How do I feed myself every week?

(In response to an IndieWebClub Bangalore prompt)¹

I am a proper pain when it comes to food. I eat most things, but can be exceptionally picky about how they are prepared. I need every meal to be delicious, special even. I hate repeating meals. I’ll eat leftovers once, but no odds and ends can make their way to a third meal ever. I don’t even like repeating flavours over the course of a week. I need my meals to be well-balanced nutritionally, and not take very long to cook. I have rules, like different dishes on a plate should be different colours. I don’t employ any staff to assist in food preparation. I work full-time (albeit from home), as does my partner. So, how do I feed myself every week?

1. As the question itself makes abundantly clear, I think of cooking and eating with the week as my foundational unit. For my two-person household, that is usually twelve meals (assuming we eat out twice), of which, 3–4 lunches must be packable for Amber. When it comes to balance — of nutrition, flavour or effort — I am gunning for a weekly equilibrium. Things go wrong or change all the time, trying to control every day is pointless, but a week? Maybe I can hope and plan for success.

2. Aside from having an elephant’s memory, I have an account of dishes and recipes that have caught my eye going back years and years and years. I add to this repository almost weekly.

3. The right appliances make our lives easier — a large enough oven, a good blender, an instant pot, a soup maker, a dishwasher. Also, the right tools otherwise: good quality mixing bowls, knives, chopping boards pots and pans, cooking spoons and folks... it is a long list. Since our kitchen in Brussels is new, every now and then I deeply miss my set-up in Noida which is finely tuned to work exceptionally well. One of its highlights is a beautiful open shelf that houses over fifty spices in an arrangement with absolutely no stacking, so you can pull what you need without any hassle. I digress.

4. Obviously I know what we like to eat. But knowing our moods, how busy or tired we are, is anyone feeling under the weather, are we missing a particular place, person or flavour, does the food need to comfort or celebrate, soothe or sustain — these are all questions I ask every week.

5. I cannot imagine cooking and eating without a nod to the seasons. It is a wonderful thing waiting months for the right produce to appear just so I can cook it in a way that makes the most of it, in a way that I love.

6. There are no restrictive meals, and then treats. All meals are delicious and satisfying. There are situations where medical advice directs us to eat more or less of something, but that means one needs to be inventive about what is cooked and how. Who likes to be unwell and eat less-than-stellar meals on top of that?

7. I always garnish my food, plate it well and try to set the table nicely.

The rest is straightforward — plan meals every Thursday (happens on a shared Notion board) assigning tentative days based on our schedule, pick up groceries on Friday, and just cook!