May 3-9 Mealplan

It’s been extremely hard for me to come up with a meal plan after the week I’ve had. It was stressful and exhausting and very, very hard but there’s no sense in dwelling on the negative because things can only get better, right? Right. So what makes everyone feel better? FOOD!! Yay, eating! Here’s the plan for this week…
(Oh yeah, and I spent $56 and saved $53… 🙂
*Herb-crusted Mahi with Roasted Tomatoes, Zucchini and Garlic
-Mahi-Mahi filets are on sale at HT for $6/lb. I’ll chop up a ton of rosemary, parsley and garlic and mix it with some S&P and lemon zest, then press the mixture into the fish and pan sear it with some olive oil. The veggies will all go into a roasting pan, seasoned and oiled, and about 20 minutes later come out unbelievable. (Roasting is the best way to cook any vegetable.)
*Chicken en Croute with Lemony Broccoli
-‘en croute’ just means that the chicken will be wrapped in pastry. I’ve got some puff pastry in the freezer from I don’t know when. (Don’t worry, it’s still fine) And the chicken breasts are from my freezer. I think I’ll top the chicken with a creamy, mushroom and tarragon mixture, then wrap it. And I thought something light and acidic would go well with such a rich dish, so the lemony broccoli will be perfect.
*Taco Night!
-It’s Cinco de Mayo on Tuesday and I grew up celebrating every holiday (every, single holiday), so I asked G what he wanted to eat and he said he wanted tacos…nothing fancy, just really good ground beef hard tacos. So, tacos it is! Lean, ground beef is on sale at HT and I also bought my first box of taco shells, (believe me, I seriously tried to think of a way to make my own). Everything else I would need is already in my fridge. For desert I’m making a ‘tres leches’ cake. It’s a traditional Mexican sponge cake soaked with ‘3 milks’…absolutely delicious to eat and absolutely easy to make. I’m also going to make some guacamole and tangerine margaritas and there will definitely be some ice cold Mexican beer with lots and lots of lime.
*Chicken Florentine Lasagna with Garlic Bread and Mixed Green Salad
-This lasagna won’t have a red sauce like the Lasagna Bolognese a lot of people are used to eating. Instead the filling will be a thick, white sauce with lots of garlic, spinach and mushrooms and (of course) ricotta cheese…it’s my favorite part.
*Crab Shack Night! (that’s what we call it in my house and we get very excited about it)
-We have this for dinner every time snow crab legs go on sale ($5/lb.). Along with the legs we have some peel-n-eat shrimp (always in my freezer whenever a major sale comes around). G makes the best ‘peel-n-eats’ I’ve ever had…he tosses them with his own special herby mix and they’re sooooo good. I can’t eat my shrimp without some really spicy cocktail sauce, the kind that makes your nose run. And we always have something extra…it’s been home-fries or bake-fried okra, but this time I’m making baked hush puppies (no frying, remember?). We cover our coffee table with butcher paper and eat right off of the paper. It’s one of our favorite nights, just sitting there on the floor, getting extremely messy, thinking of the beach…
*Skirt Steaks topped with Chimichurri, and Sauteed Peppers and Onions
Friday Night Steak Night! Yay! I worked at an Argentinian restaurant out in LA and fell in love with their food. They eat more meat than anyone I’ve ever seen and they top everything with chimichurri…it’s like their ketchup. It’s an herby, garlicy, oily condiment that leaves you smelling just like what you ate for days…as if the green stuff in your teeth would let you forget! And they really turned me onto the ‘skirt steak’. It’s extremely flavorful and tender (if you cook and slice it right) and it’s on sale now at HT, but is generally not that expensive. I’m also going to bake up some spicy chicken empanadas to have for appetizers with our after work cocktails… sangria, maybe? (The empanadas are something I also learned about from my LA friends…think of them as smaller, but really good hot pockets).
*(We’ll recycle the pork chop recipe from last week’s mealplan sometime this week because we filled up on Kentucky Derby appetizers at my parent’s house and never got to dinner Saturday night!)