Menu Plan Monday: May 6, 2013

Planning this week’s meals was hard. Nothing was sounding good… but! I have a plan and I think I am excited about it. Here is what we are eating this week!

Monday: Quinoa Vegetable Soup, Whole Grain Rolls

Tuesday: Baked Shells with white sauce (adding in broccoli, carrots and red bell pepper)

Wednesday: Roasted Chickpea Tacos, Guacamole, Mixed steamed veggies

Thursday: Salad with Creamy Balsamic Dressing, Buffalo Cauliflower Wings, Popcorn Fries (just potatoes roasted in the oven with coconut oil, smells like popcorn!)

Friday: Broccoli Potato Soup,(i don’t use any of the herbs. i like it plain and simple. it is pure comfort food for me!)  French Peasant Bread

Saturday: Black Bean Burgers, Sweet Potato Tots (thank you Trader Joe’s!), Steamed Veggies

Sunday: ummm… out to eat for Mother’s day? leftovers?

What’s on your menu this week?

Check out many more menu plans over at Orgjunkie!

2013
05/06
CATEGORY
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Menu Plan Monday: 3/11/13

Two weeks ago, I started working on a blog post that contained our monthly meal plan for February. I know a lot of people get intrigued about a (mostly) vegan diet and wonder, “what do you eat??” That was two weeks ago. I would like to make blogging a bigger part of my life but as of yet, I haven’t figured out how to do it. Maybe someday I will get around to finishing that post. But for today, for the first time in months, I can at least give you my weekly meal plan!

Happy Cooking!

Monday: Quinoa Bean Burritos (for the sauce I just mix avocado and homemade taco seasoning and spread it on the tortilla), steamed vegetables, chips and salsa

Tuesday: Chickpea Noodle Soup, French Peasant Bread

Wednesday: Potato Tacos, gaucamole, corn

Thursday: Cauliflower Steaks, Pineapple Fried Rice

Friday: Stovetop Broccoli and White Bean Lasagna, French Peasant Bread, green beans

Saturday: takeout/leftovers/breakfast for dinner

Sunday: Black Bean Burgers, homemade french fries, snap peas

Snacks: Sweet Potato Muffins, trail mix, veggie chips, fruit, Homemade Lara Bars, veggies and hummus

Breakfasts: Lazy Granola (made with coconut oil, coconut, almonds and flax), Cinnamon Pancakes, Peanut Butter Oatmeal, toast on homemade Oatmeal bread

Lunches: eggs, pbnj + honey sandwiches, leftovers, black bean tostadas

Dessert: Strawberry Oatmeal Bars (i halved the sugar and used white whole wheat flour), Vegan Brownies

What’s on your menu this week?

This post is linked to orgjunkie’s Menu Plan Monday

2013
03/11
CATEGORY
Menu Plans
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Menu Plan Monday: Nov. 12

I’m finally getting to a place where our list of family favorite meals is growing! It turns out a mostly vegan diet suits us. 🙂 I needed to plan this week’s meals in a hurry and I did it in about 2 minutes! That felt amazing. Here’s the plan!

Monday: leftover Straw and Hay Pasta from Chloe’s Kitchen and breadsticks from this book.

Tuesday: Roasted Chickpea Tacos with guacamole and cilantro lime rice (family favorite!)

Wednesday: Loaded Baked Potato Soup

Thursday: Orzo pilaf with roasted red peppers and peas, and steamed broccoli (family favorite!)

Friday: Black Bean, Kale and Rice Soup in the Crockpot (family favorite!)

Saturday: Thanksgiving meal at my sister’s – taking a turkey shaped fruit platter and this Grape and Pecan Salad with Lemon Poppyseed dressing

Sunday: My day off! Leftovers or something super simple

This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday at Orgjunkie.

2012
11/12
CATEGORY
food
Menu Plans
Vegan
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Amelia’s Lunchtime Soup

Here’s a soup Amelia will really dig her spoon into.

Amelia’s Lunchtime Soup

1 Tbsp. Olive oil
1 potato, peeled and diced
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
1 stalk celery, chopped
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
4 cups vegetable broth
1/4 cup orzo
1/2 cup frozen peas
salt and pepper, to taste

1. Heat olive oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, garlic and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Saute until veggies begin to soften, about 5 to 10 minutes.

2. Add broth and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.

3. Add orzo and peas and simmer until pasta is cooked through, about 10 to 15 minutes. Season to taste.

Simple. Uncomplicated. Quick. Tasty.

Enjoy!

2012
10/12
CATEGORY
food
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Menu Plan Monday: 9/17

I know.

It’s been…months?

Hellooooo, hellooo, hellooooo? Do you hear the echo?

Between having a third baby, my oldest starting preschool (what!!?), and completely flipping our diets upside down, the blog has gotten pushed to the wayside. It’s not like I was actively writing much before that, and sure, preschool is only one day a week, and maybe we didn’t completely flip our diets upside down. Whatever. The point is, I don’t write much anymore, let alone type up a menu plan, which, let’s face it: that’s all this blog turned into really anyway. Have I gone crazy with the commas? Hubby, are you having a small heart attack right now?

The main reason for the lack of menu plans is simply because most of our meals these days come from cookbooks I’ve checked out of the library. We’ve recently adopted a mostly vegan diet and checking out books from the library has been the easiest way for me to find inspiration. One of the things I love about Menu Plan Monday is the fact that we can all share links to fabulous, and sometimes not so fabulous, recipes. Since I didn’t have links to share with you, it almost seemed pointless to type it up. But, I felt like doing it today, and I do have a few links for you. So, here’s the plan!

Monday: Greek Veggie Pitas, with Roasted chickpeas (using this method with lemon, garlic, and oregano for seasoning.)

Tuesday: Potato Kale Tacos

Wednesday: Pasta Fagioli – veganized

Thursday: Quinoa, Kidney beans and Corn

Friday: Pizza!! (going to try that Daiya cheese and hope for the best!)

Saturday: Spaghetti and Bean Balls

Sunday: Roasted Potatoes and peppers with Scrambled Eggs (like I said ~ mostly vegan)

There you have it! What’s on your menu plan this week?

Linked to Menu Plan Monday at Organizing Junkie

2012
09/17
CATEGORY
Menu Plans
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Menu Plan Monday: 7/9

So tomorrow marks our third week of CSA delivery and we have been really pleased so far! Everything has been super tasty and I would definitely recommend Green B.E..A.N. Delivery to anyone looking to try out a CSA.

Since we have started this dairy free and mostly meat free diet lunch time has been the hardest time of day. We have been eating A LOT of peanut butter and jelly. Sofi is less than thrilled. I need some good lunch ideas. We do snack plates sometimes too, just random fruits and veggies and nuts and crackers. But we are eating the fruits and veggies so much for snacks and dinners as well, we just need some variety! Do you have any relatively simple lunch ideas that fit into the meat and dairy free category that you’d be willing to share with me?? 🙂 Pretty please?

Here are this week’s recipes!

Dinner

Orzo Pilaf with red peppers and peas, salad (from the book The Vegan Table)

Taco salads with this Mexican Vinaigrette, watermelon

Greek Veggie Pita Pockets, sweet potato fries

Broccoli with Garlic Butter & Cashews, Brown Rice (from The Vegan Table)

Vegetable Hobo Packets

Black Bean Burgers, Crispy Smashed Potatoes

Snacks/Breakfasts

Homemade Banana Chips

Cashew Cookie Lara Bars

Vegan Brownies

Lazy Granola (with flax, coconut and almonds)

Apple Crumb Muffins (from You Won’t Believe It’s Vegan!)

Oatmeal Bread (in bread machine)

So, I need one more dinner idea! It needs to be meat and dairy free. What do you have for me? 😉

This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday over at Orgjunkie!

2012
07/09
CATEGORY
food
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Menu Plan: 6/26

This week (today in fact!) starts the beginning of our CSA adventure. I am so excited! We decided to try out Green B.E.A.N. Delivery for awhile and see how we like it.

So this week’s recipes are based around what is coming in the box and from two new cookbooks I got at the library: You Won’t Believe It’s Vegan!  and The Vegan Table. I am so excited!

This week’s recipes are:

Black bean tostadas with homemade guacamole, chips and salsa

Golden Corn Pancakes (from The Vegan Table), homemade pico de gallo (from You Won’t Believe It’s Vegan!)  salad

Penne Pasta with Fresh Veggies (from The Vegan Table)

Whole Wheat Calzones with olives, green peppers and banana peppers (and I might sneak some carrots in there!), salad

Black Bean Burgers, Oven Sweet potato fries, whatever veggies we have left!

And to finish off the last bit of meat in the freezer: grilled lemon garlic chicken, Home-fried potatoes (from The Vegan Table) and green beans

I also plan to make some Apple Crumb Muffins (from You Won’t Believe It’s Vegan!) and of course, Lazy Granola with coconut, almonds and flaxseed. And if I have enough oats I will make some Energy Bites!

What’s on your menu this week?

Linked to Orgjunkie.

2012
06/26
CATEGORY
food
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Menu Plan Monday: 6/18

This past weekend was a mix of some alone time for Jeremy and I, good times with family, and trying times with two sick little girls. 😦 The girls woke up with fevers yesterday morning: 103 and 101. Jeremy was up with them a lot last night so we declared today movie and soup day! Here are this week’s recipes.

Big Batch Vegetable Soup, Cornbread

Salads and Roasted Cauliflower

Cilantro Lime Chicken Casserole

Vegetable Stir Fry with Garlic Sauce

Bean Bolognaise

Vegan Banana Coconut Bread Muffins

Lazy Granola with Coconut, Almonds and Flax

Sweet Potato Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

Linked to Orgjunkie.

2012
06/18
CATEGORY
food
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Meal Plan….Tuesday! 6/12

Seriously, the weeks go by so fast! I rarely can find the time to blog and it frustrates me. I want to do it…I really do! But with three kids and a change in our diets I just can’t keep up. We recently watched Forks over Knives and… well… it inspired us to move towards a whole foods, plant-based diet as much as possible. We will still eat meat occasionally but not dairy and we will sometimes eat eggs. Other than that, you will notice our menus being more plant-based. I’m also going to start making things from scratch more often and try to cut out the processed foods. We’ll see how well that goes. 😉 Here are the recipes for this week!

Greek Wraps (minus the cheese) and Sweet Potato Fries, pineapple

Black Bean tacos with avocado, lettuce, salsa and vegan sour cream! Can you believe such a thing exists? I hope it’s good! Served with a salad and homemade ranch dressing made with coconut milk. It may sound weird… but it tastes good! I don’t notice a coconut taste at all. (I use the original coconut milk beverage from the carton.) Glad my bff thought this one up!

Crockpot Spaghetti sauce over veggie pasta, some sort of steamed veggie and some kind of homemade bread. 🙂

Balsamic Green Bean Salad to take to a cookout. (minus cheese)

Lazy Granola with shredded coconut , sliced almonds and flax

smoothies with fruit, honey and coconut milk

It’s going to be a yummy week!

What’s your favorite meatless meal?

Linked to Orgkunkie

 

2012
06/12
CATEGORY
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A Snoopy Birthday Recap

We celebrated Sofi’s 2nd birthday this past weekend and it was so much fun! We had the party outside (mostly) and it was so nice for the kids to be able to run amok and be free!

Sure, it was the hottest day of the month so far, but still nice. I think second birthdays are my favorite. It’s the first time I feel like Sofi felt incredibly special, once she realized everyone was singing to her. The look on her face was precious.

I love that smile that completely lights up her face. 🙂

I was sort of disappointed when I realized that nobody seemed to sell Snoopy birthay party supplies so my mom and I came up with some things on our own to make it special!

The Snoopy house is a gift bag from Hallmark. After the party we cut out the black part and the girls have been using it as a dog house for their stuffed animals. 🙂

I got the Scooby snacks graham crackers from Meijer and used this dip. It is amazing!

Walmart sells pretzel balls and when you put them in a green dog bowl, it looks like dog food! I was a tiny bit proud of this one.

I was very proud of this idea. 😉 My mom made these using her cricut machine. We filled them with snack packs of peanuts, snoopy fruit snacks, crazy straws, snoopy stickers, tiny boxes of crayons, scooby snack graham crackers and some Charlie Brown coloring pages.

And again, my mom and her cricut machine…she’s so crafty! 🙂

I was very pleased with how the party turned out! Unlike our attempt at taking a family picture after the party was over. I’ll leave you with 3 takes out of 6. They crack me up every single time!

Happy birthday, Sofi!

Linking up today over at Women Living Well!

2012
05/23
CATEGORY
family
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