Meal Plan: May 15th

Back in May, I started making Weekly Meal plans to streamline our shopping and maximize our visits to the local Farmer's Markets.  While I make no promises, I am going to try to post more of our meal plans here.  Starting next week ;-) 

For now, here is my post from the very first meal plan, May 15th, 2011:

Many times over the last few years I have contemplated it.  It’s definitely a good idea.  It would cut down on shopping trips and save me 30 minutes of rummaging in the cupboards waiting for inspiration to strike.  I’ve even tried it once or twice, but it was never really wholehearted.

Well, recently one of my new favorite blogs, Manager to Mom, recently took the Weekly Meal Planning Plunge, and has inspired me to give it another go.

Now, I’ve been doing pretty darned good for a number of months on the dinners.  I’m rather freaking brilliant at creating something delicious out of really random odds and ends in our kitchen.  If you follow my Twitter feed, which you totally should, SINCE everyone who knows anything follows my Twitter feed -à you already know that I’m quite into the #whatsfordinner tag.  I enjoy coming up with nutritious, ethical meals, and I enjoy sharing what I come up with.  But by the third or fourth day in any given week that I find myself staring, vexed, at a box of brown rice and an artichoke, my creativity and my patience start to run rather thin.

And I hate mid-week grocery jaunts.  I’m not a quick shopper, so the nights I have to pop to the store for green peppers or whatever, dinner is always late, and I hate that.  Eating relaxed family dinners around the table is important to me, and I hat when they’re rushed because bedtime is looming.

So this week, I’m making a plan.  I’m picking out five dinners, running through the recipes, getting all the ingredients at once, and we’ll see how it goes.  I typically only plan two meals ahead, so this will definitely be a change.  I am NOT planning each particular day (as in Monday we’ll have this and so on) because moods change and I never know for certain how much time I’ll have on a given night.  But I will have five recipes, and all required ingredients, handy and ready to go this week.  So here goes:

1)  We’ll start with some Salsa Bean tacos to use up a few leftovers we have lingering in the fridge.  The idea is based on the “Wizard Rollups” recipe from my very favorite cookbook The Happy Herbivore.  We have beans and leftover salsa, which are the main ingredients.  We also have some left over taco tempeh and homemade guac (if it’s still good), so all we really need for these are whole wheat tortillas and maybe some spinach, peppers, and tomatoes (might be able to get the peppers and tomatoes from the garden, yay!).

2.)  Red Lentil Dal – I have been wanting to make this for a while but haven’t been able to find red lentils, then this weekend I checked out a new natural foods store here in town and found them!  So we need an onion, garlic (pretty sure we still have some), we have all the spices, vegetable broth (we pretty much always have this, but I always buy more anyway because we use it so often), diced tomato, tomato paste (I often skip the tomato paste in recipes because they never require a whole can and I hate throwing out the rest, but I really want to make this recipe right, so we’ll see), and we MAY need coriander.  Pretty sure we’ve still got plenty of brown rice, and if not I’ll just serve it with whole wheat cous cous or quinoa since we have lots of both.

3.)  Black Bean Burgers – I try not to use too much soy meat.  I love some once in a while, and I swear by veggie “chicken” nuggets and meatless balls, but all in all I like to keep a variety in our diet, which means not simply replacing meat with “not meat.”So I’m really looking forward to trying these burgers.  Not so sure what MacGyver and Punky will think of them since they’re both big texture people.  We always have lots of black beans on hand, but I usually pick up more at every shopping trip so we don’t run out, fresh cilantro – might leave this out or sub parsley, neither MacGyver nor I like cilantro much; we have fresh oregano in the garden and the other spices in the cupboard; I think we have breadcrumbs; Whole wheat buns (without HFCS!!).

4.)  5 Spice Harmony Bowl – MacGyver and Punky loved this dish the last time I made it, and it is soooo super simple.  This time I think I’m going to make it with 3 colored quinoa instead of brown rice just because the quinoa is so pretty in an already pretty dish.  Got the spices last time I made this dish; will need a couple sweet potatoes and some greens (collard, turnip, kale – which we have in the garden!, etc.) – might wait until the Farmer’s Market for this one.  And more veggie broth.  See why I always buy it?

5.)  Salad – Punky is a big salad kid and we have tons of Chinese lettuce and veggies popping in the garden, so all I’ll need to get is some organic spinach and/or organic mixed greens and any veggies not in the garden.  I’m thinking chickpeas for the top.  Maybe I’ll make some teriyaki chickpeas, Punky and MacGyver are wild for those.

Recipes 2 – 4 as well as the teriyaki chickpeas for recipe 5 all come from The Happy Herbivore.  I seriously, seriously love this book.  Check out the website and try out one of her recipes today!

What’s on your menu this week?