The Planning Stage - A 2 week Dinner menu

Every other Thursday Chatelaine & I work hard to be in the habit of planning out our dinner menu for the next two weeks. Doing this planning makes shopping the following day a lot easier, and A LOT goes into this.... scouring cookbooks, food network's websites and of course, a few "fall back" staples. Chatelaine has taken to checking out ethnic cookbooks from her school's library, so we've also been incorporating some of those recipes into our menu planning. She loves doing this, and it's a highlight for her to be able to cook these meals.

This last planning session, we took to other blogs for recipes, and we struck GOLD at J & J Dish It Out. We have seven dinners planned from what we found on their blog. Check them out!!!

Tonight's dinner we found on their blog, but originated on Rookie Cookie's blog. Her original recipe called for salmon, but Rosebud is allergic, so we subbed swordfish, and it was DELISH!!!

We are going to share our menus here and then set about to display as many of our favorites as we have time to share. Here's the current dinner menu we're working with:

Dinner Menu - Saturday (2/21/09) thru Friday (3/6/09)

1. Grilled Steak w/mustard sauce (from J & J Dish)
2. Tilapia and Israeli Bean Soup (school cookbook)
3. Hoisin Marinated Swordfish (from Rookie Cookie via J & J Dish)
4. Eggplant Parmesan, lasagna style (J & J Dish)
5. Fettucini Alfredo (a long-time fave from a family friend)
6. Turkey Chili
7. Easy Sweet & Sour Chicken (J & J Dish)
8. leftovers
9. Pork Chops
10. Beef Kebabs w/Peanut Dipping Sauce (J & J Dish)
11. Twice baked potatoes
12. Spinach White Bean & Turkey Sausage Soup (J & J Dish)
13. Mexican on Meeting Night (J & J Dish)
14. leftovers

It's gonna be fun working through this list!

Israeli Bean Soup (Marak Shu'It), Tilapia and Baby Spring Salad

Preheat oven to 425 degrees for the Tilapia

For the soup, start with these ingredients - 1 onion, peeled and chopped

3 Tablespoons vegetable oil

1 15-oz can red kidney beans, undrained

1 6-oz can tomato paste

3 cups chicken broth

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

3 Tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

3 cups water

In a large soup pot/kettle, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and saute until transparent but not brown.

Add beans, tomato paste, chicken broth, garlic, salt, pepper and parsley to kettle. Stir in 3 cups water. Bring the soup to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat, cover kettle and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

For the Tilapia....we love this stuff from Costco.

When soup is nearly 15 minutes from being done, pop these into the oven for the 12 minutes.

While these are baking, throw together the salad.

Baby Spring Salad Mix

Sliced Zucchini

Feta Cheese

Candied Pecans, chopped

Trader Joe's Balsamic Vinegarette dressing

When it's all said and done.....here is what you get! YUM-O!!!