My Salad Week (and Hot Meals too) Day 1

In my last post I talked about how excited I am to be back in “salad days”, so now I will share a few of the salads I’ve been making, and you will see how a few ingredients can lead to a large variety of different meals with very little prep.

Shopping haul:

Spinach, kale, carrots and cabbage were all on sale. Add to that a clearance on some potatoes and small lemons, so I grabbed them for pennies.

The store app also offered me “my deals”- a pre-prepared “eat smart” kale crunch salad and a sunflower crunch chopped salad, which I complemented with an extra bag of coleslaw mix- something that is always one of the least expensive offerings in the salad aisle.

For some sweet treats, watermelon was on sale, and strawberries were another “my deal” bargain. Finally, I couldn’t resist some Kind Bark that was on a discontinued item clearance ($2. 77 when regular price is nearly $6.00. Yum).

As always I prepped the entirety of the cabbage, kale, carrots, and watermelon. I also chopped a large red onion. I left the potatoes to prep later in the week since they keep best that way. With all this prep, I had enough for a week’s worth of meals that could be put together within minutes.

Simple Salad 1:
With most of the prep out of the way, I was ready for a quick and tasty salad break. It was as simple as tossing some spinach in a bowl, rinsing and chopping a few of the strawberries, tossing in some of the pre-prepped red onion, a quick handful of frozen blueberries, and mixing up a sweet and spicy dressing:

 

Poppyseed Dressing for Spinach Salad

•  1/4 cup balsamic or strawberry vinegar
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
•  3 tablespoons olive oil
•  1 1/2 tablespoons poppy seeds
•  1 teaspoon (or to taste) agave or other sweetener
•  1/4 teaspoon (or to taste) cayenne pepper
•  salt and pepper to taste

The sweet strawberries and the heat from the onion is reflected in the sweet dressing with a hint of spicy heat from the cayenne. So delicious! In my next post, I’ll show how I use the packaged salads.

“Chopped” Style Kitchen Challenge- We’re All in This Together, Let’s Have Some Fun

If you’re all about food, you likely know about TV shows like “Chopped”- contestants are given a mystery box of ingredients. They are challenged to create the best meals, and at each round one chef gets “chopped” from the show until there is an ultimate winner.

I like seeing what the cooks create and thinking about what I would do in the heat of the show. So, this week I ordered my own “mystery box” of produce to avoid the grocery store gauntlet, and to add some spice to my meal planning. I invite you to play along at your home- here are the rules of the game:

1. I will show a picture of what I got in my mystery box.
2. I will make a meal plan for the week, using the ingredients as well as staples that I actually have in my freezer/pantry right now. If you play along at home, this rule applies to you as well- if you have an ingredient at home, you can use it in any way along with mystery box items.
3. I must account for all the mystery box ingredients in some way in my own plan (with a caveat I’ll note at the bottom of this page). As to this rule for home players- obviously you won’t likely have all the same “mystery box” ingredients at home as I got in my box. But there are a couple of ways you can still play:
   a) You can do a full plan, explaining how you would use the same mystery produce items if you had them all. It could be fun to see how different people would do it- I am always amazed at peoples’ creativity.
   b) Or- if you have at least one of the mystery box ingredients in your home, you could follow through and make a recipe using that ingredient.
4. I would LOVE for you to share your plans, recipes, and/or menus, and it would be very cool if you shared pictures too. If you made a recipe in the past with a mystery box ingredient that you can recommend, share that, and add a pic if you have one. Total “fails” can also be picture worthy and the stories behind them can be fun. In fact, any food stories, themes, memories, etc., are all welcome if they also fit the mystery box food in some way.
   Send them to me via email at: atherapistandherdog@gmail.com.
5. I will publish a post next week with the submissions I get throughout the week, for us all to enjoy.
6. If we continue the game in the future perhaps we can decide on how to choose winners.
   Have fun with it. Goodness knows, we need to find some way to share and have fun these days.

Here is today’s mystery box:

It contains:

1 large head cauliflower
1 bunch watercress
1 eggplant
1 bunch kale
3 small green peppers
2 large white potatoes
2 carrots
1 red onion
1 small avocado
3 apples
3 bananas
1 orange

In a few days I will post my menu plan (to give you a chance to figure out a few ideas of your own first without distraction).

My caveat mentioned above: I cannot eat avocados, so I have arranged to make a contact-less trade with a fellow food box buyer. Apparently they hate kale and love avocados and they see it as a win-win (even though I feel like the avocado is pretty small compared to the nice bunch of kale). If I did not have this option, I had a back-up plan: I could have made guacamole and frozen it to give away in the future. (yep- you can freeze gauc if you don’t add watery veggies to it).

Stay safe and eat well, everyone. I’m really looking forward to seeing your submissions.

Making Your Own Vinaigrette Salad Dressings

Home made dressings cost so much less than store bought ones, and they taste better. They are also very easy to make and of course, you know exactly what is in homemade dressings. Once you start making your own dressings, you will never go back to store-bought because you will be able to whip up a dressing at any time that perfectly matches any meal you are making.

So, here is a set of basic instructions for vinaigrette and some ideas for how to turn it into your very own recipes based on what you have at hand.

Basic Vinaigrette Rules:

1. Mix approximately 3 parts oil with 1 part acid.
2. Add flavours (and textures) and mix until emulsified.
3. Keep covered and refrigerated. You can re-mix if necessary, and let it come to room temperature before use.

Simple, right?

Yet the possibilities to create distinctly different dressings from this basic algorithm are endless:

1. The oil can be regular olive oil, or thinner oils like canola. You can also start layering the flavours by using flavoured oils as part of the oil component- chili oil, garlic infused oil, herb oils, smoky oils, etc. You can also replace some of the oil with other thickeners (pureed veggies, as listed below, or things like nutritional yeast), although purists would say that is a no-no, as the dressing may not emulsify as well. But- this is your dressing- go keto and add in cashews, creams, or even more oils, or go oil-reduced to fit your eating pattern, or go traditional at 3:1!
2. The acid choices are also endless- vinegars of any type (apple cider, red wine, rice vinegar, etc., etc., even pickle juice from a jar), citrus juices like lime or lemon, even tomato juice.
3. Flavours: After you create the basic mix above in any combination that you desire, taste it and decide- do you want a traditional taste? Add Greek or Italian herbs, and perhaps a little garlic, onion powder, or flavoured salts. Is it too tart? Add some sweetness with sugar, monkfruit, honey, or pureed fruit (apples, berries, dates, etc). Even peanut butter or pureed sweet corn or roasted carrots can sweeten it. These can also make the dressing thicker and more robust, which creates textural interest for your mouth. I will describe a corn dressing recipe below, and you can check out my roasted carrot dressing here. Other sweet or combination flavours can be added with a spoonful of fancy marmalade or hot pepper jelly, or even pre-made sauces that are tucked in your fridge, like sweet BBQ sauce. Umame flavours can be added with a drop or two of fish oil, some nori or furikake, or miso. Do you like your dressing spicy? In addition to adding chili oil, you could add some chopped or pureed hot peppers, mustard, sriracha or worcestershire sauce, cajun seasoning, cayenne pepper, curry spices, hot BBQ sauce, etc. Don’t be afraid to try different combinations, either. A hot sriracha dressing tempered with a little citrus and tahini or peanut butter could be divine, for example (I don’t know, but maybe I’ll try that combo next and let you know!)
4. Mix, taste again, and see if you need to add anything more. If you are not sure of a combo, start by making just a small amount- you now know the rough ratio, so you can make just a few teaspoons to taste. If you layer and layer and just hate the whole thing (it only happens rarely, believe it or not!), you are only tossing out a few spoonfuls. More frequently you will find that as you layer the flavours you start to figure out what you still need and search for things to put in until you get what you like. Write the combo down and then scale up the volume accordingly.

Here is an example of a dressing I made recently. I was meal planning for the week and I did not want contact with the grocery store crowds- a situation most of us are facing about now- so I used what I had at home. I had spinach in the fridge, as well as some frozen chili from an earlier week’s meals, so chili salad was a no-brainer. I was also yearning a bit for warmer weather to arrive and I thought about what goes with chili in the summer- Mexican corn on the cob! (roasted corn on the cob with mayo, chili powder, lime juice, and cilantro. So very yum!). I couldn’t make that of course, but I figured I could replicate some of the flavours in a dressing. I had frozen corn kernels (sweet corn kernels would work even better, but never mind), and most of the other ingredients (sadly, no cilantro), so I just followed the rules from above to create a dressing that gave me a small bit of comfort in our crazy world right now.

Mexican Corn Dressing

Because it was regular corn, I figured I might need a bit of sweetness, so I used pureed dates (BTW, I always keep a package of dates in the freezer to use as sweeteners in a pinch). I also played with the ratios a bit (based mainly on tasting as I went)- I count the olive oil, mayo, and the corn as oily parts of the 3:1 ratio, and vinegar and lime juice as the acids.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup corn, pureed
• 2 Tbsp vegan mayonnaise
• 4 Tbsp olive oil
• 4 Tbsp vinegar
• juice of 1 lime
• 2-4 tsp chili powder
• 0.25 tsp salt and pepper
• 1 date, pureed (you could use sweetener or an apple instead)
• 2 fl oz water, or as desired

Mix all the ingredients and adjust according to your taste preferences. Add water to get the consistency you like- this was much thicker and creamier than many dressings but I was looking for the rich “comfort” factor, so I left it that way.

After layering the salad, chili, and dressing, I sprinkled a few chopped green onions on top and had a nice warm chili salad. You could eat it in a corn tortilla too.

Eat well and stay well everyone!

Jo

Nutrition Facts
Servings 10.0
Amount Per Serving
calories 81
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 6 g	9 %
Saturated Fat 1 g	4 %
Monounsaturated Fat 4 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 0 mg	0 %
Sodium 64 mg	3 %
Potassium 54 mg	2 %
Total Carbohydrate 7 g	2 %
Dietary Fiber 0 g	2 %
Sugars 3 g
Protein 1 g	2 %
Vitamin A	2 %
Vitamin C	3 %
Calcium	1 %
Iron	1 %
* The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA.

Meal Prepping When You Can’t Go Out

Please note: This post was started in early February but did not get published. I thought it might be timely to show how you can still create a meal plan for the week when you are trying not to go out for big grocery shops (social distancing and self-isolating is a real concern now, so it is a good time to put the pantry into action. And by the way, by “pantry” I mean that one cupboard I have where packages of impulse buys are shoved).

Time for a tidy up of the fridge and pantry. I had some leftover veggies from Lunar New Year meals, and a few pantry items that I bought on sale a while back but haven’t worked into my plans yet.

So, the first step to plan this kind of week is to take stock of the perishables that need to be used up:

– A salsa salad and a package of romaine hearts
– Some gai lan and some sugar snap peas
– A head of cauliflower

So, that salad is a no-brainer. I just combined the packaged salad with the romaine (after cleaning, cutting and drying it) to create a mass of salad greens, ready for lunches. Put that in a large container (or pack ready in lunch containers) and return it to the fridge. I usually put a piece of paper towel in with the greens to keep them dry and crisp. Then I took the packaged dressing and added in some more salsa from the pantry. I left some of it chunky and blended the rest so that it would have a dressing consistency. You can always add in a bit of sour cream, blended cashews, or yogurt if you want it creamier. It also came with some little taco chip things, so I put them in a container and added some pumpkin seeds to create a crunchy mix to put on top. 10 minutes and done!

On to the gai lan, peas and cauliflower. The possibilities here are endless, but I really didn’t feel like making anything too elaborate, so I had a quick peek in the pantry, where I found a package of ready-made vegan vindaloo curry sauce that I’d been meaning to try. I first thought of using the cauliflower in the curry, but then realized that I could use it to make a low-carb rice to go with the curry, so instead I grabbed the box of soya chunks that were in the pantry.

I made some rice (mixed white, brown, and wild blend) in the instant pot, and chopped up the cauliflower to add at the end of cooking (the heat of the cooked rice was enough to cook the cauliflower without making it too soggy). 5-10 minutes prep and then the instant pot did the rest:

While the rice was cooking, I started with the vindaloo:
I chopped some onion and began frying it up. To that I added some black beans (mushing about half of them with a fork), and tossed on a package of chopped red peppers from the freezer.

On to that I dumped a few handfuls of the soya chunks and beefless broth (ps- I do not bother presoaking soya chunks or TVP when I cook with them. Instead I add extra flavoured liquid- like broth- and they soak up the flavour of that instead of becoming soggy with water).

While that was simmering, I chopped up the snap peas and threw them on top,

… and then added the pre-packaged sauce to simmer for a few more minutes.

I can never resist adding a few frozen peas in at the last minute as well:

I was going to chop up the gai lan and add it too, but instead I just gave it a quick fry to wilt it down and had it on the side along with my curry and rice. I used the same frying pan after pouring the curry into a serving bowl- less washing up and it takes all of 30 seconds to cook gai lan in a pre-heated pan. With a drop of oil and a splash of water, it de-glazed the pan as well- easier clean up and gave a bit more flavour to the gai lan.

That’s it- a super easy prep for several days’ meals, all done in about 45 minutes.

Here are the steps in a nutshell:

1. Figure out what perishables need to be used up, and create your meals around them. It helps to go with a theme (Indian style dinners, salsa lunch salads)
2. Check what you have in your pantry that will fit in with the themes (vindaloo sauce, rice, soya chunks, salsa, black beans)
3. Don’t forget the freezer- especially if, like me, you are always looking for more ways to sneak veggies into your meals (frozen peppers, peas).

That’s all. Stay safe everyone in this crazy sad time.

Jo

 

 

What the Heck Do I Do With All the Carrots?

This week I bought only some greens (cherry tomatoes- 2 pkg for $3.99, kale for $2.89, and a kale crunch salad blend that was on sale for $3.49- total spend less than $15.00 after tax), and did my weekly meal planning based on things I wanted to “clean out” from the pantry, freezer, and fridge. I had a huge bag of carrots left after last week and I decided to make the carrots the centre of my recipes.

I began by cleaning and chopping the carrots, an onion, garlic, tofu from the freezer, and an apple. I roasted them on cookie sheets in a hot oven.

Then on to the recipes: (I had a jar of lupini beans in the pantry that I had wanted to try for a while- they are very low carb- good for keto recipes- and I discovered I really like them. You can use any beans you’d like in the hummus)

Carrot Lupini Bean Hummus

• 0.33 cup tahini
• 4 tsp chili ginger garlic paste
• salt
• 1 Tbsp chili oil
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 3 cups lupini beans (or bean of choice)
• 2 ounces lemon juice
• 1 cup roasted carrots
• 2-4 cloves roasted garlic
• 2-3 Tbsp olive oil
• 3.5 ounces chestnuts (optional- these were left from Christmas)

Blend all ingredients and top with olive or chili oil, a few reserved lupini beans, and other garnishes (I sprinkled on a bit of my seedy everything seasoning).

I used the hummus as a side- with crackers and chopped raw veggies left over from last week, and had it for dinners with the next recipe:

Coconut Carrot Miso Soup

• 1/2 to 1 apple, roasted
• 4 tsp chili ginger garlic paste
• 4 cups chickenless broth
• 4 cups water
• 2 Tbsp white miso paste
• 1 container cubed roasted tofu
• 16 ounces roasted carrots (with some slices left for garnish)
• 1 medium roasted onion
• 20 g white miso soup mix (optional- I had some in the pantry I wanted to use up)
• 240 ml coconut milk
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Put all the ingredients except the coconut milk and tofu cubes in a soup pot on the stove, and bring to a boil. Blend until smooth (I used an immersion blender). Lastly add the coconut milk and tofu and mix well. Serve and garnish with carrot slices and olive oil.

So, there were my dinners made for the first half of the week. On to lunches:

I prepped and washed the greens and tomatoes for my big lunch salads. I had fruit and hummus and veggies for snacks. I just needed a dressing, so why not use the rest of the roasted carrots for that?

Carrot Chili Vinaigrette

• 0.50 teaspoon coriander
• 1/4 roasted apple (or other sweetener of choice)
• 0.25 cup roasted carrots
• 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp chili ginger garlic paste
• salt
• 1 tsp cumin
• 0.25 to .5 cup water
• 0.25 cup olive oil

Blend all ingredients until emulsified. Taste and adjust seasonings, sweeteners, vinegar to taste. It will be much less runny than regular vinaigrette because of the carrot.

And here I am prepping my lunches for the start of the work week with the vinaigrette:

Later in the week I still had some hummus, a bit of soup, and some kale left, so I threw them all in together for a hearty bowl of combo soup, which was also delicious!

Carrot Lupini Bean Hummus Nutrition:

Nutrition Facts
Servings 12.0
Amount Per Serving
calories 140
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 10 g	15 %
Saturated Fat 1 g	4 %
Monounsaturated Fat 3 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 0 mg	0 %
Sodium 454 mg	19 %
Potassium 47 mg	1 %
Total Carbohydrate 7 g	2 %
Dietary Fiber 2 g	7 %
Sugars 2 g
Protein 6 g	13 %
Vitamin A	91 %
Vitamin C	1 %
Calcium	7 %
Iron	3 %

Coconut Carrot Miso Soup Nutrition:

Nutrition Facts
Servings 8.0
Amount Per Serving
calories 200
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 12 g	18 %
Saturated Fat 1 g	4 %
Monounsaturated Fat 3 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 2 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 6 mg	2 %
Sodium 541 mg	23 %
Potassium 53 mg	2 %
Total Carbohydrate 16 g	5 %
Dietary Fiber 6 g	24 %
Sugars 6 g
Protein 10 g	20 %
Vitamin A	387 %
Vitamin C	10 %
Calcium	20 %
Iron	10 %

Carrot Chili Vinaigrette Nutrition:

Nutrition Facts
Servings 8.0
Amount Per Serving
calories 73
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 7 g	11 %
Saturated Fat 1 g	5 %
Monounsaturated Fat 5 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 0 mg	0 %
Sodium 46 mg	2 %
Potassium 21 mg	1 %
Total Carbohydrate 3 g	1 %
Dietary Fiber 0 g	2 %
Sugars 0 g
Protein 0 g	1 %
Vitamin A	29 %
Vitamin C	3 %
Calcium	3 %
Iron	1 %

Cauliflower Pesto Casserole

With a West Coast winter setting in, I find I’m relying on lots of soups and casseroles. So, here’s another casserole I made with the veggies that were on sale. I wanted a wee bit of a kick so I added a small jar of pesto, and it turned out very “more-ish”.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup basil pesto sauce
• 8 medium carrots
• 564 ml tinned cream of mushroom & garlic soup-condensed (without extra liquid)
• 2 large cauliflowers
• 0.50 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 14 potatoes
• 2 leeks
• 4-6 cups kale
• 3 medium onions
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 100 grams cheddar flavour vegan cheese shreds
• 3 cups dried TVP
• salt and seasonings to taste
• water as needed

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Prep the veggies- wash and roughly chop the carrots, onions, and leeks. Remove the leaves from the cauliflower and slice it into “steaks”. Roast all the chopped veggies on  baking trays with a few tablespoons of olive oil and any seasonings you would like.

Meanwhile, wash and boil the potatoes (I left the skin on because it adds flavour and good minerals, you can peel them if you’d like a less rustic looking casserole). When boiled, drain and mash them.

Begin layering your casserole while continuing the cooking. Start with a layer of cauliflower steaks on the bottom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a pan, mix the TVP with the condensed soup. Add the roasted onion and leeks, and a third of the pesto sauce. Add a little oil and water if needed. Stir and heat through until the TVP has absorbed the liquid. Layer this mix on top of the cauliflower layer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the same pan, sautee the kale with a bit of water (which also deglazes the pan and adds flavour). As the kale wilts, add the roasted carrots and another third of the pesto. Layer this on top of the TVP layer.

Finally, mash the potatoes with almond milk and any seasonings, oils, etc, that you would like, and layer on top. Sprinkle the cheddar shreds on the potatoes and drizzle the rest of the pesto over the casserole.

         

Pop it into the oven for a few minutes to brown the top. This made enough for three large casseroles. One for my next few dinners, one for a potluck, and one for the freezer.

 

Nutrition Facts
Servings 18.0
Amount Per Serving
calories 332
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 10 g	16 %
Saturated Fat 2 g	10 %
Monounsaturated Fat 2 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 1 mg	0 %
Sodium 382 mg	16 %
Potassium 1382 mg	39 %
Total Carbohydrate 46 g	15 %
Dietary Fiber 12 g	48 %
Sugars 9 g
Protein 17 g	34 %
Vitamin A	181 %
Vitamin C	120 %
Calcium	88 %
Iron	23 %
* The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA.

Five Ideas for Following Your Meal Plans

Like all other changes, meal planning can be derailed, so here are a few tips to stay on track:

1. When you do your planning, make sure to schedule in the times you plan to actually do the prep and cooking (not necessarily at the same time). Then if things go awry, make a note of why it happened to help you in future planning. For instance, I now know that my weekly energy is limited. The times I strayed from my meal plan were times I planned to make meals from scratch later in the week. So now I prep and make the first few dinners of the week on a weekend, and prep the later weekday meals as if I was buying them from one of those ready-made meal services. Then I just have to throw the pre-measured ingredients together to cook while I do my other after work chores.
2. Whenever possible, batch cook. If you are going to the trouble of creating a recipe, it’s just as easy to double it. Then you can decide if you’d rather eat it twice in a row or freeze the pre-portioned second meal. Rotate the frozen meals into later weekly meal plans, but also remember they are there for “emergency” days- when you just don’t have the time or energy to make anything else at all. This one is a great way to save you from the dreaded pizza run on the way home from work.
3. Speaking of pizza runs, make sure you cook and plan a few “junky” meals, even meals based on pre-packaged foods. At least once a month I make a pizza or beyond burger or Gardein chick’n meal. I sometimes buy frozen vegan pizzas on sale to keep in my freezer, rather than going to the trouble of making my own crust. It feels more like a pizza shop pizza when I add extra (fresh) toppings on it.
4. Send your own signals to yourself. My sister doesn’t follow strict plans, and she keeps very busy, so she used to forget to cook before she got “hangry” and wanted to eat immediately. Now when she knows she has a busy day and a plan for dinner, she will set out some of her recipe ingredients on the counter. Then as she walks by she gets a visual reminder of her plan, and she will remember to start dinner well before she wants to eat. You could do a similar thing with alarm reminders on your phone or watch.
5. Plan to cook and freeze meals with like-minded people (fellow vegans/keto/omnivores, etc). You can create a cooking club, where you rotate through each others’ kitchens for a batch cooking session of several recipes. Or, you could do something like a meal co-op, where each member creates one recipe (at their own home) with enough servings for everyone in the co-op. Then they package it with instructions and give it to each of the other members. For instance, if there are seven members in the co-op, you could prep your meal for one night in a week, and for the rest of the week, you are off the hook as you eat the meals provided by the other six members.

I’d love to hear what has helped you stay on track with your meal planning. Share in the comments below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spoiler- I Made One-Pot Spaghetti

I love the flexibility of my meal planning system. Last post I left a cliffhanger- what was I going to do with the last of the veggies? I knew I’d use my shiritaki noodles, but what to make? I left the decision until right before my dinner, so I wanted my food fast. Because I fry my noodles before using (I prefer the texture that way), and I do love my spices, it was easiest and fastest to make a spicy spaghetti-style dish. (Bonus, I also had hot salsa left over and that added heat and a few more veggies).

So simple and yummy! I chopped up the rest of the zucchini and fried it up with a spritz of olive oil. Meanwhile, I rinsed and drained the noodles. When the zucchini had some nice softening and browning, I moved it aside and put the noodles in the same pan to cook off some of their moisture. Once they were the texture I like, I simply added about a cup of the chunky salsa and heated the whole pan through. Dinner in about 10 minutes, one pot to clean, and enough left for tomorrow. I could have added a side salad and some garlic bread for more variety, but I didn’t bother- this hit the spot for me just as it was.

Finishing the Week With My Planning Method-What About the Wilting Leftovers?

I spent years buying food with plans to make many recipes, only to be left with random ingredients forgotten in the bottom of the fridge. With my ingredient-based planning system, I still often have leftover foods near the end of the week, but they don’t get forgotten and lost.

That’s because near the end of each week (usually Thursday or Friday), I take one minute to review what is still in the fridge before I do my next week’s plan. There are three reasons to do this:

First and foremost, it prevents me finding the dreaded squishy black mush in the crisper drawer, and then feeling guilty that I paid for, forgot, and threw away that exotic vegetable that I planned to create “something” with.

Second, if I know what I have, I can incorporate it into the first part of the next week’s plan. Because I tend base each week’s plan on only a few ingredients, this provides some welcome extra variety into the recipes. Or- I can create a few new recipes to finish out the week and weekend before the next week’s prep and cook on Sunday.

Finally, the fridge is then ready and empty (after a quick wipe down if you feel ambitious) waiting for when you bring home next week’s food to prep. Sometimes when I get home after my grocery haul, I am just “done”. I can shove the food into the fridge for later. And if I do have the energy, I can clean and prep the food as soon as I get home and put it into the waiting fridge. Then I get an extra pat on the back because when I open the fridge during the week, the organized food beckons to me to follow through on the meal plans.

So, what about this week? I started the week with a small fresh veggie haul, which I combined with the rest of the previous week’s root veggies to make a giant pot of beefless stew and a large batch of taco stew. I froze two servings of each to ease the load in future weeks. The rest was used for my meals, supplemented or modified with various sides and pantry items like keto buns (recipe to follow in another post), baked squash, dry-fried tofu cubes, and salads.

However, today is Friday, so I did a quick check of the fridge and discovered I still had two packages of tofu, about a cup of cherry tomatoes, two unused zucchini, and a few cups of arugula left. The produce was just at the state where it needed to be used within a day or two, so I turned to a few faithful standby recipes- a tofu scramble, and a shiritaki noodle bowl.

I used up one package of tofu (the other will keep for next week) and half of the arugula and zucchini, as well as half an onion and all of the tomatoes, chopped, for the scramble- a few weekend breakfasts or snacks dealt with in 15 minutes. I made a base chicken-y flavour, but also added a bit if curry powder for variety.

I am now left with just a bit of the arugula, half an onion, and half the zucchini…

which will go in to a bowl of shiritaki noodles to make two dinners for over the weekend as well. I will decide when I make it whether it will be a simple stir-fry with a few other ingredients, a shiritaki slurp bowl, or a creamy bowl like my zucchini alfredo, but made with shiritaki noodles and zucchini cubes.

This means that next week, I am starting with a perfectly clean slate- no veggies to roll over into the meal plans, nothing was wasted, and all was used to make delicious meals. Just call me the vegan Marie Condo, right?

My Own “Back to School” Lunch Prep

After some nice holidays, it’s back to work for me tomorrow, so just a quick post to show how I mesh my regular meal prep into easy and filling lunches. This time of year I usually incorporate my meals into salads, but as winter approaches I will use the same principles to create hot soup or stew lunches.

In my ingredient-based plan this week, key ingredients were carrots and beets. I will make some recipes for dinners from them later in the week. Other bargain buys were green beans and a 6-pack of romaine lettuce, so salads this week will be romaine-based. I was doing pizza experiments last week, which left me with a large opened jar of salsa to use up, and opened packages of Daiya cheese. I want to ease back into the work week with quick and easy recipes, so I created a taco “stew” (recipe below)

Taco Stew

For dinner on the first and second day back I will use the stew to construct fast tacos. Into pre-made taco shells, I simply layer some lettuce, Daiya cheese, and heated taco stew. Topped with a bit of chopped tomato, green onion and taco sauce, it makes a satisfying warm and crunchy dinner, with no cleanup.

Super fast tacos- just re-heat corn on the cob for the side and dinner is ready.

For lunches on the first few days I have just packed a deconstructed taco salad, with the lettuce (and any other crunchy veggies) packed separately from the taco stew and any other toppings I fancy. At lunch I can heat the stew or leave it cold, and simply layer all the ingredients together for a yummy slurpy taco salad.

Stackable lunch bowls with two days worth of lettuce, green onion, carrot, and the divided layer that I will refill each day. Contains the taco stew packed in a freezer bag for easy transfer to the salad (and easy refill tomorrow). Other sections contain some carrot snacks, walnuts and an (absent) apple snack, plus (absent) chopped tomatoes, cheese, and taco sauce to top the salad.

Fifteen Minute Taco Stew

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup green beans
• 1 cup chopped red pepper
• 1 medium tomato, chopped
• 1 package Yves Veggie Ground Round
• 1 can white beans or baked beans
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 package taco seasoning
• 15 fluid ounce salsa
• seasonings to taste

Directions:

Fry the onion, beans, and red pepper (or green if you prefer) in the olive oil until softened and onion is translucent. Add in the ground round, beans, tomato, tomato sauce and taco seasoning mix, and stir through until well mixed and heated. Finally add in the salsa and heat to simmer. Taste and add any other seasonings as desired.

RECIPE NOTES:

1. Remember my plan is ingredient based– so most of my recipes can be changed on the fly to use whatever ingredients you have on hand! (add some corn, hot peppers, rice, the possibilities are endless)

2. As with nearly all my recipes, this is easy to make for a keto diet- just increase the fats by adding in more oils, sauces, etc.

Nutrition Facts
Servings 6.0
Amount Per Serving
calories 244
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 4 g	7 %
Saturated Fat 0 g	2 %
Monounsaturated Fat 2 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 0 mg	0 %
Sodium 1053 mg	44 %
Potassium 754 mg	22 %
Total Carbohydrate 35 g	12 %
Dietary Fiber 9 g	37 %
Sugars 16 g
Protein 15 g	30 %
Vitamin A	118 %
Vitamin C	374 %
Calcium	24 %
Iron	26 %
* The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA.

(Nutrition facts based on MyFitnessPal data)