Meal Planning

I'm making some crazy stuff this week.  Hopefully it doesn't suck.  The bean sausages last week were pretty awful in texture, and I had successfully made vegan sausages before.  I love the Creole red beans and rice recipe I had been making that is easy, vegan, and oil-free, so I think I need to just eat that and give up on any additional Creole recipes for awhile.

I'm doing a lot of new stuff in an effort to find more recipes I like that are vegan and very healthy (lots of vegetables, unprocessed, and ideally no oil, but I'll settle for very low oil at first), and I'm trying to do some regular themes in an attempt to keep things simple (weekly taco night, stir-fry night, pasta night, soup & sandwiches).  Here is what I'm making this week:

Spiced Sweet Potatoes & Apples (page 143, Vegan Under Pressure) and Crispy Breaded Tofu and Vegan Cream of Broccoli Soup
I go through this soup so fast now that I serve it to Simran at nearly every meal (it's the only green vegetable she seems to like, plus it has other healthy stuff like beans), so I'm making it twice this week.  She's started trying other vegetables recently, but there is usually much grimacing and coughing involved just to get down a bite, and she'll eat a full serving of this soup without a fuss, so it remains my standard go-to side dish.  I'm doing the potatoes and apples for a second time because it was good last time, plus I want to use up the sweet potato in my pantry and the spiced cider in my fridge and I'd like to throw in the cup or so of cranberries left in my freezer from the holidays and see how that goes.  I plan to make all this tonight.

Taco Night
I have all the ingredients, and I'm finally doing the vegan chorizo from Serious Eats.  I did vegetarian taco meat last week just from browning half a bag of Gardein ground veggie-beef and whatever salsas I had taking up space in the fridge (garlic salsa, I think there was mild enchilada sauce in there, I don't remember what else but it worked out).  Everything else remains the same from week to week:  corn tortillas by Mission brand, refried beans, lettuce, tomato, cilantro, red onion, homemade guacamole, and chipotle salsa from a can.  I love this meal and any leftovers it yields for lunch the next day.

Vegan Butter Tofu and Brown Basmati Rice and Sai Bhaaji (page 134, Vegan Under Pressure)
The sai bhaaji is "Pakistani greens."  I wanted to include something green and leafy alongside the protein of the butter tofu.  It's a pressure cooker recipe, but I'm going to make the other stuff on the stove top because I'm afraid 1) I can't fit all three dishes in one pressure cooker especially when one is a solid pound of leafy greens, and 2) I don't want to mess up the entire meal by being too daring/impatient.

Pasta alla Anthony and Green Salad
Because it's very basic and fast and fairly healthy.

Homemade Soy Burgers and Vegan Cream of Broccoli Soup
I still have a whole mess of these burgers in my freezer from the last time I made them, as well as a few sprouted grain burger buns by Ezekiel brand.  They're better when you don't double the recipe like I did since that made the texture a bit too soft, but whatever.  They're one of the few things I already like that is vegan, no oil, and exclusively whole grain.  I eat them with yellow mustard, lettuce, tomato, and red onion.

Thai Red Curry (page 152, Vegan Under Pressure) and Brown Basmati Rice

General Tso's Chickpeas and Brown Basmati Rice

Detoxing

I've intentionally given myself a pass nutritionally since the week before Christmas.  It's sort of fun eating junk food and sweets without feeling fat about it, but the lack of guilt doesn't prevent me from feeling tired and nauseous.  One of my favorite things about New Years is putting a stop to that and eating and feeling better for awhile.  In my efforts to try some new things and eat well without spending all my time on it, I'm spending New Years Day binge-cooking.  Here is what I've made so far today:

Vegan Cream of Broccoli Soup, because Simran has started eating it willingly, so I've started serving it with nearly every meal.  This means making a batch at least once a week.  Whatever works, I say.

Vegan Andouille Sausage, based on the bean sausage recipe in Jill Nussinow's Vegan Under Pressure, but with dry spices amended based on a meat andouille sausage recipe I found online (I reduced the black pepper by 50% and the cayenne by 75%).  I'm going to use the bean sausage in a vegan jambalaya recipe for dinner tonight -- the beans are even black eyed peas in honor of New Years.  I'm just using a normal jambalaya recipe but I've replaced the andouille with the bean sausage I made and replaced the chicken with an equivalent weight of small red beans.  I'm also replacing the white rice with brown basmati rice and omitting the oil.  I think Vegan Under Pressure's veggie paella cooking method/time will work for the jambalaya in the Instant Pot because the amounts and ingredients look very similar.  I've already been soaking the brown rice and small red beans since last night just like I did for the beans and brown rice in the paella.  I wonder if I should add in the sausage at the end or if it will hold up okay with the other ingredients.  I feel like it might fall apart if I don't save it till the end.  I think I'll dry saute it, then dump it onto a plate while I cook everything else.

Vegan Lentil Pate, which is nice with crudites such as baby carrots.  I don't have walnuts on hand so I used pecans.

Salted Raw Caramel Dip (Dates and cashews are currently soaking, and I omit the oil.  I love eating this stuff with an apple after a meal, especially a light lunch that might otherwise leave me hungry in two hours.)

I also cooked enough French green lentils for the pate that I have plenty to make vegan chorizo later this week.  The Tofurky brand chorizo was okay and fleshed out dinner a bit that one night we ate it, but it cannot hold a candle to the homemade vegan chorizo at my favorite taqueria, so I'm trying to make some myself.  I want weekly taco nights to become a thing at my house.  With Mission brand's extra thin (no oil whole grain) corn tortillas, beans, and all the vegetables I can chop, it makes for a very tasty and healthy meal that shouldn't take up all my time in preparation (except for the chopping, my god the chopping).  The only reason I haven't already put this together today is that I need to buy tempeh.  Thankfully they've started selling plain tempeh at all the grocery stores in my area.