Vegan Meal Planning Monday!

I've decided to try my hand at meal planning. I have a friend who does once or twice a month cooking, and I would love to eventually get there, but I think I need to start small. lol. She raves about OAMC, how she's never in the kitchen and that it's so nice to have dinners ready to go. That would be soooooo nice.... But for me, organization needs to come one step at a time LOL otherwise, I will get overwhelmed.

This week, I'll probably be trying a bunch of new, quick, and easy recipes in order to get a small collection to share with some good friends of mine that have volunteered to cook us meals when the baby gets here. Do I have awesome friends or what?! :D

Here's the sites that got me interested:



Organizing Junkie who hosts Menu Plan Monday






In a Garden Somewhere who hosts Veg*n Meal Plan Monday


Monday:
Tortilla Casserole
*Review: This was pretty good. For the two cups of vegetables that the recipe calls for, I used: 1 can of rinsed & drained black beans, 1 cup of frozen corn, and 1 cup of chopped red/yellow/green bell peppers. Obviously I went over the 2 cups, but it wasn't too many vegetables, I thought it was just right. I used only 1 onion, since my hubby isn't too fond of them. One was enough for us. On the other hand, one clove of garlic wasn't near enough. I actually used 4 small cloves since all of mine were small, and next time I will use even more. Instead of the jalapeno, I added 1/2 of a 4 oz can of green chilies. I can't make things even remotely spicy if I want Carlee to eat it. I skipped the nondairy cheeses since I can't get them here. So, with all those changes, it was good. I didn't put near enough salt in while cooking (I never guess salt amounts right!) And I think that since I didn't go for spicy hot, that I need to add some different spices to it, just oregano was not enough. Overall though, it was a quick and pretty good dinner. Not great, but good. The best thing about this recipe was that Carlee ate all of hers, not complaining once! We didn't even have to count bites or promise dessert! So, this recipe will definitely be a keeper for that reason alone.

Tuesday:
"Hamburger" Macaroni Casserole
*Review: I really liked this dinner! So easy, and tasty. Then again I love those French Fried Onions. I am so glad they took the hydrogenated oils out of them too. (Well, the brand I get anyway.) (Unfortunately, the only tomato soup they had at the store had HFCS in it. boo.) This dinner was so quick to throw together, and I really liked the mix of flavors. Tony on the other hand didn't care for this dinner too much. This is usually how it goes for us with dinners. If I love it, he doesn't. If he loves it, I don't. lol. He said, "it's allright, but all I taste is the onions." I could taste all the other spices too, and I really liked the sweetness of the corn added in. Carlee liked it, so again.... it's a keeper. =)

Wednesday:
Southwestern Pasta

Thursday:
(Tony has duty so we'll eat Carlee's favorite meal)
Morningstar Chikin Strips cooked in coconut oil, garlic and olive oil cous cous, and peas (super easy!)

Friday:
Pizza night - Fresh basil pesto and tomato pizza. (Tony's absolute favorite) Someone posted the pesto recipe that I use from the Vegan Planet cookbook here. Add chopped tomatoes on top (we use cherry tomatoes) and you have yourself a super yummy pizza. This time, I'll be adding white beans on top for some added protein to see how we like it. *You can refrigerate any pesto you don't use for up to a few weeks.... trust me, it probably won't last that long though because it's so good*

Saturday:
Pistachio Pasta or Gnocchi *I will post this recipe soon*

Sunday:
Mediterranean Cannellini Bean Soup

I'll try to post reviews of all the new recipes as we try them.
=)

Here are some other vegetarian meal planners for this week:

• Geek, Poet, Housewife Wannabe
• Margaret's Musings
• Whiskey and Haggis
• Life is a Journey not a Destination
• Book of Yum
• The Thrifty Soaper
• 5 Weeks to Organization