7 minute read
How to Plan for a Delicious Summer
by Natalie Marble
Meal planning can be intense. The internet seems to be full of individuals and companies trying to sell you the very best meal plans available, complete with recipes and grocery shopping lists for an entire month at a time. The problem is that this is completely overwhelming for most.
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Many of us are living lives dictated by a combination of school, extracurricular, and work schedules, making dinner an enduring challenge. We’re attempting to strike that balance of timeliness, nutrition, varied tastes, and of course, ease. It’s survival on the worst of days and nothing short of heroic on the best.
The good news is that summer comes eventually, which allows us to loosen up the way we typically operate. Schedules tend to be more relaxed, bedtimes a little later, plans more carefree, and an emphasis on gathering with friends and family to connect over a meal becomes a priority.
And let’s face it, we’ve all been craving connection throughout these pandemic years. We quite possibly have never appreciated our human connections more. Suddenly, the simple act of having coffee with a friend or a Sunday dinner with extended family has become something of higher value. So let’s embrace the warm weather, slow down for the sake of slowing down, reconnect with our communities, and enjoy delicious food with our loved ones.
These are some of the strategies I like to use in the summer to change things up, stress less, and enjoy the long days. After all, it’s summertime and the living is supposed to be easy.
1. Take advantage of the fresh nature of ingredients.
Farmers markets, roadside stands, and even many grocery stores are overflowing right now with the most amazing variety of seasonal local produce. These items are harvested at their peak for ripeness, which means maximum flavor and texture. As a result, the less you do to them, the better. Many can be enjoyed raw with a spritz of your favorite vinegar, a drizzle of olive oil, and a sprinkling of sea salt. Sounds like a perfect side dish to me! And for those that require some form of cooking, focus on basic cooking methods such as blanching, grilling, or sauteing and finish them off in a similar way—with a simple drizzle of olive oil and some sea salt—just enough to enhance the beautiful flavors of the produce. And one last tip: don’t forget the fruit! Local store fruit and berries so often complement the greens and vegetables that we’re cooking with. Don’t be afraid to add them to salads and side dishes.
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2. Try a basic formula for the week. Sometimes figuring out the “what” is the hardest part of a meal plan. That overwhelm is real. If you struggle with this, take a break from how you typically plan the meals for the week and try a simple formula where you apply a theme to each weekday.
For example, Mondays are pasta, Tuesdays are grain bowls,
Wednesdays are Middle Eastern, Thursdays are Indian,
Fridays are pizza. Once you have these, you can be creative with what each might entail based on what’s in season, and you can figure out how to cross-utilize ingredients throughout the week. Change some of the themes regularly to keep things interesting, and know that by having a lane to operate in, the feelings of overwhelm are lessened.
3. Make an all-purpose sauce for the week. Instead of spending hours on your Sundays meal-prepping for the week, try focusing on just one thing. The first and most important is to make an all-purpose sauce that can be used throughout the week. It should be simple, but focus on maximum flavor and utilizing fresh herbs and ingredients. Think of variations on sauces such as pesto, chimichurri, zhoug, salsa verde, chermoula, chutney, and green goddess dressing. The idea here is that the flavors are bright and complement a variety of dishes. One night it can be drizzled over a grain bowl, then next day it’s tossed into a lunch salad, and the following night it’s smeared onto a plate with hummus, creating the base for your Middle Eastern meal—you get the idea. Sauces are what elevate meals from good to great by adding a layer of gorgeous flavor and tying everything together. Want some extra credit? While you’re making your sauce, put some quinoa or rice on to cook to use later in the week. It requires very little attention and can save time later.
4. Utilize quick-cooking proteins. This is key when we want to create quick meals with ease. Fish and shellfish all fit beautifully into this category and always pair so well with summer produce. You can also consider items like flank steak, skirt steak, sausages, and thin cuts of poultry and some pork.
And if you’re foregoing meat, alternative proteins such as tofu, tempeh, edamame, beans, and lentils are all delicious and quick-cooking. Although not required, taking a few minutes to marinate any of these proteins goes a long way.
5. Keep a well-stocked kitchen. This makes life so much easier when you’re trying to prepare quick and spontaneous meals and can reduce your weekly grocery shopping stress if you can take the time to stock up every once in a while. For the pantry, oils, vinegars, soy sauce or tamari, mustard, hot sauce, pickles of all kinds, peppers, canned fish, beans, crackers and flatbreads, nuts, pasta, rice noodles, couscous, and quinoa are all a great start. On the fresh side, it’s always handy to have fresh herbs, garlic, ginger, lemons, and limes.
6. Embrace the board. The charcuterie board, that is. We tend to think that these boards are only for, well, charcuterie, but I’m here to tell you that they are the perfect way to change up dinner and keep it interesting. Take any of your theme ideas and serve it in a deconstructed way on a board or two—a quick-cooking protein, a spread of seasonal vegetables, breads or tortillas, dips, sauces, and fruit. This is great for entertaining and it’s always a big hit with kids.
7. Own your sandwich game. Yep, sandwiches. I am giving you permission to serve sandwiches for dinner. But not any old boring sandwiches—I mean, you can, but there’s a whole big creative sandwich world out there! They can be open-faced, tartine style, where the bread is a blank canvas for all of the deliciousness that you can pile onto it—cheeses, meats, spreads, greens, fruits, preserves, sauces, herbs—the sky's the limit here. And don’t forget about wraps! They are the perfect way to encase salads, spreads, beans, herbs, and sauces.
8. When you cook, cook extra. This one is pretty basic, but it really does make a difference in providing ease throughout the week. Some ingredients are easy to use more than once, so why cook those things twice when you don’t have to? Cook extra quinoa, rice, rice noodles, shrimp, tofu, vegetables—whatever it may be— and make your life easier. At the end of the day, you get to decide what makes a meal, and there’s an awful lot of power in that. Some days it may be more elaborate than others, and that is just fine— it’s actually how it should be. Let’s collectively squeeze the very best out of this slower season—the freshness, the brightness, the deliciousness, the connection, the community, and more. Cheers to summer!
Natalie Marble is a professionally-trained chef, culinary instructor, and recipe developer with over 20 years of experience. Her passion for creating incredible food experiences and getting students excited about learning and having fun in the kitchen is at the heart of all that she does. She specializes in hands-on cooking classes and corporate team building experiences where connection is the goal and food is the medium. Natalie is a mom to two awesome teenage daughters and one fur-baby, Eeyore. Natalie can be found at www.NatalieMarbleCooks.com Instagram: @nataliemarblecooks Facebook: facebook.com/nataliemarblecooks
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