What I Cooked in a Week as a Food Writer in NYC

I’d love to tell you that, as a staff writer at a food magazine, I have my life together enough to boast a longstanding meal planning routine. The truth is, I’ve historically been more of a scrounger than a prepper when it comes to weekday meals. I live with one roommate and am often cooking just for myself, so I’m reliant on my well-stocked pantry and the fact that I live half a block away from a grocery store. All that said, over time I have developed a grocery shopping strategy that sets me up for success.

Rather than plotting out every single breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I like to stock up on enough groceries to cover most breakfasts and a couple of multi-serving dinners that can double as office lunches throughout the week. Work events, friend hangs, new store-bought snacks I need to test out, and leftovers from tastings in the Test Kitchen tend to make up most (if not all) of the remaining meals. Read on for everything I added to my grocery cart last week, plus how I turned it into a week of meals.

Recipes Sunday

For this week’s Sunday shop, I bought ingredients to make Shilpa Uskokovic’s Basil Chicken Stir-Fry and Andy Baraghani’s Honey-Chipotle Shrimp Tacos, plus some Greek yogurt (Fage’s 2% is my favorite).

I was meeting friends for tacos at Greenpoint’s El Chato Sunday night, so there was no need to cook—but in the name of setting myself up for a calm entry into the week, I prepped three servings of protein overnight oats: Just combine ½ cup oats, ½ cup almond milk, a spoonful of Greek yogurt, ½ scoop protein powder, and a pinch of salt in each container. I’ve been working my way through a bag of Be Amazing’s Brown Sugar Oatmeal vegan protein, which tastes like an oatmeal cookie.

Recipes Monday

Mondays always feel hectic, so I was glad to have prepped a hearty breakfast the day before. I grabbed a jar of my overnight oats from the fridge and topped it with a handful of frozen Maine blueberries before tossing it in my bag and heading to the office.

For dinner, I made a riff on Shilpa’s Basil Chicken Stir-Fry using the ground turkey, basil, and shallots I bought on Sunday, plus some sugar snap peas I snagged from my mom’s CSA haul after visiting my parents over the weekend (thanks, Mom!). The rest of the stir-fry came together with pantry staples like oyster sauce, fish sauce, and sambal oelek, which I always have on hand. My roommate and I ate it over white rice (Team Rice Cooker forever), and I packed the leftovers up to reheat throughout the week.

Recipes Tuesday

Sure enough, the leftover stir-fry made for an excellent desk lunch that kept me full for the whole afternoon. My Sunday shop covered most of the ingredients for taco night, so all I needed to grab on my way home from the office were the shrimp, which I prefer to buy the same day I’m planning on cooking them. I bought just enough for my roommate and myself, because I’m not a huge fan of day-old cooked shrimp. The beauty of this recipe is that it’s easily adaptable for however many people you’re serving.

These tacos have been a go-to since I was in college because they use just a handful of ingredients and come together so fast. Did I set off my smoke alarm trying to get a good sear on the shrimp? Yes. Was it worth it? Yes.

Recipes Wednesday

I’ll be honest: I did no cooking whatsoever on Wednesday. I ate stir-fry leftovers for lunch again, then spent the evening watching the Knicks game and eating take-out Indian food.

Recipes Thursday

I finally finished off the chicken stir-fry for lunch and can confirm the dish was so craveable, I never got tired of eating it—even four days in!

I met my roommate for dinner at La Cantine to celebrate our June birthdays, where we demolished romesco-slicked potatoes, a crispy chicken Caesar, and a springy lemon and pea pasta I’m still thinking about. We got dessert, ate half of it, and then I proceeded to leave the other half on the train somewhere between Bushwick and Park Slope. I hope our half slice of birthday tiramisu is doing well, wherever she is.

Recipes Friday

I work from home Fridays, so I usually take to scrounging around the pantry when lunchtime hits. I found a microwave cup of Goodles deep inside a cupboard and dressed it up with some freshly cracked black pepper and Calabrian chili olive oil.

It was my best friend’s birthday weekend, so I made one more trip to the grocery store to grab ingredients for a lemony cake and cream cheese frosting. I speed-baked the cake so I could get out of the house in time to snag a seat at a wine bar’s NBA watch party, where my friends and I had a snacky dinner of charcuterie and grilled cheese. Paired with a bottle of juicy red wine, it was the perfect fuel for watching another Knicks win.

Recipes Saturday

I had a lazy Saturday morning, which I spent watching Love Island, drinking an iced matcha latte, and eating an orange-and-cranberry-studded English muffin. I’ve fallen hard for Stone & Skillet’s muffins, which I like to buy in packs and store halved in my freezer. A quick toast and a swipe of salted butter brings them back to life.

I spent the day with friends out and about in the city, so lunch was a grab-and-go situation. I had a quick turnaround time at home before my friend’s birthday party that night, so I made more Goodles (from the box this time), to which I added a handful of frozen peas. The cake was a hit and miraculously made it to the party without melting into a cream cheese puddle despite the 90-degree heat.

Additional photography courtesy of Alaina Chou.