Meal Planning

We're back from our week-long trip, so I need to plan meals for the week and go grocery shopping this morning. Here is what we're having:

Classic Vegan Fish Tacos

 

Avocado Grilled Enchiladas with Red Chile Pesto

 

Beyond Burgers and Veggie Sides

 

Super Salad with Garlic Caesar Dressing 

As a veggie dinner accompaniment and my lunches.

Fresh Veggie Tacos and Red Cabbage Slaw   

 

Stir-fry Veggies & Tofu over Brown Rice Noodles

 

Vegan Peanut Sesame Noodle Salad

 

I don't know if we'll do all of these this week or save a couple until next week (e.g., one of the noodle dishes). I just want to have enough meal plans that use up the same fresh produce so we don't end up wasting anything. 

Go-To Recipes for Using Up Your Leftover Produce

A key part of what makes meal planning easy is having some go-to recipes. Certain recipes are more receptive to having random leftover vegetables thrown into them than others. I highly recommend finding a recipe you like from each of the following genres and using at least one every week or so:

Noodles

Pretty much every noodle dish I make contains more vegetables than noodles, and my family prefers it that way. My chilli-garlic noodles are like 50% shredded cabbage (because cabbages are MASSIVE and you have to use it up pretty fast).

Penne alla Vodka 

Chilli-Garlic Noodles

 

Stir-fry

The best way to clear out your fridge and freezer. I make a pot of brown rice or brown rice noodles to go with it, then stir-fry some diced tofu or seitan and a whole bunch of random vegetables with some sauce.

Tofu Vegetable Stir-fry

 

Vegetable Soup 

Sambar is my favorite way to use up cut vegetables, especially ones that have been in the freezer for who knows how long. Are the green beans all freezer-burned and frozen into a block of ice? Doesn't matter, I just dump them all in the pot. The seasonings of the soup are so flavorful that it doesn't make much difference what vegetables you include either. You can also throw any sort of lentils or pre-cooked beans in there.

Sambar

Vegetable Barley Soup

 

Salad

Salads are a great way to use up leftover fresh vegetables, especially ones that don't freeze well, such as cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, or fresh herbs. If you find a dressing you like (the garlic Caesar linked below is very healthy and easy to make, so it's one of my favorites), you can pour it over pretty much any fresh vegetables and serve it as a prelude to your meal, a vegetable side, or a light meal on its own.

Super Salad with Garlic Caesar Dressing

Buffalo Tofu Salad

Using Up All Your Produce

The last time I made veggie summer rolls, I ended up with a lot of leftover vegetable matter (as usual), so I thought I'd post about how I reduce food waste by using that stuff up.

To make the summer rolls, I needed sliced up red bell pepper, carrots, cilantro, basil, cucumber, green onions, and lettuce. Not pictured: tofu and spring roll wrappers.

 

 

I made ten summer rolls because it's enough we'll all have our fill, but doesn't leave more leftovers than we can easily finish off the next day at lunch. Knowing this beforehand, I got out about ten lettuce leaves and picked twenty basil leaves off my basil plant. Basil and cilantro especially do not stay fresh for long after picking, so I made a point of using up all my lettuce, basil, cilantro, and green onions in this batch of summer rolls. Sometimes one summer roll has a bunch more herbs in it than the others because I didn't plan well enough early on. No one has ever complained about this because they are still delicious.

When I cleaned up, I had containers of (from left to right): thinly sliced red bell pepper, julienned carrots, about 7 oz. of diced firm tofu, and julienned cucumbers.

The goal is to use everything so it doesn't end up in the trash. Produce like this will usually keep for a few days in the fridge, but it's easy to forget what you've got, so it's best to have a plan for it all immediately. Ideally the same week's meal plan will have taken these leftover bits of produce into account (learning to do that is a big part of successful meal planning). Here is what I did this particular night:

• I put the tofu in the freezer where it currently remains. I'll get it out the next time I make stir-fry or similar. It keeps indefinitely in there, so there's no rush.
  
• I served the cucumber slices to Simran as a veggie side over the course of the next couple of days and ate some myself at lunch until they were gone. Took maybe two days.
  
• I used some of the carrots in the Korean BBQ Soy Curl Crunchwraps I made later in the week.
• I put the the remainder of the carrots and some of the red bell pepper into the Pasta Marinara with Spicy Italian Beanballs I made later in the week. This was not part of the recipe, but you can throw leftover cut vegetables into most pasta dishes and all it does is make them healthier.
  
• I diced up the last of the red bell pepper slices and put them in the freezer to use in either stir-fry or red beans & rice in the future. Or in a random pasta dish. Just plan on cooking any produce you put in the freezer because the freezing/thawing process changes the texture, and they won't taste as good in, say, a salad.

Meal Planning

I've used up all my bananas and have no meal plans left beyond today, so it's time for meal planning and some grocery shopping. Last meal plan lasted a bit longer than anticipated because we dined out a couple times and ate random leftovers / easy meals a couple of nights. Here is what I need to use up this week: some carrots, four roma tomatoes, a small amount of homemade refried beans, about 8 oz of red enchilada sauce, at least a container and a half of plain vegan cashew yogurt, and the better part of a loaf of marble rye. Here is what I'm making:

Naked Samosa Burgers (The No Meat Athlete Cookbook, pg. 105) and Masoor Dal Tadka 

I haven't made this yet, so it's happening today.

 

 

Korean Eggplant Tacos with Kimchi Mayo (from Vedge, pg. 170)

It won't be particularly hot tomorrow (this recipe has a nice summer flavor but requires a hot oven), and I still have kimchi mayo taking up space in the fridge from the last time I made these. I also have an open package of corn tortillas in the fridge I could use on this. I'll only need to buy produce (eggplants, cilantro, scallions).

 

Saturday night we're planning to go out to dinner.

 

All of next week is supposed to be pretty hot, so I'll try to minimize stove/oven usage.

 

Veggie Summer Rolls

This will use up some of the carrots.

 

Fresh Veggie Tacos and Red Cabbage Slaw 

I started sprouting some broccoli seeds two days ago. The slaw will use up some of the vegan cashew yogurt.

 

Vegan Fried Chicken with Homemade Ranch Dip 

Not sure what else would go with this (steamed broccoli?), but it's tasty and the ranch dip will use up a fair amount of the vegan yogurt.

 

Jalapeno Popper Melts 

This will use up a significant portion of the bread, plus it requires very little heating. It'll also use up some if not all of the red bell pepper leftover after the summer rolls.

 

Vegan Garlicky Korean Mac and Cheese 

This one is just a maybe. Because it's easy and I still have roasted garlic in the fridge. It could potentially go alongside the vegan fried chicken.

 

Buffalo Tofu Salad

For some of my lunches. I'm hoping to make this tomorrow while it's cool and rainy outside. Also because I bought some vegan blue cheese at Whole Foods that I want to try, and it'll use up the ranch dressing I'm making from the cashew yogurt.

[Edited 6/12/2022: The Nuts for Cheese Super Blue fermented cashew cheese doesn't have the crumbly texture of dairy blue cheese, but the flavor -- within the context of this salad anyway, didn't try it plain -- was spot on. Highly recommend trying it. I hope the local Whole Foods keeps selling it because it's a great addition to the vegan version of this salad.]

Random Leftovers

I envision this using up the last of my corn tortillas, enchilada sauce, refried beans, and random veg. I could make some kind of microwave enchiladas or chilaquiles type thing. I just know I don't want to have any leftovers after next week because we have plans.

Meal Planning

Time for meal planning again. This time I'm aiming to get from today (Tuesday) through Sunday night. That means three whole food plant-based meals with no added oil/sugar/salt and three whatever I choose to make. Here is what I'm making:

Veggie Summer Rolls

Today because it's hot outside and this is a healthy, no-heat recipe.

 

Spinach & Feta Pita Bake

 

Spiced Spinach Tofu Stir-Fry and Brown Basmati Rice 

 

Korean BBQ Soy Curl Crunchwrap 

 

Pasta Marinara with Spicy Italian Bean Balls (The No Meat Athlete Cookbook, pg. 81)

I'm just making this with broth or water in place of oil and no salt. I'll add some assorted vegetables to the pasta. If I make the bean balls in advance, this should be fairly quick and easy.

 

Naked Samosa Burgers (The No Meat Athlete Cookbook, pg. 105) and Masoor Dal Tadka 

I'm going to make this without oil or salt. Not sure how the tempering will go without oil in the dal dish but we'll see.

Meal Planning

Today is the end of my last meal plan, so I need to plan for the next several days. Here is what I've got to use up: homemade vegan ranch dip, 4 Roma tomatoes and some cherry tomatoes, a couple cups of baby spinach, a red bell pepper, four burger buns, variety of lettuces, and some julienned cucumbers and carrots leftover from the summer rolls. Here is what I'm making:

Pav Bhaji

This is tonight, just carry over from last week's meal plan. It'll use up some of the tomatoes (probably most of the cherry ones because they are the oldest and cooking them will hide that), 2-3 of the burger buns I've still got, and at least half of the red bell pepper in the fridge.

 

Vegan Fried Chicken with Homemade Ranch Dip and Baked Beans and Corn on the Cob and Steamed Broccoli

Tuesday. Aside from there being salt in the bouillon, the vegan fried chicken is all whole food / plant based. The corn on the cob and broccoli are just plain vegetables. The baked beans are from a can and contain at least sugar, and the ranch dip contains Vegannaise, but Sameer considers Tuesday/Thursday/Sunday "fast days" even though I've been cooking entire whole food / plant based meals with no oil or salt or sugar and it's what we've all been eating, so he can just skip those parts. Also there is a bunch of homemade vegan ranch dip in the fridge and I don't know what else to use it up on.

Spiced Spinach Tofu Stir-Fry and Brown Basmati Rice

I'll need more spinach for this, but it'll use up what I've got plus some of the naan I've got in the freezer.

Black Bean Burgers and Green Salad

Thursday Healthy Dinner. I still have the homemade black bean burgers and some whole grain buns in the freezer. This will use up most of the lettuce, a tomato, and some avocado from my fridge. I can throw the julienned carrots and cucumbers into the lettuce to make green salad. I also have some homemade garlicky caesar dressing from The How Not to Die Cookbook and some homemade ranch too. 

Homemade Pizza and Seared French Beans with Caper Bagna Cauda and Garlic Sauteed Spinach

It'll be a cool, rainy day, so I don't mind heating up the oven for hours, and I have a pizza dough taking up space in the freezer. The spinach will only happen if I have spinach leftover to use up after Wednesday's spiced spinach tofu stir-fry.

 

Saturday we're going to a cookout over dinnertime, so I assume we'll just eat there. If I'm wrong, we'll get takeout or something. I'll figure out Sunday later. Might end up being another Creole red beans & rice night, though I'm getting sick of having that every week.

Meal Planning

I've made everything labeled Friday through Tuesday (today) from last week's meal plan. I'm going to stop by the grocery store tomorrow morning to get everything I'll need until next Monday at least. We'll have a couple hot days and several cool ones. Here is what I have to use up: about 1.5 cups of red and green bell pepper, half a red onion, and six russet potatoes. I also have some random carrots and celery, but they won't go bad anytime soon. Here is what I'm making:

Louisiana-Style Soy Curls (The How Not to Die Cookbook, pg. 137) and Collard Greens with Almonds

From last week's meal plan. I'm making this tonight. The broth for the soy curl dish is simmering on the stove right now (good thing I planned this one for a chilly day). I also made more kid-friendly Creole seasoning, minus the salt, because the recipe calls for salt-free Creole seasoning and I don't think the normal store-bought kind I have is salt-free.

 

Spinach & Feta Pita Bake

Wednesday. A reasonably cool day, and this meal only requires a little oven time.

 

Veggie Summer Rolls

Thursday, a Healthy Day. It's going to be hot, and these require no heating.

 

Black Bean Quesaritos

Friday because I've still got nacho cheese and just enough sour cream in the fridge to make more Taco Bell chipotle sauce. Plus it's going to be hot Friday, and this dish doesn't require much stove time. 

Five Guys-Style Veggie & Cheese Sandwiches and Baked Truffle Fries

Saturday night. It's going to be cool and rainy. This is a tasty junk food meal that'll use up some onion, green bell pepper, all the mushrooms leftover from the spinach & feta pita bake, and all the potatoes that aren't being set aside for pav bhaji. It'll also use up some of the hamburger buns I'll be buying for pav bhaji.

Creole Red Beans & Rice 

Sunday, a Healthy Day. No-oil version because I don't think I'll ever bother using oil in this recipe again. This will use up some of the bell pepper and onion on hand (I have a whole other cup of diced leftover bell pepper in the freezer, in addition to the diced peppers in the fridge).

 

Pav Bhaji

Monday. Another cool day. This will use up the last of the onion and bell peppers and potatoes. The last time I made it, I realized I was out of pav bhaji masala and substituted a chunky chaat masala I had on hand. Sameer and Simran agreed it was much better pav bhaji than ever before, so I'm going to keep using the chaat masala.

I'll have a fair amount of spinach leftover from Wedneday's spinach & feta pita bake. I was thinking of making Spiced Spinach Tofu Stir-Fry and Brown Basmati Rice with it, maybe on the next Wednesday. If the spinach looks like it's threatening to wilt before then, I can put it in a bag in the freezer. I have to figure out Tuesday's Healthy Dinner. I still have homemade Black Bean Burgers and whole grain flourless burger buns in the freezer if I can't think of anything else. I want to come up with some more green light dinners that I really enjoy.