Meal Planning

Time for weekly meal planning.  I currently need to use up the following:  four whole wheat hamburger buns, four whole wheat tortillas, four eggs, one heart of romaine, one avocado, and about a cup of fresh sliced white mushrooms.  Here is what I'm making:

Black Bean Burgers with Chipotle Mayo and Crudites with Homemade Ranch Dip
This will use up the hamburger buns, or three of them at least, as well as the avocado.  I already have the burgers in the freezer, and I have provolone slices in the fridge.  It will also use up some of the romaine.  I really just need to buy a couple tomatoes for this meal, and maybe some fresh broccoli and carrots to go with the ranch.

Vegetable Biryani and Dal Makhani
I made the biryani with brown basmati rice last time, and I think I've almost mastered this recipe.  I used whole coriander though, and I'm changing the recipe because that is too much coriander in one bite.  If you break it up with a mortar and pestle, it would be fine, but the recipe doesn't say to do that, and the ground coriander tastes good and saves time in this instance.  I cut the ghee in half again on the dal makhani last time I made it.  I basically made each of the dishes with one tablespoon of ghee.  I'm not even sure it does much in the dal -- I only use it in the biryani because I don't like how spices taste when they've been fried in water, which would be the no-oil way to make that dish.  I used 1/2 cup of lite coconut milk in the dal last time and, while it tastes fine, I think a full cup would taste even better.  It's good without the milk at all, but it tastes better with it.

Vegan Pad Thai 
Sameer doesn't love pad thai, but I like this dish so much, and it's easy and cheap and relatively healthy.

Loaded Nachos
I find if I make homemade refried beans and put them under the cheese layer, these are less likely to make me feel sick from eating so much fat all at once.  Having a serving of vegetables beforehand helps too.  Someday I'll find a way to make nachos into a proper meal.

Veggie Omelets and Vegan Cream of Broccoli Soup
I'll use up the sliced mushrooms on the omelets, which will also use up the eggs in the fridge.  I might make some Banana-Oat Muffins to go with this meal and throw the leftover muffins in the freezer for snacks and breakfasts (just take any muffin paper off them first and wrap them in wax paper so they don't all freeze together).  I'll need to write up what I do for my second attempt at them.  I think I already wrote my ideas in the comments for the first attempt.

Veggie Pizza and Green Salad
Since Simran can eat half a pizza on her own when she feels like it, I've taken to eating an entire dinner plate of green salad before I have pizza so that we have enough food for all three of us.  I give her salad too, of course, but she is less inclined to eat it.

Chilli-Garlic Noodles
I haven't made this in a month or so, so I'm going overboard with spicy noodle dishes this week.