Happy Sunday!  I am preparing this week for one graduation — can you believe my second daughter is graduating from high school?  The big news is that she has decided to go to the same college as her sister, which was sort of a surprise but certainly makes my life easier!  My parents are coming into town for the big event, which is why pasta is on the menu for Thursday and why I am stocking up on espresso and bread from Gjusta.  And my daughter picked out the menu for her graduation dinner.  Next week is my son’s 6th grade promotion, so there will be a lot of celebrating the next couple of weeks!

 

Meatless Monday:  Grain and veggie bowls (use what you’ve got!) with cilantro-lemon-tahini sauce (I’m going to blend in some fresh cilantro into this sauce.) I might cook some brown rice and black beans for these bowls and freeze the extras to use in Sunday’s veggie burgers.

Tuesday:  Grilled copper river salmon Nicoise with vegetables (from this month’s Bon Appetit, although the recipe calls for halibut)

Wednesday:  Whole roasted chicken with carrots and onions, simple rice pilaf

Thursday:  Pasta with 5-minute cherry tomato sauce, mixed green salad with chickpeas, cucumbers, red onion, toasted pine nuts, Everyday Salad Dressing #1

Friday:  (Graduation dinner at home) grilled skirt steaks with chimichurri, grilled green onions, corn on the cob, farro salad with peaches and chives, strawberry-rhubarb cornmeal crisp

Saturday lunch: Summer rolls with leftovers from the week (so easy, my kids love these, and you can fill them with anything!)

Sunday:  Black bean burgers with red pepper sauce and baked zucchini fries

 

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

Sunday

Prep (wash, dry and chop) vegetables for Monday’s bowls

Make cilantro-lemon-tahini sauce

Cook hard boiled eggs for Nicoise salad

Wash greens (don’t chop yet) for all salads

Make everyday salad dressing #1 and dressing for peach salad

Soak rice all day and cook at end of day (plan for enough for Monday’s bowls and Sunday’s bean burgers)

Soak black beans all day and cook at end of day (plan for enough for Monday’s bowls and Sunday’s bean burgers)

Prepare olive tapenade for Tuesday’s salad (if you don’t want to make that, just make the dressing from my California Nicoise)

Make and freeze bean burgers

Monday

Salt chicken and refrigerate

Wednesday

Cook cherry tomato sauce and reheat on Thursday

Make chimichurri

Make red pepper sauce

Make crisp topping