A weird, wild, and terrifyingly permanent thing
If you’ve noticed this newsletter became a bit more sporadic since the new year began, it’s because I’ve had another big project on my plate the past few months: I’m having a baby later this month! (So far it is the weirdest, wildest, and most terrifyingly permanent thing I have ever embarked on!).
My weekends the past couple of months rapidly filled up with a lot of home projects and baby prep as my husband and I have been preparing our Brooklyn apartment for the impending arrival of a tiny new roommate, so that’s left me with less time to write this newsletter on Sundays.
Once the baby arrives, I’m going take a brief hiatus from writing this newsletter for a little bit while we get settled into our new routine. You might still get another newsletter or two this month, but otherwise, the next edition of this newsletter will probably be another several weeks from now. I’ll see you later this spring!
Good things to read
How Covid stole our time and how we can get it back, New York Times. This piece is wonderful but fair warning: it might also make you a little depressed.
A guide to getting rid of almost everything, The New Yorker.
The five-day workweek is dying, The Atlantic.
The age of houseplants, Culture Study.
The object of their ire, New York Magazine. A profile of Letitia James, the New York Attorney General taking on Andrew Cuomo and Donald Trump.
You don’t need to post through a crisis, Embedded. I had some similar thoughts last year on posting through the attempted coup.
The miseducation of Maria Montessori, The New Yorker.
The Girlboss era looked different for Black women, Glamour.
All the lonely people, Gloria.
Anna Delvey lost her case — now she wants to win Instagram, Buzzfeed News.
Good things to cook
Some dinners I’ve made in the last few weeks: Skillet chipotle chicken enchilada bake. Maple-miso salmon. Peppered steak. Slow cooker honey chipotle tacos. (If you ever find yourself, like me, buying a can of chipotles in adobo sauce because you needed one chipotle pepper for a recipe, this last recipe is a great way to use up the rest of the can!).
Recommendations
An actually sane and funny pregnancy and mom newsletter: For anyone who’s pregnant or recently become a mom, I can’t recommend Erin Ryan’s newsletter Just Enjoy It While You Can enough. There’s so much bullshit on the internet out there about pregnancy and motherhood, and I love Erin’s newsletter for being funny and real and sane. It’s basically the only thing I want to read about pregnancy, ever.
Freezer meals: I’ve had freezer meals on the brain lately, as I’ve been meal-prepping a bunch of things ahead of time for us to eat once we have a newborn and limited time and energy to cook. I read a lot of guides to freezer meal prep, and if you’re looking for some inspiration or want to make something for the new parents in your lives, or just for yourself, I recommend this one from Pinch of Yum, this one from Molly Yeh, this one from Sweet Peas and Saffron, and this one from Eating Bird Food.
After all of that research, here’s what I ended up making and stocking in my freezer:
No-bake energy bites (so easy that I will probably make another batch next weekend)
Smitten Kitchen’s old-school baked ziti (I haven’t made this yet — but it’s the last project left on my list!)
Thanks for reading! If you like this newsletter, you can click the “heart” at the top of this post on Substack or share it on social media or forward to a friend — they can subscribe at nishachittal.substack.com. You can also leave a comment on this post to tell me what you think! And you can follow me on Twitter here and Instagram here.
I'm preparing for my first baby and coming back to this post from over a year ago. Thanks for the round up of freezer meals! Is there anything you learned or would change if you did it all over again?
Congratulations!