Meal Planning

Time for weekly meal planning.  I ended up improvising a lot of meals last week, so I have some carry over.  Here is what I currently have to use up:  celery (which wasn't called of by the tu-no casserole at all), a whole mess of tiny white potatoes I just bought at the farmers market yesterday, 2 cups shredded cabbage, one cucumber, three tiny tomatoes, and the better part of a pound of fresh baby spinach.  Here is what I'm going to make:

Tofu Fried Rice
Haven't made this one from last week yet.  I'm planning to throw the shredded cabbage in there.


Veggie Pizza and Green Salad with Homemade Ranch Dressing
Haven't done this one from last week yet either.  It will use up the three tiny tomatoes as well as that cucumber. 

Sameer's Enchiladas
Sameer wanted to make "his style" of enchiladas, which mostly refers to the fact that he microwaves them by the plate instead of cooking them in an oven.  I am making the chile rellenos tonight, and that includes some slow cooker refried beans as a side.  I made plenty to also fill the enchiladas, either tomorrow night or the next.

Beef-less Stew
This will use up some of my carrots, the celery, and all or most of those tiny white potatoes.  

Seitan & Veggie Stir-fry and Brown Rice  

Veggie Club Sandwiches
Sameer is going to be out of town for work (and Sim eats almost nothing I make for dinner), so I'm doing an easy sandwich and leftover sides for dinner at least one night this week.  I already have the Tofurky slices in the fridge.

 

Meal Planning

We didn't end up going out to eat a single time in the last week, so I've run out of meals and need to go grocery shopping a couple days early this week.  Here is what I have on hand that I need to use up:  a cucumber, about half a head of green cabbage, and some celery.  Here is what I'm making:

Chilli Garlic Noodles
This will be our meal tomorrow night, planned since last week.

Tofu Fried Rice
This is the third recipe I'm trying for fried rice since I didn't love the first two, and this one features a sauce that looks more promising.  I'm going to use up the last of my shredded cabbage (leftover from chilli-garlic noodles) in this too because why not. 

BBQ Seitan Ribs and Cornbread and Collard Greens with Almonds and Corn on the Cob
I'm thinking of making this after the pasta salad and/or tu-no casserole nights so that I can serve leftovers of one of them as a noodly side dish.  I'm also not sure if fresh corn is still for sale, but if it isn't, I'll just add another simple veggie side instead, such as crudites with homemade ranch dip.

Pasta Salad

Veggie Pizza and Green Salad with Homemade Ranch Dressing
The salad will utilize the cucumber in my fridge.  

Tu-No Casserole and Green Salad 
This will use at least most of the celery in my fridge.

Charred Chile Relleno with Green Rice and Slow Cooker Refried Beans
I did a search for healthy chile relleno recipe and Rachael Ray's was the top hit.  It looks easy and full of ingredients I like, so I'm going with it.  I think this will be my first time trying a Rachael Ray recipe.

Meal Planning

Time for weekly meal planning.  I didn't end up making any part of the sushi meal planned for last week because I no longer have a sushi mat, I didn't order a new one, and what I thought was frozen dashi turned out to be cinnamon squash chowder.  I can use up the sushi ingredients in other dishes, but I still have to figure out how to use the shiitake mushrooms.  Here is what I have to use up:  at least a pound or two of organic russet potatoes, 4 oz of shiitake mushrooms, an avocado, TONS of apples and apple-pears from the farmers market, a bunch of asparagus spears, one roma tomato, one cucumber, five eggs, and about three cups of ready made cinnamon squash chowder.  The weather is turning cooler again, so I can start breaking out the soup recipes.  Here is what I'm going to make:

Black Bean Burgers and Cinnamon Squash Chowder
I have all of this ready to go in the fridge and freezer except for burger buns.  I think I'll make this tomorrow.

Miso Soup and Pan-Steamed Asparagus with Lemon-Caper Mayonnaise and Various Leftovers 
I think I'll just make new dashi and make miso soup to use up the shiitake mushrooms.  I will also make this asparagus again to use up the asparagus I had planned last week to use in sushi.  I still have some leftover lemon-caper mayo anyway, and it was fantastic.  I ate all the leftover steamed asparagus from the last batch.  This should also be a good way to use up some random leftovers from the fridge.  If there aren't enough edible leftovers in there, I can always make a batch of brown rice.  I think I'll make this meal tonight to clear things out a bit in the kitchen before grocery shopping tomorrow.

Seitan & Veggie Stir-fry and Brown Rice

Chile Garlic Noodles
I haven't made this in awhile, and I finally miss it.  I shouldn't need to buy much aside from cabbage.

Veggie Pizza and Green Salad with Homemade Ranch Dressing

Pav Bhaji 
This will use up hamburger buns I need to buy to go with the black bean burgers, and it will make a dent in the number of potatoes in my pantry too.  And use up the roma tomato. 

Beef-less Stew 
This will use up a couple potatoes too.

I'm going to make some baked apples too, I think, as well as another batch of date caramel for dipping fresh apples.  I think there was a healthy baked apple recipe on straightupfood.com.  I'll have to check again. 

Meal Planning

Time for weekly meal planning.  I added a meal of Cheese Tortellini with Arugula & Pecorino Romano and Minestrone so as to use up my zucchini, all the other stuff I bought for the minestrone that I didn't end up making with the lasagna, and the leftover arugula, so I haven't made pizza yet.  Here is what I have on hand to use up:  a few stalks of celery, one heart of romaine, a sugar cube melon that I've already chopped up, a pint of blackberries, a couple jars of capers that are both needlessly taking up space in my refrigerator, a half-jar of sliced salad olives in my fridge, a crown of broccoli, and five eggs. 

We have gotten what I can only assume is a last warm spurt of summer, so I'm trying to make some weather appropriate meals too before I hunker down and make stews all winter.  Here is what I'm making:

Veggie Pizza and Green Salad with Homemade Ranch Dressing
 

Pasta Salad and Leftover Minestrone
This will use up the salad olives, the broccoli, some of the carrots in my fridge, the soy chik'n strips in the fridge, and a can of sliced black olives from my pantry.  I need some kind of vinaigrette and a box of whole wheat rigatoni.  I can make it ahead and serve it Saturday night, when I'll be spending most of my normal meal prep time at a hair appointment.

Tofu Provencal and Brown Basmati Rice Pilaf and Pan-Steamed Asparagus with Lemon-Caper Mayonnaise
The tofu provencal will use up one container of the capers, and the asparagus will use up a bit more.

Spinach Lasagna and Green Salad
I need to make a fresh batch of seitans for this lasagna.

Veggie Sushi and Miso Soup (or Asian Salad)
There is an unmarked container of brown frozen liquid in my freezer that I've decided to thaw and investigate.  Everything in my freezer that could fit that description is relatively fresh and something I made myself, so it can't be anything too weird.  I think it might be leftover dashi that I made for miso soup, in which case I'll make another batch of miso soup with it.  If it's not, I'll make some kind of salad with shredded cabbage and carrots and peanut dressing to go with the sushi, and I'll figure out what to do with the brown liquid when I know what it is (maybe vegetable stock? though I think I used that up).

I think I'll make "fancy fruit cups" tonight with the melon and blackberries and maybe some of the plums from the farmers market.  That basically means arranging the berries and cut fruit in tiny trifle cups so that they are pretty and everyone eats them.  I might make a cake or coffee cake or cinnamon rolls with some of the eggs since we have guests coming over the holiday -- I haven't decided yet.