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.)

Tiffanie: this week's menu

Oh, it's hot. Going for lazier foods this week.

The plans are:

• the millet black bean patties (didn't get to them last week), with sweet potato fries, avocados, and watermelon.
• fruit salad, mango summer rolls
• lentils and rice with caramelized onions and spiced pita crisps, green salad, smoothies.
• sweet potato hash with veggies and eggs
• pineapple fried rice, cole slaw

I bought a flat of strawberries this past week. We ate many of them, and I made a bunch of freezer jam. It goes too fast... we've almost finished the first jar already. I have a few pints left; I may make some scones today, to eat with the last of the fresh berries, or to put jam on... 

Tiffanie: this week's menu

The peaches became peach cobblers, oven roasted peach butter, and peach jam/syrup (not sure of the consistency). Not too many days left of peaches, plus the squirrels are very greedy.

Plans for this week include:

• braised red cabbage with red wine and apples and sausage. It's like a tasty wine stew with potatoes and carrots and apples and Field Roast sausages. I have way too much cabbage on hand right now. Plus salad. Might make beans and dogs for the kids.
• chickpea cutlets (a clever mix of gluten and chickpeas and spices and bread crumbs, fried up and crispy), mashed potatoes, roasted brussel sprouts, maybe a green salad. Mustard sauce with capers is required!
• millet black bean patties, sweet potato fries, salad. Maybe a rice pilaf would be nice alongside...
• calzones, coleslaw, watermelon. Kids have never had calzones, so we'll have to make some.
• a massur dal and carrot soup for a friend.
• hummus (Cooks Illustrated recipe)
• a new recipe, with nori and a rice noodle mixture. Seems like a yummy snack.

Tiffanie: this week's menu

I am planning:

• sweet potato onion kale hash, with roasted cauliflower on the side.
• lentil spinach stew with Field Roast sausages
• pineapple tofu fried rice
• mole skillet pie (it is filled with beans, onion, carrot, and kale/collard greens, topped with cornbread)

The peach tree is ripening quickly, so I should come up with some peach recipes...

Tiffanie: this week's menu

Hey, we survived the heat! I even made those full-meal muffins. They are tasty, not very sweet, and have a good texture. I'll make them again, though the kids did not find them exciting. Even with nutella! I may have to cut out sugar entirely from their diet so they can enjoy less-sweet foods...

Plans for this week include:

• eating out at Aqui (we went to an evening outdoor play afterwards, good fun)
• mushroom cauliflower pot pie with olive biscuit crust. My CSA gave me a 4.5 lb cauliflower head, so I used about half of it in this dish (doubling the recipe's request, but it was still good). The kids sort of like this dish -- they like the biscuit crust, and the mushrooms. Sadly, the cauliflower did not pass muster, as it was not roasted. This pie has a gravy made with lots of tarragon, and it's made me a fan of this herb.
• Creole Hoppin' Jean. Doing a double batch, to split with a friend. Decided to cook the beans from dried, instead of buying the Eden Organic canned. I love that brand, but it gets expensive. I do have a fresh bottle of Pepper Plant hot sauce to enjoy on this beans/rice/tomatoes dish. A big green salad will finish it off. And lots of beer. 
• Lal dal over coconut rice. Maybe some baked tofu for the kids. Sauteed greens, whatever comes in the box.

Other nibbles:

• potato salad, in the Mediterranean style, which means olive oil, cumin, scallions, sun dried tomatoes... the CSA box had gorgeous new potatoes, which make great potato salad. It's a nice way to really taste the potatoes.
• more no-bake energy balls. The boy is looking skinny, I think he just grew taller again.
• maple mustard tempeh strips. Going to the beach this week, and I love making a wrap with these for my picnic lunch.

Bernadette: what we've been eating

What We've Been Eating (pretty much everything except for the chicken tenders, roasted corn,  adobo, and the baby dishes are from cooksmarts.com):

• Rotisserie Chicken Enchiladas - really simple and easy. It was ok but I wouldn't make this particular recipe again and the 4 year old refused to touch it..
• Singaporean Noodles, which were pretty much stir fried curry noodles with shrimp and veggies. The husband loved it. I thought it was okay. The 4 year old ate focused on the shrimp, ate the noodles skeptically, and ignored the veggies.
• Mediterranean Turkey Burgers - turkey burgers with sundried tomatoes, garlic, and mint mixed into the patty. This one was good although I don't really like my burgers, which was what the sundried tomatoes did to the burger. 
• Mediterranean Plate - a dinner cobbled together from leftover ingredients: roast chicken, pita bread, olives, sundried tomatoes and hummus, homemade tzatziki
• Chicken and Pork Adobo - A Filipino dish, a family favorite.
• Homemade Chicken Tenders and Roasted Corn - I came across a recipe that said one can simply throw in corn on the cob, husks and all, into the oven for 30 minutes and it'll cook. I thought this was a great idea because I had forgotten to soak the husks and didn't feel like grilling plus I was already using the oven for the chicken tenders. It worked although the experiment might have suffered a bit because I think the oven may have started dying sometime during those 30 minutes. I tried using the oven again today and it looks like we may be shopping this weekend....
• Salmon Tacos with Mango Salsa - The 4 year old loves salmon and mango so when she heard that both ingredients were going to be put together, she was very eager for dinner. She ate dinner very happily but has no concept of taco, eating each ingredient separately rather than rolled up in a tortilla. 

I have also been cooking for the baby, who has decided that pureed food is no longer for her. She only wants table food. So, I've been feeding her a lot of finger food, sometimes little bits of what we eat if it doesn't pose any choking hazard, and started cooking some simple meals for her that are a little chunky but still soft.

• Lentils and Rice
• A no-stir baby risotto with asparagus, zucchini, and peas
• Indian Lentil Stew - lentils with potato, carrot, garlic, cumin, coriander, and cinnamon

So far, she's loved the little baby dishes. Hopefully soon, I'll be able to bridge the gap between what she can eat and what we eat!

For the coming week, I plan to make

• Lemon Asparagus Pasta with paprika roasted chickpeas
• Caprese Chicken with broccoli
• Wine Braised Pork Tenderloin with sauteed cabbage