Testing the Lenny Letter’s “Shop Like Your Mom” Meal Plan: Wednesday

This week, I’m testing the Lenny Letter’s “Shop Like Your Mom” meal plan, as created by Sally Sampson. I already tested the grocery list and found that it came in under the estimated $75; I’ve also learned about trusting my instincts, and you’ve learned about my intestines.

Wednesday

Recipe #6: Steel-Cut Oatmeal

Prep time: 15 minutes prep/cook the night before, 16 minutes prep/cook the day of

Recipe adjustments: none

Rating: what am I supposed to do with all this oatmeal

I am the sort of person who lays out her clothes for the next day before she goes to bed, so it would make sense that I might also be the person who boils up a pot of steel-cut oatmeal before she goes to bed, and yet I know that I am NOT THAT PERSON.

Nothing about my evening routine says “hey, I should hang out by the stove for 15 extra minutes.” And yes, you can add it as a recurring task and batch your work by boiling the oatmeal while you do the dishes, but that is a lot of time management for a breakfast that just isn’t that good.

I’m sorry, y’all. I did not enjoy my steel-cut oatmeal.

When I was a kid, my dad would make us bowls of fluffy oatmeal with dollops of butter on top and heaping spoonfuls of brown sugar. I added the dollop of butter and would have added the brown sugar if I had it, but there was nothing fluffy about this. It was like chewing a stress ball.

This recipe uses 2/3 cups oatmeal and 2 and 2/3 cups water, which in my case left me with more oatmeal than I could eat in three days. I suspect I’ll end up composting it. Not sure what I’ll do with the rest of the can of steel-cut oats. (Suggestions welcomed.)

Recipe #8 (sort of): Egg Fried Rice

Prep time: I forgot to time this one, but it was in the 6–7 minute range.

Recipe adjustments: added tofu salad

Rating: works for me!

This is where I realize that I should have been labeling these “Meal #8” instead of “Recipe #8,” because here’s where we start using up all of the leftovers I’ve been creating over the past three days. (I have so many containers in my refrigerator, each holding half an avocado, half a banana, half a lemon, and so on.)

So for this meal, I was supposed to eat another bowl of the egg fried rice I made on Tuesday. I chose to eat a scoop of the leftover rice and another tofu salad. I just… I can’t do it. Not a whole bowl of rice at once. Especially not after a bowl of steel-cut oatmeal.

Lunch turned out pretty well. I’d eat it again. Despite my adjusting nearly every recipe on the list to suit my high-maintenance tastes, I’m very much enjoying adding new dishes to my repertoire. I’ll for sure bake up some more sesame tofu for salads, because this is great. I probably won’t make egg fried rice again, but I will eat the rest of the rice I bought, one scoop at a time, next to giant piles of vegetables.

Recipe #9: Curried Chicken Soup with Baguette/Broiled Cheese on Bread with Black Beans and an Apple

Prep and cook time: 11 minutes

Recipe adjustments: the entire thing was an adjustment

Rating: nothing fancy, but it got the job done

I did not make the curried chicken soup. Here’s why:

First, the recipe takes 90 minutes to put together, and you need to spend at least half of those 90 minutes chopping, stirring, monitoring boil levels, and so on.

Tonight, as it turns out, I didn’t have 90 minutes.

Secondly—and more importantly—this recipe uses the chicken and sweet potato that have been shriveling in my refrigerator since Sunday night. I’m all for re-using food, but I kept thinking about how disgusting that sweet potato looked, and how dry that chicken was when I ate it the first (and second) times.

Feel free to tell me that these food items would be just fine in a soup, because what is soup if not a way to eat otherwise inedible vegetables and meat parts? (I say this as a huge lover of soup. But you know it’s true.)

But yeah, I didn’t want to eat this, so I made something different.

“Broiling cheese on bread” is a Nicole staple. You get all the melted fun of a grilled cheese sandwich without the greasy bread. The recipe is super simple: put thin slices of cheese on bread, put under broiler for 3–5 minutes or until melted. (Watch it, or it’ll burn.)

“Sliced apples” is also something I tend to eat every day, although I usually only eat half the apple because apples have gotten enormous lately, have you noticed? I’ll eat the other half tomorrow in my avocado and apple smoothie (yes, that’s what’s on the list for breakfast).

Lastly, “black beans:” I drained all of the liquid out of my black beans before dropping them in my cast-iron skillet with just a spray of olive oil. As they warmed up, I mashed up two garlic cloves and stirred them in. I also mashed the beans slightly, so the insides of the beans could absorb the last bits of liquid and oil. Of course you don’t want your beans to get too dry, but you don’t want them to drip as you eat them, either. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add some pepper to your broiled cheese too, because it’ll look good in the photo.

Previous installments: Sunday and Monday, Tuesday

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