Weekday Dinner Ideas

To get the weekday cooking started, we haven't had anything with rice for awhile, so I'm thinking spring with shrimp risotto with baby spinach and basil from Bon Appetit. It's jumping the gun a bit in terms of local produce, but spinach and basil from the store will be just fine. I might add some asparagus pieces to the risotto while they have some time to cook, or steam it on the side, since the asparagus sales at Sprouts (for conventional) and King Soopers (for organic) are calling me.

Then as usual, we have something big made over the weekend that will serve as an easy midweek reheat, and in this week's case, it's the New England seafood chowder. All you have to do is make a salad for the side.

For Wednesday, we'll go easy again, sauteing some chicken breasts, since Sunflower is doing a 50% off all chicken sale. Breading the boneless, skinless ones with a little panko and herbs dresses them up a bit. Sunflower also has organic russet potatoes for 99 cents a pound, so those will go in the microwave for a "baked" potato side, plus something green, like sauteed chard.

To round out this week's planning, there hasn't been any pasta yet, so I'm in the mood to swing back into spring with pasta with peas, prosciutto and lettuce from the New York Times, possibly adding more asparagus caught before this week's sales end on Tuesday (King Soopers) or Wednesday (Sprouts). Peas from the freezer will be just fine, although Sunflower actually has organic English peas on sale through Wednesday. For the Parmesan, don't forget to stock up by Wednesday at Sprouts, where all bulk cheese is 30% off.

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