Meal Planning Monday: Week 1

I hate how easy it is to not meal plan and then end up eating out a million times per week. It's wasteful, not very healthy, and not very economical. Time to jump on the meal planning bandwagon. 

Dinners
Mango baked beans (AfR),steamed broccoli, green salad
Macaroni & cheese (Pioneer Woman), cauliflower, asparagus
Crockpot chili, cornbread, kale salad
Tofu po'boy sandwiches and grilled parm eggplant
White bean & kalamata salad, grilled portobellos and zucchini
BBQ Tempeh and Citrus Salad

It's a big salad week, evidently, but it's already four thousand degrees here in Guelph (*almost* makes me wish we lived near the lake) and slaving over a hot stove is not my idea of a gay ol' time. Also, Dash has been enjoying the simple delights of iceberg, cucumber, and red pepper salads with simple balsamic dressing, and you can never go wrong by adding more greens! Anyway, this list will take us through Saturday, and since these guys are all to serve 4 people (with the exception of chili, some of which we will freeze for later, and tofu po'boys, which will lose their glorious crunch) we'll have our lunches made too!

Early Summer Food & Drink plus some other stuff.

Food & Drink is one of my favorite magazines. It's not particularly (or sometimes, not at all!) veg friendly - they seem to think that a vegetable stir fry is vegetarian despite containing oyster sauce - but it does have beautiful photography, fun entertaining ideas, and great flavour combinations that I yearn to replicate in a veg friendly fashion.

Ian suggests that perhaps Oysters are 'the vegetables of the sea.'

This current issue has a recipe for 'Bang Bang Chicken Noodle Salad,' the peanut sauce for which sounds divine and for which I suddenly found myself having a craving. I more or less kept the sauce as is, just switching agave for sugar and leaving out the coriander (Ian is not a fan); I also used Thai rice stick noodles instead of vermicelli, forgot to use the mint, and chopped up some napa cabbage in lieu of bok choy.

The recipe is not yet online, but here's my slightly modified version of it; keep your eye on the Food & Drink website for the original, if you happen to be a chicken or coriander eater. I didn't think to take any pics because we were starving, but it's really not that pretty unless you want to style it instead of just mixing all of it together in a bowl, and I wasn't about to do that.

Peanut Sauce
1 c natural peanut butter (sorry Kraft. You're for toast only.)
1/4 c rice wine vinegar
2 cloves of garlic crushed
2 tsp agave
1 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tbsp finely grated ginger
1/3 c tamari
1/2 c water

Mix all of those together with a fork or whisk in a bowl or measuring cup. It'll be quite thick.

Salad
250g rice stick noodles
1/2 english cucumber, julienned
2 large handfuls of shredded carrot
10 or leaves of napa cabbage, rolled up and then sliced thinly
2 green onions, sliced pretty thinly

Cook the rice noodles according to package directions. Rinse them in cold water and put in a bowl. Throw everything else on top and then add the dressing and use tongs to mix and get all the noodles and vegetables coated in sauce. Serve. If you want to beef it up, some grilled Asian style marinated tofu would be delish, or I bet even some chickpeas might work in it.

I mention 'other stuff' in the title. Fiddleheads are in season! If you find them in your local grocery store, make sure to pick them up. They're a great spring veggie (really a baby fern frond) and go well pretty much wherever you would use broccoli or asparagus. Tonight we had grilled BBQ tofu (was supposed to be jerk, but we couldn't find the jerk sauce), coconut milk & ginger mashed sweet potatoes, and steamed fiddleheads for dinner.

I made crock pot chili last night. I wanted it for lunch today so I popped everything in the crock pot at 11pm and set it to high for 8 hours. I woke up at 5:30 am and absolutely could not get back to sleep because damn, girl, that chili smelled so good. Not a photogenic food, nor did I have time as I shoveled some into a container to take to work this morning anyway, but here's the recipe. Slow Cooker Chili (note: I used a half cup of navy beans instead of chickpeas because I think chickpeas in chili is weird. I also added some cayenne for a bit more heat.)

Vegan Staple: Chili

I read once that there are as many vegan chili recipes as there are vegans. I'm sure that's true; I wanted chili the other day and looking through a few of my cookbooks alone I probably had 15 or 20 at my disposal. None of them suited my tastes however; I wanted the chili I used to make in the good ol' omnivore days, hearty and sweet with just  touch of chili.

Problem: where in heck did I used to cook the recipe out of? Scoured a couple more cookbooks and found it: People's Choice Chili from The Complete Canadian Living Cookbook. Their recipe is pretty much all about the meat, but what I wanted was the flavour, so here's my take on it.

Another ugly but taste food.

The "Meaty" Component
1 c tvp crumbles
1 tbsp maple syrup
1.5 tsp liquid smoke
1 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
1 c broth
Boiling Water

Put the crumbles in a bowl. Mix the syrup, liquid smoke, tamari and broth together. Pour onto the crumble and then add enough boiling water to cover; cover the bowl and let soak until ready to throw into the chili (at least 15 minutes).

The Chili
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 large carrot, or 10ish baby carrots, chopped
1 stalk of celery, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced or crushed
1/4 c wine (I used red, white would be great too)
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can kidney beans
1 can baked beans
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp molasses
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce (I finally found vegan Worcestershire! It was at Whole Foods! The back of the bottle reads that it's great with chicken. I mean, why bother finding the vegan variety if you're only going to put it on chicken? Weird.)
Salt & Pepper
Hot sauce if you want it spicier (I added probably 1/2 tsp Frank's Red Hot)

Saute the onion, celery and carrots in the oil over medium-high heat until softened. Add the garlic and cook for a minute more. Deglaze with the wine, then toss in everything else. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and let cook for about half and hour. Drain the tvp of any excess water and add to the chili and cook for another 15 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.