Getting Started on This Week's Dinners

Sounds like tomorrow and Saturday will be a little gloomy here in Boulder, with a chance for showers, so I'll hold off on jumping outside to the grill. Think I'll start with a nice vegetarian standby, potatoes romanoff, since organic russets are $2.50 for a 5 pound bag at Sunflower (also on sale for $1/lb at Whole Foods, but that works out to twice as much). My version was originally published in that great classic, The Vegetarian Epicure, but this recipe looks identical. It withstands much-needed lightening up well, using lowfat cottage cheese (nonfat gives it a weird texture), and lowfat sour cream or even better, nonfat plain yogurt.

Then with shrimp on sale at both Sprouts and Sunflower (not at the greatest price, but the convenience of having them already peeled is built in), there's a recipe in the current issue of Bon Appetit that I'd like to try, shrimp and grits with spinach. I'll lighten it from the get-go by cutting the bacon at least in half, and probably using a mix of milk and broth. Grits (aka polenta) are easy to find in the bulk aisle at Whole Foods, and undoubtedly at our other stores as well. Hope the spinach will have come from Saturday's Farmers Market.

By Sunday, the forecast is looking a whole lot better, so hopefully it will be time to get grilling. Don't know if it will be a healthy choice, like the Copper River salmon or fresh Alaskan halibut on sale at Sprouts, or juicier and more decadent, like the pork shoulder ribs or beef ribs on sale at Sunflower. The whole meal can be done on the grill, including sweet potato spears (organic yams 99 cents a pound at Sunflower), and other grilled veggies like the organic zucchini that's 99 cents a pound at Whole Foods.

More ideas on the horizon.