Labor Day signals a return to the seriousness of the school year, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun in the kitchen, starting with Monday’s easy, customizable sheet-pan dinner, which you’ll double to make the rest of the week's cooking a breeze. Tuesday’s simple pasta stars the ultimate late-summer vegetable, cherry tomatoes; meanwhile, Wednesday's quesadillas are stuffed with the leftover vegetables from Monday. Thursday’s summery grain salad is a one-dish dinner thanks to do-ahead chicken. Come Friday, you’ll thrill kids and grownups alike with an assemble-your-own, inside-out BLT.
Start with the shopping list:
Pantry
- Olive oil
- Red wine vinegar
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper
- Ground cumin
- Ground cinnamon
- Curry powder
- 1 jar mild or medium-heat mango chutney
- Roasted, salted cashews
- 1 pound pasta (your choice what kind)
- Sugar
- 1 jar salsa
- 1 (15-ounce) can black beans
- 2 cups semi-pearled farro or spelt
- Pine nuts
- Mayonnaise
Produce
- 2 pounds carrots
- 4 medium zucchini (about 2 pounds)
- 1 bunch fresh cilantro
- 4 bunches basil
- 1 orange
- 1 head garlic
- 5 pints cherry tomatoes (varied colors, if you like)
- 3 medium Persian cucumbers
- 3 medium tomatoes
- 1 small red onion
- 3 lemons
- 3 heads Little Gem lettuce
Dairy
- 2 cups plain full- or low-fat Greek yogurt
- Parmesan
- 8 ounces Monterey Jack or mild cheddar cheese
- 1 jar prepared horseradish
Butcher’s Counter
- 8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 4 pounds)
- 1 pound thick-cut bacon
Bakery
- 1 package corn or flour tortillas
- 1 loaf country-style bread
Monday:Sheet-Pan Chicken and Vegetables
Slather mango chutney on chicken breasts for a sheet-pan supper, which you can customize to please everyone in the family, from picky eaters to adult palates. Double theentire recipe—chicken, vegetables, and yogurt sauce—to use during the week, and while you’ve got the oven on, toast 1/3 cup of pine nuts to use on Thursday (they should take less than five minutes, so watch them closely). Chop the leftover chicken and vegetables into bite-sized pieces to streamline later dinner prep. Pack the chicken and vegetables separately, since you’ll need them on different days.
Tuesday:Pasta with Burst-Tomato Sauce
Tonight’s the first of three meals featuring cherry tomatoes. Put a pot of salted water over high heat as soon as you come home. While you wait for it to boil, chop the garlic, wash three pints of cherry tomatoes, and pluck and wash enough basil leaves to make four cups. Coarsely chop one cup of basil to use tonight, and package the rest as follows: Wrap two cups in paper towels, then refrigerate in a zipper-lock bag for Thursday. Do the same with the remaining cup to use on Friday. By now the water’s probably boiling—put in the pasta, and start cooking the sauce (it comes together that quickly).
Wednesday: It’sQuesadilla Night
Remember those leftover chopped vegetables? Tonight they become picky-eater-pleasing quesadillas withthis simple how-to. Rinse and drain the black beans and fold them in to bulk up the quesadillas if you like (or just serve on the side—instant finger food!). Chop any cilantro leftover from Monday night to sprinkle inside, too. Serve with the jarred salsa and remaining Greek yogurt in place of sour cream.
THURSDAY:Grain Salad with Chicken, Tomatoes & Cukes
Tonight the toasted pine nuts, 2-cup bag of washed basil leaves, and leftover chicken and yogurt sauce reappear. Reheating that chicken transforms a lightGrain Salad with Tomatoes & Cucumbersinto a complete meal. Shred it and toss it into the salad, or serve the breasts whole with the grain salad on the side. Farro takes some time to cook, so get that going first. Instead of the oil-and-vinegar dressing in the recipe, toss everything with the leftover curried yogurt sauce and a squeeze of lemon juice. (Kids balk at curry? Use oil-and-vinegar for a portion or two of the salad.)
FRIDAY:BLT Lettuce Wraps
BLTs for dinner sounds like a great way to kick off the weekend, right? Wrapping crisp bacon, the last pint of cherry tomatoes, the last baggie of basil, and breadcrumbs toasted in bacon-fat (!) in tender lettuce leaves adds to the fun. You’ll only use a bit of the country-style bread for these deliciously flexible sort-of-sandwiches, so slice up the rest of the loaf to toast in the oven while you’re finishing up the recipe—serve with butter to fill out the meal. If horseradish mayo seems too ambitious for your kids, don’t forget to set out the plain kind, too.
