The Meal Plan & What I Wore 1.19.25

The cozy meals to make this week and cozy outfits to pair them with

Welcome back to the Sunday letter, friends. If you’re not caught up on the Friday letter or on Instagram, you might not know how the past few weeks of our life have looked so I’ll fill you in quickly—we were down bad in the Atogwe household. I was dealing with an autoimmune flare at the end of the year and also just the general “The Kitchen Is Closed” philosophy I adopt in the last week of every year. I was so invigorated and inspired, as always, to start the year with all the things. Back to making strictly homemade snacks for the kids! Healthy, nutrient rich meals for everyone! But I ended up coming down with Norovirus and didn’t leave my bed for almost a week. We threw all matter of survival snacks at the kids and O whipped up whatever he could make of leftovers and frozen meals. I ate crackers and sipped Olipop for a week and thus had no exciting recipes to share with you, but we’re back.

This past week I revived sad starter to make loaves of sourdough to dip in soup and roasted trays of veggies and potatoes. I baked my favorite Sweet Laurel muffins and birthday treats. I genuinely enjoyed being back in the kitchen after being gentle with myself and keeping my eyes on the goal for the long haul: I want to make meals that are equally delicious, healthy and comforting consistently. Watching Lema absolutely come to life eating lobster and eel and sushi on his birthday reminded me that he truly is such a foodie. He loves getting to experience the world through food and while I’m not going to be cooking sea urchin or boiling octopus and can’t realistically get rid of staples like grilled cheese and tomato soup, I can still strive for special on the regular.

I want to add a little extra touch to the meals we have every week like tacos and the protein, rice, veggie meal whether it be a sauce or a new way of cooking things so that the kitchen where they eat three meals a day for nearly their entire youth is a place they’re excited to be. That’s just my own little resolution for the year.

I started it right away this week by making the quickest fresh guacamole (I don’t eat avocado, but my family is most obsessed with this recipe—I skip the coriander and add garlic powder) and this delicious creamy chipotle taco sauce and the rave reviews were borderline ridiculous. I topped bowls of roasted red onion, sweet potato and cauliflower with green goddess dressing and made honey butter for sourdough. Simple steps make all the difference and I’m just a mom on a mission to get my kids to stay obsessed with my cooking forever. Too real?

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Here’s my Meal Plan for This Week: