some new flavor

I seriously love it when the author of a book includes details about what the characters are eating, cooking, ordering in a resturant. I'm constantly looking for kitchen inspiration around what to cook for dinner or put in my kids lunch. I like people who appreciate food. We've started writing out weekly menus on Saturday mornings before grocery shopping in an attempt to avoid the nightly stop at Whole Foods, so I thought I'd begin to post them here. I'll link to specific recipes whenever I use them and will try and include details when I'm flying by the seat of my pants. Our approach is pretty easy, usually organic or local. Sundays usually bring something we can eat again in some form during the week. I don't love leftovers, but feel particularly resourceful when we can turn some portion of a meal into another meal. Pot roast becomes stew. Chicken breasts turn into tortilla soup. I'm also trying to eat meat sparely. Not just putting it on the menu out of habit or tradition, but because some forms of meat (hello! bacon) are too good to skip altogether.

SAT :: lasagna (we had MAS' homemade mushroom and olive tomato sauce in the freezer and I added spicy Italian sasuage and spinach)

SUN :: turkey meatball sliders and salad (the only salad I'm making these days is arugula, dried cherries and toasted walnuts). I used the Little Owl slider recipe mostly for the sauce ideas (minus the fennel). The meatballs were made by MAS and were pretty straight forward: ground turkey, egg, basil, a little red wine, some bread crumbs pulled from a loaf of sourdough and an egg.

MON :: leftover split pea soup (from last week) and bread and cheese

TUES :: lemon arugula pasta. I use orecchiette pasta and skip the broccoli. I also substitute whole milk or half and half for the cream that's called for and throw in a handful of bacon (hello! bacon) or pancetta. We're huge fans of asiago over parmesan.

WED :: leftover lasagna and salad

THURS :: flank steak with lime dipping sauce and broccoli salad. The lime sauce is the juice of three limes, salt and pepper and a pinch of sugar and I'm skipping the ginger in the broccoli salad.

FRI :: eat out.

SAT :: butterfly lamb (Trader Joe's), cucumber, sour cream and red wine vinegar salad and orzo/arugula/kalmata olives tossed together.