Meal Planning

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve and I'm planning to go grocery shopping in the morning.  Here is what we currently have that needs to be used:  sweet potatoes, baby red potatoes, apples, dry squash seeds (from the last time I cooked butternut squash), celery, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, and lots of carrots.  Here is what I'm making:

Black Bean Burgers

Because I made a new batch of burgers that are currently in the freezer so they are an easy, healthy dinner.

Creole Red Beans & Rice

I was going to make this today, but it turns out I need a can of tomatoes and green chiles.  This will use up a portion of the bell peppers.  I bought a small bag of small red beans awhile back for making this recipe and it's still lasting awhile.  Dry beans are so absurdly small and cheap compared with canned.

Vegan Garlicky Korean Mac and Cheese

Because it was so good last time and it's easy.

Homemade Pizza

For New Year's Eve since we're having a little party at home (i.e., Simran is actually being allowed to stay up with Sameer and me to eat snacks and watch the ball drop on TV).  I already have one more pizza dough in the freezer.

Idli-Sambar

This will use up the rest of the fresh bell peppers, some of the carrots and celery, and the diced turnips taking up space in the freezer.

 

Vegan Potato Soup

To use up the potatoes and some of the carrots and celery.  I'm thinking I'll make this for dinner tonight and we can have sandwiches or other leftovers with it. 

Whipped Sweet Potatoes

To use up the sweet potatoes.  I'm just going to bake them and puree them with a little water and my immersion blender and we can eat them as a veggie side.  They don't require any other ingredients.

 

Croutons

I made two loaves of pumpernickel bread on Christmas.  The leftovers aren't moldy yet, but surely they aren't good anymore, so I'm going to try making them into croutons for topping soups, salads, and just plain eating.

Applesauce

NYE Snacks:

Roasted squash seeds

Ganache Truffles (because I had ganache leftover from the Christmas cake, so I stirred some peanut butter into it and I'm going to scoop out spoonfuls and roll them in powdered sugar since I made the ganache from rather dark chocolate)

Cheese & Cracker (we have a variety of vegan and dairy cheeses and a variety of crackers)

Olives (I would normally stop by the Whole Foods olive bar before NYE at home, but this year I ordered a variety of olives online)

Final Fall CSA Box

The final CSA box arrived yesterday.  It contained:  several sweet potatoes, a large butternut squash, three turnips, some really nice looking lettuce (red leaf? it's part red, part green), one bulb of fennel, a bag of carrots, popping corn on the cob, sunchokes, green kale, and a bag of apples.

The apples will probably become applesauce, like so many of the bags of apples that came before them, since we can eat it for dessert or use it in baking.  I peeled and diced the turnips and put them in the freezer until the next time I make pot pie or a vegetable soup they can hide in (e.g., sambar).  The butternut squash will be roasted and pureed with the trio of tiny butternut squash I already had and all their seeds roasted.  The puree can either be an easy vegetable side dish or used in soup or other cooking.  I will bake and whip the sweet potatoes as an easy vegetable side.  I'll wash the kale and put it in the freezer for use in breakfast smoothies.

My meal goal for the next two weeks (minus Christmas) is to use up things in the fridge and freezer.  I normally make this my goal from Thanksgiving till Christmas, but the produce boxes took precedence this year and added a lot of extra incoming food and a lot of extra cooking.  Here is what I plan to make:

 

Tuscan White Bean Soup with Roasted Fennel (The How Not to Diet Cookbook, pg. 32 -- please note this is different from The How Not to Die Cookbook) and Roasted Sunchokes with Smoked Paprika Aioli (Vedge, pg. 50) and Roasted Butternut Squash Puree

Making this today because I have things to use up before they wilt and I hate cooking on Saturdays.  This is also going to be a LOT of cooking and I prefer to do that while Sim is busy with school classes.

Red Chile Cheese Enchilada and Fresh Guacamole

Saturday night dinner because I hate cooking on Saturdays and I can mostly make this in advance.  Also it'll use up some of the corn tortillas in the fridge and I have tons of ripe avocados for the guacamole, which I'm willing to make on a Saturday because I'm going to eat SO MUCH of it.  We can also eat some of the fresh lettuce with enchiladas.

Black Bean Burgers and Japanese Sweet Potato Fries

We have still more burgers in the freezer and I didn't get a chance to make the fries last time.

Whole Roasted Carrots with Black Lentils and Green Harissa (Vedge,  pg. 146)

Because I have pretty much everything I need to make this already on hand and it would use up a bag of carrots from the farm box while they are still fresh and sweet.  Haven't made this recipe before, so it's going to be labor intensive.

Lentil Haggis with Neeps and Tatties (Vedge, pg. 156)

Because it would use up the bag of fingerling potatoes AND the turnips from the farm.  I need half a cup of beer though and a fresh container of vegan sour cream.  Another new-to-me recipe.  I don't know what most of the words in the recipe name mean.  This meal might not end up happening anytime soon.

 

Creole Red Beans & Rice

Because I've got a green bell pepper in my fridge to use up and it's a fairly easy, healthy meal.  I'll probably end up making this on a night I meant to make one of the new Vedge recipes and didn't bother.

Homemade Pizza

Maybe for New Years Eve dinner because Simran loves it and I have one more pizza dough ready to go in the freezer.  I need more mozzarella first.

Vegan Garlicky Korean Mac and Cheese

I don't know when I will make this and I'm not sure anyone else in the house would like it, but it sounds delicious.  Since I have broccoli in the freezer, I wouldn't even need fresh produce so it could be an it's-almost-grocery-day meal (a thing that did not exist for me before the pandemic, when I went grocery shopping whenever I needed an ingredient, but it's a thing now).

[I was right about the Korean mac and cheese.  It was delicious and Sim thought it was too spicy.  It's not very spicy, but she is a child.  This is a nice comfort food for me, even with the inclusion of broccoli.]

Christmas Dinner

Idli-Sambar

Because it uses things up.

Meal Planning

Last full week before Christmas.  Also the last week of CSA until next June.  The box is arriving Thursday.  Here is what I have to use up between now and then:  leftover roasted butternut squash (from making the carbonara last week), golden beets, tons of various potatoes, two large Japanese sweet potatoes, some tomatoes, three tiny butternut squash, like five avocados, and a few celery root.  There's also a bit of the seasoned tofu leftover from the carbonara.  We ordered a bunch of delicious Indian food Saturday night, so we're still finishing off those leftovers too.  Here is what I'm making this week:

Celery Root Fritters with Remoulade (Vedge, pg. 130) and Curry Butternut Squash Soup and Salt-Roasted Golden Beets with Dill, Avocado, Capers, and Red Onion (Vedge, pg. 45)

I'm using up the roasted butternut squash in place of the pumpkin the pumpkin curry soup recipe.  I've done it before and it worked out well.  This will be a lot of cooking, but it'll use up most of the last CSA box, so I think I'll do this tonight.

Vegan Methi Chicken Curry and Aloo Matar and Brown Basmati Rice 

I didn't get around to this one last week since we ended up ordering in on Saturday.  The aloo matar will use up some of the potatoes.

 

Black Bean Burgers and Japanese Sweet Potato Fries

In case I run out of time or am too tired to cook on any given night, I can make this.  I made a double batch of the burgers last week and they're just sitting the freezer waiting to be reheated.  The fries are just a way to use up the Japanese sweet potatoes that I think stands a better chance of working out than the last time I tried baking them when they were just awful.  I'll just cut them into wedges, toss them with olive oil and salt, and bake them like I do the truffle fries.  I still have some garlic aioli I made leftover from last week's truffle fries too.

Brinner

Sameer made a big batch of waffles yesterday, and I can always make sausage and the innards of breakfast burritos.  Also pancakes.  I have a lot of yogurt, and those use up some yogurt.

My favorite breakfast burrito with the tofu egg scramble and potatoes from the VeganRicha link above, the vegan sausage from the other link above, sliced tomato, vegan garlic aioli (I just use Vegannaise when I don't have garlic aioli premade for something else, but it's even better garlicky), and sriracha.

On Thursday we're supposed to receive in the CSA box:  sweet potatoes, fennel, either kale or bok choy, greenhouse lettuce, sunchokes, apples, fresh popcorn, and more butternut squash.  I could make the fennel into Tuscan White Bean Soup with Roasted Fennel from the new How Not to Diet Cookbook, pg. 32.  When the fennel arrives, I'll have all the ingredients.

Christmas 2020

Planning this today because I'm going grocery shopping later and want to get as much squared away in advance as possible.

Crudites and Pumpernickel Bread with Homemade Ranch Dressing

Gardein Turkey or Chik'n (or a new fake meat if I see anything appealing in the freezer section; if not, I'll use the last of the seven grain chik'n tenders purchased before Thanksgiving)

 

Boxed Mashed Potatoes

 

Green Bean Casserole 

 

Candied Pears 

 

Yule Log Cake

Peppermint Ice Cream

 

Gingerbread House (because Sim's school is doing a Zoom gingerbread house decorating night, and making one from scratch last year wasn't harder than dealing with a boxed one; plus this way it's good enough to eat, which is the only thing Sim wants to do with it anyway)

Gingerbread house walls.  This is the point at which I realized I didn't have enough dough for the roof and had to make a second batch of dough.  It's currently chilling in the fridge for the next three hours.  If you use the linked gingerbread recipe to make a house, make sure to double it.  I can't remember if I doubled it last year or what.

I used a new frosting recipe in the hope it wouldn't get too soft at room temperature to hold everything together like the buttercream I used last time, and I erred on the side of too little milk initially, so it was too dry and it's a bit of a mess.  The second tablespoon of milk made it much more workable, and it's been sitting like this without falling in on itself for a couple hours now.  One more hour till the Zoom decorating party.

Finished product courtesy of Simran and a bunch of candy from the grocery store.  It's the next day and it's still holding up.  The Wilton frosting recipe with half veg shortening is definitely the way to go for gingerbread house decorating.

Meal Planning

The last time I went grocery shopping was a little over a week ago.  I have to plan dinners for the entire week, so I'll probably end up ordering some groceries from Instacart around mid-week.  I have a bunch of potatoes, a couple small heads of green romanesco cauliflower, a butternut squash, and some apples from the farm.  Here's what I'm planning to make:

 

Vegan Penne alla Vodka

I can put the romanesco cauliflower in this, as well as some of the broccoli and other random veg taking up space in my freezer and some of the vegan Italian sausages in my fridge.  I think I'll make this today.

 

Idli-Sambar

 

Vegan Butternut Squash Carbonara

This will use up some of the butternut squash, and I can puree the rest into a simple side dish for other nights.  I've never made this before, but it sounds good and reasonably simple, and I already have all the ingredients.

[a very saucy butternut squash carbonara and baby bok choy with Chinese mustard sauce in the upper left corner]

 

Seven Layer Tortilla Pie 

Not vegan, but it's delicious and I have all the ingredients to make it on hand.

Black Bean Burgers

Because they can be prepped in advance.  I need to make a new batch though because we ate the last batch pretty fast.  Sameer seems to like them almost as much as I do.  I just need parsley, mushrooms, and burger buns to make this dinner.  I could even make some of the farm potatoes into baked truffle fries. 

 

Vegan Methi Chicken Curry and Aloo Matar and Brown Basmati Rice