It is the last week in January. Somehow. I know time goes faster as you age, I know it. I understand the intellectual concept behind it. And yet it still feels shocking, like loose gravel slipping out from under your feet as you try not to fall down the side of a hill.
We have snow and sunshine right now, which is my favorite combination. February is right here, knocking on the door, and I love February. It’s so short, it makes it seem like spring is right around the corner. Plus, it’s my birthday month. (And Lisa’s!) One of my aspirations this year is to get a massage, and I think I’ll schedule it for my birthday. That sounds like a good way to start my forty-third year on this planet.
Time to stop delaying. Let’s get to the meal planning.
Dinners for the Week of January 30-February 5
Garlicky Spinach and Chickpea Soup: My husband wants to try this, so try it we shall! I do admit that I am a little wary of spinach in soup. Cooked spinach already has an unpleasant (to me) texture, and I can’t imagine that making it wet will improve things.
Szechuan Stir Fry: Tried and true favorite. My grocery store has been flush with beautiful bell peppers lately. I have been eating the green ones raw, filled with cottage cheese, but I also really want all the stir fries. I think I will make this with steak for my husband. I like to stir fry the meat in a little garlic and ginger and oil, put the meat into the bowl I will use, add it back into the stir fry at the appropriate time, and then enjoy the essence of meat it leaves behind.
Sheet Pan Pesto Salmon with Lemon Thyme Potatoes: I love a good sheet pan meal. I don’t know if I can persuade my husband to eat salmon though – it seems like every time we eat fish, he gets a piece with bones in it.
Crispy Slow Cooker Carnitas: I snagged a big ol’ pork butt on sale the other day. Carnitas seems like a good thing to have on hand for tacos and burrito bowls and salads. Plus, it’s delicious and easy.
What are you doing, this final week of January 2023?
Yay for Birthday Month!!!
That Szechuan sauce looks so good, I know you’ve posted it before and I have been meaning to make it. I don’t have Chinese 5 spice though – but I have a grocery trip planned on Wednesday.
J is going back to school this week after exam break – SUZANNE, IT IS HIS LAST SEMESTER EVER – and weirdly, they have a PD day on Friday. I mean. What even. He basically had the whole month of January off (well, exams, but still).
I have a quiet week so probably more decluttering!
HIS LAST SEMESTER EVER OMG!!!! And why, WHY, do schools have so many days off???? My kiddo has THREE DAYS OFF coming up. We just had a four day weekend two weeks ago. And two weeks before that, A TWO WEEK BREAK. School age children should GO TO SCHOOL.
Happy birthday in advance!
This is a big week for us because North is going back to school in person for the first time since late October. Just three classes for starters. Details in my next blog post later this week.
Oh wow! That is very exciting, Steph!! Good luck to North!
I agree with you that a) January flew by, and b) cooked spinach has a gross texture. I’ll be interested to hear how that soup is! That Szechuan stir fry sauce sounds delicious- i’ll probably try it this week. We’ve been making a lot of stir fries lately.
It’s funny, I think you might be the first person I’ve ever heard say “I love February.” But, it is your birthday month so I guess it’s understandable!
Hahaha – I do feel like February gets a lot of hate! But it’s the shortest month! It flies by!
My only beef with February is that usually it’s the worst weather month. Once it’s done then we start getting teasers for spring.
Ooh I would not mind a nice batch of Szechuan sauce so maybe I’ll treat myself.
If there is going to be a bone in a piece of fish, it’s always the piece that my youngest stepson gets. Oddly enough he’s the biggest fish fan in our house so I guess he doesn’t mind too much.
I don’t understand how my husband gets the bones every time. I wonder if I am eating fish bones and simply don’t notice them? Because he gets a bone in every piece of fish and that seems statistically unlikely. It is funny and weird and frustrating.
Yay for your birthday month! I have never LOVED February because it’s just more endless winter, but there’s good candy and your birthday, so it’s not a complete write off! It’s very cold here, so I think I’m going to hunker down and try to work on a lemon-bar recipe. Fingers crossed it works out.
Yum! Lemon bars are one of my favorite baked goods. I hope you find an amazing recipe.
The salmon sheet pan dinner looks delicious to me. I saved the recipe. Thanks for sharing it here.
I hope we both like it!
January usually drags for me, but it’s usually our coldest month so it can feel especially long. But we had a very mild January, albeit very snowy. But I will take lots of snow over extreme cold!! But yay for our upcoming birthday month! I am kind of dreading February a bit, though… Phil has a work trip next week (but after my birthday – not that it would be a huge deal if he missed my birthday). Then I travel the next 2 weeks. They are shorter 2-night trips… but still. That’s kind of a lot of travel in a short month! And I’m breaking my “one trip/month” rule but I couldn’t avoid the 2nd trip and luckily it’s to Chicago which is an easy trip. That said, I might book a massage on my birthday, too! My friend flies home that day so I took the day off. But her flight is in the afternoon so I could get a massage after dropping her at the airport!
But you asked about meals… Last night I made a 3-bean turkey chili. Tomorrow we’ll have ground beef tacos, and Friday we are getting take and bake pizza. Then we need to come up with meals for our guest but I am waiting until she arrives to plan things as she has removed some things from her diet so it will be easiest to come up with a plan in person! Oh, and I do not like cooked spinach but I like spinach in my soups! You could maybe sub kale if you are worried the spinach will be too slimy, though?
That IS a lot of travel for a short month! And an out of town friend, but that’s really a fun thing. 🙂 I haven’t fully converted to kale yet, so I’m not sure about that one. But I’m glad you say that spinach is okay in a soup!
hahahaha– wet spinach– it really sounds gross when you put it that way. I made THIS and it was wonderful and easy and tasted more complicated than it really was– all wins! https://www.womansday.com/food-recipes/a33576552/sheet-pan-chickpea-chicken-recipe/
Hahahaha – yes, I really wanted to convey my own internal disgust. That sounds yummy – thanks for the link!
Maybe use kale instead of the spinach? I have a kid who detests cooked spinach in soups, but kale is fine, apparently. It gets less slimy.
I think I’m going to make the soup, that looks amazing. Reading the recipe, the author said you could sub other veggies if you want. 🙂
Wet spinach sounds seriously unappealing but…honestly, spinach in a soup has a different texture than when it is slopped on a plate. And, if you chop it up really fine, you (and Carla) would probably never even realize it’s in there. Well, obviously you WOULD know since you’re the one making it…but still. I will await your report on wet spinach. 😉
Oh Gigi I love your optimism that Carla will have anything to do with this meal, or spinach, wet or otherwise!
You never know! Just run it by her (leave out the fact it has spinach) and see what happens…she might be willing to take a sip.
Time IS rushing by. I can’t believe we are almost through January. And February always seems to go quickly…How can some days feel like an eternity, but the months just evaporate?
My meals are so thrown together lately; tonight was pork my husband had prepped, canned corn and rice. Pretty unoriginal, but very delicious!
Nice! Delicious doesn’t have to be fancy or complicated!
I missed the shoes in the house chapter, but we are a no shoes inside family. I do wear my running shoes in the kitchen while I’m baking now because otherwise my back will hurt a lot. The dog is in the kitchen, so the floors aren’t the cleanest, plus hardwood – so it isn’t a big deal.
I suggest Birkenstocks or something that slides on easily.
I used to make stir fry and I have no idea why I stopped. Ed has been after me to make a stir fry and I am vowing to try this recipe.
We have a huge vat of sloppy joe’s left over from last week. I also plan to pull a bag of frozen pasta out of the freezer leftover from the team pasta party. I must rotate a bag out of the freezer each week until it’s gone or it will be gross.
This week will be dedicated to attending more of Reg and Curly’s b-ball games. I interviewed a mom for a daycare opening for the fall today. Coach goes out of town this week. We are going to Ireland to see Tank in March, so I should probably start mapping out where we stay, etc.
I haven’t made a stir-fry in ages and that seems so wrong suddenly. We’re having sausage and tortellini soup, lemon garlic chicken with…something and then I have pulled pork in the freezer (big ol’ pork butt, hee hee). I’ve been phoning it in in the kitchen this month, but I’m starting to feel like cooking again.
I love a slow cooker recipe! We ate a lot of leftover slow cooker pulled pork this week – pulled pork enchiladas for 2 nights and pulled pork sliders tonight. Tomorrow is Carbonara… this is a rather pork heavy week.
Birthday massage is a great idea – happy birthday month!
I enjoy spinach in soup, so I hope you’ll like this new recipe (which unfortunately I can’t click on because I don’t subscribe to the Washington Post, but let us know if the soup is any good ;))
[…] I did not receive this recipe in an email from Washington Post, I saw it on Suzanne’s blog, Life of a Doctor’s Wife.) I did a search and found the recipe on the PureWow website. Both WP and PW give full credit to a […]