Ali Slagle made you a meal plan

These recipes with overlapping ingredients will simplify your week.

View in browser|nytimes.com October 3, 2024 Gabrielle Hamilton's sous-chef salad. Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food stylist: Sue Li. Prop stylist: Nicole Louie. This fall meal plan rewards spontaneity By Ali Slagle Three cheers for anyone who organizes and shops for a week of meals at once — and then sticks to the plan. When I tried to meal-plan, I was left with spoiled fish, wilted vegetables and regret. Yet shopping ahead for a few dishes does come in handy. When 7 p.m. rolls around and I'm over it, I know I have everything to make a few meals quickly. One solution is a flexible meal plan, which makes the most out of overlapping ingredients and prep work for just a handful of meals. This kind of plan still eases food waste, decision fatigue and trips to the store, but it also leaves room for changes in plans and cravings. Picking up a pizza one night won't thwart The Plan. Featured Recipe Sous-Chef Salad View Recipe → Here's how a flex meal plan works: Start with one anchor recipe that brings in a variety of groceries and requires preparing a few elements that will expedite future dishes. Today, it's the sous-chef salad, heaped with cooked and raw vegetables and briny tuna, artichokes and olives. When you're making it, to get ahead on other meals, boil two and a half pounds of potatoes and a pound of green beans. Boil extra eggs for snacks and lunches. Make double the vinaigrette. Refrigerate whatever you're not using in the salad. Now you're halfway to more dinners and lunches. One night, there could be Hetty Lui McKinnon's kimchi and potato hash with eggs. This hash isn't stodgy thanks to creamy pockets of sunny-side-up eggs and spritzy kimchi. Use your boiled potatoes and forgo the six to eight minutes allotted for cooking them. For more greenery, add some of the cooked green beans, coarsely chopped, with the potatoes. On another night, use the artichokes, cherry tomatoes, basil and garlic on hand to make a quick lamb ragù with artichokes. It's rich from caramelized tomato paste and well-browned ground lamb, yet fresh from barely cooked tomatoes. For lunch, Genevieve Ko's green bean and tofu salad doesn't require any cooking because you already blanched the green beans. Since the recipe keeps for two days, you can really get ahead by assembling it when you make the sous-chef salad. Add any lingering radishes or tomatoes, too. One commenter said this tuna and tomato salad tastes like a Mediterranean vacation, which is perceptive since it was inspired by a dry-cured tuna and tomato sandwich I ate on vacation in Europe. Use your cherry tomatoes and, instead of the oil and vinegar, the salad dressing you already made. As the week goes on, you may have some bits and bobs remaining. Make comfy peanut butter noodles with leftover dried pasta and butter from the lamb ragù and peanut butter from the tofu salad. Defrost ground chicken and use lettuce, kimchi and hoisin sauce for lettuce wraps. And there's always egg salad. This flex meal plan may not be perfect, but it is a more achievable than a full-fledged one. And as Madeleine Aggeler suggested in a New York Times story about the spreadsheet-ization of our personal lives, spontaneity and freedom are more possible with some planning. Just not too much. IN THIS NEWSLETTER Christopher Simpson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Kimchi and Potato Hash With Eggs By Hetty Lui McKinnon 30 minutes Makes 4 servings Nico Schinco for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. Kimchi Chicken Lettuce Wraps By Alexa Weibel 25 minutes Makes 4 servings Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Cyd Raftus McDowell. Quick Lamb Ragù With Artichokes By Ali Slagle 30 minutes Makes 4 servings Andrew Purcell for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Carrie Purcell. Tuna and Tomato Salad By Ali Slagle 20 minutes Makes 4 servings Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Egg Salad By Lidey Heuck 20 minutes Makes 2 cups (4 servings) Bobbi Lin for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Eugene Jho. Prop Stylist: Christina Lane. Green Bean and Tofu Salad With Peanut Dressing By Genevieve Ko 20 minutes Makes 4 servings Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Sue Li. Prop Stylist: Sophia Eleni Pappas Peanut Butter Noodles By Eric Kim 20 minutes Makes 1 serving Sign up for the Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter Fresh dinner ideas for busy people who want something great to eat, with NYT Cooking recipes sent to you weekly. 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