I have a busy week ahead since it’s the start of a new month, which means I am introducing a new menu in my cooking classes.  Last month’s Mexican menu was a huge success and I hope to post some or most of those recipes eventually.  This Thursday is Cinco de Mayo and there are lots of great recipes you can make in honor of the holiday.  Take a peek at my enchiladas post where I give lots of links to some great Mexican-inspired recipes.

I posted this video two years in a row and I still love it:

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My dinner planner this week needs to be Passover-friendly, at least until Saturday night at sundown when Passover ends.  Thats when my husband likes to carb-out like he’s been on “Survivor” and hasn’t seen a piece of bread or a grain in months.  It’s only 8 days without these, but psychologically he feels super deprived and all he can think about is pizza, pasta and bread on that last night.  It’s a cheat meal like no other!  Hope you all have a great week. xo

Here’s the dinner planner for this week:

Meatless Monday:  Caldo Tlapeno soup and green salad with Everyday Salad Dressing #2

Tuesday:  Swiss chard and potato gratin, simple roast chicken breasts (take bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts and rub with olive oil or melted butter, season generously with salt and pepper, although I prefer to salt the chicken when I bring it home from the market, roast at 375 for 35-40 minutes and broil for 30 seconds. Take temp of chicken with a meat thermometer and make sure it’s at 165 degrees.

Wednesday: Matzoh lasagne (feel free to add browned ground meat in between layers,) roasted asparagus

Thursday:  Ina’s Asian salmon, sesame spinach salad, roasted radishes

Friday:  Turkey meatloaf from It’s All Easy Cookbook (i’m going to try this with matzoh meal instead of oats), cauli-mashed potatoes, garlic broccoli

Saturday:  Pizza night to end Passover!

Sunday:  Chickpea burgers with pita and avocado and kale salad with creamy lemon dressing

 

Here’s what you can do ahead if you want:

Sunday

Make stock for soup (veggie recipe, chicken recipe)

Make all salad dressings and refrigerate

Make marinara sauce for lasagne and pizzas

Salt chicken for Tuesday

Make marinade for salmon and refrigerate

Wash Swiss chard and salad greens

Monday

Assemble Swiss chard gratin and refrigerate

Prep (wash, dry and trim) asparagus and radishes

Tuesday

Wash, dry and de-stem kale

Prep cauliflower for cauli-mash

Prep broccoli

 

Here’s where you can find all previous dinner planners.

My husband and daughter just returned from visiting colleges in the Northeast and the Midwest and they have reported it is freezing cold over there!  The weather here has been rainy and cool, so I’ve included a couple of soups and warming recipes to keep everyone cozy until spring decides to show up.

Speaking of freezing, there are many foods that freeze beautifully.  Consider making a double batch of something that you can eat today and freeze for a busy day.  Sometimes if I am wondering if something can survive the freezer, I’ll ask myself if I can find it in the freezer section at the market. Foods that generally freeze well:

• cooked grains
• cooked legumes (beans and lentils)
• cooked sauces like tomatillo and marinara
• stocks, soups (some dairy-based soups and soups with fresh leafy greens don’t freeze as well), stews and chilis (check out this post for how to properly freeze liquids)
• marinated chicken and beef
• casseroles
• cheese
• cookie dough, baked goods, breads, pie dough

Happy cooking!

Meatless Monday:  Roasted vegetable and black bean enchiladas with tomatillo salsa

Tuesday:  Spinach risotto and sauteed shrimp

Wednesday:  Thai coconut chicken soup, veggie summer rolls

Thursday:  Melissa Clark’s Spicy Ginger Pork Noodles with Bok Choy (I’m going to sub dark meat turkey and add some mushrooms)

Friday:  Zesty lemon quinoa, whole roasted branzino (so easy, try it!), grilled or steamed whole artichokes (using the dipping sauce in the recipe or just make a balsamic vinaigrette)

Saturday:  Cauliflower soup, hummus and crudités, cheese or dairy-free cheese and baguette

Sunday:  Kale, mushroom and brown rice bake, green salad with Everyday Salad Dressing #1

 

Here’s what you can prep ahead:

Sunday

Roast veggies for enchiladas

Cook black beans for enchiladas, unless using canned

Make tomatillo salsa

Make stock for this week’s soups (homemade chicken, vegetable or bone broth)

Prep veggies for summer rolls

Wash kale for rice bake

Make rice and freeze for rice bake (don’t forget to defrost the morning of)

Prep cauliflower for soup

Roast garlic for soup

 

Here are all previous dinner planners.

 

 

If you were away for Spring Break, I know it can be hard to get back in the kitchen and start cooking again.  Or, perhaps you are tired of eating out or being off your routine so you are excited to get back to your healthy way of eating.    Here’s a great dinner planner for this week to help you get back on track!

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Happy Easter to all of you celebrating!  The beginning of spring is my favorite time of year.  It is a time to clean out the old and bring in the new, to start fresh, a new beginning, a rebirth.  Doesn’t that sound like what we all need?  Well, the universe is conspiring to support that energy right now!

I have been and will continue to cook up a storm, recipe-testing for my classes, blog, magazines and other blogs all week long.  So I will be adhering very loosely to this dinner plan, in case you check out my instagram and wonder why I am eating something else.  As always, see what you can do to prep ahead to make your week go much more smoothly.  Here’s your dinner planner for this week:

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This week is the last week of the Cuban-inspired classes I am teaching this month.  I hope to get some good photos so I can post the recipes for you soon.  Everything has been getting rave reviews!  I am finishing up the final touches on my Mexican menu for April classes.  This is one of my most popular classes of the year.  I’ll try to remember to share some images on Instagram during the month.

But first, there’s a holiday coming up.  Easter is next Sunday, March 27th  and I know many of you are planning your menus.  We are going out for Easter this year, so I don’t have a personal menu to share, but I love coming up with ideas for you.   Check out the bottom of the menu for those.  Also, if you are boiling eggs for dying and you eventually want to eat them, it’s best to pick those up as soon as possible.  In my experience, the fresher the eggs, the harder they are to peel.  So you actually want older eggs.  Check out my video here for how to make the perfect boiled egg.  It never fails!

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I had a wonderful time at the Natural Products Expo this weekend exploring what’s new in the natural foods world.  There are so many incredible products to help support any number of diets, from vegan to Paleo to gluten-free to pegan (that’s Paleo-vegan, FYI.)  Of course, there are also those products touted as “natural” or “healthy” when the first ingredient is sugar.  Tsk, tsk.  The first thing I did before snapping a photo of a product or getting excited about something delicious-looking was to read the label.  It’s a good habit we all should have adopted by now.  If you want to know what’s in that food, the ingredient list will tell you. Remember that the listing of each ingredient is in descending order of predominance, which means that the ingredient that weighs the most is listed first, and the ingredient that weighs the least is listed last.  So if sugar is the first ingredient, there’s more sugar in that food than any other ingredient.  I’ll be sharing my new (healthful) obsessions in upcoming Friday Favorites or on Instagram.

In the meantime, it’s time to get this week’s meals planned and organized!

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