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Menu planning for the upcoming week

July 26th, 2012 at 09:18 pm

Our CSA is taking a break from deliveries this week to tend their crops. NT and I decided to continue with local food while it's in season, so we went to the farmer's market downtown today at lunch. (It's a combination of real local farms and grocery-store rejects, but it's easy to tell which is which now that we've been doing the CSA for a few years and know what's in season in Minnesota right now. Hint: Tropical fruits are not. Smile )

We spent $26 and got:
Thai basil
Green tomatoes
Cherry tomatoes
New potatoes
Leeks
Onions
Garlic
Summer squash & zucchini
Green bell peppers
Portobello mushrooms (the only non-local purchase)
Baby bok choy
Purple kale
(plus free samples of hummus, Sun Chips and Pepsi!)

We were kind of brainstorming what we'd make, but mostly just buying what looked good and was reasonably priced. Now I have to make sure we plan our menu so none of this goes to waste! The greens and herbs are most delicate, so we've got to use those first. Tonight's dinner is already planned, and we're not cooking Friday night. I'm thinking:

Saturday lunch: Creamy kale pasta
Saturday dinner: N/A, date night
Sunday lunch: Rice-lentil salad, zucchini boats, leftover Harvard beets
Sunday dinner: Holy basil seitan w/sauteed bok choy & rice
Monday: Sauteed cherry tomatoes & basil over pasta; garlic-butter crostini
Tuesday: Gardein BBQ "ribs," fried green tomatoes, leeks & carrots, cornbread
Wednesday: Portobello sandwiches w/sauteed peppers & onions, potato salad
Thursday: Southern fried tofu, cross-hatch squash & biscuits
Friday: Depends on CSA box

We shouldn't have to buy much for this menu. We already have:
- At least 2 boxes of pasta, may need to get one more
- Vital wheat gluten so I can make seitan from scratch
- Fresh basil (non-Thai) and parsley growing on the balcony
- Thin baguette in the freezer
- Gardein "ribs" that I bought with my own spending money as a treat recently
- Leftover carrots from last week's CSA

We'll need to get:
- Maybe 1 box of pasta
- Maybe some nutritional yeast for southern fried tofu mix
- Brown rice
- Lentils
- 1 shallot
- Cornmeal
- Bread for sandwiches
- Tofu

Also on the grocery list so far:
Rainier cherries
apples
bananas
berries
Silk soymilk
lemon juice
foil
formula
bagels
English muffins
Tofutti cream cheese
Earth Balance buttery sticks
EB shortening?
toothpaste
Bonne Maman jam

I'm excited! I hope we can stay well under budget this month. We've got to use our CSA months to catch up on the budget so we don't fall farther behind when winter comes and we have to start buying grocery-store veggies again. Also, we're now buying disposable (well, compostable) diapers for SL going into daycare, and some formula to supplement the breastmilk. So we need to conserve our grocery dollars more carefully than ever. Plus, this is one of the half-months that has 3 weeks of grocery shopping instead of 2. Hmm, thinking about all that, I may skip Rainier cherries for a week, and probably the Tofutti cream cheese as well.

10 Responses to “Menu planning for the upcoming week”

  1. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1343351220

    Ceejay, I was wondering why you get non-dairy cream cheese, but get dairy butter? Earth Balance is dairy if I recall correctly. Just curious. Big Grin

  2. ceejay74 Says:
    1343353111

    Hi FT, all Earth Balance products are vegan: http://www.earthbalancenatural.com/products/. By the way, if you go onto their blog madejustright.com and comment on a blog post, you could win a coupon for a free product. I did it and won right away!

    I think there's a product called Smart Balance -- maybe that one has dairy? I've never looked into it but the name is so similar, maybe that's what you're thinking of.

  3. EarlyRetirementJoy Says:
    1343356007

    Hi Ceejay74. I'd like to know if you enjoyed the Gardein ribs. I'm fairly new to the Gardein line, and am curious if it's worth the higher price. I generally buy Trader Joe's faux chicken, which I find wonderful when mixed with other items, but not so wonderful when eaten straight up.

    Also, do you have a veggie burger product you love? The Boca line is good, but small IMHO. Today I had an awesome veggie burger at a restaurant that was a good 50% bigger than the patties I've seen in the market.

    Thanks!

  4. ceejay74 Says:
    1343357649

    We haven't tried the Gardein ribs yet. I just saw them on veganessentials.com and decided to try them. It was over $10 to get 2 packs (4 ribs total), so even if they're delightful they'll only be an occasional treat! Their products are "worth it" only when I can afford them, if you know what I mean. But yes, they're generally tastier.

    (Morningstar also has a vegan chicken strips product that's really tasty, but again, too expensive to get very often.)

    I've had a Gardein turkey-style roast that was great, and I love their chicken products too. I have to say, I like both Morningstar and Boca veggie burgers, but Gardein's burger kind of blew them both away. But, we look for coupons and sales, so I'm not brand loyal.

    If size is important to you, Costco sells a Boca burger as well as a Morningstar black bean burger that are gigantic compared with the normal ones sold in regular grocery stores. I bet you can find those larger ones in other places besides Costco, if you're not a member and don't know someone who is!

    If you're looking for a good faux hot dog, I tried a new one that's expensive but REALLY good; it's the Field Roast frankfurter. We will probably just eat veggie hot dogs less often so we can get this pricier but much better line.

  5. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1343358869

    Thanks Ceejay, you're probably right that I was thinking of Smart Balance. Blush
    Have you had the Big Franks (Made by either Worthington or Loma Linda)? They are my ultimate veggie dog. Big Grin I've never heard of the Gardein or the Field Roast companies - may have to check them out.

  6. cptacek Says:
    1343362269

    How do you cook kale? I was thinking about planting some for a fall garden, but have never had it before. Perhaps I should get some at the store and experiment with it before I commit seed to the ground.

  7. ceejay74 Says:
    1343393412

    cp, I've heard you can have it raw in a salad, but seems too tough for me. Our favorite ways are 1) to saute with garlic, olive oil & seasoning; put a lid on the pan to let it steam a bit and get softer. 2) the above recipe, which has us cooking finely chopped kale in a creamy sauce (for us it's soymilk, nutritional yeast, margarine and a ton of seasonings) until it's very tender, and then serve over pasta.

    A very beloved method (for other people; we like it but prefer the above) is to make kale chips. Here's a recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/melissa-darabian/crispy-kale-chips-recipe/index.html

  8. North Georgia Gal Says:
    1343403810

    Where do you come up with your ideas for cooking? I am not great at creative cooking which is part of my problem.

  9. ceejay74 Says:
    1343405182

    N.Ga., I have several methods. First, we started cooking at home almost exclusively about 5 years ago when we realized what a financial mess we were in. We knew how to cook but didn't have a huge repertoire. We opened up a bunch of cookbooks we had hanging around, found things we all agreed sounded good, and started trying things out until we developed some favorites.

    We also tried to replicate some of the stuff we loved to eat out, like pizza, pasta, Mexican and Chinese food. Eventually we developed good techniques and favorite dishes in each area.

    We thought back to childhood favorites, and tried to figure out how to make those if we didn't already know. My mom's stuffing, for example.

    We have a couple of complex meals that will be worth the effort, but we also try to have a couple of meals that are heavy on convenience foods and light on preparation, such as veggie hot dogs with baked beans and frozen french fries. There are some nights none of us feel like cooking, so we need some meals that only take about 10 mins. of effort to throw together.

    If we had some ingredients hanging around and they didn't seem to go together, I would enter them into Google along with the word "recipe" and quite often can find something that way, e.g., "potato fennel dill recipe" got me a lovely creamy soup we wouldn't have thought to make. Lately we've really been trying to keep our grocery bill low, so I sometimes make a list of ingredients I have on hand and try to create the menu with an eye toward buying as little as possible.

    When I'm making the weekly menu, quite often I'll be in a certain mood and end up with three or four pasta dishes, or several Mexican dishes, or a few sandwich-type meals. That's OK, but if it looks too same-y when I look over it, I might switch something out and add the other thing to a list of ideas for the next week.

    One of my friends had a system of themed days to help him come up with meals, so it would be one ground beef day, one pasta day, one sandwich day, one bean-n-rice day, one soup day, etc. That helped him narrow his focus when he was searching the internet and cookbooks to find recipes.

  10. Kerry Says:
    1344303702

    Kale salad is great. The trick is to cut the leaves into ribbons, and dump the vinegar and oil on the leaves before adding the other fruits/veg, and either massage the dressing into the leaves to let it be absorbed, or shake it in a covered bowl to thoroughly cover it.

    A restaurant in Phoenix has a salad that starts with kale and also has dried cherries, apples, red pepper, cheddar cheese, cucumber, and dried corn. SO GOOD.

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