Meal Planning

I can eat crunchy foods again. Here is what I need to use up: 3 tomatoes I bought yesterday, about a cup of canned coconut milk, a few eggs, and a bag of russet potatoes. Here is what I'm making:

Étouffée (Vegan Richa's Instant Pot Cookbook, pg. 220) and Veg Creole Crab Cakes with Remoulade

Tonight. Because it's Mardi Gras. Also I have to pick Sim up from basketball, so the Instant Pot will allow me to be cooking the etoufee while doing that. The crab cake recipe is NOT vegetarian, but I'm going to swap out the crab for a combination of shredded hearts of palm and grated zucchini. I figure I've made New England style veg crab cakes enough times that I should be able to get them to the right consistency for not falling completely apart.

[I really like how the "crab" cakes turned out especially. I skipped the pound of crab and replaced it with a 14 oz can of hearts of palm shredded with a fork and half a large zucchini grated on the big non-fancy side of the grater (the one you use for cheese that isn't Parmesan). Hearts of palm make it way more crab-like than just zucchini like I've done in the past. I used 1.5 tsp kid-friendly Creole seasoning and 1/2 tsp of Luzianne Cajun seasoning (less flavorful, more salty and spicy). For the etoufee I didn't want to find or deal with jackfruit (I had a bad experience once), so I used two portobello mushroom caps, a couple ounces of soy curls, and about a can worth of small red beans. I tried to make white rice with a little pot inside the etoufee pot, but I guess the etoufee boiled over the edge and got into the rice pot because it looks like dirty rice. It's cooked adequately and tastes good though, so I deem it good enough. I did take the little rice pot out as soon as the etoufee finished cooking and covered it so the rice could attempt to steam a bit. It went okay.]

Malai Kofta

Because I already bought all the ingredients to make it when I was restricted to soft foods.

 

Garlicky Korean Mac 'n Cheese with Gochujang

Because I have all the ingredients to make it, and it might use up the last of my roasted garlic.

 

Vegan Mushroom Bourguignon with Potato Cauliflower Mash 

I made this one pot-in-pot last time and it turned out really well. I have an Instant Pot steamer basket now, so I'm using that this time for the potato/cauliflower mixture. 

 

Espinacas con Garbanzos and Patatas con Alioli and Champiñones al Ajillo and Baked Goat Cheese with Garlic Bread

Tapas night. Maybe Friday night. Because I want to eat the garlicky potato salad. I'm also going to make sangria out of the red wine leftover from the bourguignon and make a sangria-inspired mocktail for Sim. It'll probably be some kind of cranberry or grape juice cocktail blend topped off with Sierra Mist and cut fruit.

 

Nashville Hot Cauliflower Bites

To use up the cauliflower leftover from the bourguignon. This and the garlicky mac 'n cheese will both  need supplemental dishes go with them, but I'll probably have ingredients leftover from the other dishes that will inform what those will be.