Friday, November 12, 2010

Getting Started on This Week's Dinners

With this newly chilly weather, so many comfy stews and casseroles are coming to mind, I'd better pare the ideas down to avoid a refrigerator full of leftovers. Considering that, we'll have to start tonight with sockeye salmon simply done on the grill pan, since Sprouts has their very nice "flash frozen at sea" wild Alaskan salmon for $8.99/lb this week. A fitting side would be herbed rice from Boulder's own Happy Noodle restaurant, a recipe that appeared in last month's Bon Appetit (the issue that crowned Boulder as America's Foodiest Town 2010).

Then with snow possible for tomorrow into Sunday, it's on to the real comfort food. A big, warming soup would be good, so I'm thinking sweet potato and butternut squash soup from the New York Times (one of their "recipes for health" - how very Boulder also). Organic yams are 99 cents a pound this week at Sprouts, and I'd just peel the conventional butternut that's a mere 39 cents a pound at Sunflower. Three choices of organic lettuce are available at both Sprouts and Sunflower for 99 cents a head for the side salad, and toss a 3 for $1 avocado from Sunflower on top of it. Since the soup is vegetarian, a protein treat would be to start with shrimp cocktails from today's one-day sale on cooked shrimp at Whole Foods, half off at $5.99/lb.

To finish off the weekend with another comfort food, with chicken tenders $1.97/lb at Sprouts, I'm thinking of chicken paprikash from Cooking Light. This belongs served over big egg noodles, which pack a cholesterol wallop, so if you're watching that, I've recently discovered that Pappardelle's carries a beautiful variety of pricey but cholesterol-free pastas, including the lovely wide noodle that is their namesake. They've been regulars at the Boulder Farmers Market, and should be there again tomorrow, unless the cold weather scares everybody away.

Stay warm, think comfort foods, and start planning for Thanksgiving.

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