Herbed roasted chicken with beet-feta-orzo salad and green beens.

I should consider calling this “dinner on Sunday” instead of “dinner tonight.” My new schedule has been keeping me so busy that I really don’t have time to cook until the weekend and on Saturdays, I’m usually more concerned with catching up on the other things I’ve missed doing during the week. Like reading.

But, at the sacrifice of precious time I could be spending with my head in a book (only twenty pages left!), I decided to make dinner tonight. The roasted chicken from last week was so good that I wanted something similar again. I stuffed some minced herbs under the skin in the morning: fresh sage, thyme, oregano and garlic. The kitchen smelled incredible afterwards. I just realized that I forgot to pop the lemon I bought in the cavity before I roasted it. C’est la vie.

The beet salad was really the “star” of the meal though. I saw this recipe a few weeks back and made a mental note to myself. It sounded like a good combination. So tonight I went about making it based on what I remembered. I roasted the beets. I used shallots. Skipped the pine nuts completely. Seasoned to taste and I tasted a lot along the way because this salad is hard to put down. I was tempted to skip the chicken and just eat this instead.

Spicy Italian sausage with broccoli rabe and orecchiette.

“Quick Beef Stew with Mushrooms and White Beans Recipe” from Simply Recipes. Eaten with brown rice.

This is good for a weeknight dinner and I would certainly make it again. However, it’s no substitute for a long, slow stew.

Hot Italian sausages with peppers and onions over penne.

Fresh-caught blue fish baked with red potatoes, eaten with spinach-walnut pesto. Sautéed kale.

My mother’s neighbor went fishing yesterday and, upon his return, gave her a giant fillet of striped bass, which we ate yesterday, and a rather large fillet of blue fish, which she gave me and I cooked tonight.

Lemon-thyme rubbed pork chop with spinach-walnut pesto. Very adjusted version of “Mustard-Roasted Potatoes” from Smitten Kitchen. Brussels sprouts with pancetta.

“Sausage & Fennel Ragù” from the kitchn. Eaten with grated Parmesan.

“Chard and White Bean Stew” from Smitten Kitchen with whole wheat ciabatta and two eggs.

Spice-rubbed pork chop with Brussels sprouts and roasted potatoes.

Meat and potatoes. Brussels sprouts with pancetta. Double plus porky!

“Tuscan Steak with Rosemary White Bean Mash” from French Revolution Food. “Sautéed Greens with Pine Nuts and Raisins” from Simply Recipes.

Dinner tonight was one of those monumentally good meals that I think about later and the next day (and the next). It was the holy trinity of weeknight dinners: quick, easy, satisfying. And while I’m no nutritionist, I think it was relatively healthy. But mostly, it tasted super good. There was something utterly perfect-tasting about the filet mignon but adding a smear of white beans to every bite was like icing on cake. The greens were good — I’d certainly make them again — but they were upstaged by the meat and beans. Those beans: I’m already thinking of the next time I’ll make them.