The deep, deep cold is persisting here in Illinois, though my heart is really going out to all my friends and acquaintances in Texas and the other southern states that are dealing with winter storms – without the same resources that we have here! These cold days have us craving straightforward, comforting, warm meals, things that come together quickly and with minimal fuss in the kitchen. Then we can scurry back to the couch, under our blankets, dinner plate in hand, and our latest binge on Netflix (currently, we’re doing a throwback to Veronica Mars – I’ve never seen it!).

A few weeks ago, a friend/co-worker encouraged me to check out Ina Garten’s newest cookbook Modern Comfort Food. Yes, you’ve seen me mention it on here frequently in the past two weeks. (We made the Ultimate Beef Stew last week and Oh. My. Goodness.) Well, I’m truly, truly hooked by the Barefoot Contessa’s recipe style: delicious and accessible, if not “easy” per say, certainly easier than many, but still with flavor profiles that are mightily elevated. She seems to use a few really punchy choices to kick up a recipe without complicating the technique. My mother just gifted me the Modern Comfort Food cookbook, along with Family Style, PLUS she found two more on her own bookshelves which I am borrowing (this one and this one). So this week we’re eating exclusively Barefoot Contessa recipes, because, why not! Everyone loves a good theme.

Monday – Parmesan Chicken with Salad greens & lemon vinaigrette from Family Style: Easy Ideas and Recipes that Make Everyone Feel like Family

Tuesday – Real Meatballs & Spaghetti also from Family Style. We’ll probably do some roasted broccoli on the side and use whole wheat penne in lieu of spaghetti, because that’s what I’ve got! We need a nice hearty meal before heading into Ash Wednesday.

(Ash) Wednesday – Catholic teaching requires us to abstain from meat on this day, in addition to fast for all but one meal. Our one meal might be lunch instead of dinner, but we’ll play that a bit by ear. I’m planning to make Seared Salmon with Spicy Red Pepper Aioli with Roasted Cauliflower with Lemon and Capers from Modern Comfort Food.

Thursday – Chicken with Shallots (although this name doesn’t quite do it justice – it’s got a creamy, white wine flavored sauce that goes with it!) from How Easy is That? with Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Chipotle Orange Butter from Modern Comfort Food.

Friday – FISH FRYYYYYY. Our local Catholic Church hosts a fish fry on Fridays throughout Lent. In the before times, this meant cramming into a large parish center, eating as much fried fish and coleslaw and Mac & cheese as we could manage, while catching up with friends and waving at everyone we knew from across the room. The tables were long and close together – if you ended up with a seat somewhere near the middle you were basically stuck until people further down the line got up to move. It was great.
Obviously, there will be no such gatherings once again this Lenten season, but the church is running the fish fry as a drive-through to-go. I’m super excited to at least indulge once again in the perfectly fried cod filets. This may become a weekly dinner choice for the next 6 weeks. 🙂

Saturday – Roasted Sausage, Peppers and Onions from Modern Comfort Food with Creamy Parmesan Polenta from How Easy is That? Saturdays, I find, are the perfect day to make something brand new (I’ve never made polenta before!) paired with something super easy. This should be lovely!

Sunday – It’s my husband’s birthday!!! We’ll be celebrating in style. Whatever style he chooses. 🙂

Lunches
This week we’ll be doing lots of leftovers and lots of salads. I’m trying to eat one entirely vegetable focused meal per day, and a great way to do that is a salad + protein for lunch. I keep chicken breasts individually wrapped in my freezer which I poach for a quick, light protein to go on top.

Projects
I’ve got a lot of zucchini I need to use up – I’d planned to make Zoodles (I guess? I can’t quite remember why I bought them, whoops!) last week but never got around to it. So I’ll either use them for some zoodles with our meatballs tomorrow or maybe I’ll whip up a zucchini bread we can have for breakfast.

Otherwise, we’re both cutting out sweets for the Lenten season, which is going to somewhat limit my baking. I honestly might almost miss the act of baking more than eating the baked cooks (well, almost). However, that will give me a good chance to focus more on bread-making. I want to try the whole wheat sourdough loaf again this coming week to try and finesse some of the technique. I also have a great Scandinavian Baking cookbook with some fascinating, rye-focused and whole grain loaves. Might be time to give them a try!

Happy cooking, friends! And for those who observe it, blessings this Lent!