Meal Planning

I've been working from the last "updated meal planning" post for weeks now, with occasional interjections of unplanned meals to use up leftovers and a couple pizza and nacho nights. I have a few more days worth of dinner ingredients, but it's time to start planning again.

More ingredients to use up: open bottle of barbecue sauce, burger buns leftover after pav bhaji night, 3 russet potatoes, shaved brussel sprouts, a spicy sriracha ranch chopped salad kit, a container of leftover vegetable manchow soup in the freezer, and a few slices of sourdough bread. Here is what I'm making:

Vegan BBQ Ribs and Baked Potato Skins and Spicy Sriracha Ranch Salad

[I forgot to take pictures of this meal. It was really good though.]

Beyond Burgers and Shaved Brussels Sprouts with Whole Grain Mustard Sauce

Creole Red Beans & Brown Rice

 

DIY Sandwiches and Leftover Soup 

Garlicky Vegan Korean Mac 'n Cheese 

One Pot Peanut Sauce Noodles

 

French Onion Skillet Lasagna

I should be able to make the first five meals without buying anything new. For the last two I just need to buy a red bell pepper, some mushrooms, and some spinach. The last of the sourdough loaf will most likely become garlic bread with one meal or another.

[Edited 1/31/23: Went shopping this morning and just realized I can use some of the mushrooms I bought for French Onion Skillet Lasagna to make a batch of Black Bean Burgers to freeze for later. So that'll happen this week too.]

[Edited 2/1/23: I made a double batch. I meant to use dried parsley because I didn't have fresh, but I ended up forgetting the parsley altogether. My freezer has eight decent sized black bean burgers ready to cook now though.]

Sameer's Birthday

He hasn't announced yet if he wants pizza or nachos for dinner, but Sameer has requested this cake, at half size rather than two layers like I would normally do. I forgot he likes his frosting to be partly shortening-based, so I'm saving this link here so I don't forget when it comes time to make it.

 

Cherry Chip Cake with Chocolate Frosting

 

[Edited 1/30/23: We ended up having pizza for his birthday dinner and nachos over the weekend.]

Mushroom Hot Cocoa: Second Attempt

I bought unsweetened cacao powder, so this morning I replaced the cocoa powder with cacao and also doubled all the ingredients just to ward off the watery quality of my last attempt. It was good. I don't have any of the original I'm trying to emulate left, so I can't really compare it to the original, but I like it. I think I'll stick with this version at least for awhile.

 

Ingredients: 

1/2 tsp cordyceps mushroom powder

1/2 tsp lion's mane mushroom powder

1/2 tsp reishi mushroom powder

1/2 tsp chaga mushroom powder

2 tsp cacao powder

6 oz boiling water

6 oz unsweetened soy milk

Directions:

1) Put all the powdered ingredients into a decent sized mug. Add boiling water and stir to dissolve.

2) Top with soy milk or other non-dairy milk.

Mushroom Hot Cocoa: First Attempt

There is a small business tea-maker whose herbal teas and unsweetened cocoa blends I've been enjoying for the last couple years, but she unfortunately seems to have stopped making product. So I'm attempting to replicate my favorites based the ingredients list. Yesterday at Whole Foods I found powdered versions of all the mushrooms on the list, so my first attempt was this morning. The original version includes some other powdered herbs and roots, but they are further down in the list, so I figured I'd attempt it with just mushroom powders and unsweetened cocoa powder first (because EXPENSE) and make notes from there.

The blend I'm trying to recreate calls for about 2 tsp of mix to make a cup of cocoa, so this morning's attempt was 1/4 tsp each of lion's mane, cordyceps, reishi, and chaga powders, and 1 tsp of unsweetened cocoa powder. These are much smaller than the servings listed on the mushroom powder bags and also much smaller than the amounts that studies on the NIH website indicate can cause any sort of kidney or other health problems. (I drink these sorts of things on a regular basis, so it was important to me to make sure I wasn't overdoing anything.) I dissolved my blend in about half a cup of boiling water and then topped with unsweetened soy milk like I do with the blends the tea maker sells. It doesn't taste mushroomy or even particularly earthy like I'm used to, but it's also not very chocolatey. It's a bit more watery than anything. Next attempt I'm going to actually buy cacao powder and see if it's richer. I don't know anything about cacao powder, but the blend I'm trying to emulate was definitely a darker color like coffee and definitely referred to "cacao" rather than cocoa. All in all, it's drinkable, so not a bad first attempt.

 

 

Updated Meal Planning

I made the mushroom bourguinon, Nashville hot cauliflower, Korean garlicky mac 'n cheese, and Korean eggplant tacos. I still have small amounts (1-2 servings each) of leftovers of everything but the bourguinon. Tonight we're having DIY tacos to finish off more of the red cabbage slaw. I also didn't end up using the entire red cabbage or the second eggplant I bought for the eggplant tacos, so I have those to use up.

I'm going to Whole Foods tomorrow while running other errands in a town that has a Whole Foods, so I want to update my meal plan for the weekend and apparently the upcoming week plus. Here is what I'm making:

Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

Friday night. Because it seems a shame to have access to fresh sourdough from the Whole Foods bakery and not make delicious sandwiches for dinner the same night.

 

Spiced Spinach Tofu Stir-Fry and Brown Basmati Rice

This is my plan for Saturday night because it's fairly simple, unless we just end up finishing off the rest of our leftovers that night, which also might be necessary.

 

Vegan Eggplant Parm with Whole Wheat Spaghetti 

To use up the remaining eggplant. We could have green salad, green beans, or some basic steam-in-bag broccoli with it, depending on what I've got on hand that needs to go.

[Edited 1/17/23: I made this last night and everyone liked it. Sim's only complaint was that she'd have liked it better with dairy cheese. No surprise there. I opted to go with the Seared French Beans with Caper Bagna Cauda as a side, and I made the last of my sourdough loaf into garlic bread. I finished off a container of fresh spinach by chopping it up and adding it to the sauce. There is enough of the eggplant parm left over that I'm going to make it into eggplant parm sandwiches for dinner tonight, with the last of the French beans and some brussel sprouts because I bought a bag of shaved brussel sprouts on Friday without a plan for it.]

Chilli-Garlic Noodles

To use up the leftover chilli-garlic paste. Initiates the purchase of a whole green cabbage.

Vegan Irish Sausages and Colcannon (The No Meat Athlete Cookbook, pg. 164)

To use up the green cabbage I have to buy to make the chilli-garlic noodles (and manchow soup). Initiates the purchase of a whole bag of russet potatoes.

Pav Bhaji

Uses up some potatoes. Initiates purchase of a bag of burger buns.

Breakfast Burritos with Vegan Breakfast Sausage and Pancakes  

Uses up remainder of potatoes and is a beloved comfort food.

 

Vegetable Manchow Soup and Peanut Sesame Noodle Salad

Making this into an official meal since I can use up the remainder of my shredded red cabbage on this sesame noodle salad, which I've made before and remember being good, albeit cold.

[Edited 1/19/23: Made this last night and it was good. Used brown rice pad Thai noodles for the noodle dish and added shiitake mushrooms to the soup and cooked it in the InstantPot -- saute function for the mushrooms and veg and then added the water and cooked on low pressure for 30 minutes followed by natural pressure release, since this seems to work well for soups in general. Sameer said he really liked dinner and hadn't been expecting to like the soup. The noodle dish did NOT use up the remainder of the red cabbage. I might have to make a small batch of slaw again soon to finish it off. Maybe 2 cups red cabbage left.]

DIY Sandwiches and Leftover Soup

Uses up remaining burger buns and whatever soup or other leftovers are still sitting in the fridge. 

Creole Red Beans & Brown Rice

Meal Planning

We just got home from a week-long road trip, so by design the fridge is pretty bare. Here is what I do have: a big container of leftover Black Bean Soup with Quinoa & Kale in the freezer, components for Vegetable Manchow Soup in the freezer because I didn't get around to making it yet, a green bell pepper, plain cashew yogurt, celery and carrots, avocados that I hope the fridge has kept fresh, enough milder chilli-garlic paste to make chilli-garlic noodles one more time, corn tortillas, and roasted garlic. Here is what I plan to make in the coming days (including several "using up leftovers" dinner ideas):

Vegan Mushroom Bourguinon with Potato Cauliflower Mash

I was planning to buy and need to use up lots of potatoes because of this, but I just discovered two potatoes in the pantry, so I've reconfigured this entire meal planning list to put the potato-based (and green cabbage-based) items closer to the bottom because I'll make them later, after I buy more potatoes and cabbage. It will make less sense this way if you're reading it for the first time, but it makes sense to me since I wrote it.

 

Nashville Hot Cauliflower Bites 

To use up the rest of the cauliflower that I didn't need for the previous recipe. I don't usually love cauliflower, but I do love this recipe. I can also make vegan ranch dip from my unsweetened cashew yogurt to go with it. I can serve this alongside one of the other dinners.

 

Garlicky Vegan Korean Mac 'n Cheese 

To utilize the roasted garlic, as well as the elbow macaroni in the pantry and the vegan cheddar in the fridge. 

 

Korean Eggplant Tacos with Kimchi Mayo (Vedge, pg. 170) and Red Cabbage Slaw

This will use up some of my corn tortillas. I also have kimchi and Vegannaise to make into kimchi mayo.  

 

DIY Tacos

To use up any remaining corn tortillas and red cabbage slaw. I just need to buy Gardein fish filets for mine and make sure to have lettuce, cheese, and beans for Sameer and Sim.

 

Spiced Spinach Tofu Stir-Fry and Brown Basmati Rice

To use up cashew yogurt. Might be able to put this one off for another week or two as the yogurt has a best by date from later this month. Any extra greens from the bourginon could be washed and go in the freezer until I can throw them into this. I made this with 50% kale once and no one even noticed.

 

Garlic Bread Sandwiches & Leftover Black Bean Soup

To use up the soup. It would also utilize leftover burger buns if I make the pav bhaji.

Creole Red Beans & Brown Rice

I don't expect to make this meal this upcoming week, but it's good to remember I can make it whenever needed with what I have on hand.

Chilli-Garlic Noodles

To finish off the chilli-garlic paste and the green bell pepper. If I can make this from the shredded cabbage I tossed in the freezer before our trip (I'm not yet sure how well it survived), I can skip the manchow soup until the next time I have a head of green cabbage. The other components of the soup can stay in the freezer till then. [Edited 1/7/23: Cabbage does not freeze and thaw well. I tossed what I had saved. I'm putting this dinner off until next week when I've finished off the red cabbage I'm buying today and the black bean soup I just started thawing so I don't have two heads of cabbage or two containers of soup at one time because that is TOO MUCH. I can make chilli-garlic noodles, the veg manchow soup, and Irish sausages and colcannon again to use up the green cabbage when it happens.]

Breakfast Burritos with Vegan Breakfast Sausage and Pancakes 

The pancakes would use up some of the cashew yogurt, and the burritos could utilize any leftover potatoes from the bourguinon.

 

Pav Bhaji  

To use up extra potatoes. May or may not happen in the immediate future.