Weeknight Dinners: January 16-20, 2017

We’re in slow-mo over here, soaking up the three-day weekend, recipe testing and watching way too much Netflix and football. With three kiddos home from school Monday, I’m punting my weekly grocery run to Tuesday. That’s fine, the beauty of the vegetarian three-bean chili (I promise to post the recipe soon) is that the ingredients are already in my pantry and fridge. All you need are some canned beans (I will do one 15-ounce can each of black, garbanzo and pinto beans), canned stewed tomatoes, onion, garlic, red or green bell pepper (or both), chili powder and cumin. For some of you, that might sound like a lot to “have on hand.” I totally get it. But sometime in the near future I will teach you how to stock your pantry and fridge. Once you get down the basics, you can throw together dozens of delicious, last-minute dinners. Tuesday we’re having a 15-minute stir fry — which is basically thin slices of chicken and broccoli florets sautéed with low-sodium soy, sesame oil and ginger. The version I make is similar to the Epicurious recipe I’ve linked to below. If you’d like, add red bell pepper for color or some shiitake mushrooms for an immune-boost. Wednesday and Thursday nights I’m teaching cooking classes and my husband is holding down the fort, so slow cooker dinners will be made around noon – one of the benefits of working from home. Happy cooking (and eating)!

Monday: Three-bean veggie chili and corn muffins

Tuesday: Stir-fried chicken and broccoli, steamed rice and edamame

Wednesday: French dip sandos, carrot and celery sticks with homemade buttermilk ranch

Thursday: Slow cooker pork shoulder carnitas, pickled red onions, cabbage and cilantro slaw, tomatillo salsa

Friday: Leftovers! Or even better, make your carnitas into a big pan of fully loaded carnitas nachos and binge on The Crown or Westworld…