Mon-Fri Seasonal Recipes + Grocery Shopping List: February Week 2

Warm, filling dinners for the whole week: pot roast over mashed potatoes, beef vegetable soup, crispy chicken thighs, shepherd's pie, and pan-seared salmon...

Elliott wanted more broccoli soup this week and then started pointing at the broccoli pieces in my bowl, so I gave him mine. I had more broccoli than cauliflower on hand this time so I swapped it to all broccoli and it tasted great like that too. Either way is delicious. He wanted more broccoli pieces in his bowl and kept asking for more, so next time I’m not going to purée it as much and leave more pieces in there. The chicken noodle soup was also a hit!

We’ve had so many cold nights lately and the kids are in pajamas by around 5pm, so soup has been the move.

We had a garden last spring but we planted everything way too far apart and wasted so much space:

This time we’re doing an intensive planting method that’s supposed to maximize every bit of bed you have. Here’s what our current garden looked like when the previous owners still owned the house:

We’re currently working on pulling up dead plants and measuring beds and sourcing organic soil in bulk because we have quite a few beds to fill! The plan is to grow enough to actually feed us through the season and also have a cut flower garden for arrangements (I love having fresh flowers in the house weekly) and would be nice if I could grow them myself. There are things I should’ve planted in the fall like the tulip bulbs, but we didn’t even have the house yet so I missed that window. That’s okay though. I’ll be ready this fall and I want flowers going out there as long as I possibly can.

The meal I’m most excited about next week is the pot roast with root vegetables over creamy mashed potatoes. I always look forward to all the meals though and get excited to make them. Having a plan for what’s for dinner every night just makes the whole week feel more organized. We’re also making a beef and vegetable soup, crispy chicken thighs with caramelized sweet potatoes and garlicky greens, a classic shepherd’s pie with a properly seasoned filling, and pan-seared salmon with roasted beets and a bright herb yogurt.

All of the recipes with full steps and grocery lists continue below for my Substack family: