More Dinners For This Week

Back to thinking about what to do with this week's good deals, here's how things are shaping up. With asparagus at $1.77/lb and organic romas 99 cents at Sunflower (and they have whole wheat pastas perpetually on sale for $1.39), I'm thinking it's time to break out of the midwinter hard squash doldrums with penne with asparagus and basil, originally published in Bon Appetit. This works fine substituting dried basil for fresh (particularly in January), and I might toss in a little fresh spinach to wilt into the sauce, too.

With this week's pork sales and a chance to use more romas, it will then be time for garlic pork with tomato and basil over brown rice, published in Cooking Light. With pork tenderloin at $3.99/lb at both Sprouts and Sunflower, you could make it as written, or save yourself slicing time and some money by using pork stew meat, $2.99/lb at Sunflower, instead. And again, substituting a small amount of dried basil works fine.

I've mentioned the salmon sales wars in my weekly deals sidebar, so a simple, quick dinner of sauteed or grilled salmon, baked (read microwaved) potato, and a side of kale ($1.50 a bunch at Whole Foods) sauteed with a little garlic and crushed red pepper sounds good.

Finally, with bulk organic whole quinoa on sale for $1.99/lb at Whole Foods, and my friends raving about the stuff, think I'll try the vegetarian recipe I already mentioned to them, quinoa risotto with mushrooms and thyme, recently published in Bon Appetit. Quinoa is evidently quite stellar on the protein front.

And that will do it for the week!