monday menu...or should I say sunday menu?

[zucchini pie photographed at the community harvest potluck]

Tangent: I am glad that I was raised to be willing, even eager, to try new foods. Having spent four of my childhood years in Brasil, I have had some interesting foods: all sorts of unusual tropical fruits and vegetables, fish eyes, and turtle meat, to name a few. I didn't like them all, but I enjoyed trying them. I still like trying new foods, whether it's sushi, an unidentifiable curry at an Indian buffet, zucchini pie at our local harvest potluck (it was surprisingly good, by the way), or the chayote that was on sale at our grocery store just last week. Experiencing food is a beautiful gift, and I hope that I can pass on some of the wonder and delight I feel in the colors, the smells, the textures, the balance of flavors to those around me. Maybe that's why I love taking pictures of the food I enjoy so much.

Anyway, on to menu planning. In one sense, last week's menu plan was a fiasco (not a single day's dinner was what I had planned it to be). However, since my grocery shopping and dinner making was still more organized that it would have been without a plan, and since we all enjoyed nourishing meals each night, I'll still consider it a success. I am hoping, though, that this week will proceed more nearly according to the plan:

M-pasta with grilled chicken and left over fresh tomato sauce

T-chili and fresh rolls

W-bagel sandwiches and fruit (Didn't get to it last week.)

Th-minestrone soup and leftover rolls (Didn't get to this last week either.)

F-chicken pot pie

I'd love to hear what culinary endeavors you have up your sleeves. (And I recommend the spot remover Zout for getting the stains out of the aforementioned sleeves.) What are you making this week?