Meals for the Week of June 13, 2011

Even though school is out for most and there’s less packing of lunches, you might still need to pack a lunch for work or maybe for day camp, summer outings to the beach or ball games.  Here’s a few recipes and suggestions that are a nice change from packing leftovers, especially for those who can’t heat up their lunch.
During this time of year, when grilling chicken, I try to make at least one extra.  One of the recipes listed this week provides quantities to ensure extra chicken.  Here are a few uses for that leftover:

• Slicing to include in a salad
• Shred it up, mix with a little mayo, Dijon mustard, a dollop of Major Grey’s chutney, season with salt and pepper and you have filling for a chicken salad sandwich.  
• Slice thin and make a sandwich with lettuce, avocado and tomato.

Turkey Caesar Sandwich- The recipe calls for creating a mayo spread that is like Caesar dressing.  Easy, but you could also mix a little bottled dressing with mayo.
And here’s a slightly different take with a healthy Chicken Caesar Wrap
Taco Turkey Wraps- Sour cream mixed with taco seasonings serve as a spread with deli turkey, add some tomato, avocado and lettuce to add some additional good protein and vitamins. 
Pasta Salad with Broccoli and Peanuts- You can make this on a Sunday and have several servings packed in your lunch throughout the week. 

This week I’ve listed a couple of recipes using skewers on the grill.  Wooden skewers are convenient, but in my opinion not always easy because you need to remember to soak them in water to avoid burning on the grill.  If you plan the meals ahead (ahem, as you should be) that’s fine if you remember to soak them and if you’re making skewers for a party, then wooden is the way to go.  But I highly suggest investing in some metal skewers so you can always use them when cooking for the family.  I have an inexpensive set listed in the e-mealplanning store.

Meals for Week of June 13, 2011

Lemon Dill Chicken Skewers- Alice from the Savory Sweet Life stumbled upon a happy accident with this super quick recipe for chicken skewers.  You can adapt these for the oven broiler or your stovetop broiler pan.  You could even save yourself time and just use chicken breast tenders not on a skewer if you wanted.

Grilled Chicken Pineapple Quesadillas- So good!  Perfect as an appetizer at parties, when cut into triangles, but one or two whole ones are filling as a meal.  Fix a salad or grill some veggies while you grill the chicken and pineapple.  It’s also economical, using just 2 chicken breasts, you get quite a few slices and needs just 4 or 5 slices in each quesadilla. 

Grilled Salmon Steaks with Mustard Sauce- I love grilled salmon, it tastes delicious with just simply seasoned with salt and pepper.  But this recipe gives you a lovely sauce to serve it with.

Simple Grilled Tilapia- Very fast and easy method for grilling tilapia which is a great mild tasting white fish.  It’s very versatile.

Roasted Vegetable Pasta- Meatless but filling, using whole grain pasta, a little cheese and roasted veggies.  This can be just as good with grilled vegetables.

Cheeseburger Joes- Super easy, kid friendly, versatile, try cheddar or Swiss cheese instead of American and ground turkey instead of beef.

Shrimp Tacos with Fresh Pineapple Salsa- I love that this uses cooked baby shrimp, it makes it so easy, you can have your kids help you make this.  If you marinate them overnight as well as make the salsa, dinner time is just assembling the tacos.  It’s a no-cook recipe, perfect for kids to help and also great to fix on a hot evening.

Garlic Marinated Chicken Cutlets with Grilled Potatoes- Chicken breasts pounded thin into cutlets are incredible quick cooking, making for an easy weeknight grilled meal.  Marinating keeps them tender.  The key to this meal is the timing- get the potatoes on the grill first and while they cook you can get everything else ready, grilling the chicken last.  Note:  This recipe is designed to make extras and includes links to the other recipes to use leftovers for.  Scale back the quantity of chicken and potatoes if you don’t want that or keep the quantities as listed and use the leftovers however you want.

West Coast Grilled Vegetable Pizza- it’s like having a salad served on top grilled pizza dough.  Very versatile recipe.

Greek Burger- This recipe apparently originated from Weight Watchers, it’s a super easy turkey burger with feta cheese that you serve stuffed in a pita.

Orange and Thyme Grilled Shrimp- If you haven’t cooked with thyme, you must.  It’s a fantastic herb.  Citrus is always great with shellfish and orange is a nice change from the old standby of lemon. 

Strawberry Applesauce- Its really quite easy to make homemade applesauce.  If you have an apple peeler and corer then the prep is even easier.  This is great to have for breakfast or to pack in a lunch.