Weekly Menu & Recipes

This week is a little longer than usual. I won't get into the whole explanation so let's just say I can't always get to the grocery store on the same day every week so sometimes I have to plan more meals in advance than normal.

So here's what's being eaten in JLK's dining room this week:

Walnut-Breadcrumb Pasta w/ a Soft Egg. Ate this tonight. I thought it was pretty good, my husband didn't like it at all and told me to throw away the recipe. So I won't be making this again. My recommendations - absolutely MUST use fresh linguine, I think it would be disgusting with dried linguine; I didn't think there was any added value using a fresh French bread loaf, I think it would've been fine with some regular old breadcrumbs; If I was going to make it again, I wouldn't grind the walnuts up as finely as I did this time. I think a coarse grind would have added some interesting textural variation; Finally, don't skip the goat cheese unless you're morally opposed to it or something. It's just too damn good to leave out.

Chicken w/ Creamy Dijon sauce + Yukon gold mashed potatoes + veggies. The chicken is a new one for us, I'll let you know how it comes out in the comments.

Southwest Salsa Burgers + Herbed Sweet Potato Fries. If you try no other recipe that I post on this blog, try this one. (Both, actually, but especially the burgers.) Get the good fresh salsa that they keep in the produce section with the prechopped veggies and salad. I like to use Sargento sliced reduced-fat pepper jack cheese on mine, and I often skip the tomato slices and just put the extra salsa on top. These come out so juicy, so flavorful, so good, it's ridiculous. I've even made them as sliders to bring to a party. The sweet potato fries are so quick and easy but the taste is amazing. I don't even measure the herbs anymore, just sprinkle them on as I please. I use Alexia frozen sweet potato fries that I get at Costco to make them and they're fantastic. I guarantee your kids will love them!

Turkey Sausage-Gnocchi Soup. I made this one a couple of weeks ago and my husband has been asking ever since for me to make a big batch of it and freeze some for his work lunches. So that's what I'll be doing on Sunday. See my previous post about this recipe here. The review is in the comments section.

Falafel w/ Avocado Spread. We'll be trying this one on Monday. Supposedly Cooking Light's best vegetarian entree.

Lemony Chicken Saltimbocca w/ angel hair pasta. I have made this one before. A loves it, I thought it was pretty good and easy. We're mainly eating it this week because I have another recipe that uses prosciutto and I didn't want to waste any. I won't be using the fresh sage leaves this time though because it's not worth the cost of a package for just the 2 of us, so I'll be sprinkling with sage instead. This is a very pretty dish, worthy of serving to company (it really does look like this when you make it):

Chicken w/ Pico de Gallo + Cilantro rice. This recipe is a freebie, because I won't be making the pico de gallo as described. Instead I'm going to use some more of the fresh salsa I bought for my salsa burgers. That means I'm basically salt & peppering the chicken, frying it, and throwing some salsa on top. Works for me! The cilantro rice recipe is on the same page in the magazine issue but doesn't appear to be online. I've struck out with every other basic rice from them with my husband, but this one has more to it than just cilantro and salt so I'm hoping this one will be good. I'll let you know!

Rotini, Summer Squash & Prosciutto Salad w/ Rosemary Dressing. This is what I bought the prosciutto for. Hopefully the weather stays relatively warm on Thursday so I'll feel all summery eating a fancy salad for dinner!

Chicken & Black Bean-Stuffed Burritos + Roasted Red Pepper & Corn Salsa. We LOVED this burrito recipe the last time I made it, so I'm excited to have it again. I was thrown for a side dish though, so I did some hunting on the Cooking Light website and found this salsa. I'm planning on trying it warm, I think. We'll see how it goes!