Meal Planning

Time for weekly meal planning.  Here is what I have to use up from my fridge this week:  romaine lettuce, two newly purchased bunches of varied chards and two of kale, a handful of sliced green bell peppers, a cucumber, some carrots, and a couple cups of leftover cut broccoli.  I still have some vegetarian fake meats taking up space in my fridge and freezer too, so I'm working my way through those.  I probably shouldn't have bought them in the first place because they are still processed foods and they aren't half as good as I thought they'd be, but I'm going to finish them.  Here is what I'm making this week:

Tofu Scramble with Home Fries and Kale with Walnut Sauce
I have some apple and sage smoked vegetarian sausage in my fridge that I've yet to try, and the package suggested cooking chunks of it in a scramble.  I'm still trying to make everything a bit healthier for Simran's sake, so it occurred to me to make a scramble with tofu rather than eggs -- something I've never tried before.  I have a bag of home fries with bell peppers in the freezer that I just want to use already so it can stop taking up space in there, so I'll make those to go with it.  The scramble will probably contain the fake sausage, some chopped tomato, and possibly a little chopped spinach, as well as seasonings.  And maybe chopped Vidalia onion.  We'll have some of the fresh kale just blanched with walnut sauce on top -- it's become a staple in our house and a pleasant way to eat more greens.

Stir-fried Vegetables with Tofu and Brown Rice
This recipe will use up the leftover broccoli, bell pepper, and some of the carrots.

Black Bean Oatmeal Burgers on homemade 100% Whole Wheat Buns with Potato "Fries" and Swiss Chard with Walnut Sauce
This is my first attempt at baking 100% whole wheat anything.  It might be awful.  At first I looked for a recipe for sprouted grain rolls and saw how complicated and involved that was (you have to sprout your own grain -- seriously) and decided to scale things back a notch. The burgers are an Esselstyn recipe, as are the "fries," a baked potato concoction that will allow Sameer to use his new mandoline.

Spicy Vegetable Curry
This curry will use up some more carrots, as well as some peas currently in the freezer.  It will also use up some of the extra potatoes I'm getting for the potato "fries."

New York Style Cheese Pizza with Veggies and Green Salad
I'm tired of pan pizzas.  This is my first attempt at a foldable, floppy, New York-style pizza.  I ordered a pizza peel and stone from the internet this morning and they're supposed to get here Wednesday evening, just in time for Pizza Thursday.  The green salad will use the cucumber and romaine lettuce in my fridge.  I'm not sure what kind of dressing I'll make yet.

Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Vegetarian Meatballs and Toasted Garlic Buns and Kale with Walnut Sauce
The meatballs are from Trader Joe's freezer section and allow me to put off making a new batch of seitans a little while longer.  I always just use a jar of store-bought marinara sauce with spaghetti -- anything without meat or HFCS.  I've never been good at making sauces.  The garlic buns, another Esselstyn recipe, will use up the remainder of the 100% whole wheat buns I'm making this week.  Yes, we're having walnut sauce three times this week.  Possibly more.  It's really good and really easy and not bad for you.

For the seventh day of the week we'll have a spare frozen pizza on hand, as well as ingredients to make vegetarian fish and chips, but I didn't put those on the meal planning because the vegetarian shrimp by the same brand (Sophie's Kitchen) wasn't anything to write home about and I'm in no hurry to eat more of their fake seafood.