Some weekends I take on big cooking projects, to try out recipes that are more time or labor intensive. This… was not one of those weeks. It’s summer after all, and we ate giant lunches both Saturday and Sunday, so dinner was more of a formality. Lots of salady things to suit the hot weather, too.
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Monday: Lighter Chinese chicken salad. This has a great ginger-and-sesame dressing, although it does sink to the bottom of the salad bowl (so I always go for a second serving, to get at the bits that are extra-well-dressed). We didn’t put chicken in the salad, but instead the kids got their beloved frozen orange chicken from Trader Joe’s.
Tuesday: Farro with roasted broccoli, sun-dried tomatoes, chickpeas and feta. I have made versions of this one-dish dinner several times – it’s based on this “Greek salad”, but I have tweaked it to suit my preferences (and this time, I just realized, I forgot to put in the olives. Darn!). The kids like it too, I just serve the dressing on the side since they’re not vinaigrette fans.
Wednesday: Bacon, lettuce, avocado and tomato sandwiches on bagels. I rode my bike to work, and since my route takes me past a bagel shop, why not sandwiches for dinner?
Thursday: Orecchiette with corn, greens and ricotta. I made this almost as written, except I threw in a chopped shallot and some garlic just because. I also used farfalle because orecchiette (the round pasta with a dimple in the center) always stick together in a most annoying way. Is there some secret to getting them to cook separately?
Friday: Whole-wheat pasta with tomatoes, olives, and capers – Valerian’s improvisation when earlier dinner plans fell through.
Saturday: We had lunch at Japantown in San Francisco, and after several types of sushi, donburi and giant bowls of ramen, no one was highly motivated for dinner. We sliced a loaf of bread and ate it with tomatoes, hummus, and other odds and ends from the fridge.
Sunday: We grazed our way through the afternoon at my parents’ house, so dinner amounted to the leftovers from the night before’s dinner of leftovers.
