French braising and Mediterranean vegetables, with a separate plain-cooked set for the kids

Turmeric chicken veggie stew is the dish on this menu that makes the rest of the week easier. This dish is thin enough to drink from a mug and thick enough to eat over the broccoli lemon orzo, so it stretches two ways. I keep the spice level flat and lean on ginger and lemon instead, which means the kids will eat it too.

Half of this order is cooked twice, once properly and once plainly. The sirloin bites, baked salmon, steamed broccoli and cauliflower and charred corn are the same proteins as the adult containers with nothing on them but salt — no braise, no crumb, no sauce. That is not laziness; a kid who will eat plain salmon this month will eat herbs and panko baked salmon in six. Cooking around a preference works better than arguing with it.

Reheating splits three ways here. The Burgundy beef and the turmeric chicken stew want a covered pan on low for 8 minutes with a spoon of water — never a microwave, the carrot goes woolly. The crispy baked cauliflower and the panko salmon need 400°F for 10 minutes uncovered on a rack so the crumb dries out again.