Menu Plan for Spring II: Week 1, Friday

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Avocado Salad
Baked Salmon with Mustard Cream
Creamy Orzo with Prosciutto
Hot Spinach Salad

Cooking time: 30 minutes for menu      Cooking schedule: see below for instructions

     While avocados of some variety are available all year, they start getting plentiful and inexpensive in the spring - just in time for our yearning for salad. Plus, we're starting to see the first early radishes.

Avocado Salad  

Total time: 20 minutes
    This is a simple salad, full of heart-healthy fats.  The vinaigrette blends with the avocado making the dressing thick and creamy, coating the celery and egg.

Avocado Salad Ingredients:

 Instructions:

Salmon with Mustard Sauce 

Total time: 25 minutes
    The creamy yogurt takes a bit of the heat and bite out of the hot mustard, giving subtle flavors to the sauce.  We prefer salmon filets.  They may not make as nice of a presentation as steaks but they cook more evenly and are boneless.

Salmon, Mustard Cream Ingredients:

 Instructions:

Creamy Orzo with Prosciutto

Total time: 25 minutes
     The orzo is cooked in a minimum of liquid, so the starch, that is normally lost during cooking, turns into a creamy sauce, aided by some freshly grated Parmesan.  One thin slice of Prosciutto adds a distinctive finish.

Creamy Orzo with Prosciutto Ingredients:

 Instructions:

Warm Spinach Salad

Total time: 10 minutes
    This is a cross between a salad and a vegetable.  I've added a bit of bacon to it but you can leave it out for a vegetarian version.  Be careful to cook the spinach for a just a minute, only to wilt slightly.

Warm Spinach Salad Ingredients:

 Instructions:

Cooking schedule: 30 minutes
Assemble all food, utensils and serving dishes
Utensils: measuring cups, spoons, knives,
2 small saucepans with lids, 1 medium saucepan
with lid, baking sheet, foil, medium bowl, small
bowl, whisk, large skillet
Hard boil eggs
Turn oven on, 400F (200C)
Finely chop shallots
Chop onion, Prosciutto
Sauté shallots for mustard sauce
Sauté onion for orzo
Tend to the spinach, cut if needed
Add wine and mustard seeds to shallots
Add orzo to onion
Add wine, stock, Prosciutto to orzo, simmer
Add mustards, tarragon to mustard sauce
Bring to boil, remove from heat, remove 2 tbs
Add yogurt to remaining mustard sauce, cover

Cool eggs if/when done
Grate Parmesan
Prepare salmon
Spread reserved 2 tbs sauce over salmon, bake
Cut and cube avocado
Make vinaigrette
Peel and cut/chop eggs (1 chopped, 1 quartered)
Make salad
Cover orzo, if close, turn heat off
Garnish and serve salad
Relax and enjoy
Done?
Heat oil, sauté Prosciutto
Stir Parmesan into orzo
Remove salmon when done
Add vinegar, thyme, sugar to Prosciutto
Add spinach, stir-fry
Put salmon on platter, spoon some sauce on
Serve spinach and orzo

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