Southern Ontario Menu Plan � July 8-12

If you read this blog with some regularity you may have noticed that there was no meal plan posted last week.� Some weeks life just gets too busy to plan.� It�s not quite true that we didn�t make any plan, but what we had was a list of possible recipes, without any formal designation as to what day we would make them.� We are also enjoying the first real fruits of the summer garden vegetables�broccoli and peas�which makes planning a bit more unpredictable but also exciting as we check the garden each day to see what�s ready to eat. �We�re also definitely enjoying all the local fruits we�ve gotten from the market, or picked ourselves, like these strawberries we�ve been loving!

Most of the meals we made last week ended up coming from a great book that I picked up from the library.� The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters is a cookbook in the true sense of the word.� It features many recipes but also explains the process of making different foods.� For example, before giving a recipe for saut�ed broccoli, she talks about the best methods for saut�ing vegetables.� The recipes in the cookbook are quite good but the goal of the cookbook is to empower the reader to be able to create new recipes, using the book as a starting point.� Thus I felt inspired to cook the way I used to cook more often in the past�by making things up!

My favorite dish of the week was one those Alice Waters-inspired dishes, it was a side of stir-fried radishes, asparagus, and zucchini with peanuts and chili to go with pea soup and fresh sourdough bread.� (Sorry, no pictures, our camera lens is getting fixed!)

Speedy Spicy Peanut Stir Fry

• 2 Tbs. oil or clarified butter
• 1 tsp. sesame oil
• 5-6 radishes, coarsely chopped
• � pound asparagus, ends broken off, chopped slightly diagonally
• 1 small zucchini, quartered lengthwise, then sliced �-inch thick
• � cup peanuts, finely chopped
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp (or more) crushed red chilies
• Salt
• Pepper

Over medium-high heat fry chopped radishes with the lid on so they steam a bit while frying.� Stir every few minutes.� After about 6-7 minutes add the chopped asparagus and zucchini, along with the chopped peanuts, minced garlic, and crushed red chilies.� Fry, stirring, just long enough for the zucchini and asparagus to be starting to brown, add salt and pepper, and serve.

Optional: Add tofu, and serve over rice!

Yeah, that dish turned out really awesome!� The vegetables were all still slightly crunchy but soft enough to be delightful to eat.� The chilies were quite spicy although they were balanced by the peanuts.� I�m still quite grateful to Joel at Well Preserved for pointing out that radishes and peanuts belong together.

Getting back to the point of this post, this week�s meal plan features dishes from The Art of Simple Food, as well as a vegetarian grilled dinner adapted from a recipe in the LCBO�s Food and Drink magazine.� We will be leaving next weekend for a trip to Michigan with my parents so the meal plan ends with Friday.� There will be no plan posted next week (but I look forward to my mom�s meal plans!).

June 24-30

As always, linking up at Menu Plan Monday! �