Meal Planning

Time for weekly meal planning.  I'm going to try to make warm weather type foods and use my fresh basil as much as possible this week because it's going to be fall soon.

Italian Fusilli with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Artichoke Hearts (Neal Barnard's Get Healthy, Go Vegan Cookbook, page 106)
I didn't make this one yet, but it sounds very easy.  Maybe a side salad.

Taco Night

Pizza Night
Doing personal pizzas again with whole wheat crust.

Chickpea Patties with Mango Chutney (Neal Barnard's Get Healthy, Go Vegan Cookbook, page 90)

DIY Sandwiches and Leftover Soup
I have vegetable manchow soup and vegan cream of broccoli soup in the fridge.  I will have veggie meats and the vegan cheese I bought and hummus and dressings and all manner of vegetables for the sandwiches.  I mostly need to buy bread and the veggie meats, including some veggie bacon.

Summer Rolls

Meal Planning

Veggie Dogs and Smoky Potato Salad over Greens

Taco Night

Veggie Sushi

Spaghetti & Meatless Balls and Green Salad 

Italian Fusilli with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Artichoke Hearts (Neal Barnard's Get Healthy, Go Vegan Cookbook, page 106)

Stuffed Poblano Peppers with Enchilada Sauce (Barnard's Get Healthy, Go Vegan Cookbook, page 141)

All-American Scramble on Pumpernickel Bagel (Barnard's Get Healthy, Go Vegan Cookbook, page 60)

There are two cookbooks I got from the library that I think I actually need to buy because they have to many good recipes to reasonably copy them all, and I say this after having made a few of the dishes.  One is the No Meat Athlete Cookbook and the other is the Get Healthy, Go Vegan Cookbook.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

This half-whole wheat pizza dough recipe has no oil and comes from Neal Barnard's The Get Healthy, Go Vegan Cookbook.  I made personal pizzas with it last week for my family, and they didn't seem to notice it was whole wheat OR no oil.  The pizza was all gone very quickly.  I made mine vegan, and it was still pretty good.  I ate the whole thing.

Ingredients
2 tsp agave nectar
2 1/4 tsp yeast (recipe calls for active dry, I use instant because it's what I keep on hand for my bread machine)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached AP flour
1 tsp salt
vegetable oil cooking spray
2 tbs yellow cornmeal

Directions

1.  In a measuring cup, dissolve the agave nectar and yeast in 3/4 cup warm water (100 - 110 degrees F).  Let stand for 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine flours and salt.  Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until a soft dough forms.  Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface.  Knead until smooth and elastic, adding more flour if necessary to prevent sticking.  Dough will feel slightly sticky.

2.  Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat the top.  Cover with a towel (I use plastic wrap) and let rise in a draft-free place until doubled in size, about 40 minutes.

3.  Punch down the dough and roll into a 10- or 11-inch circle (or divide the dough by however many people you're feeding and do small personal pizzas like I did) on a lightly floured surface.  Place dough on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and sprinkled with cornmeal (I put the dough on a pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal and move it to the pizza stone in the over, also covered in cornmeal -- no baking sheet or parchment paper).  Crimp the edges to form a rim.  Lightly spray the surface of the dough with cooking spray.  (I don't do either of these things.  I stretch the dough as thin as possible without breaking it, leaving it just slightly thicker around crust.  No extra spray or "crimping.")  Add sauce and toppings as you see fit.  Bake at 500 degrees F for 8 to 12 minutes.

Smoky Potato Salad over Greens

I did not expect a vegan no-oil potato salad to taste this good.  I loved it.  It comes from the No Meat Athlete cookbook.

Ingredients

2 pounds (900 g) waxy potatoes, such as Yukon Gold
1/4 cup (60 mL) apple cider vinegar
2 scallions (white and light green parts), sliced
1/2 avocado, mashed
1 tsp maple syrup
1 tsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 drops liquid smoke
12 oz (340 g) baby greens (I used baby arugula)
1/4 cup (30 g) unsalted, roasted almonds, chopped (I omitted this because I forgot to buy it.)

Directions

1.  Chop potatoes into bite size pieces and boil in a large pot over medium-high heat until fork-tender, about 10 minutes.  Drain and let cool in a single layer.

2.  Meanwhile, mix together the vinegar, avocado, maple syrup, tomato paste, mustard, salt, paprika, pepper, and liquid smoke in a food processor.

3.  Combine potatoes, scallions, and dressing in a large bowl.  The salad can be refrigerated for about 24 hours.  Serve over greens and topped with almonds.

Meal Planning

Baked Tempeh Nuggets and Smoky Potato Salad Over Greens (from No Meat Athlete cookbook, pages 170, 143)
I'm making this tonight, possibly with a side of corn on the cob if it's at the store today for as cheap as it normally is this time of year.  I will use some leftover baby arugula and maybe butter lettuce as the "over greens" because I already have them on hand.

Spaghetti & Meatless Balls and Green Salad with Cashew Ranch Dressing (from No Meat Athlete, page 152)
The ranch dressing is pretty good.  It's obviously it isn't normal ranch dressing, but it doesn't make me retch, so I consider that a win.

Mac 'n Cheese with Vegan Cheese Sauce and Something Else or Leftovers
I have leftover vegan cheese sauce from when I made it, so I'm doing this again to get rid of it.

Dum Aloo and Dal Makhani and Brown Basmati Rice
I have pounds of potatoes to use up.

DIY Sandwiches and Vegan Cream of Broccoli Soup

Veggie Summer Rolls with Spicy Peanut Lime Sauce
I'm making this as many times as possible while my basil is growing outside.

Meal Planning

I'm trying out some recipes from cookbooks that are due back at the library soon.  I also need to detox after our week in Kansas City eating restaurant food.  I've been wanting cheese less and less, which is nice.

Vegetable Manchow Soup
I'm making this for myself for lunches.  I now double the recipe, skip the oil (the stock burns, so I'll saute the vegetables in water this time and see how that goes, and double the mushrooms.  A full bowl or two plus a piece of fruit makes a filling and healthy lunch.  It helps me lose weight too, so I'm guessing it's pretty low calorie.  It is mostly cabbage, after all.

Veggie Sushi
The grocery stores around me all sell sushi, but none of them sell the veggie stuff, which is ridiculous, so I'm taking another stab at making it myself.  I'm going to serve it with the manchow soup one night.

Veggie Pepperoni
All the stores in my area have stopped selling vegetarian pepperoni, so I'm making my own again and hoping Sim will eat it.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it.

Shiitake Bakin'
From the No Meat Athlete cookbook, page 62.  It's pseudo-bacon from a mushroom, which sounds great to me.  Again, not sure how I'll use it, but it could work plain or in sandwiches.

Vietnamese Veggie & Rice Noodle Salad
From the No Meat Athlete cookbook, page 140).

Baked Tempeh Nuggets and Smoky Potato Salad Over Greens (from No Meat Athlete cookbook, pages 170, 143)

Spaghetti & Meatless Balls and Green Salad with Cashew Ranch Dressing (from No Meat Athlete, page 152)

Personal Pizzas
We finally have a working oven again, so that means pizza.  I'm going to make dough from Neal Barnard's Get Healthy Go Vegan cookbook (mostly special only because it's half whole wheat, and he replaces the sugar with agave nectar, though I'm not sure that matters), divide it into three, and make personal pizzas for each of us.  I want to make them vegan, or at least make mine vegan, and use some of the fresh basil while it's still growing.  Sim doesn't like the same vegetables as I do though, so maybe if I put little containers of ingredients in front of her, she'll actually eat what she puts on it.  I'd like cherry tomatoes, arugula, basil, olives, mushrooms, and I'm not sure what else on mine.

Chilli-Garlic Noodles
Because I need a way to use up the other half of the shredded cabbage I need for the manchow soup.

Vegan Cheese Sauce (maybe to make into mac 'n cheese and/or over steamed broccoli)

Classic French Vinaigrette (from NMA, page 153)

Creamy Herbed Hemp Dressing (from NMA, page 156, I think I would substitute fresh basil and cilantro for the parsley the recipe calls for and see how that goes, partly because I keep those herbs on hand and mostly because I find fresh parsley overpowering)

School Lunch Ideas

I've been packing lunches for Simran to eat at school for a year and a half now, but this will be the first year she'll be eating them five days a week.  I need some new options to give her.  I previously packed cheese or cheese/veggie meat sandwiches and gave her a couple of sides like baby carrots, fruit, and whatever random snacky things we had on hand, such as various crackers.  She has reached the point where the cheese comes home in the container and so does most of the veggie meat and sometimes the bread, so I'd like to come up with some healthier vegan options to try.

Peanuts and tree nuts are strictly forbidden in our school district.  Anything that requires cooking or being served hot or particularly cold won't work either since they lack access to a refrigerator or microwave the way all school children do, which is limiting.  I'd like to come up with one new dish for her to try out in her lunch every week or even once a month.  Since she tends to eat the same things over and over again once she finds things she likes, I don't need to mix things up too extensively.  Here are some ideas:

Homemade Lunchables

Sim loves veggie pepperoni.  I could give her some slices, either store-bought if I ever find them again or homemade (which I've made with some success), alongside Wheat Thins, again either store-bought or homemade, and maybe a few cheese slices since I can't think what else would go in there.  Maybe someone has already done an extensive blog post on healthy homemade lunchables.  Seems likely.  I'll have to look.

Pasta Salad

This doesn't have to be kept colder than your standard thermal lunch box, and she eats most of the ingredients, especially when there are olives.

Veggie Sushi

I'm not sure I could get her to eat this, but I love veggie sushi, and I'd love to come up with some variation she would eat too.

Veggie Kabobs

I saw this on another site (linking to yet another site, so I'm not even going to go down the rabbit hole far enough to figure out who started it) with grape tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and tortellini.  I like the tortellini idea, and I would use veggies she likes better and try to avoid adding more cheese since that is often what's in vegetarian tortellini anyway.  I'm not sure what I'd put in this kabob.

Breakfast for Lunch

Veggie sausages or veggie bacon, homemade French toast sticks (from Ezekiel 4:9 Cinnamon Raisin toast), syrup or fruit compote for dipping.  

Pinwheels

This is mostly a spread-based recipe.  I think hummus or cream cheese or some kind of vegan-yet-somehow-not-nut-based creamy spread mixed with minced vegetables/herbs would work well, spread on wraps or tortillas and then filled with olives and julienne cut vegetables would work well.  Again, I have to find vegetables Sim will eat.  She likes carrots, broccoli, and celery, but actively avoids most leafy greens.

Quesadillas

Sim has finally started willingly eating beans, so a quesadilla or pinwheel with refried beans and a little cheese would probably get eaten.

Something with raw tofu, because she will inexplicably eat that stuff straight

Something with raw vegetables cut into tiny stars and flowers, because that looks appealing on blogs

She loves whole wheat rotini, so variations on pasta salad could work well here as long as the sauce isn't too obtrusive.  Maybe with cubed raw tofu because she likes that better than whole beans.

Rainbow Sandwiches

Someone did this online, and it doesn't look appetizing or like things my daughter would eat (e.g., red cabbage) but she does love rainbows.  It would also look pretty in a star-cut kabob form.  I do have lots of mini skewers on hand.  I think I might already have vegetable cutters for making stars and flowers too, but I have to check.  

...Nope.  I considered buying them when I bought pancake/egg molds in flower shapes in an effort to make more foods that look like they would exist in "My Little Pony," but I apparently did not buy the vegetable cutters.  Will do that today.

Veggie Hotdogs

This seems easy enough, either served cold or cooked and wrapped in foil, with a side of ketchup.

Pizza Sandwich

Simran's favorite school lunch from last year was my effort to use up some hamburger buns.  I toasted them with butter and garlic powder and veggie pepperoni and provolone or whatever Italian cheese blend I had on hand.  Then I wrapped the finished sandwich foil and put it in her thermal lunch box.  I'm not sure how warm it was when lunchtime rolled around, but the presence of butter and the fact that the sandwich wasn't much beyond garlic bread ensured it got eaten every time.  I tried using marinara sauce in place of the garlic butter for a dramatically healthier pizza sandwich, but she was not impressed.

Tofutti allegedly makes vegan soy cheese.  I'm noting it here to check out later.  I've enjoyed their ice cream sandwiches in the past, and I think a lot of other vegan cheeses are nut-based, though I could be wrong.  Some are just bad tasting.

Baked Tempeh Nuggets from the No Meat Athlete cookbook

Strawberry Shortcake Rice Bites also from No Meat Athlete cookbook
These are basically sweetened rice with vanilla, strawberries, and a sprinkling of chia seeds, rolled into sushi form.  I'm mostly hoping I can make sushi look good to her by getting her to like a non-vegetable sweet version.