Family Dinner Plan: More make-ahead dinners

The week doesn’t look too bad now, but I am guessing it will heat up as we go along. And every afternoon has a sport or activity, so I need to get myself started on dinner earlier in the day. Julia (from Mariquita Farms) and Jonathan (Eat Right at Home) both tell me they cook their family meals in the morning, and just do little finishes right before serving dinner. Back when I used to work full time outside the house (as opposed to the full time work I do inside the house these days) I would get a jump start on dinner the night before, putting casseroles together, chopping vegetables, and prepping slow and rice cookers.

I just finished Weekend of Tomatoes 2011, and converted 100 pounds of San Marzano tomatoes into 12 quarts and 12 pints of crushed tomatoes, 4 pints of tomato sauce, 2 cups of oven roasted tomatoes (now in the freezer) and 11 pints of tomato paste. All these tomatoes arrived Thursday with our veggie box from Mariquita, which contained Gala Apples (perfect lunch size), Early Girl Tomatoes, Cheddar Cauliflower, Mixed Sweet Peppers (went into the tomato paste recipe), Spicy Padron Peppers, Heirloom Tomatoes, Cucumber and Celery. I may need more tomatoes and Anaheim chilis, so I can recreate last year’s very successful salsa recipe.

Menu plan for the week of September 12:

Cookie of the Week: Chocolate Crinkles from Martha Stewart Cookies

Sunday: New Mexican feast, including, but not limited too, Pork in green chili sauce, Posole as a vegetable, black bean and corn enchiladas

(Meatless) Monday: Quick tomato sauce with pasta, garlic bread, salad

Tuesday: Leftovers

Wednesday: Vegetarian chili, cornbread, crudite plate with cucumber, celery and cauliflower (and ranch dressing)

Thursday: Curried Chicken with Ginger and Yogurt, brown rice, salad

Friday: Movie and takeout!

What is on your menu this week?

P.S. Cookie of the Week is a new feature. The kids are making their own lunches, and I am providing a home baked treat to help. A new cookie every week. Or maybe not, we might find one we really like and stick with that. Who knows.

This post is dedicated to those heros we lost on September 11, 2001, and my Mom, who would have been 79 last week. She was my hero. And she loved tomatoes.