Meal Planning

I'm nearly out of bananas and a couple other things, so I have some grocery shopping to do either tomorrow or the next day.  Here is what I plan to make for dinners in the immediate future:

 

Fresh Veggie Tacos 

Probably Friday night because it's such a lovely weekend dinner.

 

Veggie Summer Rolls

Because I finally found and bought a new basil plant and there is a surplus of spring roll wrappers in my pantry.

Hearty Veggie Hoagies  

Because I bought vegan pesto the other day and it uses up some of the same ingredients as summer rolls, so it's convenient to make them back-to-back.  Also we're finally looking at cool, sunny days next week, so we could do a picnic dinner and this works well for that.

Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Pasta with Garlic Soy Curls

To finish off the spinach currently in my fridge.

This should suffice for awhile since Sameer has still been alternate day fasting and Sim and I usually eat leftovers or just quick stuff (e.g., sandwiches, veggie dogs) on the off nights.

Meal Planning

It's Thursday and I still haven't gone grocery shopping yet, but I really need to today.  Sameer has reinstated alternate day fasting for himself, so I haven't been cooking full blown dinners as much, but we're already out of most of things.  Tonight I'm making the pasta primavera with pesto alfredo.  Here's what else I plan to make:

One Pot Peanut Sauce Noodles

Because I have leftover tofu cubed up and in the freezer from making the jalapeno popper melts.

 

Fresh Veggie Tacos

Because it requires no cooking and it's been ridiculously hot outside.

 

Pasta Salad 

Because it requires very little cooking or heating up of the house.

Creole Red Beans & Rice

Because it's easy and healthy, Sim likes it, and it'll use up the leftover red bell pepper from the peanut sauce noodles.

 

French Onion Skillet Lasagna  

Because the veggie tacos will yield leftover mushrooms and the peanut sauce noodles will yield leftover spinach and this will make use of them.

Beyond Burgers

I bought some Beyond Meat burgers from the freezer section, and I just need buns to make them into a dinner.  I had a couple veggie burgers from a drive-thru in Alabama last month and have been missing burgers lately.

Short-Term Meal Planning

Now that I've had my colonoscopy and finished altering my diet in the ways that required (temporary low fiber, etc.) it's time to use up the random stuff taking up space in my fridge and the things that will go bad soon.  Here is what needs to go: some leftover pizza from last night, about a cup of leftover mac 'n cheese, one Beyond Meat veggie dog, several hotdog buns, a loaf of sliced sourdough, 6 eggs, a couple tablespoons of vegan basil pesto, about 4 oz of cream cheese, a package of Tofurky chik'n strips, 1.5 cups sliced red bell pepper, the better part of a head of roasted garlic, and 2 cups sliced cucumbers.

Tonight will be a night of leftovers.  Sim and I will eat leftover pizza and make salads from some of the baby lettuce and cucumber slices in the fridge.  Sameer will probably eat that last veggie dog and one of the hotdog buns.  Maybe that last cup of mac 'n cheese.  Tomorrow night I can turn the chik'n strips, red bell pepper slices, pesto, the roasted garlic, and the cream cheese into a pasta primavera dish.  I'll use some of the Parmesan in the fridge and some farfalle from the pantry.  I'll also throw a bag of frozen broccoli, some frozen peas, and an onion in there.  We may or may not use up some hotdog buns or sourdough bread in the form of homemade garlic bread.  There will probably also be a salad of baby lettuce and cucumber slices and maybe some of my leftover broccoli sprouts.  I've been growing broccoli sprouts every week for awhile now and didn't use up last week's yet on account of how my diet had to change.  Tomorrow should use up my most urgent ingredients.  

Tuesday I could make jalapeno popper melts (I'll have to set aside the right amount of red bell pepper in advance) and use up some bread on that.  That would even finish off my tofu.

After that I'll know when I need to go grocery shopping.  It'll probably be Wednesday.

Meal Planning

Sameer is still in Alabama, so I'm planning on cooking a bit less than usual and using up more leftovers feeding just Sim and me.  Here is what I plan to make in the near future:

 

Catalan Sauteed Polenta with Spinach and Butter Beans

Because when I made it last week it only used up half the polenta, so we're having it again tonight.  Should finish off the polenta, a package of spinach, and sliced red bell pepper.

Gnocchi with Spinach and White Beans

Still haven't made this yet.

 

Tofu Salad Sandwiches

Because I have one more package of baked tofu that needs to be used up.  I also have new whole wheat tortillas that were going to become fresh veggie tacos but the store was out of mushrooms, so I'll make them into tofu salad wraps tomorrow instead. With celery and homegrown chives and broccoli sprouts.

 

Enchiladas

I'm gonna make these Friday when Sameer comes home.  He had planned to make them for Mother's Day so we already have the ingredients.

 

Pasta Salad 

 

Fresh Veggie Tacos 

I'll make these after my next trip to the store when I can get fresh mushrooms.  We have a bunch of avocados and homegrown broccoli sprouts to go into these. 

Meal Planning

I'm aiming to use up some more ingredients I have on hand this week, including dry goods from my currently overstuffed pantry.  

Vegan BBQ Ribs and Smoky Potato Salad over Greens

Because I have an unopened jar of barbecue sauce and the better part of a bag of potatoes. 

One Pot Peanut Sauce Noodles

 

Catalan Sauteed Polenta with Spinach and Butter Beans

 

Veggie Lentil Dhansak 

Because I have moong dal and toor dal taking up space in my pantry.

Punjabi Dal Fry

Again because of my excessive collection of dals.

Split Mung Bean Soup

Obviously I won't be making all these dal recipes at one time, but apparently this is the way I find dal most appealing, so I have a bunch of soup recipes here.

 

Jalapeno Chili Cornbread

Because I have grits.

 

Gnocchi with Spinach and White Beans

Because I have gnocchi. 

 

Chili Garlic Tofu Bowl

 

Falafel

 

 Enchiladas

 

[Edited 5/18/2021: Simran requested I make her something more interesting for breakfast as I had promised to do occasionally, so I made blueberry muffin overnight oats.  She gave it a thumbs up (rare from her for a healthy, vegan meal), but she also took a long time to eat it.  I was out of chia seeds, so I substituted a little almond butter and the oats were still a little runny.  I'll try making it again when I have more chia seeds.  Sim has requested I make the apple pie one next.]

Meal Planning

Time for meal planning.  We have a lot of random leftovers that work for lunches still, but I need to be able to make dinners.  I'm going to aim to make things that won't create more leftovers.

Shakshuka

Because we have eggs.

 

Brinner

Because we have eggs.  And I can use up some of the cashew yogurt making pancakes.

One Pot Peanut Sauce Noodles

Because it rarely yields leftovers.

 

French Onion Skillet Lasagna  

Because it never yields leftovers and will finish off the spinach.

 

I'm also ordering sourdough bread so I can make sandwiches.  Mostly I just want to avoid more food waste this week.  Here are other meals I could make without buying anything new:

Creole Red Beans & Rice

 

Tofu Salad Sandwiches

 

Vegan Garlicky Korean Mac and Cheese 

 

Jalapeno Popper Chickpea Salad    

 

Vegan Malai Kofta

 

Seven Layer Tortilla Pie     

Meal Planning

Time to order groceries again, so I need to plan our meals for the next week or more.  Tonight we're going to have red beans & rice because it'll use up the last of my cut red bell pepper and it's pretty easy and healthy.  I'm going be repeating some other easy dinners that we already have the ingredients to make.  A couple days in the next week and a half we will be ordering in dinner for Simran's birthday.  The meals later in the list will just be things I can make from what I will already have on hand.  They may or may not happen.

 

Creole Red Beans & Rice

French Onion Skillet Lasagna 

Because I have enough lasagna noodles left in one box to make it again.  And spinach too if I make it soon.

 

Black Bean Burgers and Baked Truffle Fries 

I need to make a fresh batch of black bean burgers, and between this and the French Onion skillet lasagna, I'll use up the container of mushrooms.  I put the fries on here because I have pounds of potatoes.

Idli-Sambar

Because it's supposed to be cool again for awhile and I have some random veg and cashew yogurt to use up.

Vegan Methi Chik'n Curry and Basmati Brown Rice

Because it's easy and will use up ingredients I already have.

 

Buddha Bowl from The No Meat Athlete Cookbook

Because I really want to try this for lunches and I'm concerned I can't eat that much all on my own, especially when there are leftovers from other dinners, so I might just make it for dinner one night to try it out.  

 

[Edited 4/18/2021: I ended up just making this for myself for lunch today.  You can't really tell what's in it from the picture with the lettuce on top, but I used a base of the basic BROL recipe from The How Not to Diet Cookbook because I made it a few days ago for another dish and had some to use up.  The No Meat Athlete Cookbook calls for a cup of quinoa or brown rice, but I did about 3/4 cup BROL in anticipation of this thing being so filling I wouldn't be able to eat that much.  I added about 4 ounces of tempeh I had marinated and baked according to the recipe as well as a Korean BBQ sauce recipe from the same book.  Microwaved it about a minute then added about 1/2 cup of shredded carrot, 1/2 cup of vegan kimchi, 1/2 avocado, and as much lettuce as I could fit in the bowl.  The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of mung bean sprouts too, but I didn't have any at present.  It would be a good addition.  This Buddha bowl definitely has a kick to it from the spicy kimchi, but I can't imagine eating it without the kimchi.  I love kimchi and it sort of makes the thing.  If you don't like kimchi, I think you'd need something healthy and saucy and flavorful to replace it, like chipotle salsa and make it into a Mexican style bowl.  I like this dish.  I will definitely eat it again (now that I've made the BROL and tempeh and sauce, it'll take two minutes to put together, and it turned out to be a reasonable amount of food for lunch).  I made Simran try a kimchi-free bite and she deemed it "meh," which is better than the gagging and fussing I had imagined.]

Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Pasta with Garlic Soy Curls

Vegan Garlicky Korean Mac and Cheese 

 

One Pot Peanut Sauce Noodles 

 

Pav Bhaji