Weekday Dinner Ideas

Sunday comes around all too quickly, so it's time to think about dinners for the rest of the week. Given the abundance of fresh produce we have available at this time of year, it's actually harder because the possibilities are so many! Because of that, I've decided to completely wing a pasta dish for tomorrow. My starting point will be the chicken tenders that Sprouts has for the ridiculously low price of $1.77 a pound. They'll get sauteed in a bit of olive oil, along with some garlic and maybe some onion, then let the improvisation begin. Practically anything picked up at yesterday's Farmer's Market could go in, but I'm also eyeing the $1.57 a pound asparagus from Sunflower and the $1.50 pints of organic grape tomatoes from Sprouts as possibilities, too. A few already pitted Kalamata olives from the Whole Foods olive bar add a salty zing. Save a little of the pasta cooking water to moisten the finished product if needed after you add the drained pasta to the sauce, grate some fresh parmesan on top, and voila, you have your own, restaurant-worthy creation. In addition to a salad, one of the baguettes that Whole Foods has for just 99 cents right now (at least at the Pearl Street store) would be fine on the side.

For Tuesday, we'll do our usual reheat of something big made over the weekend, which this week is the corn and sweet potato chowder with chipotle. In addition to another salad, how French can we be with our daily purchase of another one of those wonderful Whole Foods baguettes for just 99 cents?

By Wednesday, we'll be looking for a rice-based dish, and all signs are pointing to garlic pork with tomato and basil from Cooking Light, served over brown rice. Sunflower makes it easy with pork stew meat at $2.99 a pound and organic on-the-vine tomatoes for $1.88 a pound. While the fresh basil is widely available in stores, mine will be from an increasingly-needed whacking from my own herb garden. I see a pesto in the near future.

Finally, for Thursday, we haven't enjoyed enough of Munson's corn yet this week, and with freshly roasted chiles already making their appearance at Sunflower (plus those chicken tenders on sale at Sprouts for $1.77 a pound at Sprouts through Wednesday), we just have to do chicken burritos with poblano chiles and corn from Bon Appetit. Truth be told, I still have a few roasted chiles from last season in my freezer to finish off, and now seems to be a good time to do it. I'm not sure how Sunflower has those roasted chiles so early, as they generally come a little later (confirmed in conversations yesterday at the Farmer's Market and Whole Foods).

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