Monday, January 14, 2013

A Menu Planning Challenge, week two



Last week, I created my first weekly menu plan for the year. Before I get to this week's plan, I would like to do a bit of a review of how last week's meals turned out.

I based Monday's Vegan Sausage and Rapini Melt on a sausage on a bun recipe in Chatelaine magazine.


I followed the same process, but replaced the sausage with Tofurky vegan sausage and the cheese with Daiya vegan cheese shreds. My husband had regular cheese.


It turned out well, as long as you don't mind a slight bitterness from the rapini (I don't).

They also had a Bushberry Pudding Cake in the same issue of Chatelaine. I substituted light spelt flour in place of the regular flour, margarine for the butter, soy milk for the milk and coconut coffee creamer for the cream. I think it turned out pretty well. The topping has a bit of whiskey in it. It reminded my husband of the Italian liqueur cakes he used to dislike as a kid. I didn't find it as wet as those cakes, though. Because it was only me and my daughter eating it, I froze a bunch of it.


I made a little switch in my plan on Tuesday. I was going to make cassoulet, but I found that I didn't have miso or parsnips. I went to the store three times to get stuff for this plan. I need to do better this week! Planning is supposed to save time...and money. Every time I went back to the store, I bought other stuff that was not on my list too.

Anyway, I made Wednesday's Golden Tofu Soup on Tuesday instead. Between my husband and I, we checked two different stores for the yellow Thai curry paste and couldn't find any. We did have green curry paste at home and I figured there is yellow in green, so what the heck. My husband loved this soup and it was super easy to make.


Here is the White Bean Cassoulet, which I made from a recipe in Robin Robertson's One Dish Vegetarian Meals. You can find the recipe here.

Thursday was black bean vegetarian chili night. We used a simple recipe from The Garden of Vegan.

I had left Friday blank on the menu plan. We ended up ordering Chinese food. Good to have a break.


My favourite recipe of the week was Saturday's Tofu Stroganoff. I said that it was from PETA's Animal Times, but I actually ended up modifying a recipe from Simply Vegetarian!. It doesn't look like much, but we really enjoyed it (except for my son who said it tastes like "nothing"). The recipe is below.

On Sunday, I scheduled in my husband for cooking duty. He made homemade pasta sauce with Yves brand faux meatballs.


I told you how I am trying to get more fruit and veggies into the kids (and me). They had a number of fruit and veggie platters over the week. They ate them all up! We have also had salad and/or broccoli with every dinner.



I threw in some cookies one day after school so they wouldn't get too sick of the healthy platters.




MY MENU PLAN, Week two


Monday

Curried Chickpea and Tomato Linguine

This is a "Quick Fix" recipe I saw in Best Health magazine. I am going to give it a try!

Tuesday

Lentils & Rice
Gotta go with an old favourite once in awhile.


Wednesday

Knife & Fork Mushroom Burger

Thursday

Black Bean Sweet Potato Slow Cooker Soup


Friday

Not scheduled


Saturday

Spaghetti with Bok Choy

Sunday

Husband Cooking


Tofu Stroganoff

by Joann MacDonald
Keywords: fry entree vegan vegetarian tofu



Ingredients
  • 1 454 g package of extra-firm tofu
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil (and more as needed)
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 10 mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1 package (1.5 cups) Tofutti Sour Supreme (sour cream substitute)
  • 2 Tbsp tamari
  • 2 Tbsp white cooking wine
Instructions
Rinse the tofu and drain it on paper towels.
Put olive oil in a large skillet and heat over medium heat. Add onions, mushroom slices, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Cook until onions are soft and transparent, stirring occasionally. Remove mixture from skillet and set aside.
Add more oil to skillet. Slice the tofu into strips (about one-inch wide) and brown in two batches.
Add mushroom mixture to tofu and stir until mushrooms are heated. Just before serving, stir in the sour cream substitute, tamari and cooking wine. Cook over low heat, stirring until sauce has mixed. Do not over-heat. To thin sauce, add more faux sour cream.
Serve over noodles.
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Linking to Healthy Vegan Fridays and:

26 comments:

  1. Everything looks delicious. Now I'm hungry lol

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  2. I'm going to have to read your blog at a specific time ... ie AFTER I've eaten! Everything looks so good ... even the presentation is 5-star!.
    Wendy

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  3. This looks so delicious :)
    Following you back on both :) Bloglovin #79

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  4. Oh I'm so hungry right now ;)
    Tofu stroganoff looks amazing!!! ;)
    xo
    Ella

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  5. Way to go! Those are some really great healthy meals! The stroganoff looks super yummy.

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    1. Thanks Natalie. Healthy and tasty. ;) I can't do just healthy alone.

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  6. Ooh, I think the cassoulet was the winner of the week! Looks good. I love the kids portraits too, excited to follow along.

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    1. Cassoulet is nice for a change.

      The portrait thing is a lot of fun. :)

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  7. I should not be reading this before dinner.. I'm getting so hungry! I love that you recapped the week's meals. I've been meaning to do that too, and it just isn't happening!

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    1. I understand why Laura. It's a bit of work! :)

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  8. Yum! Everything looks delicious!

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  9. Oooh yum, the stroganoff looks good! I've totally forgotten to write out my menu plan and it's Tuesday here, whoops... better get on to it.

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    1. Time flies by and the menu planning isn't always fun. ;)

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  10. Love love your foodie photos! And your recipe sounds yummy!

    How do you like menu planning so far?

    Thanks for linking up with What's For Dinner!

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    1. Thanks for hosting Jill. I like knowing what I'm going to make each night. It really motivates me. Getting the plan done is a challenge though. :)

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  11. Oh wow everything looks so good!!! Definitely going to give the tofu stroganoff {& the pudding cake} a go-- looks too delicious to pass up!

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    1. The stroganoff is easy to make, too, which is always good! :)

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  12. I don't know how you do it... I wish I could be that organized with meal planning (then perhaps we might eat a bit healthier). I've never been into tofu but you make it look good! Lovely meals, Jo!!!

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    1. It definitely forces you to eat healthier, because I feel obligated to stick to the plan. If I didn't have a plan, I might not make much at all some nights. I am not a huge fan of cooking, that's for sure. ;)

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  13. Tell me about that cute plate with an anniversary date on it! Someone you know?

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    1. Nobody I know. But I can't remember where I got it. It was a long time ago and my memory is poor. :)

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