Meal Planning

Time for weekly meal planning.  I'm trying a few new recipes this week and trying to avoid using dairy I don't already own.  Here is what is currently in the fridge that needs to be used up:  a couple cups of chopped carrots, a zucchini, and about a cup and a half of creme fraiche (I managed to use up the exact amount of eggs and buttermilk leftover from the scrambled eggs to make a double batch of pancakes -- I'm proud of that).  Here is what I'm making this week:

Vegan Enchiladas with Cilantro Avocado Cream Sauce
This is a new-to-me recipe from OhSheGlows.com.  It sounded good, and it's vegan and mostly just vegetables and whole grains.

Thai Green Curry
We haven't had this dish in awhile, and it's a nice, easy, vegan one with lots of vegetables in it.  It will use up part of that zucchini in my fridge, as well as the package of cubed tofu I have in there.

Chik'n Tomato Pesto Pizza and Kale in Walnut Sauce
This is a really tasty, easy pizza that I apparently haven't made recently enough for it to be on the site yet.  It normally features fontina cheese, but I want to use up some of the mozzarella already in my fridge, so I'll be using that instead.  It will also use up the rest of the jar of pesto in the fridge and the whole wheat pizza dough in the freezer.

Pasta Primavera with Cream Sauce
I'm just making this recipe up in order to use up that leftover creme fraiche in the fridge.  I'll use whole wheat rotini (easier for Simran to chew than penne, and doesn't have to be cut up like spaghetti), some of the peas and maybe asparagus currently in my freezer, and maybe some arugula and the rest of the zucchini currently in the fridge.  Some onion, garlic, any cherry tomatoes that are ripe on the cherry tomato plant, and any fresh basil leftover from the Thai green curry too.  Based on browsing the internet, I will make the sauce from the creme fraiche, grated Parmesan already in my fridge, and some fresh ground pepper and salt to taste.  If it doesn't taste like much, I can always add some of the roasted garlic marinara currently in the fridge and make it a tomato cream sauce.

Black Beans & Rice
This is a very healthy, surprisingly good Esselstyn recipe that will use up any arugula leftover after the pasta primavera.

Vegetarian Korma
This is another new-to-me recipe, this time from MyFancyPantry.com.  Indian food is still largely one of those things I don't know how to cook -- especially the sauces.  This sounded like a tasty, mostly very healthy and easy-to-make-vegan dish (though I do plan on using more ghee than oil this first time).  There is a lot of prep work involved though in making the "curry base," and I expect to make it at least a day in advance to ensure I actually finish cooking the meal by dinnertime.  Simran and I may need to make a trip to the local Indian grocery for some of the spices too, depending on whether dried fenugreek leaves and seeds are carried at Meijer.

Pasta Salad and Green Banana Power Blended Salad
The pasta salad will use up any chik'n strips leftover from the pesto pizza, as well as some of the carrots chopped up in the fridge.  This is a really old, simple recipe based on the pasta salad my mother used to make, but I apparently haven't posted it yet either.  It can easily be made vegan, depending on what vinaigrette you use.