Tiffanie: this week's menu

Quiet around here. Too quiet... surely other people are planning meals?

My plans for the week include:

• my trusty tofu potato mushroom stew with miso gravy. Over pasta or brown rice. With something on the side... kale? brussels sprouts?
• pumpkin soup (really, kabocha) with homemade bread, and chives. Maybe grilled cheese on the side? Kids love that. 
• lal dal over jasmine rice, spiced pita crisps (love these!), something green on the side.
• sweet potato hash with red pepper (yay, farmer's market!) and eggs.
• tacos with butternut squash and kale and mushrooms (had something similar at the farmer's market yesterday, it was awesome). And guac!
• really tempted to make this enchilada casserole: http://www.theppk.com/2013/10/nirvana-enchilada-casserole-video/. Looks tasty! A bit more work than I have been doing these days, but it'll make at least two dinners and a lunch or three, so it's likely worth it.

Tiffanie: this week's menu

Oh, the cold weather has arrived! And the late autumn veggies!

My plans include:

• lentil soup (Barefoot Contessa recipe); I have a lot of celery on  hand from my CSA box. I think one entire bunch with leaves will go into this. Homemade bread on the side.
• posole verde. Found beautiful poblano peppers at the farmer's market this week, so it's a must. My veggie version has lots of hominy, beans, roasted poblanos, tomatillos, and mushrooms in it.
• creole hoppin' jean. Comfort food: beans, tomatoes, rice, spices. Great with guac and chips. Roasted sweet potato side.
• chickpea cutlets, by request. Roasted cauliflower. Maybe mashed potatoes?

I never made any of the extra things in last week's post, so hopefully this week we'll make pretzels and lentil pate and popcorn balls. And granola, since someone keeps eating it all.

Tiffanie: this week's menu

My CSA box is guiding the meals this week, as it should. :-)

The plans include:

• tofu scramble with greens and roasted potatoes, wrapped up in tortillas. Smoothies.
• cauliflower mushroom pot pie with olive biscuit crust. Green salad.
• roasted squash (kabocha or butternut) with rice and chickpea pilaf, roasted beets. Leftovers with sauteed kale and shallots.
• massur dal and carrot soup. Spiced pita crisps. Green salad.
• Kids and mama night: potato frittata or sweet potato hash.
• backup plan: peanut noodles and baked tofu and cabbage slaw
• extras: maple mustard tempeh (for my lunch wraps), lentil walnut pate (for crackers), easy potato salad (something to try with the kids), pretzels (baking lesson), and rosemary chocolate chip cookies (new recipe to try)

The girl told me today that all my soups are yucky. HOWEVER! Her brother really liked the simple ginger pumpkin soup I made this week. As did I; it was superb with chopped chives.

Tiffanie: this week's menu

Oh, it feels like autumn! Though the forecast for this coming week is back to hot. I never made the pumpkin soup last week, plus I got a surprise pumpkin in the CSA box, so now I have TWO pumpkins (ok, a kabucha and a pumpkin). Ended up making broccoli and tofu stirfy, which everyone LOVED. Even the kids! I remembered to press the tofu, which really aided in giving the fried cubes of tofu a great crust. And it turns out that naming each floret of broccoli makes eating them fun. Kids just like to torture their food, they really are like cats.

This week's plans include:

• pumpkin soup! With either homemade bread or fresh bagels. And green salad.
• spaghetti and beanballs, green salad.
• Field Roast sausages in buns, with fried onions and peppers, and roasted sweet potato wedges. Strangely, the kids love the Italian sausages, despite their "spiciness". Gateway to spice?
• sweet potato hash, as always. It is especially good with peppers.
• for snacks, popcorn balls (still haven't made them this month!), no-bake energy balls (boy is in a growth spurt), and cookies (boy is asking for the chocolate-chip recipe without the chips, I'm angling to try out a snickerdoodle recipe).

I'm a bit short for the week on meals, but something will suggest itself, either with the new CSA box or when I peek at a cookbook...

Tiffanie: this week's menu

It's still pretty hot on some days, but the nights and mornings are so cool that my menu planning is wandering into winter territory.

Plans for this week include:

• popcorn balls, since we never did it last week
• broccoli with cheddar cheese. The kids love this, but I prefer it on toast with mustard. To each her own.
• pumpkin soup, with homemade walnut-cherry bread, and salad. I bought a lovely Kabocha squash for this from a harvest festival.
• lal dal (lentil curry) over rice, with beet salad and pita crisps.
• tempeh shepherd's pie, green salad.
• garlic tomato soup, perhaps with some ravioli in it.
• sweet potato and veggie hash with eggs.
• spaghetti and beanballs, as a backup meal.

What do you feel like eating these days?

Tiffanie: this week's menu

It feels like autumn to me! I'm pulling recipes from Veganomicon and Clean Food this week, plus trying out a dressing from Vegan Lunch Box.

The plan includes:

• roasted pepper and corn bisque, polenta fries, maybe some fresh honey oat bread?
• udon with shiitake mushrooms and kale
• lentil apple walnut loaf. This is good for two dinners, and possibly a sandwich, too. One night we'll have mashed potatoes and a green salad. I want to try a dressing recipe that is billed as a miracle for kids -- it is sweeter than most dressings, I think. Another dinner we might have roasted veggies or mac and cheese, or both...
• pasta with eggplant parm (my vegan invention with layers of eggplant and arrabiata sauce, no cheese).
• banana bread, as I seem to have purchased too many ripe bananas, and our smoothie consumption is low.
• popcorn balls, with pumpkin and sunflower seeds, and cranberries and raisins.

Tiffanie: this week's menu

A bit behind the times; had a birthday party last weekend and it threw off my routine.

This week we have eaten:

• curry (S&W box) with tofu and veggies, over rice. Roasted seaweed. Sliced tomatoes.
• taco night with mushrooms and many fixings.
• red wine braised cabbage with carrots and potatoes and apples and sausages
• veggie hash (an especially colorful week, with sweet potatoes, peppers, mushrooms, summer squash, and green onions)
• chocolate chip cookies

I'm doing leftovers of the red wine cabbage dish tonight, with some fresh whole wheat soda bread with millet and raisins. It's a fantastic bread, esp. toasted with jam. Here is a similar recipe: http://veganlatina.com/broken-oven-creates-a-knead-for-old-fashioned-soda-bread/.

I've got a bunch of spinach, which usually means millet polenta with spinach and sundried tomato pesto. Mmmm....

Tiffanie: this week's menu

My plans this week include:

• taco night (the kids approve) -- usually refried beans, rice, fried mushrooms, guac, salsa, chopped lettuce or cabbage, cheese for the kids....
• ratatouille with rice. My CSA has left me with squash, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, fennel... adding eggplant and onions and garlic. It's sliding towards an Italian giambotta, but delicious all the same. Hopefully a two-dinner meal.
• breakfast for dinner: pancakes, hash browns, veggie bacon, fruit salad.
• baked oatmeal... never made it last week. Now that the mornings are less rushed (one of the joys of homeschooling!) I'll get the kids to help me make it.
• granola... almost out of the last batch.
• no-bake energy balls -- very popular, and so very full of calories for these skinny kids.

I need another dinner in here, I think, besides my sweet potato hash night (husband works late at least once per week). I'll see what my CSA brings on Wednesday and just work around that.

I've got a birthday party for next weekend... it's looking like a big chocolate cake plus vanilla cupcakes. Someone seems to want either a kitty or rainbow theme, but I'm not sure what to do yet for decorations.

Tiffanie: this week's menu

So hot this week! I'm trying to minimize the cooking, especially the baking...

My plans include:

• pasta with eggplant and sausages (bumped from last week), green salad (I have so much lettuce right now!)
• taco night, with fried mushrooms and lots of fixings
• chickpea cutlets, with roasted sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts, and mustard sauce.
• lentils and rice with caramelized onions and spiced pita crisps, cabbage slaw.
• sweet potato hash with veggies
• baked oatmeal for breakfast

I made shakshouka on Friday night, as a little date night dinner. Some fresh tomatoes, some canned, lots of spices, chopped kale... it was really tasty. I poached eggs in it for myself, and fried up a Field Roast sausage for the husband. 

Tiffanie: this week's menu

Oh, it is hot and I'm not inspired. Good thing I'm going out to celebrate at dinner with a friend and also celebrating an anniversary this week. Less meal planning!

Our plans include:

• pasta with eggplant and sausages
• pineapple fried rice
• creole hoppin' jean, cornbread, roasted cauliflower, coleslaw
• sweet potato hash o' veggies

The boy is interested in baking, so we've been making more things lately. I'll try and steer him towards banana bread; I have quite a few frozen ones to use up.

Tiffanie: this week's menu

Last week went mostly to plan, except the shepherd's pie got bumped due to the husband missing all the meals after Thursday. Yes, I am a startup widow.

My plans this week:

• big pile of nachos (for me and the kids on Sunday night; they did not appreciate the whole black beans or the tomato chunks. Their loss, it was awesome.)
• tempeh shepherds pie, green salad, roasted carrots?
• pasta with Field Roast sausages and collard greens and tomatoes. The kids suddenly like Field Roast sausages! They say they are spicy but good. True.
• tofu potato mushroom stew with miso gravy. Old standby but so good. It's a two-meal dish, so one night there will be rice under it, maybe some roasted sweet potatoes, another night there will be soba noodles. 
• sweet potato hash with all the veggies. I've started putting in mushrooms and carrots, which is a nice variation. Collard greens work well when sliced thinly. Hot sauce and fried eggs make it a nice mama-meal.
• still haven't made granola
• applesauce, for canning. I kind of doubt I can stay ahead of my husband's love of applesauce, but I may be able to make a dozen or two large Mason jars (24 oz). I'm done with making strawberry freezer jam, I have about ten 8-12 oz jars in the freezer. Plus one huge jar in the fridge. Debating what to do with my lemon cucumbers in the back yard... relish?

Tiffanie: this week's menu

Long absence -- had a bad bout of bronchitis and then went to Maui. Very little cooking!

But now real life has returned, with school and bills and hot hot days. My plans for the week include:

• tomato tortilla soup, with quesadillas. And cold cold beer. And watermelon.
• tempeh shepherd's pie, with beet salad.
• spaghetti and beanballs, with broccoli slaw.
• mapo tofu, with rice, and fried onion pancakes. Something green on the side, whatever my CSA box brings me.
• sweet potato hash, with other veggies thrown in.
• vegan blondies (so so good).
• no bake energy balls
• granola

What are you eating?

Tiffanie: this week's menu

Still trying to stay ahead of all that lettuce! I didn't make it through all of last week's meal plan, so some of it is in this week's.

Plans for this week:

• Creole Hoppin' Jean with corn chips and hot sauce, roasted cauliflower and red onions, green salad with home grown tomatoes and cucumbers. Ok, this was last night, and it was delicious. :-)
• pizza with mushrooms and olives and pesto
• pasta with edamame and broccoli and walnuts
• sweet potato hash with chard
• chili with zucchini, cornbread
• french lentil salad
• energy balls

We're going camping next weekend, but due to lack of space in the car I probably won't pack much food beyond snacks. We'll be exploring the coastline and towns, so it'll be a relaxing no-cook weekend for mama. I'm thinking I'll pack lots of fruit leather, applesauce, granola bars, trail mix, pirate booty... anything that is compact and shelf-stable.

Bernadette: This week's meal plan

I've been cooking a lot but it has been awhile since I planned meals for the week.

For this week:

• Black Pepper Flank Steak - this was actually pre-marinaded by the butcher. We ate it tonight since I came back from the grocery store late. It was delicious. 
• Chicken Tinola - a Filipino recipe, a sort of chicken and papaya soup with garlic, ginger, onion, and spinach (although I'm using napa cabbage because that's what I have)
• Asian Chicken Salad
• Tuna Nicoise Salad
• Creamy Lemon Pepper Orzo and Grilled Chicken

I realized after I finished shopping that there's a lot of chicken this week so next week I'll work on more variety and try to get a vegetarian dish in the meal plan, too. 

Tiffanie: this week's menu

Not so hot this week, but also not so cool. Just summer!

My meal plans include:

• homemade pizza, with tofu ricotta, pesto, zucchini, mushrooms, olives... whatever the kids want. And salad, since I have so much lettuce...
• baking powder biscuits, tempeh bacon or other fake bacon, roasted potatoes and onions with herbs, smoothies
• baked tofu, peanut noodles, cabbage salad
• pasta with broccoli, edamame, and walnuts.
• bibimbap (rice bowl with mushrooms, zucchini, carrots, tofu, hot sauce, etc.)