Weekly Meal Plan // November 27-December 2

One day late, but I did it! We had a long 14-and-a-half-hour flight home from Munich, so this didn’t get posted on Sunday night. Pantry pasta is the dinner I make when we return home from a trip, and it’s one of the recipes in my new cookbook. But last night was so exhausting that my teenagers made a Taco Bell run and I crawled to my bed. I can’t believe that Taco Bell actually made it into my meal plan, but wonders never cease. And teenagers never stop being teenagers. I hope this meal plan helps you pull off some super easy dinners this week!

MONDAY

Today we’re setting up for the Houston Country Club holiday market. I’ll be there signing cookbooks Tuesday and Wednesday. Dinner tonight is a simple chicken broth and spinach tortellini soup with chopped kale, carrot and celery added to the mix. I squeezed a little fresh lemon into the chicken broth and added Maldon sea salt and fresh ground pepper. Add grated parmesan to the top of your serving and a pinch of red pepper flakes if you’d like. This soup was easy, took all of 5 minutes to put together and tasted so satisfying.

TUESDAY

We’ll be at the HCC market today and tonight, and I’ll be at the St. Luke’s Day School book fair from 2 to 3:30 pm signing books. If you want something almost as easy as picking up the phone and ordering takeout, make salsa chicken with your favorite red or green salsa. Use the shredded meat for quesadillas, salad or tacos. I’ll be at the HCC cocktail party slinging cookbooks, so my family is happily ordering Mexican takeout. Also, today is Giving Tuesday and we’re highlighting Brighter Bites in our online Smart in the Kitchen School emails. I hope you had a chance to read about the amazing work they do!

WEDNESDAY

I want super easy, low-energy dinners this week. We pack up our booth at HCC this afternoon, and I need to finish setting up my house for the Kappa Pilgrimage home tour starting tomorrow (plus, jet lag is real). I grabbed some chicken meatballs from Trader Joe’s and I’ll report back on their flavor. I’ll bake them in Rao’s original marinara with some greens stirred into the sauce and serve everything over microwaved spaghetti squash. I like to mix cooked spaghetti squash with cooked spaghetti. This is a trick that makes the spaghetti squash less overly sweet but adds veggies to your serving. I do a 50-50 ratio. Or make these easy weeknight meatballs instead and serve with spiralized zucchini and Rao’s.

THURSDAY

Tonight is the preview party for Kappa Pilgrimage underwriters. Since I can’t cook, my teenagers will head out to a quick dinner together. This is basically their dream week of dinners: Taco Bell, takeout and a restaurant dinner in the mix.

FRIDAY

The Kappa Pilgrimage starts today, and we’ll be selling cookbooks and donating a portion of the proceeds to the Kappa Foundation. Come visit and say hello! I might make a PB&J and call it a night. But at some point this weekend, I’ll make a slow cooker turkey breast from Skinnytaste since we didn’t get Thanksgiving dinner this year. If you want to add easy sides, make the Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Glazed Sweet Potatoes from my cookbook.