Sunday, July 31, 2011

Weekday Dinner Ideas

It's Sunday, so time to think about the rest of the week's dinner ideas, but it's so darned hot, I'm about ready to boycott. Rather than completely abdicating my responsibilities, I'll turn back to Mark Bittman's 101 20-Minute Dishes for Inspired Picnics for something cool and easy for tomorrow, this time looking to number six, chicken bites to be breaded in either panko or cornmeal (no corn flakes in this house), a timely dish since boneless chicken breasts/tenders are $1.88 a pound at Sprouts and Sunflower through Wednesday. The celery he mentions as a classic side dipper can also be had for just 99 cents a bunch for organic at both Sprouts and Sunflower through then. Plus, we have plenty of Caesar potato salad with sugar snap peas left over to complete an easy, cool meal.

To stay on a roll with easy dinners, for Tuesday, we'll have our reheat of something big made over the weekend, which this week will be the bacon-corn chowder with shrimp, featuring our local Munson Farms corn. A side salad, fresh bread, and that's it.

It will be time for pasta by Wednesday, and also time for something vegetarian, so I'm thinking about trying a new recipe from Cooking Light, linguine with two-cheese sauce. It calls for marscapone cheese, but I have in mind using the lite version of the cream cheese Sprouts has on sale instead.

With those boneless chicken breasts (Sprouts) and tenders (Sunflower) on sale for $1.88 a pound through Wednesday, I'll make sure I have enough to do Thursday's dinner, a new one from Bon Appetit, chicken breasts with tomato-herb pan sauce. This strikes me as a great summertime adaptation of a longtime winter favorite that requires baking in a hot oven, not so appealing at the moment. With green and wax beans everywhere at the Farmer's Market and the Cure Organic Farm store, those will be the perfect, summery side.

And that will get us through to Friday's planning, assuming I or my laptop don't melt by then.

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