Tonight's Dinner, brought to you by the color GREEN

Or really, last night's dinner.

Sesame Cashew Noodles, Sauteed Green beans, and some diced avocado.

It was a pretty busy week (when aren't they?) I had a great evening out with my fellow mom-friends on Thursday. And Friday, I had a great meal of leftover Beef Bourguinon, homemade bread (from the bread machine, that my husband made), and more sauteed zucchini. I'm loving this shredded zucchini thing. I got a pound from the CSA this week, and then probably another 3 lbs from some great coworker. Or two. They just show up in the lunch room. Also showing up this week? Apples.

I recently impressed a couple of friends with my meals. On a Friday, how on earth did I have beef bourguinon, homemade bread, and zucchini? Well, it's all about planning. And...I'm not always perfect with the planning and execution. For example, Thursday night (when I went out), I could have done better planning dinner for my family. But I was tired. I'd donated blood the night before, swum in the frigid Pacific that morning...so I said "you can heat up this stuff here, or you can get pizza." Pizza won (and we had leftovers for lunch for a couple of days too!).

But Fridays, I'm pretty tired. And I've GOT to plan for leftovers, if I want to avoid the lure of the overpriced and disappointing restaurant meal. I've said it here before - when I cook, I cook A LOT. I aim to make a big dish of something that's at least 10 cups, every weekend. On good weekends, I make two things. I have these Pyrex dishes that are 4 and 6 cups. Each weekend, I try to put one 4-cup item in the freezer. A 4 cup item will feed us for one meal, sometimes 1.5 meals.

Now, you don't HAVE to freeze things. If you don't mind eating the same thing over and over, like the folks at Path to Freedom, then you can just eat 10-16 cups of something for lunch and dinner for 4 days. But I think my family would revolt if I did that. And, I get bored also.

Recent things that have made it into my freezer (and later, onto my plates): split pea soup, beef bourguinon, red bean gumbo, plain cooked read beans, and caponata. If I plan to pull out leftovers for Thursday or Friday dinner, it's a late-in-the-week "treat". What I make over the weekend is generally gone by Weds lunch. So Weds and Thursday tend to be quick and easy - grilled cheese, veggie burgers, etc.

Other things that I've been making this week:
Tofu and veggie stir fry with rice and quinoa
Mango-banana smoothies
Zucchini bread
Caponata