Meal Planning

Time for weekly meal planning.  Now that Thankgiving is over, my meal planning goal until Christmas will be to use up things I already have in my freezer and pantry so that I mostly just need to buy produce.  It's a good way to clean out the non- and less-perishables (and organize the newly cleared out pantry) without having to dig through lots of stuff.  Here is what I'm making this week:

New York Style Pizza and Kale in Walnut Sauce
I made a batch of New York style pizza dough last week, which yields three pizza doughs, and I still have leftover full-fat mozzarella, Parmesan, and chopped green bell pepper and onion from making pizza last week too.  This meal will use up a pizza dough, the chopped veggies, and most of that cheese, as well as some pizza sauce from the pantry.  I already have walnut sauce in the fridge for kale.

Loaded Nachos and Bean Salad and Crudites with Homemade Ranch Dip
Sameer and I love loaded nachos with real cheese, and we have all the ingredients already (light sour cream leftover from Thanksgiving, salsa, cheese, tortilla chips, avocados for guacamole), so I'm going crazy this week and even serving them to Simran.  I figure if I make a couple of healthy side dishes it shouldn't be too bad.  

Veggie Paninis and Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries and Cinnamon Squash Chowder
The paninis will use up some of the sprouted whole grain bread in the freezer as well as any remaining tomatoes leftover from this past week's sandwiches.   I have a couple of leftover sweet potatoes from last week that will make the fries and chowder.  The chowder will also use up the delicata squash I already have on hand.

Tofu Quiche and Green Banana Power Blended Salad and Banana Bread
I have tons of ripe bananas that I don't want to fill my freezer with, so I'm making banana bread -- Simran loves snacking breads.  The tofu quiche and blended salad will only require me to buy some baby spinach.

Tofu Pot Pie and Beets
I love tofu pot pie.  The pie crust isn't particularly healthy, but everything else in it is, and this dish will use up a bunch of veggies from my fridge and freezer.  Pie crust -- as with most unhealthy baked things -- can be made from essentials that are always on hand in my pantry.

Gnocchi with Spinach and White Beans
This dish should use up any remaining spinach from the night of the quiche.  I already have gnocchi, canned diced tomatoes, and white beans in the pantry.  This dish might use up the last of the mozzarella and Parmesan too.

Veggie & Seitan Stirfry over Brown Rice Noodles
I was looking through my freezer this morning and saw lots of homemade seitans from the last batch I made.  I already have the brown rice noodles in my pantry, and this will mostly use up veggies from my fridge and freezer -- and any canned water chestnuts and baby corn in the pantry too.