More Dinners For This Week

Happy daylight savings. If it's Sunday, it must be time to get the rest of the week organized. As usual, the midweek cooking should be really quick and easy, so for tomorrow I have a simple stir-fry in mind using a new recipe from the October issue of Bon Appetit, beef, shiitake, and snow pea stir-fry, using either the top sirloin that's $2.99/lb at Sprouts, or speeding it up even more by using their pre-cut stew beef at $3.99/lb. Wow, so far, Bon Appetit's reviewers are giving this recipe four forks out of four, plus it gets points for being veggie-intensive. We'll probably serve it over soba noodles instead of rice, since I have another idea for rice for later in the week.

Then, of course, it's time for our easy reheat of the week, this time being the sweet potato and sausage soup, again with a salad and a nice hunk of fresh bread on the side.

For Wednesday, with organic butternut squash just 69 cents a pound at Sprouts, and pretty big 31/40 count shrimp $5.99/lb at Sunflower, how about butternut squash risotto with shrimp from Bon Appetit. Anything involving shrimp, butternut squash, and pancetta makes autumn cooking a joy. (The cheese counter at the Pearl Street Whole Foods will give you exactly the amount of pancetta you need for this.)

Finally for our Thursday menu, we'll just toss the recipes aside and go for a simple meal of sauteed pork chops with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, microwaved "baked" potatoes (don't forget the fabulous deal on 5 lb bags of organic russets at Vitamin Cottage), and veggie of choice, maybe the beets that are $1.50 a bunch at Sunflower.

That does it for the planning for the week, but I might stock up on organic yams and butternut squash while they're at such great prices (and keep so well), as I'm longing for a sweet potato and butternut squash soup that would be perfect this week but just didn't have time to fit in.