Menu of the Week

images via Cooking Light

I haven't posted one of these in a while.  That's because I've been lazy.  I tend to make rather boring dinners when my husband's out of town, and he's been out of town a lot lately.  He's out of town this week too, but I did manage to cook a bit while he was home.  Nothing new - just some family favorites.  Perhaps I'll get inspired to try something new in the coming weeks.  In the meantime, I have lots of leftovers to feed us through the week!

We started making the transition from warm-weather dishes to cool-weather favorites, although I'm not quite done with my tomatoes and basil yet.  Here's a look at what we've been having:

Turkey Mini Meat Loaves, green beans, potatoes, fresh tomatoes
Easy weeknight dinner.  Added shredded carrot to the meat and nobody noticed.  Both boys ate the green beans with their hands - probably not a habit I want them to maintain, but if it makes eating green beans fun, I'm kind of okay with it.

Chunky Vegetarian Chili, cornbread
One of our cold-weather favorites.  Perfect for a cold and dreary day, like it was here last Friday.  After shunning it completely last year, the big boy ate a decent bowl of it and declared it "really good Mom!".  Love that I have enough for leftovers this week and still froze half of it for another time.

Roast chicken, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes
This sugar corn was probably the best we've had all year.  So sweet and tasty.  The day was cool enough to have the oven on, but nice and sunny enough to enjoy picking up fresh produce at the farmer's market. 

Scallops, linguini, roasted asparagus, fresh tomatoes
Scallops are absolutely the easiest thing to make now that I'm not intimidated by them.  Just make sure your pan is very hot, and use the biggest one you have so you can keep the scallops spaced apart.  Sprinkle with a little sea salt.  2-3 minutes on each side and they're done!  For the linguini, I just used some olive oil, salt and pepper, parmesan, and fresh basil.  Perfect paired with the scallops.  Asparagus:  spread on a cookie sheet, sprinkle with sea salt/pepper, drizzle with a little olive oil, and bake on 400 for 10 mins.  The big boy ate it like it was candy!  Kept asking for more.  And the tomatoes were fresh from my mother-in-law's garden.  Oh, I am not quite ready for the cold.