Easy Menu for Weekend Guests
Recently I told you about some good friends who came and stayed with us for a couple of nights on their way further east. We wanted an easy menu to serve our weekend guests. Given that we hadn’t hosted anyone outside of our family since February, and we only had one other house guest outside the family since moving here, this was a very big deal. They were arriving late in the evening on the first night and then leaving in the morning after the second night. This meant we had to pack all of our visiting into one day.
It was important to us to enjoy every minute of their visit, without having to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. But we also love to eat well, and we’re pretty good cooks. Food is an important part of a visit to our home. We have a reputation to live up to, after all! LOL!
The Kitchen Dance
My husband and I like to work together in the kitchen. I’m the kitchen cook, and he is my excellent sous chef. He’s the outside grill chef, and I serve as his prep-assistant. We enjoy spending this time together planning and preparing meals. Cooking together showcases how in-sync we are with our movements and thoughts. It’s like a choreographed dance. We don’t even need to speak. Each of us simply fills in what the other needs as we go along.
It’s a metaphor for our relationship. Because we’ve talked through the plan together, just by paying attention to him, I know what he needs and I’m ready to hand him the next measured ingredient or tool. I do what I can to make the process faster and more enjoyable. He does the same for me. Together, we’re a wonderful team. We get the job done faster, and we have fun doing it.
Meal Planning
We chose to have a late dinner ready for when our friends arrived on Sunday. It needed to be something that could hold until they arrived, regardless of delays. I happened to have spaghetti squash in the pantry, so that became the foundation of our Sunday meal. We decided on Spaghetti Squash Bolognese for an easy, delicious, but healthy comfort meal. Pasta sauce, in all of its forms, is basically my specialty. I have always loved pasta, and spaghetti sauce was one of the first things I learned to cook from scratch when I was a girl. The benefit of spaghetti squash bolognese, is that we don’t have to serve another vegetable. It’s basically a one plate meal. We could have added salad and bread, but really, why? The meal is filling and balanced without the extra carbs.
Cook Once, Eat Twice!
I made enough for Mom, Lee, and I to have for another meal a few days later. Cook once, eat twice! You know I love that! I started the sauce early evening and left it to simmer until I learned our friends were an hour away. Then I popped the squash into the oven to roast. Everything was ready when they arrived, and after a tour of the house, and a champagne toast, we were ready to sit down for dinner.
Advance Prep
While I was preparing the sauce, Lee went to work on prepping the marinade and chicken for his grilled meal we planned for the following night. We chose an amazing recipe for a yogurt chicken that marinates overnight. The marinade is made in the blender, and then poured into a container with the chicken for at least a full day, for maximum flavor. This is a fantastic make-ahead dinner when expecting guests. We would normally serve this with coconut rice and veggies, but since we are all keeping an eye on our waistlines, he decided to simply grill a medley of vegetables to go along with the chicken.
Cover Me, I’m Going In
Once Lee finished the chicken and prepping the veggies for Monday night, he ran off to the shower. I took that time to put chicken breasts into a pan of water, lemon slices, sliced onion, sliced garlic, carrots, and herbs, and poached them for an Asian chicken salad for lunch on Monday. Normally I wouldn’t serve the same meat twice in the same day, but the salad was different enough from the evening meal, and we all love chicken. Once I had the chicken poaching, I hit the shower, and he greeted our friends at the door and got their bags into the house.
Keep the Breakfast Menu Easy
Breakfasts were eggs and fruit for both mornings to help keep us all on track with our healthy eating. Believe me, at another time we might have made a quiche, or waffles, but we’re trying to be good!
Free to Play for the Day
We spent a lazy day in the pool on Monday, just hanging out and catching up. Thanks to our Easy Menu for Weekend Guests, we were able to do that. At lunchtime, while everyone was drying off from a swim, I ran in and assembled the salad ingredients I had prepped the night before.
It was easy to quickly shred the chicken I had poached and refrigerated, and tossed it into a bowl with chopped Napa cabbage, carrots, trimmed and sliced fresh snap peas, a can of water chestnuts, a can of mandarin oranges (packed in juice), and a generous sprinkling of sliced roasted almonds. Finally, I topped it off with Maple Grove Farms Sesame Ginger dressing. You can buy the dressing at Fry’s which is Kroger, or Ralph’s for some of you. The dressing is SO good! Yes, I do make my own dressings, but this is a really good bottled option to make things quick and easy.
Around dinner time, we all went inside to enjoy some chips and salsa while Lee got the grill ready to cook the meal. (I’ve linked his recipe in the meal plan below. It’s a great one, and we’ve used it frequently since I first tore it out of Bon Appetit magazine in 2011.) Once the food went on the grill, Leah and I set the table while the guys went out to the grill. We had a wonderful healthy meal ready with very little time taken away from our visit!
Easy Menu for Weekend Guests
- Dinner #1 – Spaghetti Squash Bolognaise
- Breakfast #1 – Eggs, fresh fruit
- Lunch – Asian Chicken Salad
- Dinner #2 – Yogurt Marinated Grilled Chicken with Grilled Asparagus, peppers, and onions
- Breakfast #2 – Eggs, fresh fruit
Spaghetti Squash Bolognese
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 med sweet onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb ground beef good quality, not too lean
- 1 lb sweet Italian sausage
- 1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes in puree Choose San Marzano tomatoes, if possible
- 1 15 oz can of diced tomatoes in juice
- 1 6 oz can of tomato paste
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar aged
- 3 tbsp fresh flat-leaf parsley, or 3 tsp dried
- 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped, or approx. 2.5 tbsp dried
- 1 tbsp fresh oregano, or 1 tsp dried
- Kosher salt, to taste
- Fresh ground pepper, to taste
- 3 med spaghetti squash, roasted
- Freshly grated Parmesan Cheese
Instructions
- Warm olive oil in a large saute pan. Add onion and cook a few minutes, until softened. Add garlic, and saute until fragrant. Add ground beef and Italian sausage, and cook until no longer pink. Drain any grease from the pan. Add the tomatoes, sauce, paste, and balsamic to the pan and stir to combine, then add the herbs, a tsp of kosher salt, and 1/2 tsp of pepper, or to taste. I typically will add up to 1/2 cup of hot water to the paste can to clean off remaining bits of paste, and I pour it from can to can to "rinse" the cans, then add the tomato water to the pan. Bring sauce to light boil, then simmer the sauce for an hour, or so, while you're preparing and roasting the squash. Top each plate of squash with sauce, garnish with freshly grated Parmesan cheese, and serve.
Roast Spaghetti Squash
- Arrange two oven racks in the middle of the oven, being careful to be closer to the middle than to the top heating element in an electric oven.Preheat oven to 450°.Cut squash in half lengthwise and clean out seeds with a spoon. Place the halves on a couple of baking sheets, 3 on each sheet. Generously oil each half with olive oil, then generously salt and pepper them. Place the halves cut-side down on the baking sheets and bake for 20 minutes. Turn the baking sheets and switch them on the oven racks, then bake for an additional 20 – 25 minutes, until tender. You should be able to easily pierce the skin with a fork. Remove from oven, and shred the flesh with a couple of forks, placing a bed of spaghetti squash on each plate.
If you love comfort foods, and to cook once, eat twice, you will love my original chili recipe, Chili à la Jonni!
Can’t wait to try the You didn’t mention your wine or other drink pairings with your weekend. Love to hear them 🙂
I purchased the Clarins eye restorative cream you recommended and I love it!
Frank and I cook together exactly the way you and Leroy do only sometimes we switch off in the kitchen who is the prepper and who is the cooker.
Love reading this every week. When you say you “post something” is there a site I should go to so I can see your posts or are they all included in your weekly Friday emails?
Ooh…I should have posted the wine. The summer is mostly Sauvignon Blanc, for me. In fact, I pretty much drink it year round. But our friends brought a couple of lovely bottles of red that we enjoyed with dinner. Right now I’m drinking a New Zealand brand, Matua, that we get at Costco for $7/bottle. It’s wonderful! The Wente Zinfindel was perfect with the bolagnese. And the boys drank red with the chicken. It’s got curry, so can support a red. I forget what it was, though. I’m glad you liked the eye cream. It’s seriously the best!
You are viewing the posts right here on Sweetfreedomliving.com, and I post on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I send the newsletter on Fridays with a recap of the weeks posts, and to make them easier for you to find, since they are posted to the various categories.
Thanks for reading, Tove! I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog. xojd