Hello!
How is your summer going? So far, my summer has been….
Busy days catching up on life (dentist appointments, running errands, cleaning out kids’ drawers, going through neglected stacks of paperwork) mixed with spacious afternoons when we don’t have to do much of anything.
Kids sleeping in until 9:30am some mornings, which gives me quiet time to drink coffee and get stuff done. Glorious! What a change from the years when my kids were little and getting up so early that they were almost ready for a nap by 9:30am.
Kids enjoying their leisurely days and also complaining that they’re bored.
Figuring out new outings and activities for older kids during the summer. Swimming at the local pool and going to the library and Natural History Museum are still fun, but not as exciting as they use to be.
Eating a crazy amount of plums and nectarines and constantly finding fruit stickers stuck to our wood floors.
Remembering how much food our family goes through and how often dishes pile up when everyone is home almost all of the time (but I’m still happy not to be packing school lunch every day!)
Watching and enjoying the new season of The Bear.
Fostering two kittens! The kids have been asking to do this for a long time and finally they convinced us that summer was the perfect time. They were right - it’s been a fun project for the kids and they’re the perfect age to take on the responsibility of caring for kittens.
Food-wise, I don’t have a ton to share because honestly, I don’t feel like cooking right now. I know I’m not the only one…maybe you’re feeling the same way?
I don’t even feel like thinking about cooking, which is unusual for me. I have a pile of cookbooks from the library that I haven’t opened at all and I’ve been skimming through the Substack food newsletters I subscribe to with little or no interest. My brain needs a break from recipes and planning meals. I want to be outdoors, I want to be hanging out with my kids or sharing a happy hour cocktail with my husband, I want to be reading novels or watching movies. I don’t want to be cooking.
And yet, everyone still needs to eat. What’s working for me is relying heavily on easy summer meals that don’t require a recipe and “whatever nights” when the kids make themselves grilled cheese and Sorin and I have a big salad or…whatever.
Two simple meals I highly recommend are BLTs (if you aren’t eating BLTs for dinner right now, get on it!) and mozzarella with tomatoes and basil + good bread and maybe some prosciutto, salami, etc…


This Week’s Recipe: Quick Broiled Tacos
Yes, I know that grilling is the best way to cook during the summer but did you know that broiling in the oven is also perfect for summer? It’s quick and doesn’t heat up your kitchen very much and is a surprisingly convenient way to make tacos.
I love these quick broiled tacos because I can spread out 18 corn tortillas over 3 sheet-pans, fill them with beans and cheese and sometimes ground meat and then broil each pan for about 2 minutes. Boom, boom, boom - dinner is ready.
I also love quick broiled tacos because they’re crispy and oily and cheesy and sooo good!
Find the full recipe for Quick Broiled Tacos → HERE
This is a bonus recipe. Bonus recipes are available to everyone for 7 days after this newsletter is published, then the recipe goes behind a paywall for paid subscribers. You can upgrade your membership for just $35/year here if you want access to bonus recipes without any time limits.
Dinner in Real Life + Recipes 🥣
I’m always curious about what other families are eating, aren’t you? I hope that my real life dinners will provide helpful recipes & cooking ideas for your family. Even though I haven’t been cooking a lot this summer, we’ve still been eating pretty well!
**The 🥣 emoji lets you know a loose recipe is included
MONDAY : Tilapia with creamy basil sauce + white beans and blackened tomatoes
My husband and kids are not into salmon right now so I’ve been trying to come up with new ways to serve tilapia and cod. For this dinner 🥣 I seared the thin fillets of tilapia in a pan over medium-high heat with olive oil (about 4 minutes a side) and roasted cherry tomatoes with olive oil under the broiler until lightly blackened and bubbly. I combined the cherry tomatoes with a can of white beans and served it with the fish on top.
The star of this dinner was the 🥣 very incredible creamy basil sauce from Pinch of Yum. It’s so good! It’s like a creamy version of pesto and I think it would be delicious spooned over just about anything.
TUESDAY: Chickpeas and Spinach + pesto pasta with mushrooms
I served two very different dishes for dinner, not because they pair brilliantly together but because we were low on groceries and this was basically all I had left. Even so, it was a decent dinner that got the job done. I usually serve the 🥣 chickpeas and spinach over rice, but it was also a decent side dish for pesto and pasta.
WEDNESDAY: Pasta with Zucchini Sauce
This dinner was fine, but not my favorite. I might have botched the recipe somewhat, because my zucchini sauce was thick and clumpy, not silky and buttery like the 🥣 zucchini butter spaghetti from Smitten Kitchen. My kids melted cheddar cheese over their pasta and said it made it taste better, and they’re probably right.


THURSDAY: Black Bean Burritos/Quesadillas with Mexican-style Rice
This type of dinner is a stand-by that I make on the regular. We’ve been loving Ducal refried black beans from Guatemala which you might be able to find in the canned aisle at your grocery store.
FRIDAY: Grilled Soyaki Chicken Thighs + Grilled Broccoli + Rice
When I told you I was making this dinner a lot this summer, I wasn’t kidding. Marinate boneless chicken thighs overnight in Trader Joe’s Soyaki and grill the chicken for about 18 minutes. Put the broccoli florets in a grill basket (tossed with olive oil) and grill until charred and just tender. Serve with rice.
Cookbooks
Keeping with my theme of transportive cookbooks for summer reading, I’m recommending Greekish by Georgina Hayden. There aren’t many landscape photos in this cookbook but the food, oh my goodness, the food! It looks so good. Most of the recipes in this cookbook feel like food that absolutely must be eaten outdoors on a summer night, like marinated feta with crisp cucumbers and tomatoes, herb-flecked chicken with lemon, kebabs of all types and grilled halloumi cheese.
That’s it for this week! Keep an eye out for an “Eating & Reading” newsletter that I’ll be sending later this month. I’ll be sharing my favorite books from this year (so far) and a few links to what my family’s been eating and craving lately.
See you then!
Jenny
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