Sunday Forward — Issue No. 1

If your family is like mine, they treasure making dinner at home from scratch. There is quiet satisfaction in using fresh meats and vegetables you've hand-selected — because limes that resemble Manuel Noriega's face usually end up being past prime. A good lime has the skin of a Prada model and a gentle firmness in the hand akin to a full water balloon.

There are nuances and flavors imbued in our bolognese sauces that Prego and Ragu's just don't present. Even if we resort — obviously, y'all, time constraints! — to a store-bought sauce, it gets doctored up. Injected with an authentic broth and dressed with fresh chopped herbs. Healed! There is also a real cost to our health in eating store-bought or drive-thru, and often we feel less than; our wallets feel it too. We pay near triple for asparagus in a baking tin, slathered with a dicey herb butter that we pop in the oven once it preheats. What we gain from home cooking, however painstaking it can be, is control, pride in our work, and — always — better flavors.

So thank you for visiting Sunday Forward. Everyone can cook, but aren't so many of us dedicated to our other weeknight commitments, finding it more difficult to meal prep for a whole week? Or not eating leftovers — hence spending more than we should and begrudging the Wednesday night fridge purge before trash day? At our house, we have come up with solutions I'd love to share with you, and I hope they will help you achieve success in the kitchen like we have.

Wait — success is a big word around here. Let's instead say our moveable feast. Not Hemingway's Paris experience, but our richness in experience even when the pan instead of the fish became blackened. Or the long-lived truth learned when we discovered that stuffed bell peppers need the full cook time suggested in the generations-old church cookbook. Just like the classics, we cannot let this thing that makes us whole die because some easier, softer way permeated through. Cook with us.

✦

"How does our legit crazy family of five get there?" you ask. Well, read on, fellow cooks:

Multi-use sauces. For example, the Mediterranean Herbs week calls for a gorgeous, bright chimichurri that you'll make a few cups of — and use for two thirds of the meals that week.

Bulk buying at least one meat per week, adjusting as needed for budget, a sale, or your tastebuds. Don't like bone-in chicken thighs? (Don't know how, because that crispy fat is better than most French fries.) Swap for cutlets or breasts. Not feeling lamb chops in this economy? Let's swap for a small whole chicken instead and stuff it with butter, rosemary, and garlic all the same.

A regional cuisine theme, week to week. The theme anchors the pantry — mostly the same seasonings, herbs, and add-ins throughout. Mirin in three meals this week, basil in four of five next week, and "oh, that's what cardamom is for!" the week of Thanksgiving.

Two of the five meals on the table in roughly thirty minutes. True thirty-minute meals — sheet pan-maxxing, quick grilling, or a one-pan stovetop method. We build in more structure toward the end of the week, but those first two nights stay close to thirty.

Five ingredients or fewer for at least a couple of meals per week. Don't count the always-there pantry staples — salt, pepper, olive oil, garlic. Our household skips meat on Fridays and all through Lent, so that's accounted for too. If your family eats meat every day, just add some of the week's bulk buy protein to the vegetarian and pescatarian meals.

✦

In this newsletter, in the weeks coming, I will introduce the five-meal-per-week system. It also comes with three desserts per week — totally optional, but a blatantly perky perk. Use Saturday to plan and buy groceries, and it will take you from Sunday forward. Commit where you choose and adapt it for your household. The system is built for ease of adaptability and runs 26 weeks — essentially an entire year, especially if your five meals stretch across two weeks because the family does all three: meal preps, eats leftovers, and buys in bulk.

If your family can only cook two weeks out of the month, this plan works too. Maybe it's just time to break out of your tacos-pizza-spaghetti-pork chops-fried chicken-Coke-and-white-bread funk and explore what Japanese Izakaya and California Fresh have to offer. Mmmm — Miso Glaze and Green Goddess dressing. Hopefully we all have a blast in the kitchen and benefit. Let our hearts and bellies be filled!

✦

In the meantime, here's a meal my husband and I threw together with leftover chorizo, some items he'd just walked in with from the store, about an hour to get it done, and an unexpected guest. It all worked out — beautifully at that.

This Week's Recipe

Best Mexican Stuffed Peppers Ever

Beef + chorizo · Half green, half red · That mozzarella-cheddar pull. An honest weeknight dinner with a few smart lessons baked in.

Get the full recipe →

Reader Challenge

I'll keep you updated — and please let me know how this recipe worked out for you! Did you swap ingredients because one kid refuses bell pepper? Are you scared of chorizo because you heard (correctly) that traditional chorizo has some pancreas thrown in? Or did you do a one-eighty and pull off an Italamerican version with hot Italian sausage and a quick marinara instead? I look forward to hearing about your wins.

If I hear from you that the bell peppers were a win, I will provide a free link for a to-die-for Lemon Pound Cake — like, pound your fist on the counter while you chew, it's that good. It is an early summer tradition around here, and it's Gramma's recipe, but better. It has taken a few years to perfect. Not that Gramma's wasn't great, but these rich Greek yogurts have been a game-changer for quick breads. It's rich, and the crumb is perfect if you wrap it and slice it the day after it bakes.

Spare me the tea — I'm dreaming up matcha-something,

Lorianne

Why From-Scratch Cooking Changes Everything