Meal planning

When I meal plan I look at any bookmarked recipes that I've saved for later, peruse my dog eared cookbooks and make a note to make something I've made before. I just made my meal plan for the rest of the week and it's HEAVY on the cilantro and garlic. I hadn't noticed until I kept seeing those two ingredients repeatedly. Chances are my child won't eat this stuff, but I intend on giving it to him to throw on the floor in dismay. I love my kid. (P.S. He has started calling himself Jack. CUTE!)

If my house were cleaner than it is now I'd invite you people over for some yummy food! Isn't that awful that I don't invite people over because I don't think my house is clean enough? That's for another post.

On to the food!

Tuesday (tonight) - Plantain Salad. I bought some plantains last week on a whim and they keep staring at me with their beady little stems so I thought I might come up with something to eat them with. I'm sure I've had plantains before but I just can't remember so I'm going to give this recipe a shot. I love RecipeZaar so much. With this I'll be making my standard fresh spinach salad with a tasty raw orange miso dressing that I made the other day.

Wednesday - Sweet Potato Curry with Spinach and Chickpeas. I LOVE LOVE LOVE curry and spinach and sweet potatoes. I also love RecipeZaar, have I mentioned that? I'll add some brown rice to this and call it a day.

Thursday - Asian Noodle Salad. I adore the Pioneer Woman and even though she's not remotely close to being even vegetarian, sometimes she posts some recipes that are accidentally vegan or vegetarian or even recipes I can adapt to my way of eating. This recipe is (if you get egg free pasta) is vegan, 100%, plus it's so colorful and way healthy. I'll be getting whole wheat pasta and probably eating this for days on end. I'm super excited to try this. I know my Jack (teehee!) will love the pasta and maybe a bell pepper or some cabbage might accidentally make it's way into his mouth. Maybe.

Friday - Red Kidney Bean Curry. Oh, Mrs. Smitten Kitchen, how I love thee. The scenario is the same as above. She's not vegan or vegetarian but I've adapted many of her recipes but this one is 100% vegan. And it's TO DIE FOR. I made it a few months ago and every time I see the word curry I'm taken back to this dish. It's perfect with brown rice and a ton of cilantro on top. It's so so so so so good. Please make this. You'll be glad you did. I swear.

Saturday - Sweet Corn Chowder. This recipe is actually a raw recipe and I've made it before and it was really good. I'm really into Ani Phyo and her raw recipes, I even posted about buying her book here. This corn chowder is SO tasty and so simple. It's super healthy with good fats and good calories and it's a really light dish for the impending heat I anticipate.

Don't let me fool you here, I don't normally cook all this stuff in a row like this. In fact, I'll probably have a pb&j one night and shift one of these meals to another day. And also, I'll probably eat the same meal two or three times in a row for dinner if it's tasty enough (hello Red Kidney Bean Curry!). But I do love having all my ingredients on hand and a plan for what I'm going to make.

Tonight I'm going to my yoga class and then to the closest farmer's market to stock up. I love cooking!

P.S. I need a food processor. Tell me what you have, please!