Meal Planning

I went grocery shopping a few days ago and won't be doing it again this week, so these are not the optimal conditions for meal planning, but whatever.  I need to figure out what I'm making this week.  It's Simran's last week of school, so I think pizza will be part of it.  Here is what I have to work with:  a red cabbage, 6 cups of broth I made a few days ago, plenty of lettuce, a little cashew yogurt (there was only one container at the store), brussel sprouts, and some tiny Yukon Gold potatoes.  Here is what I'm making:

Almost Instant Ramen (from The No Meat Athlete Cookbook)
Sameer is fasting today, so I'm going to make this for Simran and me.  If it's good, it'll be a great healthy recipe for using whatever I have on hand going forward.  It allows me to use some of the frozen shelled edamame and wild mushrooms in my freezer and some of the dried seaweed and soba noodles in my pantry.  These are all things I don't use much but have plenty of on hand from the few recipes I've made that call for them.

Vegan Methi Chik'n Curry and Aloo Matar and Brown Basmati Rice
This will be a good, warm, saucy meal for tomorrow, when the weather is supposed to be rainy and cool.

DIY Sandwiches
I want to make some sandwich bread of some nature so Sim and I can have a sandwich option on Sameer's fast days.

Homemade Pizza and Green Salad
I'm hoping to do this one Friday in honor of Simran's last official day of second grade.  I just don't want to heat the house up this much if it turns out to be hot out that day.




Avocado Grilled Enchiladas with Red Chile Pesto and Homecooked Black Beans
I think I have all the necessary ingredients to make this happen, or at least some makeshift version of it.  Saturday night dinner.


Tortilla Pie
Wednesday's meal because this involves heating up the oven and it's still supposed to be cool.  I'm making this to use up all the salsa in the fridge that Sameer asked me to buy and then said is the only brand he cannot stomach (it's Chi-Chi's restaurant style -- who knew).  I might incorporate some of the components of this tastier but less healthy recipe.  Not the cheese though.  Keeping this one vegan and oil free.



Healthy Carrot Cake  
I want to try making this recipe because carrot cake flavor would go well with the flavor of dates, which makes it more inclined to a no-added-sugar recipe like this one, and I want a new healthy, whole food dessert by next weekend (and it's getting increasingly difficult to have all the ingredients on hand for cherry chocolate chia pudding).  I would add applesauce to this recipe if I had some, in place of the carrot juice.  I do have canned pineapple though, which I've seen other carrot cake recipes call for, so I think I might put a bit of that in there, maybe after putting it through a food processor to break it down a bit.  Instead of chunks of dates, I think I'd like to use homemade date syrup, and whole wheat pastry flour in place of the whole wheat flour, and I will use golden raisins for the raisins.  I plan to throw in some ground flaxseed as emulsifier too.  I would use pecan pieces if I had any more, just because of personal preference, but I do have plenty of raw walnuts, which I will dry toast in a pan before adding them to the batter.  The flavor should be easy to make tasty.  Achieving the right texture is harder.  I think these changes will make it a bit less like a fruitcake in density and more like a quick bread though.