Meal Planning

As Simran more and more outgrows liking her baby food, I'm aiming more and more to make things I can just blend up a portion of and feed to her.  That means more and more vegan dishes (I'm not giving her dairy yet) and no-salt and no- or almost-no-oil dishes.  So far she seems really into beans blended up with pretty much anything (e.g., avocado or artichokes with lemon juice and fresh ground pepper).  I took inventory of the fridge and have a green bell pepper and some leftover shredded red cabbage to use up.  Here is what I'm planning to make this week.

Broccoli Soup and Indian Potato Sandwiches
The broccoli soup is my super-healthy no-salt, no-oil, vegan recipe of the week from the Esselstyn book, and the Indian sandwiches are basically just bread with slices of baked potato, cucumber, and tomato, butter, and cilantro chutney.  Sameer ate them growing up and introduced me to them in college.

Thai Green Curry
This was such a hit when I made it before that I'm making it again (again with the store-bought curry paste).  It will use up most of my green bell pepper too.

Enchiladas Verdes with sides of Slow-cooker Pinto Beans and Red Cabbage Slaw
The green enchiladas are mostly spinach, which will use up most of the spinach I have to buy for the Thai green curry.  The slow-cooker pinto beans add protein, and the slaw adds some more vegetables and uses up the red cabbage in my fridge, or most of it at least.

Barley Risotto with Fennel
I just found this recipe on EatingWell.com.  Sameer loves risotto, we hardly ever have it, and I have lots of barley in my pantry since, the last time I wanted some, I couldn't find it in stores and had to buy it in bulk from Amazon.  The fennel and French-cut green beans add necessary green vegetables.  I also love that this uses the slow-cooker rather than requiring me to stand over it stirring -- an act that Simran renders nearly impossible.

Spinach and Garlic Pizza
I just made this up so I'm not sure what it entails yet.  I'm thinking tomato sauce (I know making it a white pizza would be logical, but Sameer loves tomato sauce and it's a lot healthier than added oil), garlic, oregano, fresh spinach (effectively using up any I buy this week), a little bit of chopped green pepper (effectively using up that), some chopped onion, and a blend of white cheeses including Asiago and Parmesan, all on top of homemade pizza crust.

Tostadas
This will use up some more of the corn tortillas I'm buying for the enchiladas verdes, as well some of the pinto beans that are accompanying them.  The rest will be basic taco fillings, like cheese, tomatoes, salsa, and lettuce.