Tag Archives: vegetarian

Weekly Meal Plan – week 9

Let me start by saying, I hate daylight savings when you loose an hour, especially when you only realize it is happening a couple of hours before bed. Woke up this morning, had breakfast and now finishing my breakfast latte while writing this blog and it is midday already – I have not done a whole lot yet. Anyway, into the recap from the week and this week’s plan…..

This week was a much better week. I actually cooked a couple of meals in preparation for the week, and there was less stress at work which made it easier to come home and get things done. I got some brownie points as I was proactive and organized 2 days of walking at lunch with a friend starting this week.

We have switched to gluten-free pasta now for about 6 weeks and I will say everyone in the house (my husband, 5-year-old and myself), have found two great brands that we all love. In fact, we like Quinoa Gluten-free Pasta – Spaghetti Style and the Archer farms Gluten-free Fusilli Pastas better than the old stuff we were using. The price ($2.50-$4.00 range at our local Super Target), taste and overall cooked result are our main reasons for liking these two products. My son, who is a little fussy (not too bad, he’s jus not a vegetable person), asks for seconds and devours the spaghetti by the bowlful.

Gluten-free Pasta

Here is our meal plan for the week:

DAY BREAKFAST DINNER EXERCISE
Saturday ^Strawberry-Banana Whole Wheat Crepes Cabbage Soup (Slow-Cooked which differs from the recipe)*
Sunday ^Strawberry-Banana Whole Wheat Crepes Vegetable Frittata 3-4 Mile Walk
Monday Egg + Berry/Banana Fruit Salad with Flaxseed Vegetable Pasta Bake*
Tuesday Whole Grain Cereal+Soy Fish and Vegetable Pockets 3-4 Mile Walk
Wednesday Oatmeal + Banana and Almond butter ^Pizza @ zPizza (love the options at this place)
Thursday Berry + Banana + Spirulina Smoothie Hungarian Casserole + Quinoa*  3-4 Mile Walk
Friday Berry + Banana + Spirulina Smoothie Vegetable Chilli + Brown Rice + Corn Tortilla’s*

^ indicates my splurge for the week
* Pre-made and can be kept refrigerated or Frozen

My Winter – Spring Garden and Meal Plan – Week 8

The winter has been a little longer and colder which means my vegetable garden has been producing very slowly. This is my first winter garden and it seems to be going ok. Lessons I have learned:

  1. My swiss chard did not survive as something ate that – not sure what. So, next time I may have to place little wire cages around them
  2. Next year, I will invest in some recycled windows to create a cover so I have a mini hot house

Two surprising things happened with this crop:

  1.  My plants survived the snow and ice. I will definitely get a crop of  broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and cabbage (respectively in photo’s below)….and a little bit of spinach.
  2. And my parsley which had died out came back to life and is flourishing.

Broccoli Cauliflower Carrots
Cabbages Parsley

In the meantime, waiting for this crop to grow, we are buying our veggies (still within the $70 budget). Here is our meal plan for this week – it will be similar to last week (its better not to even talk about it :-)). I have decided to cook most of the meals in the weekend to see if that it is easier to stick with the plan.

DAY BREAKFAST DINNER EXERCISE
Saturday ^Breakfast Sandwich Creamy Vegetable Shepherd’s Pie (thanks to Kristel’s list and links)
Sunday Bircher Muesli (with soy) Chicken and Vegetable Cacciatore + Quinoa or Wheat berries 3-4 Mile Walk
Monday Bircher Muesli (with soy) Vegetable Frittata
Tuesday Whole Grain Cereal+Soy Vegetable Soup (Slow Cooked) 3-4 Mile Walk
Wednesday Oatmeal with Banana and Almond butter ^Pizza @ zPizza (love the options at this place)
Thursday Whole Grain Cereal + Soy Slow-Cooked Indian Dal
Friday Smoothie Vegetable Pasta Bake + Quinoa Pasta 3-4 Mile Walk

^ indicates my splurge for the week

Slow-cooked Vegetable Dal

I love Indian food – its one of my favorite food choices. This vegetable dal recipe worked great with my current life style challenge. It has lots of flavor and is loaded with vegetables.

IMG_0828

Ingredients

  • 1-2 cups red lentils
  • 1 can tomatoes
  • 1-2 cup vegetable stock
  • 2 cups spinach
  • 1 yellow onion
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp garam masala

Add all the ingredients to the slow-cooker, cook on low for 6-8 hours. Serve either in a bowl by itself or over rice (I use brown rice). Nice and easy 🙂