All our snow is gone. It melted over the rainy weekend. We are getting more sun, more frequently. And it is MARCH. I am GIDDY with the anticipation of spring. Normally, I love winter. And we ended up making the most out of this winter, spending a LOT of time outside and with friends (all masked of course; it’s sad that I still feel the need to add this assurance, but such is life in these mask-divisive days). So I am definitely sad to see it go. BUT I am delighted that spring is around the corner. (My husband, the killjoy realist, advocates caution around getting too excited for spring; it’s only March, he says, very reasonably; we could still have plenty of winter yet.) (Carla and I drove through a brief blizzard on the way home.) (NOTHING STUCK.) Spring means warm weather! It means meeting friends for walks in the park! It means firing up the outdoor heater and having friends OVER TO OUR BACKYARD! It means increasing spans of sunshine. It means increasing numbers of vaccination. It means we are moving ever closer to whatever “normal” will mean once most people are vaccinated. I AM EXCITED.
My meal plan for this week doesn’t particularly reflect spring, though. It still reflects a person who requires hearty stews and warm bread. That’s okay. We can hold onto the pleasurable bits of winter a bit longer.
Dinners for the Week of March 1-March 8
- Mulligatawny Soup and Miracle No-Knead Bread: Because I have mirepoix already portioned out and frozen, this meal is SO SIMPLE. And delicious. The only thing I have to think about is mixing the bread ingredients the night before. Everything else is easy peasy.
- Slow Cooker BBQ Pork Tenderloin with Baked Potato: I guess my theme for the week is Easy Meals? Doesn’t get much simpler than rough-chopping an onion, dumping it into the slow cooker with a pork tenderloin and some BBQ sauce, and letting it cook down into fall-apart perfection.
- Chickpea Bowls: We haven’t had these in awhile and these are the perfect intersection of hearty and spicy. I add a bunch of bell peppers and a chicken breast when I make this for dinner. Maybe I will make a double portion so I can have some for lunches as well.
- Hungarian Mushroom Soup: This is a recipe my husband recommended; he so rarely puts forth a dinner option that I tend to leap on the rare suggestions with great enthusiasm. This soup sounds kind of stroganoff-esque. It does require fresh parsley, though. I ABHOR parsley, but my husband and I talked it out and I am going to BUY PARSLEY and CHOP IT UP and PUT IT VOLUNTARILY into the soup. We’ll see what happens.
- Some sort of salad we can dip into all week: Not a whole lot of veggies happening this week, so I think I will get some lettuce and some easy toppings (cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, scallions) so we can have side salads should the mood strike.
What are you eating this first week of March?
March is definitely a winter month for me BUT the weather is currently very mild and I feel like it’s a breath of hope!
I am similar about March: I don’t CARE if we COULD and likely WILL get snow over the next month or two: as my mother puts it, in March “the back of winter is broken.” That’s a little bit of a morbid way to put it, I guess. But I think it every year. Even if we get SIX BLIZZARDS IN A ROW, it is a matter of WEEKS until it all HAS to melt. It isn’t like in December and January, where the snow and cold feel relentless and there is still so much of it left. SPRING IS AFOOT.
I keep buying salad fixings and then …NOT making salads. I don’t know, it just feels too cold, still. (And I am in Georgia where winter is definitely on its last legs!)
Also, I am making Miracle No-Knead this week! So excited for my first try!
We are having Hungarian Mushroom Soup this week, too! But I don’t know if it’s the same recipe because it’s North’s cooking night (and they chose the recipe.)
Here in NC, we are beginning to see the tips of the daffodils peeping out of the ground. Theoretically, we could still have a cold snap and/or ice or snow but definitely by the end of the month we will be out of the woods. Now, if only we can all get vaccinated quickly.