Menu planning (again, but this time all veggie lol)

One of the things I need to work on this year is being more consistent with planning meals and making a grocery list.

I am a sale shopper mostly, but that can (and does) get me over my food budget. Such and such is on sale, how can I NOT buy it? *crazy looks at boo* It is a sickness I am working on, really.

To that end, I have made a 2 week (dinner) meal plan for Pookie and I. I don't really have to mess with planning lunches as we eat leftovers for lunch most of the time. I do have to get fruit, and salad type stuff to accompany the leftovers or else his laptop lunch box looks very empty lol. Breakfasts here are also a pretty unplanned affair. I gravitate to scrambles (gm tofu, i<3u lol) and oatmeal with chia. Pookie likes toast and a banana and occasionally pancakes.

My dinner plans for the next 2 weeks:

Tonight : coconut curry rice from vegan on the cheap (VOTC)
Sun: Bhudda's delight from happy herbivore (HH)
M: quinoa white bean kale soup from appetite from reduction (A4R)
T: tvp tacos with charleston red rice (HH)
W: Portabello steak fajitas & salad (HH)
Th: leftovers
F: chorizo quinoa & spicy greens served over brown rice (HH)
S: Tamale casserole with leftover chorizo and spicy greens (HH)

Sun: leftovers
M: Caldo verde (VOTC)
T: Easy Dal ( from scrumdilly) & tamarind quinoa (A4R)
W: leftovers
Th: quinoa puttanesca (A4R)
F: chickpea piccata (A4R)
S: FFA - Free for all

I have also made up a shopping list and it looks like it will fall within my budget range easily. You can see I wasn't fibbing about wanting to try several recipes from the happy herbivore cook book!

I am a happy herbivore (fan)

This week I made a few different dishes.


I made this recipe for kashmiri-style kidney beans, and served it over brown rice. Pookie wasn't a big fan so it's unlikely I'll make it again. (no pic)

I made a pot of quinoa kitchari to eat on all week long (this is always a winner). It's from the 30 minute vegan cookbook, but I linked to where I found it. I make it with cabbage, spinach, broccoli, because I followed her version and liked it just that much. Served with hot chili sauce and braggs. Sometimes I use red cabbage and it gives it a pretty purpley color. I found several of those little bags of green lentils in the pantry so used those instead of the red lentils I usually use in this. Just as tasty.





I have only recently discovered happyherbivore.com as I have been veg a short time. Luckily, that means I have only been waiting a few months for her cookbook to come out. I have a tonnnn of things bookmarked in it to make! I was excited to try her biscuit & gravy recipe, and was quite happy with how it turned out. There was no delay in making it, lol. I bought her book on itunes, read it, bookmarked almost everything, and went to the kitchen to make biscuits & sausage style gravy.





I also made her Smoky black bean enchiladas.

Oh em gee. So good. I made 1/2 of them with flour tortillas, and 1/2 with corn tortillas. The corn tortillas were preferred by all (yknow, Pookie & I, lol). The recipe calls for homemade enchilada sauce which I made, yummy. It also calls to make some queso sauce, which I decided to forgo. While Boo will eat about anything I put on his plate, he is not a big fan of faux cheese sauces. I am hopeful that will change, but until then we use the daiya shreds (cheddar style). I had a couple of grape tomatoes about to go wonky on me so tossed those on top along with some green onions. Verrrry verry good.




Not near as pretty as her picture of the food, mine is um, more rustic I guess? lol

Indian & Greek

This past week I had ALOT of the vegan crockpot hearty stew left to eat, which kept my lunches pretty well planned out.



I would say that I was sick of eating it there at the end, and next time will half the recipe!


I have been looking for an indian recipe I had once at an indian buffet long before I went veg. It had kidney beans in it (that was all I could remember!), and so I kept trying different Rajma recipes. I discovered that I liked Rajma too, but it wasn't what I was looking for. I finally found it at Almostvegan's blog. Dal Makhani! mmmm





That was all the inspiration that I needed to get my booty into the kitchen. Pookie & I both adore indian foods, and it wouldn't be the first time I have whipped up an indian (at the very least, inspired) recipe. Pookie's fave is currently this Dal recipe from Scrumpdilly. I served it with this palak-aloo recipe from fatfree.com and brown rice.




I finally replaced my food processor (which died a natural death sometime a couple of months ago), and have been itching to make some falafel. I wanted to try appetite for reduction's baked version, so I made that for the second part of the week. I served it in a wrap with a greek style tahini sauce and with a bowl of fassolatha. I cut the olive oil in half and upped the servings to eight.

If wishes were fishes...

Welp, if wishes were fishes, we'd all cast nets.

I had a lot of optimism on the first, but ended up with a nice week long flu. I actually ate well below my points most days (easily, some days less than half), but I was a slothful bed monster from which no exercise could be coaxed.

Happily, I am again about 100% (such as it is), and will be restarting the exercise today. *yay!*

I did make a couple things that were new to me. A couple were before I got sick, and a couple since I have been "on the mend". Much as I love Pookie, he is good for either a sandwich or ramen when you are feeling under the weather. I like variety a bit too much to tax him very long for either ;)














Isa's chickpea picatta. The picatta was divine. I have quite a fondness for chickpeas, and will definitely be making this one over and over.

The southwestern black bean and corn soup was fine. This is the first time a vegan on the cheap recipe didn't blow my socks off. That said, the ingredients were cheap, on hand, and it wasn't bad. I thought it had a very simple taste to it. Pookie refused to have more than one serving. I had it for lunch for several days. To jazz it up a bit, I had a loaded potato (instead of the tortilla chips the recipe calls for).














Appetite for reduction's Unfried rice. I added 1c broccoli, 1c cauliflower, 1c mushrooms to it. Used brown rice as that is what I had made up already.

Tofu scramble from Instructables (I adore the continuity, that the Miller can is in all the pics). I was in the apple book store and saw they had a free vgn book download, this recipe is included in that. I like it a great deal, and it is to date Pookie's favorite Scramble *before this it was Vegan Mom's yellow plain scramble*. Served it with some mixed fingerlings.














As soon as I could stand cooking the first thing I made was this vegetable stew from vegweb. I really needed something easy and found The world's simplest hearty vegan crockpot stew. It was just the ticket. No sauteing. Makes a ton. I did use an acorn squash in place of the zucchini, and my huge crockpot was full to the brim. I can see how others had a problem getting all these ingreds into one pot! It is indeed stick to your ribs hearty, and just the thing for the cold Indiana winter.

Last night, I was feeling pretty good, and wanted comfort foods. I had plenty of points, so I made up some Mac and Trees from Appetite for reduction. Substituted whole wheat penne for the brown rice pasta, as that is what I had on hand. If that wasn't enough I wanted to piggy out. It was plenty for a meal on it's own but I had a brown rice, fat free refried bean burrito with salsa and 1/3 avocado. I did not have any snacks yesterday, and am fine on points.

When I see it in the picture though a part of me just goes on a rationalization rant from which there can be no escape. I need to become more friendly with my diet. I don't know what makes me think I should berate myself for a little piggy food consumption. The points are there to use. Calm down crazy!

Sweet potato sushi, yummy

Day 2:

Pookie requested Sushi for dinner. I usually just throw sprouts, spinach, cuke, and carrot in them and call it a day. I wanted to do something different, and after a quick googling I came across this recipe for Sweet potato and mushroom maki. I did not have shiitaki, as I only buy those when they are manager markdowns. I was also out of green onions. I used regular button mushrooms and put a little baby spinach in to give it some color.

It did indeed make 5 rolls. I had rice enough to make one more so foraged in fridge and came up with a bit of red bell pepper, a mushroom, and some spinach. My edamame got a bit freezer burned =(, but the goodness inside was tasty. I also had a salad with it. I usually have yknow.. half of the rolls in one sitting. I managed not to go back for more. I don't know where I think it's going to go if I don't eat it right away?














B: oats, blueberries, chia seeds
L: sushi, salad, edamame
D: leftover Red lentil and root veggies with 1/2c brwn rice
s: bagel with hummus



Exercise: slim in six start it up

New Year Res time

I am here to join the throngs of people also restarting their diet plans, recommitting to their health, weight loss, and well-being. I know my sis and her boyfriend are on board, and I want to be positive and get so deep into the wagon it has to be unloaded before I can fall off. This just HAS to be the year. kwim?? lol

That said, I am tracking again. I still have my weight watchers materials from last year, and figure I might as well get some use out of them. I am going to stick with what I have and not buy the new mats (blasphemy, I know). I am also starting slim in 6, and plan to actually go the whole six weeks this time.

This year my new year's resolutions are:

Pay attention to what I am eating, avoid auto pilot eating.
Move more.
This year we are going to not bring alcohol into the house. It is a money sink, and not the treat it once was. Now, if I really want a drink, I have to get off the couch, get dressed , drive or walk, and enjoy it somewhere festive. I don't eat out much, so I imagine my occasional overpriced drink will save me money and calories in the long run.
Ideally, I would like to lose 40 pounds this year, but would gladly settle for being firmly in onederland!
Pay off Pookie's College loan (10k- ish left on it). We already paid off the smaller student loan last year.


Food journal:













B: oatmeal, 1/3c pumpkin puree, T chia seeds, agave & pumpkin pie spice
L: Red lentil & root vegetable Dal from Appetite for reduction, brown rice
D: chickpea spinach almond burger, 1/2 whole wheat english muffin, potato, spinach salad with cuke, red bell pepper, onion, 1 dried fig
s1: 1/2 oz walnuts, 1/2 c nsa applesauce
s2: 1/2 bagel with 1T hummus



Exercise: Slim in 6 - start it up.

so last year...

Boy, it seems like the older I get, the faster the year goes by. Last year was not my shining weight loss year. No, I wouldn't say I even put a dent in what I've been accumulating for 15ish years (it's near the same if not up a couple).

I did manage to do a couple of things that I am pretty darned proud of though.

I quit smoking on Feb. 26th. I feel a bit like a quit every day, because it still calls to me from darkened doorways outside of grocery stores, etc.

I did do a 5k, very slowly, and walking only... but I DID finish it. I had planned to do more than one, but my motivation fell by the wayside. hehe.

I did not really cook much during the last couple weeks of 2010, thanks to family feeding me, and end of the year laziness on my part (hello boca patty).

I also stopped eating meat, dairy, etc. It isn't as expensive as I thought it would be. I think it's like most things, it's as expensive as you want to make it. lol. I do still depend *quite newbie-like I know* on some faux products, and that has cost some to have in my diet (again, hello boca.. and to a lesser degree tofutti).

Here are a few things I managed to get made:

Moroccan chickpeas and couscous from Vegan on the cheap cookbook

Coconut curry rice from vegan on the cheap cookbook

Tofu, red potato, soychorizo scramble with wilted curly leaf spinach & pumpkin seeds


I flipped through the Veganomicon for inspiration and found Cauliflower and mushroom potpie with black olive crust.












See the sexiness of the filling all made up? It could have been pretty.. but I got a hold of it and hack and slashed my way through the topping. In the end it didn't matter much. The picture of it done is reheated the next day. The recipe says 6-8 servings... lol... I cut it into four. Boo ate two pieces the first night (yep half!), and woke me the next morning telling me how he'd been nice enough to save the last piece for me.. I couldn't help but notice he'd picked some of the biscuity bits off the top of it. He said I was lucky there was any left at all.

Next time I make this I will double the recipe. Yum.