Years ago, someone gave me a mug that has become my favorite. It features a replica of a torn-out newspaper story and the headline says: “Woman solves world’s oldest question: What’s for dinner?” It makes me smile every morning.
My friend Olivia really has the best answer for that. She has developed a weekly rotation that solves the dinner dilemma yet still leaves room for a lot of culinary creativity.
Olivia loves to cook, and a lot of our conversations revolve around food. But here’s the hitch: She’s a vegetarian and has been for years; her husband is not, and neither are the varied friends and relatives who make appearances at her table. She doesn’t mind cooking meat dishes for them in the least; but she also makes a big salad every night so she always has at least one thing to eat.
I asked her to summarize her rotation. It looks like this, with her remarks:
Sunday: “I’ll roast something — a chicken, a pot roast, a pork roast — and make pizza dough, then refrigerate it for later.”
Monday: “If it’s cold, I make some kind of chili. If it’s hot, we just grill something.”
Tuesday: Tacos — “I might use some of Sunday’s leftovers here, or not.”
Wednesday: Pasta — “I might use some of Sunday’s leftovers here, too, or not.”
Thursday: Pizza — “The dough I made on Sunday has ripened and is ready to go.”
Friday: Eggs, “because we have chickens, so Friday has always been egg night.”
Saturday: Wild card — “This is when I can make anything I feel like making.” That might be a new recipe, or a dish that involves something she picked up on special at the grocery store, she says.
I am not as organized as Olivia is, but I’m thinking my life would easier if I were. I would make a few modifications to suit my own cooking practices, though. Monday night would probably turn into “soup or stew,” for example, and I’d turn Taco Tuesday into Burrito or Quesadilla Tuesday. Pizza Thursday might expand to “flatbread Thursday” so I could include something to go with homemade tortillas or pitas that night.
Just mentally organizing your dinner rotation this way makes shopping easier, faster, and, I suspect, more budget-friendly — because you’ll reduce food waste and spend less on specialty ingredients you don’t really use but needed for that one recipe you wanted to try.
I especially love Friday — egg day — because there are so many marvelous ways to put eggs to work in the kitchen. I love a good sunny-side up fried egg, butter-basted as my mother used to do, and omelets are always an easy solution, whether they’re French, Japanese or souffle. But with the change of weather, I’ve been turning more to frittatas and stratas, like the chicken and spinach one I made last week.
Give it a try, won’t you?
CHICKEN AND SPINACH STRATA
Makes about 6 servings
The key part to this recipe is to let the composed strata sit for at least an hour before baking. If you think you’d like to make it in the morning but worry about time in the a.m. crunch, cube the bread, squeeze the spinach dry, and whisk the egg-milk-seasoning mixture together the night before. Then assembly takes just minutes. Change the proteins (cooked ones only), the veg and the cheese to vary the strata.
INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon butter
6 large eggs
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 pinch freshly grated nutmeg
1¼ cups whole milk, half-and-half or heavy cream
8 ounces day-old or stale bread, cubed (about 2 cups)
2 cups diced cooked chicken or other leftover cooked protein
1 pound fresh spinach, wilted, squeezed dry, or a 10-ounce box of frozen spinach thawed and squeezed dry
2 cups shredded cheese, divided (I like pepper jack)
PREPARATION
Grease bottom and sides of an 8-by-8-inch baking dish with the butter.
Place bread cubes in a large mixing bowl.
Crack eggs into a separate mixing bowl. Season with salt, pepper, cayenne and nutmeg. Add cream and whisk mixture thoroughly.
Pour egg/cream mixture over the bread cubes and mix to distribute ingredients evenly. Allow bread mixture to sit about 15 minutes to absorb the liquid.
Transfer half of the bread mixture to the baking pan; spread evenly over the bottom and press mixture down a bit. Top with half of the grated cheddar cheese. Add cooked bacon pieces in an even layer over the cheese. Place the cooked spinach over the bacon; top with half of the remaining cheese. Finish with the rest of the soaked bread cubes, spread evenly and pressed down slightly. Sprinkle with the rest of the grated cheese. Cover and let strata sit at room temperature for one hour before baking, or cover and refrigerate overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake strata until set, about 45 minutes.
