Weekday Dinner Ideas

It might be Easter, but the rest of the week's dinner plans are calling. Actually tonight's beautiful Beeler ham from Alfalfa's is going to make the rest of the week's planning a cinch.

For tomorrow, since tonight's feast will be heavier than usual, we'll counter with a vegetarian dish, celebrating spring with a risotto of spring veggies. It can be easily improvised, starting with a base of sauteed shallots, leeks, or onions (too bad there was no green garlic at yesterday's Farmer's Market!), rice added on top of that and cooked with broth, then veggies of choice added when they'll just barely get cooked, topped with a bit of grated parmesan. For a more structured approach, you could do something like risotto alla primavera from Bon Appetit.

Our Easter ham will make for an easy reprise on Tuesday, with slices heated on the grill pan or saute pan. For variety, we'll bake yams in lieu of russets on the side (organic yams are 99 cents a pound at Sunflower), with some other green veggie also going on the side (organic chard is $1.50 a bunch at Alfalfa's). While the grill pan is out, we might give a quick heating to some pineapple slices to go with the ham (conventional pineapples are $1.25 each at Sunflower).

For Wednesday (the last day of the current sales at Sprouts and Sunflower), we'll divert to Asian cuisine. Looking to finish off my giant bag of spinach from the Farmer's Market (only about half will fit in tomorrow's spring risotto), I'll turn to a recipe in the current issue of Cooking Light, stir-fried rice noodles with beef and spinach. It calls for a hefty amount of green onions, which were all over yesterday's Farmer's Market and are also on sale for just 50 cents a bunch (organic of course) at Alfalfa's. You can slice the top sirloin as instructed (top sirloin $5.99 a pound at Sprouts) or take a speedier and cheaper approach, using pre-cut stew beef instead ($3.99 a pound at Sunflower).

To finish off the planning through Thursday, I expect the remainder of tonight's wonderful ham will still be haunting me, and a good way to finally finish it off will be a spin on Mark Bittman's more vegetable than egg frittata from the New York Times, adding in diced ham along with the veggies. If you're looking to minimize the cholesterol impact of this, although it only calls for a couple of eggs, a product like Nulaid's cage free ReddiEgg makes a fine substitute. I've found it every time I've looked for it in a natural grocery store in town.

And that will get us through to next Friday's planning. Enjoy the day and hope for more rain tonight!