June 30 Weekly Meal Plan (School’s Out!)

This week’s meal plan will be unique because my kids are going fishing in Saskatchewan, so I’m planning more adult-friendly food and experimenting with a few new recipes. My preference is vegetarian with a bit of fish, so it’s that when the kids are away.

If you missed them, you might want to check out the introduction and week #1 and/or week #2.

Meal plan starting June 30, 2018

(Meals are for dinner unless otherwise noted. We have a few staples for breakfast and lunch is usually leftovers.)

Saturday

Dinner out!

Sunday

Quinoa soup, from this mix I picked up at Costco. With toast and peanut butter on the side.

I’ve only tried this once and it was too bland. I don’t want it to go to waste though, so I’ll try it again, this time with spinach, mushrooms, and asiago cheese.

(Meatless) Monday

Baked Polenta with Swiss Chard and Cheese — Epicurious.com.

I love polenta but so far the family doesn’t. I’ve been wanting to try this and see if I can get some converts.

Tuesday

Hot tofu with cool greens from the The New Becoming Vegetarian Cookbook by dietitians Vesanto Melina and Brenda Davis.

This and their Becoming Vegan are great resources, full of detailed nutrition information (just a few recipes). I love this unusual dish (grated tofu, seasoned and cooked… reminiscent of ground turkey!). I’m making it for the Calgary dietitian meetup group potluck. The recipe is no longer online, but I talked to Vesanto Melina at a conference recently and she said I could share it, as long as I credited her, which of course I would! See below if you want to try it.

Super Power Chia Bread — Oh She Glows

Experiment… I’ve been wanting to try this since we fell in love with something similar at the restaurant Nourish in Victoria.

Wednesday

Green salad with lemon mint vinaigrette.

Simple. No recipe. Just planning to use what looks good in the garden right now.

Pasta with Lentils — from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Fast.

Another experiment. I need more good lentil recipes, and we all love pasta, so trying this.

Thursday

Leftovers!

Friday

Lebanese Tabbouleh Salad — Cook Lebanese

A couple of years ago we invited a Lebanese family for dinner, and they told me their kids like tabbouleh, so I made the Tabbouleh and Chickpea Salad from Whitewater Cooks. One by one, every family member saw it, looked confused, and said some variation of, “Uh, um, this isn’t tabbouleh…?” The mother then shared this recipe, which is apparently authentic Lebanese tabbouleh, and I’ve been wanting to try it. The garden is teeming with mint and parsley, so here goes!

Thank you to everyone who reached out with feedback on some of last week’s recipes. Always happy to hear from you! If you want to see how each new recipe goes, follow along on Instagram or Facebook. And if you want to get this in your inbox every week, at least during the trial period, sign up here.

Hot Tofu with Cool Greens

by Vesanto Melina MS, RD & Brenda Davis RD

from The New Becoming Vegetarian

This salad is quite a pleasant surprise. The hot tofu or beans are wonderful compliment to salad.

Cool Greens

1 head romaine lettuce

2 cups kale, chopped matchstick thin

4 cups greens of your choice (eg. Organic salad

mix) (Note from Cheryl: I usually just serve this the tofu on top of whatever salad greens we have, and not quite this much!)

1 red pepper, diced

1 carrot, sliced or grated

1 stalk broccoli florets, chopped

1 stalk celery, sliced diagonally

Other vegetables as desired (e.g. sprouts, green onions, edible flowers, etc.)

1/4 cup almonds, raw or toasted

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, raw or toasted

Prepare salad in a large bowl. Be sure to dry greens well.

Hot Tofu

1 Tbsp olive oil

16 oz extra firm tofu, grated

2 Tbsp Braggs or tamari

2 Tbsp Red Star Nutritional Yeast

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp each oregano and basil

2 Tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped (optional)

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preparation

In a large skillet, heat olive oil. Add tofu, Bragg Liquid Aminos, nutritional yeast, garlic, herbs and pepper. Sauté until tofu is browned (about 5 minutes).

Heap 4 dinner plates with salad, and top each salad with the tofu.

Serve immediately with Liquid Gold salad dressing.

Variations

In addition to the hot tofu, add hot steamed or braised asparagus and/or stir-fried portabella mushrooms.

Instead of hot tofu with cool greens, try hot beans with cool greens. Heat seasoned black, red, kidney or any other beans and use in place of tofu.

Makes 4 servings.