Weekly Meal Plan

As seen a couple of years ago in NYC. Life is also too short to eat "pretty good" food.

These days, I'm all about easy food. But that doesn't mean I've lowered the bar at all. I'm so glad to be working (finally!), and even though it's on a contract basis, meaning I only have a job when they have a project for me to work on, I'm really happy to be doing something. The only downside - if there is one - is that I get home a little bit too tired to whip up a complicated meal. Unless everything's already been done, that is.

So I've been spending most of my day on Sunday puttering away in the kitchen - sauteeing onions, braising meat, peeling carrots, steaming green beans - all in an effort to make my weeknights that much easier. And it works like a dream. Dinner never takes too long, and there are even less dishes to do, so we can get on to enjoying the rest of our evening.

This week is no different. Here's the menu:

Monday

• Soup with beans, sausage and spinach
• There's no prep needed for this one - I did all the prep work last week. But the prep would be soaking and cooking beans, and sauteeing sausage and onions (and whatever other vegetables you want). I'll just thaw out some broth, throw it all together, simmer, then add the spinach.

Tuesday

• Chili-mac salad
• Prep: saute onions and bell peppers, and brown the meat. When I'm feeling super-organized, I'll also shred the cheese, then toss it with some cornstarch (or potato, or tapioca) to keep it from sticking. You could also make the dressing ahead of time and then refrigerate it.

Wednesday

• Spaghetti
• This one's super easy. We usually have spaghetti with meat sauce. I make the sauce ahead of time (from scratch), using tomatoes I put up earlier in the summer and about half the meat (before it's been seasoned) from the chili-mac salad.

Thursday

• Bouef bourgignon
• This one takes all day to make. Luckily, I have some in the freezer. Cheating? Maybe. But that's what freezer meals are for, right?

Friday

• Sweet potato soup
• Cook ahead: the sweet potato, plus the onions and garlic.

Saturday

• Creamy cajun shrimp pasta
• This one's so quick, there's really not much prep work to do. I just cook some pasta, sear some shrimp in cajun seasoning, and saute roasted bell peppers with some onions, add some cream, and throw it all together.

Enjoy!