Weekly Menu: June 2-8, 2013

Last week got away from us a bit and we ended up eating out/ordering in three times…three!  That’s a lot for us since we’re usually so good about sticking to our planned menus, but you know it happens to the best of us.  So you’ll notice that one of the recipes from last week that we never ended up making, Basil Quinoa Cakes, is reappearing this week since we have all of the ingredients on hand already.

We’re also bringing back an old summer favorite from one of my all-time favorite books (which just happens to have yummy recipes included!); Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.  The whole idea of Disappearing Zucchini Orzo is that by the end of the summer everyone is starting to get a bit sick of zucchini since it is so darn plentiful.  So this dish gracefully sneaks it in and uses lots of it up.  So typically this is more of a late summer dish for us, but it’s simple, yummy and healthy so we’re moving it up in the rotation.  To make it a bit more interesting and filling we always grill up shrimp and serve them right on top of the orzo.

Last, but certainly not least we’re whipping up an impromptu salad dish to end the week.  Since peaches have arrived but aren’t quite great just yet we’ll give them a bit of help by grilling them to bring out their natural sweetness.  Then we’ll likely just mix in some fresh mint, toasted almonds and thinly sliced red pepper with some mixed greens and serve a nice piece of grilled chicken on top.  Maybe a sprinkle of goat cheese. Summery, healthy and easy.  Make sure to grill up some extra chicken and peaches and set them aside so you can make a quick salsa (mix peaches with black beans, cilantro and fresh diced jalapeño) and turn this easy dinner into grilled chicken tacos for leftovers.