Weekday Dinner Ideas

Time to get going on plans for tomorrow through Thursday. Happy Presidents' Day tomorrow, and the holiday affords a chance to either do more heavy duty cooking, or kick back and relax. I'll take the middle road, doing a baked polenta with fontina and tomato sauce, accompanied by some chicken sausages from the sale at Sprouts. My baked polenta recipe is from Bon Appetit, and although I don't see that they've posted it themselves, it has been replicated in this post. I find the polenta works out better doing the liquid at three cups rather than four, and substituting chicken broth for some of the water. You can also really speed this up by using jarred pasta sauce instead of making the tomato sauce from scratch.

We always have something for an easy midweek reheat, and this week, it will be today's roast chicken. Some families might not get that much mileage out of one chicken, but in that case, why not roast two today. Buttermilk mashed potatoes will go on the side, with organic russets $2.50 for a five pound bag at Sprouts, and organic red rose potatoes 99 cents a pound at Sunflower.

By Wednesday, we'll want something involving rice, and it will also be time for a vegetarian dinner. Since Sprouts has bulk cut hot pepper jack cheese on sale for $2.99 a pound, I'm reminded of something I haven't made in quite a while, quick Mexican corn risotto from Bon Appetit. If your fridge isn't already stocked with frozen corn, you'll find Sprouts' own brand on sale, Cascadian Farms organic veggies on sale at Sunflower, and Whole Foods' everyday prices on their own brand are always good.

I'm thinking of the 100% organic ground beef on sale at Sprouts for $4.99 a pound for Thursday, and I'll have to catch it by Wednesday to get that sale price. I first tried this recipe fairly recently, but it was such a hit, we'll revisit it: chipotle sloppy Joes from Cooking Light. Organic onions are on sale at both Sprouts and Sunflower, and we liked this served over baked potatoes (organic russets on sale at Sprouts), rather than on buns.

And that will get us through to next Friday's new ideas.