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Monday, August 2, 2010

Menu Plan for the week of August 1, 2010



This is part of the Gluten Free Menu Swap, hosted by Wendy of Celiacs in the House this week. Cheryl at Gluten Free Goodness has the details for the swap.

I'm very torn at the moment: The farmers markets are stuffed with the most gorgeous summer produce and I want to buy it all. At the same time I'm feeling really busy in the rest of my life and not wanting to do lots of cooking. So I'm trying not to be too ambitious in our menu plan, instead making more repeats and things that require little or no recipe.

We're off to a good start this week: we made Jon's dad's baked beans for the first time and they were so good and summery, especially with the coleslaw. It's been a relatively cool summer in the Bay Area this year, but at least we can still eat this and dream of hotter days.

SUNDAY
hot dogs, Jon's dad's baked beans, coleslaw (the mayo version)

MONDAY
Grilled summer veggie and chickpea salad
We made this two weeks ago and loved it!  Post coming later this week.

Make the okra nuggets for Thursday and freeze, uncooked.  I've been reading that okra only stores well for a couple days so this seems like a good way to simplify prep later in the week and have the best flavor.  I've only recently discovered that I like okra, but it is great!

Grill extra eggplant for the pesto.

WEDNESDAY
Pesto (make a large batch) with pasta, grilled chicken, thin zucchini slices (like noodles), and eggplant

We learned the hard way that pesto only works in our food processor if we make a large batch.  It's actually pretty awesome because we freeze the extra and it makes future dinners super simple. No recipe for this one--well, I think Jon might use a recipe from Saveur Cooks Authetic Italian for the pesto.

Use the eggplant grilled the night before.  Reheat so that it absorbs flavors better.

THURSDAY
Grilled steak, crash hot potatoes, baked okra nuggets

I didn't plan this so well since both the potatoes and okra need the oven. I may try making the okra in our toaster oven.  We'll see.

We're a huge fan of the crash hot potatoes: they get super crispy on the outside.

FRIDAY
tom yum soup with leftover vegetables (zucchini, Asian greens, cherry tomatoes, kohlrabi)

We don't follow the recipe exactly. We make a much smaller amount, used chopped serrano chilis, substitute lime peel for the kaffir lime leaves, and end up using whatever vegetables we have on hand.  We try to make this only with homemade chicken stock.


We also have a bunch of strawberries and peaches that I couldn't resist.  Some we'll eat for dessert and the rest I'd love to turn into a cobbler.  I'll probably end up too lazy and instead just cut them up and freeze them for smoothies in the near future.

I also bought a bunch of zucchini with hopes of make zucchini bread.  That project will wait for Saturday morning.

And I just borrowed Ready for Dessert by David Lebovitz from the library and am dying to make amaretti.  I think they'd be perfect with all this summer fruit.  But we'll see.  I guess I just can't resist cooking...

1 comment:

Cheryl Harris said...

I love David Lebovitz's recipes. And you surely deserve a break from cooking!
Have a great week

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