Weekday Dinner Ideas

As we continue our stretch of gorgeously warm weather into October, it's time to get going on dinner ideas for the rest of the week. I'm obviously obsessed with our fresh, local corn, and even more so as the end of the season draws near. In addition to eating it straight off the cob, I've already put it in four or five chowder recipes and a bunch of pasta dishes. Looking for another pasta-with-corn recipe to make tomorrow evening, I found myself in a fantasy versus reality situation. A recipe I haven't yet made this season that really appeals is tagliatelle with fresh corn pesto from Bon Appetit, which would have the advantage of using more of my basil that needs to be finished off. But in looking at the amount of work involved in that recipe, I decided it's just a little too involved for a weeknight, so let's just call it a "serving suggestion." Instead, I'll opt for an easy one I've already made this season, linguine with summer succotash, made easier by skipping the blending business and just putting all the corn straight into the pan. Since we're long past local sugar snap peas, I'll keep it seasonal by substituting organic zucchini from yesterday's Farmers' Market instead. I'll also change it up by adding some chicken sausage, since today's the last day of Sprouts' 72 hour sale, with chicken sausage just $1.99 a pound. With that many changes, I guess it's my own recipe.

Tuesday will be our usual reheat of something big made over the weekend, which in this case will be the pork green chili I made last night by winging it, without opening a cookbook. To keep it lean, I used the center-cut pork chops that are on sale at Sprouts for just $1.99 a pound this week. The green chiles were freshly roasted from Whole Foods, where the $1.99 a pound sale is over, but $2.99 a pound still beats the price at the Farmers' Market by a mile (and I believe they're stil $1.99 a pound at Sunflower).

For Wednesday, with Rondele a very good price at $3.99 each at Sprouts through that day (and it's very similar to Boursin), and ground chicken or turkey breast on sale at Sunflower, that spells Boursin-stuffed turkey burgers from Gourmet magazine. Sprouts also has great prices through Wednesday for organic cluster tomatoes ($1.50 a pound), avocados (49 cents each), and organic lettuce ($1.69 a head, although Sunflower beats that by 19 cents) to put on the side. We like these served open-faced on toast, rather than in a gigantic roll, and my favorite bread is Ezekiel's, which is $3.39 through Wednesday at Sprouts, but even better at Vitamin Cottage for most of the month at $2.99.

We'll finish Thursday off with an easy round of pork chops, since the $1.99 a pound sale through Wednesday at Sprouts is such an outstanding price (some should go in the freezer as well). Sprouts also has organic yams through then at $1.49 a pound to bake as a colorful alternative to a potato. (If going for organic russets instead, through Wednesday, Sprouts and Sunflower are equivalent, with them 99 cents a pound at Sunflower, and five pound bags of them $4.99 each at Sprouts. That's math that doesn't require a calculator.)

And that will get us through to Friday's planning. I seem to be rather verbose today. Think there's a bit of extra caffeine in my primarily decaf coffee this morning.