Shannon Phillips

This week’s meal plan may be nothing more than wishful thinking, because I’m still dealing with first-trimester fatigue and a touchy stomach, so there are nights when cooking seems absolutely impossible. Nevertheless I am going to draw up a varied and healthful dinner plan, in full knowledge that we may end up ordering pizza instead, and/or just tossing whatever’s in the crisper into a pot along with two packages of instant ramen.

Our box this week was stuffed groaning full, heavy as bricks: we got broccoli rabe, kale, napa cabbage, lettuce, fennel, three leeks, six bulbs of garlic, five meyer lemons, six persimmons, six kiwis, and sixteen little satsuma oranges, which taste like heaven. And all this after I had started to suspect that our box had been stolen again, and went to the store for a chicken and some green beans. Plus we still have a butternut squash sitting around.

So, tonight we’re having roast chicken and boiled green beans for dinner (this much will actually happen, I’m pretty sure), and then tomorrow, if things go well, I’ll make butternut squash soup and a salad: I have a sweet-sour celery seed dressing recipe that I think would go well on a salad with sauteed fennel and mandarin orange pieces.

Friday, in my idealized fantasy world, we’ll have Indian-spiced lentils with kale over brown rice; Saturday, pasta with broccoli rabe; Sunday, teriyaki pork and stir-fried cabbage with a lemon cheesecake for desert. Monday I’ll sketch in a delivery night, and Tuesday, leftovers.

Well, it’s a nice plan, anyway.