Menu of the Week

Thank you for your patience when it's come to posting these weekly menus...I feel like I am finally coming up for air now that Baby Gray is sleeping through the night (never underestimate the power of a good night's sleep!) It feels good to be back in the kitchen a lot more and I promise to post our weekly menus more often as it's fun for me to share dinner ideas with you. Sometimes a little inspiration from another is all the prodding we need to get ourselves back to creating homemade, delicious food for our families.

I just looked at the calendar and realized we have just one month left of summer vacation...next week's menu needs to be grilling and more grilling!

Spice Rub Ribs w/BBQ sauce - add in some steamed broccoli rabe, cheese muffins, mashed potatoes and butter lettuce with dried cherries, bacon and blue cheese dressing as accompaniments and you have a company worthy meal to be sure. Try to eat outside if you can, particularly if kids are in the mix; ribs are messy for everyone, even adults! It wouldn't be a bad idea to keep some wet wipes, or even baby wipes, on hand during the meal.

Eggplant Parmesan - I love this recipe from GOOP, but prefer a breaded eggplant patty so I made a quick batch of homemade breadcrumbs and made my own patties. I decided not to tell my kids they were eating eggplant and could hardly keep from smiling as I watched them devour it and then ask for seconds. Ha! This is one of my all-time favorite vegetarian dinner ideas.

Fritatta with leftover vegetables and cheese, tossed bibb lettuce with "house" vinaigrette, roasted herb potatoes (using this homemade Italian seasoning mix and piment d'espelette), seasonal fruit (around here that's berries & cherries :))

Grilled lemon pepper chicken with creamy mustard sauce (similar to the one in my Easy French Bistro dinner), steamed rice, garden salad - my children love rice so much I had to mix it up a bit and give 'em a little of what they really wanted. Plus, I love my rice cooker more than any other small appliance in my kitchen--using it is such a joy and alleviates a lot of stress. Making perfect rice any other way is tough to do I've found.

Gnocchi with Three Cheese Sauce, butter lettuce salad with sugar snap peas and carrots, ciabatta, fresh pineapple + red currant salad - found some yummy made-in-Italy gnocchi at Trader Joes the other day and since I had a little of this cheese and a little of that cheese, a 3-cheese sauce was in order. I'll share the pasta sauce recipe soon!

Like always, I leave one day per week for takeout/date night and one night for leftovers or brupper (breakfast for supper).

Still trying to figure out what to make for dinner? View my previous menu of the week posts for more ideas. Bon appetit!

images by Stephanie Brubaker for stephmodo