Meal Planning Monday: Week 3

We totally crapped out on the meal planning thing over the weekend, unfortunately. I feel sufficiently guilty about it to say that I am confident we will not crap out this week.

This week will feature

Jerk tofu, mashed cauliflower, grilled zucchini with cherry tomatoes & cheese

TLT sandwiches and fava bean soup

AfR Mango BBQ Baked Beans, steamed broccoli, rice

PPK Cabbage and Rice Soup, green salad

Grilled portobellos, lemon roast potato packet, green beans, greek salad

Saturday is the wedding for which I am doing 150 vegan cupcakes, so this week's meal plan doesn't feature anything super exciting; I wanted to stick with things that are easy and fast.

Oops & Macaroni & Cheese

Monday was supposed to be AfR's Mango BBQ Baked Beans. Then my spanish onion was rotten so I had to use a red onion. Then my mango was rotten so I had to panic. Fortunately, doing all the grocery shopping in one day meant a fully stocked fridge and I was able to throw together the AfR 2nd Ave Korma instead.

Whew. Crisis averted.

Tuesday brings with it glad tidings of Mac N Cheese. Note to self: do not use any blends with mozzarella. You will end up with cheese dough instead of cheese sauce.

Be that as it may, it's still a yummy classic home cookin' rib stickin' comfort food.

If you haven't checked out The Pioneer Woman yet, you should. Full of yummy food that is constantly getting pinned and repinned. It's from her that I got my mac n cheese recipe. I aded the crumb topping because I like crumb toppings, but you can do whatever you want.

I did end up making two casseroles worth, which was far too much, even when we took it for lunch and such.

I also added in a head of chopped, lightly steamed broccoli; Dash saw through that ploy almost immediately, of course.

Please excuse the non veganess. I try not to cook with cheese often, but I am wanting a lot of dairy this pregnancy; growing another person will do funny things to you.

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!

Delicious Lentils.

It's really easy to fall into a trap where as a vegetarian you end up eating soy products an awful lot. December was definitely one of those months and whether or not the whole cancer thing is true, it's always better to have a more diverse group of foods in your diet rather than letting things get stagnant and eating the same thing day in, day out. Back to the bean!

Or legume. We had Isa Chandra's Upside Down Lentil Shepherd's Pie for dinner tonight and it was scrumdiddlyumptious. Served over dijon mashed potatoes and with a glass of merlot, you can't go wrong! I ended up using about half red lentils and half green because I was too lazy to find du Puy lentils the other day - I would have had to go downtown *gasp* and I just didn't feel like it. Also, do try to find the Worcestershire sauce - it definitely adds a little sumthin sumthin. I've made it without, as well, so I'm not just saying stuff.

Oh, yeah, and I added corn instead of peas because it's what I had.

Lentil Soup

In a short time I made two lentil soups. The first was the Sniffle Soup from ED&BV, which we enjoyed. The most recent was Arabian Lentil and Rice Soup from AfR. Verdict? We love lentil soups!

The soup was easy to throw together and of course yummy. I don't know anything about Lebanese or Arabian cooking, so I trust that the cumin and coriander made it authentic tasting. However, once again AfR proves itself to be one of the most valuable books in my collection. Also, we eat a lot of soup.