Dinner Planning - Week Two

I'm happy to announce we made it through another week of successful dinner planning. In case you missed it, here's week one. I have to tell you, I'm hooked. I'm really not the most organized person, but planning dinners has been a game changer. We had quick yummy and diverse meals, and we're not stuck with any leftovers for the weekend. Success! So why wouldn't I share what we ate last week? But before we get to that, let's look my list of dinner options. Every week, I'm choosing five meals from this list to make during the week. Eventually I'll add more recipes and I'm sure this will change in the summer (anyone else out there who could grill 7 days a week all summer long?), but this is a good go-to-list for us. If you do have any family favorites, I'd love it if you left a comment on this post for me! 

This list is clearly just for inspiration and quick decision making. If something on the list inspires us to something else, we'll just go for it. Also keep in mind that one item on the list can refer to a variety of options. Take "salad" for example - this can be a big taco salad with chicken, a side potato salad, or - as we did last week - a big pasta salad that served as a side for multiple days. The same goes for the pasta dishes and enchiladas - try different veggies, different sauces, different meats and it won't feel like you're always eating the same things and you can be flexible when something is in season or on sale. 

So - let's look at what last week looked like! 

Monday

I went to Trader Joe's last weekend and decided to make a super easy pasta salad that we used to make there as samplers for customers when I worked there a few years ago. All you need is: 1 bag of pasta (I like the colorful veggie kind), 1 can of artichoke hearts, 1 bag of sundried tomatoes, and a bottle of goddess salad dressing (or the champagne one. yum!). It doesn't taste like your average pasta salad and is so easy to make. Then we breaded and fried sliced eggplant; the boys had them on a sandwich with mayo, I prefer them plain. Quick and easy, and I was surprised and happy that Noah loves them too. 

Tuesday 

 On Tuesday, we finished the pasta salad and threw some brats on the grill. These are the fantastic authentic German brats, also from Trader Joe's. 

Wednesday 

On Wednesday we ate a artichoke spinach pasta casserole that I made a couple of weeks ago - we ate one right away and I had put another one in the freezer. It just needed to be warmed up. Here's a link to the recipe I used as inspiration: 
http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/spinach-and-artichoke-baked-whole-grain-pasta.html

 Thursday

It doesn't get any easier than this. Cut up veggies and brats, add salt, pepper and olive oil, put in a baking dish or on a pan, add cheese if you feel like it, bake it, done. 

 Friday

We still had meatballs in the freezer (I made a big batch a few weekends ago), they just needed to be heated up in the microwave. Same with the bag of peas. The most time consuming part here was making mashed potatoes. Yes, it doesn't get better than this. Most gourmet-ish food ever? Absolutely not. But still tasty and so easy to make.