A Week's Worth of Dinner Ideas

I'm a little more organized this week, and the whole week of ideas fell together at once.

To start, I'm thinking it's time to improvise a nice pizza at home. I particularly like the fresh multigrain dough sold at Whole Foods (white is available as well, and I know Sunflower carries fresh dough too, haven't looked yet at Sprouts). The dough from Whole Foods makes a pretty big pizza. You can either use the whole ball to fill an entire cookie sheet (I know, technically a jelly roll pan, but everybody I know calls the big, flat thing with a lip around the edge a cookie sheet), or you can freeze half the ball to make two smaller pizzas. Poultry is looking good at this week's sales, with turkey tenderloin still on sale at Whole Foods at $2.99/lb, while both Sprouts and Sunflower are offering chicken sausages also at $2.99/lb. The turkey is such a good deal, I'm going to go with that again, although the sausages would also be great (I have an idea for them later). Other toppings after sauteing the turkey will probably include onion and garlic, tomatoes or pasta sauce, thinly sliced fresh fennel, and fresh mozzeralla (on sale at both Sunflower, $3.99 or Sprouts, 2 for $7, and Whole Foods has its own brand always at a good price) or parmesan (Sprouts' ad says bulk cut Reggianito is on sale for $5.99, surely must be domestic or the Argentinian one, both good).

Next will be a nice, warm cod chowder with saffron and fingerling potatoes, originally published in Bon Appetit. This is an easy, quick recipe that I make even easier and cheaper through some modifications like skipping the pricey saffron (although I'd love to try it with), and substituting cheaper chicken broth for two of the three bottles of clam juice. It's also even delicious with the cream omitted. The cod won't be a problem, as Sprouts is advertising previously frozen Alaskan cod at $4.99/lb.

Next in the warm and comfy mode will be a baked polenta with fontina recipe that was originally published in Bon Appetit, but isn't on their site. My adaptation is super easy. Make polenta using a cup of polenta (available for cheap in bulk at Whole Foods) and 3 cups of broth/milk/water, whisking until it is thick. The quick cooking polenta, sometimes also labelled as grits, is so easy and cheap, I don't understand why people pay bucks for the precooked product. Use olive oil or Earth Balance to grease an 8x8 pan, then layer some bottled pasta sauce, half the polenta, a cup of grated fontina or mozzarella, more sauce, the rest of the polenta, another cup of cheese, and finally more sauce. Bake at 350 for around 25 minutes. The original recipe called for letting the prepared casserole stand for two hours before baking, but I've never had time for that. Also on the menu will be sauteed chicken sausages on sale at both Sunflower and Sprouts, with something like chard on the side.

Since I need to use the last big potatoes from a sale bag of russets, next will be baked potatoes with spiced beef chili, also from Bon Appetit. This is another good fit, since I still have a bunch of burger in the freezer from the 99 cents Whole Foods sale. If you're looking for burger, Sprouts is advertising "extra lean" at $2.99/lb.

Then simplicity itself, a reheat of the remaining cod chowder with a salad for another night's dinner.

Pasta hasn't appeared yet in the week, and neither has a vegetarian dinner, so it's time for a vegetarian pasta. I'm thinking pasta with marinated artichoke hearts, which I haven't made in awhile. I think this was originally published in one of the Moosewood cookbooks, but if you google it, you'll find it has been picked up in a lot of places, including here. I like to double the 1/2 cup recommendations for cottage cheese and sour cream, and use nonfat plain yogurt instead of the sour cream. I always have a big container of Straus European Style nonfat yogurt in the fridge (amazing how they can get a nonfat product to taste so creamy), and this week, Sprouts has it on sale for $2.99, a very good price for that big 32 ounce container.

Finally, it's time for something with rice and maybe an Asian spin, so how about stir-fried beef, broccoli, and yams, yet again from Bon Appetit, served over brown rice with maybe some edamame from the freezer cooked on the side. Instead of flank steak, I'd use convenient stew beef, which is on sale at Sprouts this week for $3.99/lb.

Pretty wordy, but there's the week!