It is a necessity for me to plan meals for the week before grocery shopping. This makes shopping easier, and I just look at the plan each night to remind myself of what’s on the menu. I usually shop on Mondays, so the weekend is at the end of my plan. Sometimes I get a little foggy about my ideas by the time Saturday rolls around.

Today I looked at my plan which only said: “chicken skewers, quinoa.” Not very descriptive, so I had to get my creative juices flowing to fill out the meal. Mid-afternoon, I cut up the chicken to marinate. I had many seasonings on hand, so I was faced with a lot of possibilities: go Mexican with lime juice and fajita seasoning, go Italian with some bottled salad dressing, go BBQ with our favorite Stubb’s sauce, or go Asian with a soy and ginger marinade. I chose the latter as I had some ginger in the freezer to use up.

If you don’t already, use fresh ginger. It’s very inexpensive, and the flavor is no comparison to the dry, ground stuff you find in the spice aisle. Buy more than you need, then put the rest in the freezer and it is ready to peel and grate on a microplane whenever you want it.

So I made a quick marinade with about 1 1/2 tablespoons of grated ginger (we really like ginger), 1/4 teaspoon minced garlic, 2 ounces of canola oil, 2 ounces of soy sauce, and a tablespoon of water. I let that sit with the chicken for a little over an hour, and it was perfect. Put it on some skewers and the grill awaits.

For a side dish, I cooked the quinoa in chicken stock for a flavor boost. Then I found a bag of stir-fry vegetables in the freezer and sauteed them with some more fresh ginger and soy sauce.

Brett did the grilling, as usual, and here we have tasty chicken skewers with Asian veggies on a bed of quinoa. Yum! I was racing through photos so we could get to the eating part. Hannah decided not to wait for photos to finish, and while I was trying to get a shot of her cute little plate, she went for it.

She loved this! She ate it all and asked for more chicken and carrots. The quinoa was a little hard for her to eat because the grains are so small, but she still liked it and was licking it off her fingers.

This meal was so tasty we almost forgot how healthy it is! Good lean protein, ginger (which has all kinds of health benefits), mixed veggies, and whole grain. (forget all the sodium in the soy sauce)

Should I mention we “rewarded” Hannah’s excellent eating with a few chocolate chips for dessert? :)