Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Zucchini stuffed with Pistou, served with a quasi-ratatouille (pasta with a sauce of diced tomato and sauted onion and garlic), and homemade rustic bread

Tuesday: Tuna Pasta Salad, with broccoli, artichoke hearts, snow peas and red pepper

Wednesday: Leftover Tuna Pasta Salad

Thursday: Scallops with mushrooms and spinach, served with homemade rustic bread

Friday: Tomatoes stuffed with pasta and mozzarella

Saturday: Pizza for the kids, out to dinner for me and the man (!)

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The stuffed zucchini and stuffed tomato dishes are from recipes I found last week in the New York Times food section. Mark Bittmann (author of How to Cook Everything) had an article about a vegetarian restaurant in France. Apparently, the French have not warmed up to vegetarianism in general, but this restaurant is supposed to change their minds about going meatless. Both recipes sounded great. I'm going to do a side of pasta just in case the zucchini doesn't quite work out--if it comes out of the oven looking a bit underwhelming, I can just chop it up and mix it in with the pasta.

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This week's easy recipe is the Tuna Pasta Salad. It does involve a fair bit of chopping, but it's a cold salad so you can make it early in the day. I often make this if I have an early evening meeting or need a two-night meal. For instance, this week on Tuesday, Jack has tae kwon do at 5:45, so I'll make the salad sometime Tuesday morning and be happy in the knowledge that I don't have to rush in the door at 6:45 to get cooking. On Wednesday, my book group is meeting at my house, so it will be nice to have dinner already made, saving a big kitchen clean-up right before everyone's supposed to come over.

Tuna Pasta Salad

Dressing:

1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 balsamic vinegar
1 TBS mayonnaise
1/2 TBS Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp sugar

Salad:

12 oz. rotini
one can tuna, drained
one bunch of broccoli crowns, cut into florets (and steamed for a few minutes, if you don't like raw broccoli)
one 14-oz can quartered artichoke hearts
one red pepper chopped
2-3 cups snow peas

Cook pasta according to directions. Drain and run under cold water to cool, then transfer to a large bowl. Prepare dressing, then pour over pasta and mix well. Stir in tuna and vegetables. Refrigerate until ready to serve.