Weekend Dinner Ideas

Quick rundown, especially easy since only one recipe is involved.  The very big Gulf shrimp on sale now for $8.99 a pound at both Sprouts and the Longmont Lucky's Market ($9.99 at the Boulder Lucky's) have me thinking Low Country foods, like shrimp and grits for tonight.  My favorite is the lightened approach of smoky shrimp and grits from Food and Wine magazine, cutting out the traditional butter, cutting down on the cheese, and adding fresh spinach, yum.  Haven't checked this week, but both Sprouts and Lucky's have had very good prices on organic baby spinach in bulk recently.

I'm definitely getting to Whole Foods today for some of that fine (albeit farmed) Norwegian salmon that's a very good $8.99 a pound today only ($7 off their usual price) so that it can go on the grill tomorrow.  If the family griller tires of grilling in the dark at this time of year, it can always go on the grill pan inside, but with weather looking beautiful for the weekend after our recent chills, grilling looks tempting.  I'll be stocking up on the asparagus that Sprouts has for an astonishing $1.68 a pound to go on the side.

We'll still need something big on the weekend that will serve as an easy midweek reheat, and all sales, plus the change of seasons, seem to be pointing to a simple roast chicken.  At Sprouts this week they're $1.59 a pound, at Lucky's with their "never ever" high standards $1.69 a pound in Longmont, but $2.49 for the Boulder Lucky's, and $2.39 a pound at Vitamin Cottage.  So glad I have access to Longmont, for as long as these grand opening-style specials hold out there.  Winter squashes and the like are simple to roast on the side, notably local organic acorn, butternut, or spaghetti squash for 99 cents a pound at either the Boulder or Longmont Lucky's.  So nice to have both local and organic at under $1 a pound.  And more of that asparagus from the incredible Sprouts sale will also do well in the oven.

Which quickly wraps it up.