles.
prep before bed: make pizza dough and sauce
Friday: pizza night with Roberta’s pizza crust; topped with mozza, basil, leftover grilled eggplant from Wedns. and halved cherry tomatoes + simple green salad with garden tomatoes, capers, red wine vinaigrette, and parsley leaves
prep before bed: blend oat flour for morning pancakes
Saturday: burger night: These buns (I use olive oil and a flax egg), special sauce, thick slices of tomato, sweet red onion, lettuce etc. + cucumber, yogurt, dill salad
Date night cocktail: classic Paloma
Sweet: whole roasted apples with butter and dates
Weekend breakfast: apple oat pancakes, going off this recipe, except I use a flax egg, and add some chopped pecans, add a little allspice, and I don’t make it in the blender. I blend the oats fine and then mix everything in a bowl like you would normally: dry with dry, wet with wet, and then combine. Let the batter sit for 4 mins or so before cooking.
Thank you so much for reading. If you can’t swing a paid subscription right now, but you’d like to contribute towards my work here, I’m always delighted to receive a one-off tip via my ko-fi—thank you! I appreciate you all so much.
x A.
p.s.—Have a wonderful week. Leaving you with a poem for the week, as always, this one by Cathryn Essinger. “I slice as close as I dare to the core— / to that little cathedral of memory—”
august at the market
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August 13, 2024
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August itinerary
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Jul 28
reading/film list, making a day trip feel like vacation, summer charm, microstudies, cake, plus more pleasures and ideas to embellish the month with culture and delight
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