What's for Dinner

With Ella's upcoming first birthday party on the agenda, simple is the name of the game when it comes to dinner this week... Not that it isn't always, but my to-do list these next few days is quite a bit longer than normal, and I just won't have time to be preparing gourmet dinners.

{photo via}

Monday

My cousin, who is a talented chef, and writes an impressive food blog, turned me on to this one pot pasta, and it has become a staple recipe for us. It's super easy to prepare, and delicious. I'll serve it with some crusty bread and a light side salad.

Tuesday

I'm totally intrigued by these ranch chicken fajita bowls, and being the Mexican food fanatic that I am, I figured we ought to give them a whirl this week. Served with a side of warm corn tortillas, some sour cream and avocado... I can't imagine that they'll be anything but good.

Wednesday

Last fall, we attended a local Hatch Chile festival and tasted a ton of incredible foods that followed along with the festival's theme (obviously, Hatch chiles). One item in particular that stuck with us after the festival, were these sort of open-faced hatch chile sandwiches/flatbreads... I'm not really quite sure what to call them, but essentially, you take a piece of focaccia bread (we picked some up at Trader Joe's), and top it with freshly roasted hatch chiles (when hatche chiles aren't in season, we use poblanos or Anaheim peppers) and shavings of fresh asiago cheese. There so simple, but really tasty. We pair them with homemade baked sweet potato fries. (I promise to add a photo of these)

Thursday

We're big Monterey chicken fans in this house, so as you can imagine, this is a recipe we repeat often around here. We'll have this with corn and probably some sort of rice on the side.

Friday

As always, this is our easy take-out or appetizer night. These caprese meatballs sound delightful, perhaps I will substitute ground chicken for the ground beef to lighten things up a bit. I think some bruschetta would pair well with this... and obviously, because it is Friday, some wine... but not too much, because we have a big birthday to celebrate the next day!

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

-J