Dinner Ideas For The Week (Almost)

Almost, because I haven't figured out next Thursday yet, but that's always something super simple like a salmon burger or pork chop. While I usually turn to the Boulder natural grocery specials for inspiration, other things factor in, and this week that includes using my final Red Wagon Organic Farm CSA pickup for the year, a forecast of lovely dry weather for the weekend, and the Daylight Savings change bearing down on us soon, all of which adds up to grilling for the weekend!

For tonight, some of the beautiful Norwegian salmon from Whole Foods' one-day sale today (look a few posts below for details) will go on the grill, along with some foil packages of organic fingerling potatoes that I captured Tuesday on the last day of Whole Foods' nearly half price sale, dressed with olive oil and a bit of parsley. I'm hoping to get some of our last ears of Munson corn for the season later today (haven't been out there recently, and I hope they haven't been hit by any freak frost).

Tomorrow will be back to the grill, this time with boneless NY strip steaks that the Lucky's Market in Longmont has for just $5.98 a pound this week. Sorry no time to check Boulder Lucky's, but I'd bet this special is limited to Longmont, as it's the "natural" meat they do there, as opposed to the "never ever" meats of the Boulder Lucky's. For a side, I'll try a new recipe from Bon Appetit, squash with dates and thyme, although if Whole Foods still has figs, I might already tinker with the recipe by substituting those. Brussels sprouts from the CSA pickup will also go nicely with the steaks.

Still needing something big on the weekend that will also serve as an easy midweek reheat, wanting something vegetarian after those steaks, wanting to give the family griller a break, and also needing to use the lovely collard greens from my CSA pickup, that absolutely calls for baked rigatoni with ricotta and collard greens from Cooking Light. With the oven going, I might try roasting my sunchokes from Red Wagon too (one last challenge from the CSA!).

I'm grabbing some smoked gouda from Whole Foods during this weekend's three-day sale with a favorite pizza in mind for Monday, barbecue chicken pizza from Bon Appetit. I have plenty of chicken breasts in my freezer from Lucky's excellent sale, but both Sprouts and Whole Foods are offering special prices on them this week (look below to the Wednesday sale post).

Tuesday will be our easy reheat of something big made over the weekend, which this week is the baked rigatoni casserole. Salad on the side will keep it extra simple.

With a freezer full of batches of my own pesto, for Wednesday I want to try a new pasta recipe from Bon Appetit, pasta with pesto, shrimp and cured ham from Bon Appetit. Sprouts has some already peeled shrimp on sale through Wednesday.

So aside from having not yet planned Thursday, which is always something simple, that gets us through a full week and uses all the bounty of my final Red Wagon CSA pickup for the season.