What’s For Dinner?
By Shelly Murray
Isn’t that the dreaded question – facing just about all of us – on a daily basis? There are ways to make this process easier, while creating healthy delicious meals that everyone in your family will enjoy and appreciate. I thought I’d share some thoughts about how I “attack” this and I plan on sharing a new menu with you each month. Excited to learn more? I hope so!!
I’ll start with an overview of what I did this last week. Hopefully, some of my ideas and shortcuts will help. However, these are just my ideas, you can cook exactly what I prepared or you can take any part of my menu and add to it with your own tasty, healthy, family friendly foods. You’ll find the recipes for the menus I create as part of this blog’s regular content, so if you’ve not yet subscribed to the feed, scoot on over and do it now so that you won’t miss anything! This month’s recipes are Hardy Lentil Soup and Lemon Caper Vinaigrette - delicious!
I’m a big fan of what I call “power cooking”. I try and prepare lots of food at the beginning of the week, so that it can tide us over for almost a full week. If I manage to not have to make a trip to the grocery store during the week, I consider it a big success! Please note the meals mentioned in this post are servings for one person, so you can modify the amounts as needed if you’re trying to feed more.
Here’s what I did this past week:
On Sunday evening, I made a baked potato and a big salad. On the baked potato, I put a dollop of butter, some salt and pepper, a tablespoon or two of real sour cream and topped it all off with some chives I just cut from my garden. When I was making the salad, I knew I’d want to eat it multiple times throughout the week, so I made an extra big one. I included Romaine lettuce, cabbage, zucchini, cucumber, red pepper, green pepper and fresh dill, I then topped it with ¼ avocado and cherry tomatoes. I made a dressing that was quick and easy, consisting of 1 Cup of Vegenaise mayo and 2 Tbs. of buttermilk ranch dressing. I added some spices that I bought locally at Penzeys . Penzeys also has a great online catalog if you are not local to the Kansas City area. I usually try and use no more than 2 Tbs of dressing on my salads, so if you can use that as a guide, you’ll be in good shape. That night, I also pulled out two chicken breasts from the freezer to thaw for use the following night.
Monday morning before work, I made a lentil soup and marinated the chicken, and then cooked one cup of quinoa. That evening, I cooked the chicken on the grill and added 2 oz. of chicken to a plate of salad (made the night before) and served it with a cup of the lentil soup.
Tuesday’s dinner was again a cup of lentil soup and 2 more oz. of chicken on my salad, this time with a scoop of quinoa on top and the ranch dressing drizzled over the top of that.
On Wednesday, I went asparagus picking, so to my salad that night I added asparagus and a scoop of the quinoa. That was the last of that salad, so I decided to make something different for Thursday night - it was probably time for a change anyway. Four days of one “meal basic” is probably about enough, so I was looking forward to changing it up!
Thursday, I was still enjoying the bounty from the asparagus picking, so I made an asparagus soup and a green bean salad to go with it. I did have to go to the grocery store to pick up a few ingredients for the soup that I didn’t have in the pantry, but it was a short ‘in and out’ trip!
Friday night I threw together whatever was left over from the week so I didn’t have to spend any extra time in the kitchen!
Saturday I went out!
