Real Simple Four-Week Dinner Plan / Curry Shrimp and Snow Peas

October's Real Simple features a four-week dinner plan of easy weeknight recipes. Last week we did week 2-- we got out of order because the first meal of week 1 (Roasted Tilapia, Potatoes and Lemon) was too close to the Baked Cod and Chorizo to have 2 weeks in a row. So far, the recipes are simple and quick as promised, and the variety is incredible. We tend to fall in a fish/chicken Mexican/stir-fry rut, and even though I plan each week in advance I've never tried to vary the cuisine this much, which I'm definitely going to start doing. However, we have had some problems with the emphasis on white flour based dishes (toast, pizza, pasta) and therefore it looks like I'll be eliminating or adapting 1-2 recipes a week.

To start, the curry shrimp and snow peas. Bean sprouts and red curry paste are ingredients I have never bought before-- yay branching out! Central Market has a bulk bin of bean sprouts in the produce section, near the bulk lettuce, so I was able to buy just the right amount. I ended up using quinoa instead of rice, as we were out of brown rice, and this dish definitely needed something to soak up the sauce. Overall, I loved the cold, crunchy vegetables and the warm, Thai-style shrimp; not sure that I loved them together, in the same bowl. Next time, I think we'll try this as an entree and a side.

Orange Chicken with Vegetables

This orange chicken recipe tastes like it came from Pei Wei-- and that is a giant compliment. I think it's the combination of spinach and ginger. This is in contrast to, for example, the Panda Express orange chicken, which is delicious but kind of also tastes like candy. Here, there is just a soupcon of orange from the orange zest, enough to provide a citrus-y scent but not enough to make you forget you're digging into a traditional Asian-style rice wine/soy sauce sauce. My favorite part, though, was the cherry tomatoes-- they're not something you'd get in delivery take-out, but they provide a fresh and juicy contrast to the rest of the stir fry. Very quick to put together, especially when you ignore the roasted and ground Sichuan peppercorns and just toss in a teaspoon of red pepper flakes (I like it hot!).