Meal Planning

Simran's taking her morning nap, so it's time for weekly meal planning.  I took inventory of the fridge and I have lots to get rid of.  I didn't end up making the Creamy Avocado & White Bean Wraps or the Tostadas I planned for last week, and some of my other recipes didn't use all the produce I chopped up for them.  I still have shredded red cabbage, celery that needs to be used soon, some extra broccoli and zucchini that have already been chopped, leftover slow-cooker pinto beans, and a couple roma tomatoes.  Here is what I'm making this week:

Bean Bolognese
Bean Bolognese is a vegetarian, bean-based pasta dish.  It will use up the leftover slow-cooker pinto beans I made to accompany last week's Enchilada Verdes.  It will also use up some of the celery in my fridge and some of the white wine I got for last week's Barley & Fennel Risotto. 

Creamy Avocado & White Bean Wraps and leftover soup from my freezer
Sameer and Simran both love these (Simran eats the avocado and white bean blend with a spoon) and I have to use up the red cabbage soon, so I plan to make these tomorrow.  I considered making fresh soup, but I have lots of little single-serving containers of homemade soup in my freezer that I'd rather get out of there. 

Sloppy Lentil Joes over Basic Kale, served with green salad and whole wheat rolls
This sloppy joe recipe is new to me.  I'm not super excited about it, but it's really healthy, it's something Simran can try, and even if it isn't very good, it should be filling.  I'm making green salad with homemade ranch dressing and homemade rolls to salvage the meal in case the sloppy joes are really awful or just plain bland.  The recipe recommends serving them over greens rather than on buns, hence my addition of the kale recipe.  We'll see how that goes.  I'll have the rolls on hand in case they'd be better on bread.

Lentil Loaf and Deviled Baby Potatoes
Two lentil-based meals in two days.  I'm not sure how I feel about that, but at least we'll be done with them before the tastier, easier meals of Thursday through weekend.  Lentil loaf is non-meat meatloaf that Simran should be able to try (it will also use up the small amount of fresh spinach leftover in our fridge, though I might have to throw it in the freezer to ensure it keeps that long).  Sameer and I both really like the deviled baby potatoes, and Simran loves the no-tahini hummus inside them.

Black Bean Nacho Pizza
I found this recipe on EatingWell.com awhile back and don't recall if I've ever made it.  I will make some black beans in the slow-cooker that morning so I don't have to buy any canned beans for this.  I'll have to make some whole wheat pizza crust the day prior.  Since pizza is usually a Thursday meal in our house, it will be our Valentine's Day meal, which I'm sure will be just fine with Sameer.  I'm also going to make a banana/raspberry/peach sorbet for a special Valentines dessert that the entire family -- Simran and Sophie (the dog) included -- can enjoy.

Penne alla Vodka
This dish will use up the leftover chopped broccoli, carrots, and zucchini already in my fridge, which is nice.  It shouldn't require more than 20 minutes of work, which makes it ideal for a lazy Friday.

Tostadas
I was going to make this last week and didn't.  It will use up some of the romaine lettuce and corn tortillas in the fridge, as well as the black beans leftover from the black bean nacho pizza.  I'll just shred some cheese, chop some tomatoes, and make guacamole to go with it.  A quick and easy weekend meal. 

I don't have anything planned for Sunday, but we have a frozen pizza in the freezer and ingredients for spaghetti too.