Menu Plan!

I got a new cookbook -- The Tropical Vegan Kitchen -- which I am very excited to use. No, we have not gone vegan. However, we do limit our meat consumption, and I have been looking for low-fat vegetarian recipes. I usually hesitate to use vegan recipes because of either a great deal of soy (which I avoid for health reasons) or dairy substitutes. However, this cookbook promised to not use things like that (except for the occasional tofu) because many of the recipes from tropical regions are vegan anyway. So 3 of this week's meals come from that cookbook.

Monday - Black bean & avocado enchiladas w/ chipotle sauce
Tuesday - Brats & sweet potato fries
Wednesday - Thai pumpkin curry over rice
Thursday - Hot mango pilaf w/ almonds
Friday - Pizza
Saturday - Chili
Sunday - Leftovers

I also bought supplies for guacamole from this recipe. It really is perfect, only Ross hates tomatoes so I don't always use them.

I just returned from shopping and my cart was full of fruits and veggies. What a good feeling that is!

Menu plan

Yesterday Ross was sick and I was exhausted, so it was, as my mom likes to call it, "Fend for yourself night."

Tuesday: chicken salad sandwiches (Marilyn Rempel's Five Ingredient Chicken Salad, which is: shredded chicken, halved grapes, sliced almonds, light mayo, and salt in whatever proportion seems right) and spinach salad

Wednesday: roasted red pepper and avocado bites with sweet potato fries (both from the Healthy College Cookbook, which I got at my favorite indie book and coffee shop and really like) and spinach salad

Thursday: mango sausages, corn on the cob, and either roasted zucchini or spinach salad

Friday: pizza night!

Saturday: dhal ...and probably spinach salad.

In case you wonder how we manage to eat so much spinach salad, the answer is that we put crushed walnuts and delicious dressings on it. Ross and I like low-fat or fat-free raspberry dressings, and Jess eats his with honey mustard spritz dressing.

This week's meal plan

It's Thursday, not Monday. I didn't even come up with a meal plan until Tuesday. We were overwhelmed by leftovers on Monday and so we ate those.

This is what we're eating this week:

Tuesday: Southwestern chowder with chips and homemade guacamole (that's a great recipe, by the way). 'Tis the season for fresh avocados. Mmm. A delicious season.
Wednesday: Caribbean rice and beans; wanted to do fried plantains but there weren't any at the grocery store so we did salad instead.
Thursday: Chicken curry with salad.
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: Potato-black bean cakes; spinach salad with homemade tropical dressing.
Sunday: Leftovers.

Menu Plan Monday

For about a month now, Ross and I have been doing weekly meal plans. Once a week, we sit down and decide what we want for dinner for the coming week or so. It has several benefits -- fewer trips to the grocery store, less food that goes to waste, and my favorite benefit: not having to make a decision every day about what to have for dinner. My friend Kristin has been doing this for a while (and inspired me to) and I thought I might as well post what we're having for dinner this week.

This blog post is "hosted" by OrgJunkie.com, where lots of other people post their weekly meal plans.






So here's what's for dinner this week!

Monday: Peanut butter noodles with stir-fried veggies
Tuesday: BBQ beef cups and spinach salad
Wednesday: Pakistani Kima with rice
Thursday: Shrimp scampi with spinach salad
Friday: Homemade pizza

The peanut butter noodles, BBQ beef cups, and shrimp scampi are all recipes that come from a cookbook that friends Cilla and Nance gave us as a wedding gift. Cilla is a wonderful cook, and she and Nance put together a cookbook of their favorite recipes for us. We've made several already and love it. Pakistani Kima is from the More With Less cookbook. We also have continued my family's tradition of pizza on Friday nights, but we're making our own instead of buying or baking a frozen pizza. We also eat a lot of spinach salad -- we buy big packages of spinach (on manager's special if possible) and eat it at least 3 times a week to finish it off.