How is it Halloween already and how the heck is October almost over? Oh and there’s this election, which I’m mostly trying not to think about because it’s too stressful. But I’ve understood the assignment, and I’ve done my part.

The months always go by fast, but it seems like October has gone especially fast this year. I think it’s because we only just started getting weather that feels like October, and now it’s almost over.

Our little town is so amazing on Halloween, it’s like something out of a movie. We’ve had fun getting ready this year. We don’t do a whole lot of decorating, we live in a fairly secluded area and don’t get trick-or-treaters so nobody will really see decorations anyway. But we’ve carved pumpkins and watched both Hocus Pocus movies and the kids have their costumes all ready. There’s been lots of sewing and crafting happening - teen costumes are fun because the kids are starting to get very creative with their own costumes, but they also still make some fun projects for me.

Ok, so what’s in this week’s issue:

We are into cooler weather finally so I’m cooking more of those warmer comfort foods - heavier sauces and casseroles and slow cooked things that just sound better when it’s cold out. Keep reading for the menu updates. I’ve also got some new blog posts for you, meal planning, a couple quick recipes, and some of my tips for how I keep my house clean.

Make sure you don’t miss a weekly update - click here to subscribe to my substack and you’ll get these updates in your inbox. The archive of all my weekly updates and past meal plans will always be available on the blog as well.

Let’s dig in!

Tip of the Week:

I’ve had so many questions over the years about how I keep my house so clean. The truth is that it’s not any one big thing that I do, and I don’t have a housekeeper. It’s a whole lot of small routines and habits that add up to making a big difference a little at time. I’ve written up a blog post with all of my tips for how to keep your house clean, so I’ll be pulling out one tip at a time over the next few weeks to share here. You can click here to read the whole post for all the tips.

This week’s tip: Small messes are easier to clean big ones.

My whole strategy relies on this one secret: the trick to never having to clean up a big mess is to not let it get big in the first place. Clean up as you go, straighten up a room as you move through it, deal with the dishes immediately after each meal, teach the kids how to clean up from the time they are able to pick up a toy.

You can read all of my tips for keeping my house clean in this blog post.

What’s happening on the blog:

I cooked some whole chickens in the instant pot this week, so I wrote up my recipe for you with instructions for how I do this. Cooking whole chickens in the instant pot is as easy as it gets, and by starting with the whole chicken you not only get wonderfully juicy chicken to use in a variety of recipes, you also get super easy and delicious homemade chicken broth. You can read that post here ➡️ Instant Pot Whole Chicken.

I also recently made some caramelized browned butter Rice Krispie treats for the family which were so good. The little extra few minutes it takes to let the melted butter & marshmallow get just a little browned and caramelized adds an unbelievable amount of extra flavor to this classic family treat. You can find my version of those here ➡️ Caramelized Browned Butter Rice Krispie Treats.

Lunchbox Inspiration:

This is it folks. Vote like your life and our democracy depends on it. Because it does.

Obviously I know kids can’t vote, so why a voting themed lunch for kids? Because it’s never too early to teach them about the importance of being educated and informed voters. We get out our ballots and let our kids watch us fill them in and answer any questions they have about how the process works. The older they get, the better questions they ask. I strongly believe that one of my most important jobs as a parent, and one of the most effective ways I can impact the future of our country and the world, is to raise educated and informed citizens.

This little throwback lunch was a fun way to get my kids inspired and excited about an election. This kind of lunch is so simple to do with a few little letter cutters, some fun picks, and a star shaped silicone cup. You can find a lot of my favorite tools for quick and simple lunch packing on this Amazon list. And I’ve got a blog post here with my top tips for packing a lunch that’s a little more fun.

What’s happening in the kitchen:

I’m back to lots of cooking after taking a bit of a break. I made a big pot of bolognese sauce and homemade pasta over the weekend. I haven’t made homemade pasta in many years, so it was fun to get back to it. It really is so easy, just takes a bit of time especially when you are out of practice. That bolognese will show up again in a lasagna later this week.

For a bolognese recipe, I always start with the one in Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. Of course I customize and adapt, but this recipe is a great starting place.

I thought lasagna would be good for Halloween because I can make it earlier in the day and everyone can just eat whenever they get home from trick-or-treating. I’ve also made Rice Krispy Treats, as I mentioned above, and chocolate chip cookies. The teens wanted to take cookies to school for halloween treats.

I’ve talked a lot before about how I always cook extra of everything, because we love leftovers. I got in a habit of cooking a lot because there were 6 of us eating three meals at home every day. We were homeschooling all four and my husband works from home, so we ate a lot of leftovers for lunch. But this year I’ve got three in school and the leftovers aren’t getting eaten for lunch as quickly. Sometimes I end up with even more leftover than anyone wants to eat again. I hate wasting food, so these are the times that I try to take the leftovers we’re tired of and turn them into something new. Last week was a good one - I made a really good baked pasta out of mostly things that were hanging out in the fridge needing to be used. You can see that meal here on Instagram.

The whole menu from last week is posted - you can see the full meal plan post here.

On the menu for this week:

Lots of good stuff planned for this week. Check back next week for the link to the actual menu of what we ate, we’ll see how well I managed to stick to the plan.

Sunday: Japanese Curry with chicken and eggplant
Monday: Gumbo
Tuesday: Ground beef tacos
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Lasagna with bolognese and béchamel
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Burgers

Meal Planning:

I’m working on November meal plans, here are some things on my list that I want to try over the next couple of weeks. Some of these were in the list from last week’s newsletter, and they’ll stay on my list until I get around to making them.

Shoyu chicken
Okonomiyaki
Chilaquiles
Chicken cordon bleu

We’re also starting to think about Thanksgiving, but honestly we are all rather indifferent to this holiday in our family. The more we learn about the real history of colonization in this land, the less good we feel about honoring this particular holiday in a very big way. I also have a lot of conflicting feelings about this as a family holiday, too many memories of holidays made unnecessarily stressful by family members with really unreasonable expectations and inappropriate behavior. So yeah, it’s a mixed bag. But we still love the food, so we will be doing something of a meal and celebrating the start of a season filled with foods we love. I’ll write more about this later.

Coming Next Time:

I’m working on a blog post about reasons why kids don’t eat their lunch at school and suggestions for what you can do about that. I hope to have that ready to share next week. I will also talk more about favorite holiday foods, and share more of my tips for keeping the house clean. Hopefully we will have some election results to celebrate. And look for all the usual - updates on what we’re eating and cooking, lunchbox inspiration, answers to your questions.

Have a Question?

Ask me anything. Do you need lunch packing advice or meal planning suggestions? Or do you have other food or family management related questions? My goal is to be your resource for tips and advice - from a mom who has been there, and done that.

Reply to this email, post a comment, or hit me up on social media, and your question could be featured in next week’s newsletter.

Don’t forget to follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads for daily tips and inspiration.

➡️ Follow Me on Instagram | ➡️ Follow Me on Facebook | ➡️ Follow Me on Threads

Wishing you a delicious and stress-free week ahead!

– Lisa

Notes from the kitchen table: no. 10