It's not that we don't eat dinner in the summer...

It's just that we don't really plan it...

Right now, the veggies in the garden are growing quite well, which means the weeds are growing twice as well. To weed around all the lettuce, I had to pick a bunch of it. Just couldn't get at the weeds otherwise. And so, this week, we've been having salad. And it has been hot, so there hasn't been much other action, food-wise. Phil braved the melty temps yesterday to grill some salmon -- we put barbecue sauce on it -- and we had salad with strawberries and blue cheese. That was the big dinner accomplishment of the week.

I did make my first ever batch of strawberry freezer jam on Tuesday -- made 2 batches, actually. My mom makes it, and this year I consumed massive quantities of it while training for my race -- pbjs for breakfast stuck with me during the long runs -- and I was feeling bad about taking some out of her freezer every time I saw her. So I made my own supply!

It was fun! I bought 4 quarts of berries from the farmers market (the ones from my own garden get eaten before they get in the house) and used just over half to make the jam. The rest is left over for eating (hence the strawberry salad). I'm wondering now what else I can turn into jam, and I'm having to remind myself that a freezer full of jam won't do me any good if I don't eat it. So I should probably just stick with strawberry for this year, but all those little filled jars just looked so cute!

New Stove!

We haven't cooked with it yet -- it's grilling weather -- but isn't it pretty? I turned it on to make sure it works.

What does a first grade teacher eat at the end of the school year? Lately, pretty much everything...

It's always a bit of a struggle at the end of the school year to try and consume some sort of produce and less than five cheese or chocolate products each day...  So I plan healthy, but sometimes a lovely family from school shows up with fabulous deluxe pizzas from their pizza shop, and you just have to say, "Well, okay."  So this was our menu last week and our plan for this week, peppered with lots of Dove chocolates and pizza and other lovely stuff...  Yum.

Last week:

Sunday we had a gorgeous dinner...  Lamb and veggie kebabs with tabouli.

Monday we didn't like quite so much...  we had shiitake mushrooms from the farmer's market, and so found this recipe for Bass with Shiitake Mushroom Sauce.  We weren't thrilled with the bass -- maybe a different fish wouldv'e been better.

Tuesday was my new go-to quick dinner:  Grilled pizza on Naan flatbread.  Just dress it up with whatever toppings you want (mushrooms, red pepper, basil, turkey, asparagus...) and put it on a hot grill.  I usually grill it indirectly (turn off the burner right underneath it) so it can cook without the bottom burning, though a crispy bottom isn't always a bad thing (don't take that out of context, please!).  Salad is lovely with this too.

Wednesday we grilled turkey burgers.  Topped them with sauteed mushrooms and swiss cheese and had cole slaw.

Thursday was that chicken and strawberry salad with blue cheese that I mentioned a few weeks back.  Balsamic vinegar + strawberries + blue cheese = love.

And for this week?  This is the plan.  But all bets are off if someone waves pizza in my face.

Sunday 

Chicken salad:  tear up a rotisserie chicken, add whole wheat pasta seashells, chopped celery, chopped red onion, some frozen peas, chopped red pepper, chopped mushroom, capers, chopped tomato, basil (I'll basically just empty out the veggie drawer), mix with some mayo and balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.  Carrot sticks on the side.  Great to bring as leftovers for lunch (so to perhaps avoid the temptation of the aforementioned pizza).

Monday

Grilled salmon salad:  the first row of lettuce in the garden is ready, so we'll grill salmon and mix it with the lettuce.  Again, whatever other veggies still exist after last night's chicken salad veggie fest will be added.  Dress with oil and vinegar, salt and pepper.  Maybe some bread.

Tuesday

Flatbread pizza again.  

The rest of the week???

Can't predict, really, so I'll just stick with this much for now.

Have a lovely week, everybody!