Meal Planning

Time for weekly meal planning.  I've been doing pretty well at using up leftover ingredients lately.  I currently have some plain yogurt I'd like to make into Indian yellow rice, but I think I'll make a bigger Indian meal tomorrow with the plan of yielding leftover rice first, then make the yellow rice from the leftover rice in the fridge to go with other random stuff on Tuesday.  Here's my plan for the week:

Moong dal tadka and Basmati Rice and Naan and Saag Paneer
This moong dal recipe has been on my to-make list since last fall because I have so much dry moong dal in my pantry for no apparent reason.  I'm going to make some extra rice on purpose to have it to make into yellow rice (no idea what it's actually called by anyone outside our house) on Tuesday.  I bought more paneer the last time I was at Patel Bros. so I'm making saag again partly for the purpose of having a green vegetable and partly because I love it so much.

Yellow Rice and Sandwiches and Leftovers and Peas
We have the better part of a loaf of sourdough and will undoubtedly have leftovers from Monday night, hence this being a random and easy meal.  I have no idea what sort of peas recipe I might make.  I just have more peas in my freezer than I would like.  I'll flip through my cookbooks and see if there is a recipe that looks pea-heavy and easy.

Vegan Pad Thai 
This will use up the rice noodles in the pantry and some vegetables I have on hand.  I also wanted something with tofu in it again this week.

Vegan Shepherd's Pie
I skip the Yukon gold potatoes and all that now and just make the topping from boxed mashed potatoes with unsweetened soy milk and vegan cultured butter.  It cuts down prep time by a lot.  This will also use up some vegetables from the freezer and some lentils from the pantry.


Friday night will probably be a junk food dinner.  There is a bit of buttermilk in my fridge that could be used up with the box of macaroni and cheese I found when I cleaned out the pantry last.  We might also have leftovers from throughout the week.  We could also feasibly make Taco Bell copycat foods (e.g., spicy quesadillas with vegetarian chik'n) and vegetable sides like the Brussels sprouts.