Example Week 1: Grill Night to Sichuan Stir-Fry

Assumptions

• 2 adults; most recipes serve 4-6, so dinners deliberately make tomorrow's lunch. Scale up for bigger households.
• Week runs Sunday 2026-09-20 → Saturday 2026-09-26; shopping and prep happen Sunday morning.
• Saturday evening before: mix the no-knead bread dough (it rises overnight — bake it Sunday morning).

The Week

Leftover chains at a glance

• Souvlaki chicken (Sun) → Mon lunch
• Chili (Mon) → Tue lunch, freeze the remainder for a future week
• Kung pao (Wed) → Thu lunch
• Tom kha (Thu) → Fri lunch
• Adobo (Fri) → Sat lunch (it genuinely improves by day two)
• Rice (Sun) → Tue dinner; fresh batch Wednesday

Sunday prep list (~90 minutes active)

1. Bake the bread — the no-knead dough mixed Saturday night goes into the Dutch oven first thing; it bakes while you shop.
2. Bake the banana bread — 15 minutes hands-on; cool, slice, freeze half for Friday.
3. Make the tzatziki — 15 minutes; it improves by dinner.
4. Make the Tuscan soup — the full pot; portion for Wed/Thu lunches and refrigerate.
5. Cook a big pot of rice — souvlaki tonight, miso salmon Tuesday.
6. Marinate the souvlaki chicken (30 minutes before grilling) — marinate enough for tonight + tomorrow's lunch.
7. Freezer check — breakfast burritos: if you don't have a stash, make a batch while the kitchen's warm, or buy them ready.

Grocery list

Check the pantry and freezer before shopping — spice rack items especially. Quantities assume nothing on hand except salt, pepper, and basic oil/vinegar.

Produce

• Yellow onions ×6, garlic ×2 heads, ginger (large knob)
• Lemongrass ×2, makrut lime leaves (small pack), galangal (or extra ginger)
• Limes ×5, lemons ×3
• English cucumbers ×3, radishes ×1 bunch
• Cherry tomatoes ×2 pints
• Red bell peppers ×4, bok choy ×4 heads, sugar snap peas 200 g
• Kale ×1 bunch, carrots ×3, celery ×2 stalks
• Scallions ×2 bunches
• Bananas ×6 (as ripe as possible — ask for the discount speckled ones)
• Apples ~1.3 kg: half Honeycrisp/Fuji, half Granny Smith (pie)
• Cilantro, mint, dill, parsley ×1 bunch each
• Bird's eye chilies ×2, 1 habanero (moqueca)

Meat & fish

• Boneless chicken thighs ~1.5 kg total (souvlaki 600 g, kung pao 450 g, tom kha 450 g)
• Ground turkey (dark meat) 1.4 kg / 3 lb (chili — serves 8 for a reason)
• Salmon fillets ×4 (~600 g)
• Firm white fish 800 g — buy Saturday morning, fresh for moqueca

Dairy & eggs

• Eggs ×18 (shakshuka 6, banana bread 2, rolls 2, pie 1, breakfasts ~7)
• Greek yogurt 1 kg (tzatziki, banana bread, breakfasts)
• Labneh or extra-thick yogurt 500 g (Sunday platter)
• Cream cheese 115 g (roll glaze), feta (optional souvlaki/shakshuka)
• Butter 400 g (pie, rolls, toast), whole milk 500 ml (roll dough)
• Parmesan + a rind (Tuscan soup)

Bakery & baking

• White whole wheat flour 500 g, whole wheat flour 400 g
• All-purpose flour 1 kg, bread flour 200 g
• Instant yeast, walnuts 80 g, peanuts 45 g (roasted, unsalted)
• Whole wheat tortillas ×6 + salsa (if making the burrito batch)

Canned & jarred

• Crushed tomatoes ×3, diced tomatoes ×1
• Cannellini beans ×2 cans, black beans ×1 can
• Coconut milk ×2 cans (tom kha, moqueca)
• Chipotles in adobo + dried ancho ×3, guajillo ×2, pasilla ×2 (chili)
• Miso paste (salmon)

Pantry & dry goods

• Jasmine rice 500 g, long-grain rice 200 g
• Chicken broth 2 L, fish sauce, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine
• Black vinegar (Chinkiang), rice vinegar, sesame oil
• Sichuan peppercorns, dried red chilies (kung pao)
• Honey, maple syrup, brown + white sugar, cornstarch
• Cinnamon, nutmeg, oregano, cumin, smoked paprika, chili powder
• Olive oil, coconut oil, neutral oil

Flex notes

• Too many lunches out? The chili that would feed Tuesday lunch goes straight to the freezer — it's a freezer legend.
• Want less baking? Store-bought bread and rolls work; keep the pie.
• Moqueca swap: the salmon does fine in it if you'd rather not buy a second fish.
• Next week's seeds: the freezer holds chili and burritos; adobo freezes beautifully too.