Meal Planning

I've realized there are a couple other meals I'd really like to find/create good recipes for:  vegetable maki (I love the basic stuff from cheap sushi restaurants or the grocery store, but I've never made it well, so I think it's a technique issue), vegetable cutlets (I realized that was the term I wanted when I included "ragda patties" last week -- corrected below), and soybean-based fake meats.  I want to be able to make my own soy-based mock meats, like really good burgers and maybe even vegetable cutlets with soy beans in place of the potato (I haven't worked with soy beans before, so I don't know yet if this is insane).  I'm not dreaming any higher than that yet.  I don't love the texture of vital wheat gluten, and the processed freezer section foods I love always feature soy, so I want to try working with it.  I already have some dried soy beans from the Asian supermarket because I was going to make meatless balls and the recipe called for them.  I think the bulk aisle at Whole Foods sells them too.

Veg Cutlets with Saag Chutney and Some Kind of Salad or Leafy Green Side
I realized what I have been wanting to make is "vegetable cutlets," any variety.  I also nixed the raita as I made vegan flavor sauce and realized the cashewed soy yogurt makes a solid base for a dressing but should not be the featured flavor.  It isn't as good as homemade dairy yogurt, at least not this particular batch.

Mushroom Shepherd's Pie and Collard Greens with Almonds
I've made mixed vegetable farmer's pie, and I've had it with just lentils (and onions and garlic, I think) at Tea & Sympathy in NYC, but I think the best vegetarian shepherd's pie I've had is the special Tea & Sympathy sometimes has where the base is mushrooms.  I love mushrooms.  I thought of this when I was making the vegan lasagna last week, which was okay but I didn't love it and it had SO MANY CASHEWS.  My god, the cashews in that thing.  The mushroom layer smelled heavenly while reducing though and had some ideas I hadn't seen before, like mild miso in the mix, so I'm going to make that as my shepherd's pie base (maybe stir in a small amount of cooked French green lentils for protein) and just pile some plain mashed potatoes on top (or pipe them on with a star tip and a pastry bag in the hopes it will entice Sim to try it). [Edited 1/14/16:  The mushroom layer doesn't have the miso in it.  It's actually pretty sparse.  I will probably add tomato paste and some dried herbs to flesh out both the flavor and the consistency.]

Veggie Fajitas with Fresh Guacamole and Slow Cooker Black Beans

Tofu Vindaloo with Brown Basmati Rice

Veggie Pizza and Green Salad

Tofu & Veggie Stir-fry and Brown Rice