Tiffanie: this week's menu

I missed a few weeks of recording my weekly menu, but I'm still on task for actually doing the planning. It really removes a layer of stress from cooking daily.

This week I'm not entirely sure of the entire menu yet... I'm getting a new cookbook in the mail on Tuesday, so I want to reserve some time to try out new ideas.

I do know that we'll be having:

• bok choy and chickpea saute with cashews, rice, baked tofu, smoothies.
• pineapple fried rice with tofu

I have some excellent mushroom barley soup leftovers, a bit of chili leftovers, and a large cabbage that may become colcannon...

Tiffanie: this week's menu

It's going to be cold this week!

Here's what I've got planned:

• curry with veggies and tofu, rice, roasted seaweed
• dried mushroom soup with barley (Moosewood! So yummy), plus fresh bread
• lentil and rice and caramelized onions with spiced pita crisps, cabbage salad
• spaghetti with onions or puttanesca, plus more bread
• stuffed baked potatoes (Mexican! with pinto beans and corn and salsa), plus broccoli
• some species of apple crisp, perhaps with cherry

Most of these are easy and warming, perfect for cold December.

Tiffanie: this week's menu

Oh, Thanksgiving week! I'm doing meals in honor of the season, but eating Chinese takeout on the day of. Mama needs a vacation on the holidays. :-)

My plans this week include:

• pasta with Field Roast sausages and garlic bread and green salad. Last butter lettuce and last tomatoes of the season!
• cauliflower mushroom pot pie with olive biscuit crust. Roasted brussels sprouts.
• roasted kabocha with brown rice and chickpea pilaf
• potato latkes and applesauce, pumpkin soup.
• chickpea cutlets with mustard sauce, mashed veggies
• pumpkin pie from scratch, as I have this winter luxury pumpkin staring at me. Gotta try it once...
• no-bake energy balls, for the bottomless pit that is my son.
• popcorn! Since the kids are sick, I foresee lots of movies this week.
• maple-mustard tempeh -- baked into strips, so yummy as a wrap.
• apple crisp, since I have a bunch of lovely granny smith apples. Vanilla ice cream is a must...

This is a bit more meal planning than usual, even with the day off for Chinese food, but we're eating up leftovers fast these days as lunches. 

Tiffanie: this week's menu

It might rain this week! The autumn weather is finally settling into foggy and cold, so I'm looking forward to soup...

Plans this week include:

• tofu slabs with sesame and wilted spinach, over noodles.
• potato leek soup with homemade bread
• smoky chipotle black beans, over rice, with cornbread and greens.
• sweet potato hash

I'm baking granola right now, and plan to bake some maple mustard tempeh for lunch wraps. I have a cookbook about pretzels out from the library... I may have to try it out. 

Tiffanie: this week's menu

Oh, it is getting cold! I caught a head cold this weekend, so I'm going to slack off a bit this week and make easy meals.

The plans are:

• broccoli tofu stir fry (uses up 2/3 of my CSA broccoli this week), rice, roasted seaweed, apples.
• enchilada casserole, pushed to this week from last week. Making this one today. It's complicated -- roasted potatoes, a tomato sauce, a bunch of sauteed onions and mushrooms, and a blender cashew-cream, all layered with the corn tortillas. I think it sounds yummy! I have guac on hand, and maybe my little CSA avocados will ripen enough for the leftovers...
• pasta with Field Roast sausages and greens.
• chickpea and bok choy saute with toasted cashews. Last minute addition, for the night with the least amount of free time, since this is a super fast meal.
• sweet potato hash with eggs for my solo dinner. Someday I'll return to rafts with baked eggs or spicy tomato sauce, but right now this is my go-to.
• oatmeal raisin cookies. I ran out of brown rice syrup! Shocking! :-) But I restocked, so I can make these awesome cookies again.

What are you making with your fall veggies?

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.