(Loosely suggested) weekly meal plan: Steak & salad

Five simple recipes you can use as building blocks for your weekly meal planning.

Hello and welcome back to Five Things I Ate! This week, I share a very loosely suggested weekly menu. Read past posts here, and please follow my Instagram, @fivethingsiate.  

Sirloin steak at home  

Steak from Trader Joe’s. 

Buy a pack of two steaks. Follow instructions here. Eat a portion for dinner and save the rest for leftovers and steak salad.

Kale caesar salad with steak and avocado at home  

Kale from Trader Joe’s – I get the regular shredded kind.

I normally can’t stand raw kale because it tastes like straight roughage to me? But once a year I have a super strong raw kale craving, which I feel like means I have some sort of vitamin deficiency.. So far, I’ve been eating it 10 days in a row. Tune in next week when I can’t stand it anymore! Until then, you can find me eating raw kale every day. The particular craving I have is for super-cold raw kale, massaged with lemon juice and salt until soft, then drenched in caesar dressing (any old kind in a bottle but homemade is even better!), and mixed with parmesan cheese, half a diced avocado. For a full meal, top with leftover steak, sliced and cold.

Orzo mac-and-cheese 

Method from Hailee. 

Saute half a diced onion in 2 tbs salted butter. Stir in 1 ¼ cups dry orzo. Season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Slowly stir in 2-2.5 cups of water or broth over time, keeping the pot on a low simmer, until the orzo is cooked and creamy. Stir in 2 tbs half and half or heavy cream, 1 cup shredded mixed cheese, and 2 tbs parmesan. Pour into a baking pan, top with ⅓ cup seasoned bread crumbs and more cheese, and broil till toasty. Eat leftovers for lunch and dinner sides.

Banana muffins at home (breakfast and coffee snacks)

Original recipe from Genevieve Ko via NYT Cooking

This banana muffin recipe has whole wheat and yogurt in it, which makes it feel properly muffin-y and not like cake. That being said I never buy more than one kind of flour, so I used white flour, and also cut out the honey (the sugar makes it sweet enough already). I topped the muffins with sliced almonds, which makes them bakery pretty and adds a crunch.

Two-ingredient dulce de leche ice cream (a lil treat)

 Recipe from Baking Mischief 

What would a meal plan be without a little treat? This is the best homemade ice cream recipe ever. It requires two ingredients, heavy cream and dulce de leche, and freezes up into the creamiest, richest ice cream. Make sure to use my fave dulce de leche.  (Makes an amazing affogato!)

XOXO,

Soph

P.S. OK I really hate to admit it, but I’ve developed a hankering for the $7 coffee: The Blue Bottle orange blossom iced nola, which was a seasonal beverage I splurged on at the train station. Pls, how can I replicate this at home??

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