The Suburban Herbivore

I put together a meal plan for last week that I’d planned to share, but didn’t. I thought I’d go ahead and post it and include my commentary on what actually ended up happening each night for supper. Most nights we also had the standard salad that we make around here: red or green leaf lettuce (organic), Craisins, sliced almonds, croutons, Parmesan or goat cheese, and dressing.

The Plan
Sunday – baked beans, deviled eggs, pasta salad
Monday – Saag Paneer
Tuesday – Vegetable Lasagna
Wednesday – Beet Risotto with Marinated Tofu
Thursday – White Bean Gratin
Friday – Pizza
Saturday – fend for ourselves

What Really Happened

Sunday: I stuck to the plan. (I’ll be sharing my recipes for pasta salad and deviled eggs in the lead-up to Memorial Day weekend.) I also steamed all the greens for Saag Paneer, getting an early start on the next night’s cooking. Way to go, me!

Monday: I started making the cheese for Saag Paneer, then quickly realized that based on the prep time, we wouldn’t be eating until at least 9:30. Made Trader Joe’s frozen tamales instead with jarred salsa verde. But I did finish up making the cheese. I also took the sauce and shredded Jack cheese out of the freezer in preparation for the next night.

Tuesday: Made lasagna as planned. However, it got a little derailed when I realized I’d bought sour cream instead of cottage cheese. Had to send husband to the store.

Wednesday: Got a late start when it came time to work on supper, and heated up leftover lasagna.

Thursday: I had to work late unexpectedly, and didn’t get home until nearly 10:30pm. Don’t know what Jason had for supper. I made a hummus, avocado, and cheese sandwich and then went to bed.

Friday: Finally made Saag Paneer!

Saturday: Wanted to make White Bean Gratin, but did not have any canned white beans or any in the freezer. Rather than going out to the store again, we had more tamales. I improvised the sauce, mixing together hot sauce and leftover tomato sauce and salsa. It came out pretty well!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread with Crystallized Ginger

Overall, things went great! Or at least I think they did… I guess I won’t know for sure until I successfully use up what I’ve just frozen.

I did have one massive flop: the yummy-sounding Oatmeal Banana Raisin waffles. The batter seemed normal enough, and the first waffle was tasty (we’d planned to eat them for breakfast and freeze the leftovers). The second waffle split in half when I opened the waffle maker, but it was fairly easy to pull both halves out. The third waffle, however, stuck and burned to the waffle maker, necessitating an abrupt end to deliciousness as I picked out burned waffle bits for twenty minutes. Maybe the waffle maker was too hot or next time I could try some cooking spray.

To console myself, I made a recipe for Chocolate Chip Banana Bread that I’d been wanting to try. It came out perfectly, but, ah, did not make it to the freezer.

Everything else went as planned, with the small deviation of finishing up several things on Sunday instead of Saturday. It took a lot longer to cook the black beans in the slow cooker than it should have because of how I accidentally turned it off at one point. So I finished that up on Sunday, along with the pizza dough. I also made an extra batch of marinated tofu for Sunday’s supper, and cooked up a batch of white beans that I hadn’t planned on.

Here’s what I’ve got:

one batch of Carrot-Raisin Muffins
one loaf of Chocolate Chip Banana Bread (very similar recipe on Orangette – I used the one from her book, though)
enough filling for two batches of Black Bean Enchiladas (recipe coming soon)
dough for three pizzas
sauce made for Vegetable Lasagna
onions and beans ready for Pasta with Beans and Greens (recipe coming soon)
4 extra onions chopped (and later double-bagged because the freezer and refrigerator stank of onions)
one batch of tofu marinating (and one batch eaten!)

Carrot-Raisin Muffins

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread with Crystallized Ginger

Tofu in Italian Marinade