Menu Monday

Today I am linking up with Rachel at No Simple Language for Menu Monday. As I said the other day, dinner is a little more challenging since Chris' started his new job. He's home later which means I need to get dinner ready without him here to entertain Margot. Sometimes Margot is content to sit and play and I have no problems, other times...let's just say we've had some very late dinners. To make all that easier I have been spending an hour on Sunday doing as much prep as possible for the week ahead. I've also been putting a little more care into our menu plan. I try to find recipes with little to no prep or prep that can easily be done ahead. So far this had worked really well. Here is our menu for the week:

Sunday: Pork chops with homemade pesto over brown rice with roasted carrots

This was super easy and yummy. I simply seasoned the pork chops with salt and pepper and cooked them in a skillet in some EVOO. Then served them over rice topped with pesto I had made Friday night. To roast the carrots I seasoned them with EVOO, salt and pepper and roasted them at 350 for 45 minutes. To make the pesto I put one bunch basil and a large handful of fresh spinach in the food processor along with one clove garlic, handful of walnuts (walnuts are way cheaper than pine nuts), fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper, then drizzled in EVOO until it was the right consistency.

Monday: Crock pot black beans with chorizo* over rice, salad

Tuesday: Grilled steak with Chimichuri sauce, quinoa, salad

Wednesday: Crock Pot BBQ chicken and baked potatoes with broccoli

Thursday: BBQ chicken quesadillas, salad

Friday: PORTLAND!

 To prep for the menu I chopped white onions, green onion, parsley and cilantro. I also defrosted chicken stock, made chimichuri sauce, made a large pot of rice and started soaking black beans.

Margot hung out on the kitchen floor playing with her "special kitchen toys" AKA anything plastic I can find in my kitchen.

*I am testing this out today. I have such a love/hate relationship with my crock pot. I soaked black beans overnight. Then this morning I rinsed the black beans and placed them in the crock pot with 1/2 cup diced onion, bay leaf, whole clove of garlic, 2 TB fresh cilantro, 1 cup diced chorizo, one quart of chicken stock and some water. I have never cooked dried beans in the crock pot before so we'll see how it works.