Week of Meals: Recipe developer and author Dawn Perry’s recipes

An array of prepared dishes and platters

By Ben MimsCooking Columnist

June 9, 2021 10:15 AM PT

This is the third installment in our Week of Meals series, which will give you five weeknight dinner recipes with all the planning and strategizing built in. Each meal makes four servings, comes together — start to finish — in less than 60 minutes and requires 10 or fewer ingredients (not counting cooking oil, salt and pepper or water). The groceries for all five meals can be bought from a single grocery store and in a single shopping trip (remember, we’re looking to alleviate your frustration) and will cost less than $100 total.

Writer, recipe developer and cookbook author Dawn Perry provides the recipes for this installment. Here’s how she plans out her weekday meals and the ingredients that inspire her dishes, which must come together quickly and easily while also feeding her two small children.

“I rarely make a meal plan for the whole week. Instead I think in broad strokes — what protein are we having? — and then build from there, depending on what’s in the pantry. My cookbook, “Ready, Set, Cook” [publishing Nov. 2, 2021], is all about making meals out of whatever you have on hand, so I lean hard on long-lasting pantry items like garlic, canned beans, potatoes and bread, and then add fresh veggies and protein.

“I also try to make a few things that can be repurposed throughout the week, whether for other dinners or as part of lunch — marinated chickpeas become chickpea patties, scallion-caper relish can double as a dressing or sauce for pretty much anything the rest of the week. That way every meal doesn’t have to start completely from scratch.

“Oh, a note on feeding my little kids, almost 4 and almost 2: I wish I could say they are adventurous eaters, but they are pretty carb- and cheese-focused — can you blame them? I try to include at least one thing in the meal that they’ll eat without complaint, like yogurt, toast or pasta minus the greens. These recipes mostly fit that bill, and when all else fails, I’ll make a side quesadilla.” — as told to Ben Mims

Dawn’s neighborhood grocery store:
Pavilions, 29211 Heathercliff Road, Malibu, (310) 457-2401

Get the recipes: