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Meal Plan Monday, August 16, 2010

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , on August 16, 2010| 6 Comments »

This week’s Gluten Free Menu Swap theme is zucchini and summer squash and it is being hosted by Scrumptious of In My Box, a blog about how she uses up all the goodies that show up in her weekly CSA box. (CSA = community-supported agriculture. Check this out for more information.) Scrumptious and I would love to be neighbors since we’re always ooing and aahing over each others meal plans. We’d be eating at each others homes all the time. I think we could learn from each other too. Too bad we live 1100 miles apart. Perhaps some day when we have our ‘commune’, we’ll invite Scrumptious to come live with us as we seem to be kindred spirits. (Yes, we dream of our own little co-housing community of like-minded folks with chickens, bees, goats and alpacas. Weird, I know.)


Here at the Beyond Rice and Tofu household, we don’t care for zucchini or summer squash, so we won’t be participating in the theme. Although, we do have quite a few cucumbers to eat – they are in the curcubit family and gourd family, similar to squash, so does that count?

When we first moved to New Mexico we frequently found calabacitas on the menu, especially in New Mexican dishes. Since we didn’t want to look like a couple of Midwestern gringos, we didn’t ask. Well, it only took once to discover that we don’t like calabacitas – zucchini, squash and often corn together and frequently used as a filling for burritos or as a side dish. We just don’t care for the summer squashes. But we are beginning to enjoy winter squashes and luckily we have a few butternut growing in the garden this year. So, now that we have the issue of squash out of the way…

This week will be a short one for us as we are heading out of town to visit friends. So I did not go to the farmer’s market this weekend. Boo. And I am also trying to use up what is in the frig and not make too much so there aren’t too many leftovers. But if we get really desperate, there are more than 4 dozen tamales in the freezer for us (but I think we may be tamale’d out for a couple of weeks).

Spicy Tofu with Vegetables and Rice from The Complete Book of Thai Cooking by Linda Stephens – it’s becoming an old standby.

Spicy Cucumber Noodle Salad with Edamame – a new-to-us recipe that I had bookmarked a while back . I will use gf spaghetti instead of soba noodles as I have yet to find 100% buckwheat noodles. Most are made from a mixture of buckwheat and wheat. (BTW: Buckwheat is naturally gluten free, and is not wheat at all, unless it’s mixed with wheat of course.)

Veggie Burgers and Cucumber Salad with Spicy Thai Lime Vinaigrette – we had this salad a couple of weeks ago and it was fabulous!! A few minor changes for us, we omitted the carrots and instead of fish sauce I used GF soy sauce. Delish!

And if we need it – Red Beans and Rice with some added leftover vegetarian chorizo.

Well, that’s it for us this week! I hope to have some fun pictures and gluten free info from our travels this coming week. Over and out!

This meal plan is linked to OrgJunkie and the Gluten Free Menu Swap. Check out both for a ton of meal planning ideas!

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Meal Plan Monday, August 9, 2010

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 9, 2010| 26 Comments »

Last week’s meal plan got derailed by a trip to the Farmer’s Market as well as time to finally make something we’d been wanting to make for a while now – tamales!!! About a year ago we bought the book, Tamales 101 by Alice Guadalupe Tapp. We have both read through it multiple times and drooled over the recipes. Last Christmas, we thought we might make them but I don’t have a stand mixer and the mixing of the masa by hand was a bit intimidating. But I knew that other people make them without, it was just an excuse for a mixer! But still I refrained from buying one and so we didn’t make them. Finally, when my in-laws were here a couple of weeks back we thought we might make them then since four pairs of hands seemed better than two. But we ran out of time.

So this weekend, my husband was determined. We made two kinds, Green Chile and Cheese (vegetarian) tamales and a dessert tamale, Raspberry Chocolate pecan. They were both wonderful!!! Both recipes were from Tamales 101. It’s a great book. And it isn’t really very hard, once you get the hang of it. My handy-dandy hand mixer also managed the challenge just fine. Here are some photos for your drooling pleasure.

A giant bowl of masa.

The mess of assembly.

Green Chile and Cheese tamales steaming in the pot.

Green Chile and Cheese on the left and the Raspberry Chocolate Pecan on the right.

Between that and  trying to take care of the things in the frig that needed to be eaten or ‘dealt’ with and impulse-buying at the farmer’s market, I really don’t need to buy much at the grocery tomorrow.

Also, this week, the Gluten Free Menu Swap is being hosted by Celiac Family and the theme is tomatoes! Who isn’t eating tomatoes right now? It’s prime time. Last week I made white bean gazpacho with some of my tomatoes. I wish I had more tomatoes coming on than I do but we have been struggling with pests this year and both of my big, beautiful San Marzano paste tomato plants are slowly dying. But our Black Russian and Stupice varieties are beginning to come on. So we’re still hoping for more tomatoes, I just wish it was the San Marzanos.

At the farmer’s market I picked up some more beets, some okra, oyster mushrooms, leeks, tomatillos, three different kinds of fingerling potatoes and some cute little Japanese shishito peppers.

So, for the meal plan:

Mushroom and Leek Pasta with Salad – we made this tonight and it was delicious. I used the oyster mushrooms and leeks I picked up at the farmer’s market. Thanks for a wonderful recipe, Jenn!

Cucumber and Avocado Soup, Sauteed Fingerling Potatoes, Oven Roasted Okra – the soup never got made last week as my avocados were not ripe. But I still have plenty of cucumbers! And thanks to Amy at Simply Sugar and Gluten Free for the idea of roasting the okra.

Our very own tamales with shishito peppers and tomatillo salsa – I will fry the peppers in very hot oil and sprinkle with salt. And we will roast the tomatillos with some garlic and onions and make a salsa out of them. Great for dipping the tamales in!

Sesame Maple Roasted Tofu with roasted beets and stir-fried sugar snap peas

And lots of leftovers!

As for desert this week, we still have homemade vanilla frozen yogurt, David Lebovitz’s cherries in red wine sauce, Shirley’s honey cinnamon ice cream and of course, the raspberry chocolate pecan tamales. So there is probably no need for additional ice cream this week.

If you are looking for any more meal ideas, be sure to check out OrgJunkie and all the ideas over there (most are not gluten free or vegetarian).

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The Real Deal

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , on August 3, 2010| 6 Comments »

Okay, here is my weekly meal plan. Better late than never, right?

It is cold soup week apparently…

Cucumber and Avocado Soup with corn-on-the-cob and veggie burgers – soup will be inspired by these two recipes; Cool as a Cucumber Soup by Veggie Venture and Cucumber-Avocado Soup by Not Derby Pie.

White Bean Gazpacho – although I can’t find my recipe right now….hmmm.

Spicy Tofu with Green Beans and Rice – from Complete Book of Thai Cooking by Linda Stephen – a family favorite.

Stovetop Marinara with Broccoli and Chickpeas – using Trader Joe’s Brown Rice Penne or Spaghetti and a salad on the side.

As for ice cream this week, I am thinking a vanilla frozen yogurt and perhaps this Honey Cinnamon Ice Cream from Shirley at Gluten Free Easily.

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Meal Plan Monday, August 2, 2010

Posted in General, Meal Plan, tagged , , , on August 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Tricked you. No meal plan as of yet. Sorry. It was a crazy day back on a regular schedule after vacation and life threw us some curve balls, so I am a little behind. One of the dogs woke us up at 3:30 am this morning scratching, scratching, scratching his ears. He gets lots of ear infections, but he normally doesn’t scratch like this. So my husband got to take him to the vet this evening. And I went out to get in my car to go to work this morning and it wouldn’t start. Grrr. We had to jump it twice today. Double grrr. So this evening I got my battery replaced. Luckily it was just the battery. But I think it knows that we are looking at getting a new car…

So, I need to get back on track this week. Our cucumbers are producing again, both regular and ‘lemon’ cucumbers, which we planted unknowingly. They were labeled as ‘slicing’ cucumbers and we weren’t quite sure what they were when they started producing. We haven’t tried any yet but they are beginning to come on strong so I had better figure out what to do with them! Any ideas?

I think one idea for the week is a chilled cucumber and avocado soup, with the regular English cucumbers. Other than that, I am feeling less than inspired this week after the day we had. I do know I want to make some more yummy ice cream in my new maker, but I need to decide what kind. So I will think about it tomorrow and save my shopping until Wednesday evening. It’s off to bed now since we didn’t get much sleep after 3:30am… (Sigh.)

See you around later this week.

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Meal Plan Monday, July 19, 2010

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , , on July 18, 2010| 16 Comments »

This week I am hosting the Gluten Free Menu Swap. I hope you’ll join us! Please check back later in the week too, to see what other folks have planned.

Each week there is a theme for the Gluten Free Menu Swap, but you can always participate, regardless of whether you follow the theme. Since my cucumbers are beginning to come on, I figured that I needed to hear some new ideas on what to do with cucumbers and so this week’s theme is Cucumbers! I looked around myself for some new ideas for cucumbers. I found a couple of recipes which are bookmarked for later – Bavarian Potato-Cucumber Salad, Cucumber Soup and Spicy Cucumber Noodle Salad with Edamame. And I also have a couple of cucumber recipes already posted here – Spicy Ginger Noodles and Spicy Tofu with Vegetables and Cucumber Salad.

As part of my typical meal planning process, I went looking in the garden, refrigerator, freezer and pantry to see what needs to be eaten. I found some homemade pizza sauce in the freezer. And in the refrigerator I found some fresh green beans, parsley, cilantro, a red bell pepper, a few green onions, lots of cucumbers and the end of our snow peas.

Of course, today I also went to the Farmer’s Market and picked up a couple of things. First off, fresh sweet corn! Woo-hoo! The first of the season for me. And the same gentlemen had fresh, in-the-shell, black-eyed peas. I also spied some fingerling potatoes and I grabbed a bunch of beets to try. And I have quite a bit of basil that needs to be harvested and processed into something, probably pesto, which I will then freeze.

I recently harvested my garlic for the summer, but today I bought a couple more heads of another variety with the intent of planting one of the head’s in the fall. (Yes, in case you didn’t know it, garlic is planted in the fall and harvested in early or mid-summer.) This year’s harvest was of Red Rezan, a hard-necked variety from Russia. We bought it last summer from Boxcar Farm at the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market. I am saving a couple heads of it for planting in the fall and the rest is stored in the pantry for the year. Today I bought a variety called Inchelium Red.

Below is this year’s harvest. Not bad! They were a little small, but it is garlic!

My in-laws are coming into town later this week and we aren’t quite sure what we will decide to do while they are here, so I am keeping it flexible. I do know my Texas-raised mother-in-law will appreciate the fresh black-eyed peas I found so I will wait until she is here to make them. Plus she can help me shell them! (Hi Martha!) I am sure we will be doing the last-minute clean-up before they get here too, so I need some quick and easy dinners so as to allow us to get all that stuff done this week.

So, for this week, here’s the plan:

Fresh Corn on the Cob, Green Beans and Fingerling Potatoes and Cucumber Salad – I am like my mother in that I could make an entire meal of corn-on-the cob but I figure I should probably eat something else with it!

English Muffin Pizzas with Salad (with cucumber) – I will use the Food For Life Gluten Free English Muffins and the thawed, homemade pizza sauce I found in the freezer. Maybe some pesto.

Italian Rice Salad – we didn’t get to this last week.

Honeyed Beet Quinoa Summer Salad or Balsamic Dressed Roasted Beets on Salad Greens – our first trial of beets, we’ll see which one sounds good.

Fresh Black Eyed Peas and Tomatoes – when I saw these at the farmer’s market today, I already knew what I would do with them, thanks to Amy at Simply Sugar and Gluten Free! Of course, we won’t be making it with the bacon, but I might sub in some of the Trader Joe’s soy chorizo instead or some smoked paprika or Liquid Smoke. And if it isn’t too hot, I might turn on the oven and make some cornbread with Talon de Gato Blue Corn Cornmeal.

Grilling – probably some tofu steaks, maybe some salmon or chicken for me and our guests, vegetables, maybe some pineapple again. Corn on the cob? We’ll see.

That’s it for me, and so for the other swappers:

Wendy at Celiacs in the House is rolling in fresh produce this week, from her own garden and the farmer’s market. I love the picture showing how to contain out-of-control squash! She too has plenty of cucumbers and they have been eating them in tzatziki on Greek turkey burgers. Maybe I need to make some Greek turkey burgers and tzatziki for my guests this week! Hmmm… She also discovered a cucumber and black-eyed pea recipe that I could use for my fresh peas. I think we were on the same wavelength this week with the cukes and black-eyed peas…

Over at I Love Nectarines, it’s Susan’s birthday and she has some yummy plans. She says she is taking it easy this week with some simpler recipes, mostly salads and leftovers, but she’s going to try making an angel food cake and a sour cream coffee cake to celebrate! We’ll be waiting to hear how it goes, Susan! The tiramisu from last year looks wonderful! I personally haven’t made an angel food cake in quite a few years, although I did make a sponge cake recently that was quite tasty and did involve whipping many egg whites. Not many cucumbers on her menu this week except in the salads, but she did suggest trying stir-fried cucumbers – and I just might!

Heather at Celiac Family is serving up Kalyn’s Tomato, Cucumber and Avocado Salad this week, among many other yummy items. She also has another cucumber suggestion – in spring rolls, which are a fun alternative to sandwich bread, especially as a cool summer treat. They are also having some fun this week with popcorn (and other stuff) for a light dinner one night! Sounds good to me!

That’s it for this week, but again, please check back later as I will be adding links to other Gluten Free Menus as they become available!

And be sure to check out the home of the Gluten Free Menu Swap for more information and let Cheryl know if you would like to host in the future.

This menu is also cross-posted over at Org Junkie and the hundreds of other menu plans. Check it out!

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Meal Plan Monday, July 12, 2010

Posted in Meal Plan, Salad, tagged , , , , , , on July 12, 2010| 8 Comments »

This week’s theme is SALAD over at The Gluten Free Menu Swap. And our lovely host is Heather at Celiac Family. Thanks for hosting, Heather! Salads are great this time of year because you don’t have to heat much of anything up and you and your kitchen can stay cool! And it is going to be red-hot here in the Albuquerque area again this week, so salad is a great idea.

I had already been thinking about making a cold rice salad after seeing this one over at Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice last week. And this past weekend we had Moroccan Chickpea Salad, which I love! It makes a lot and is great leftover too, in fact we had some tonight. Some other salad ideas for you: Quinoa and Black Bean Salad, Wild Rice Tabouli, Taco Salad, Lentil Salad Provencal.

In other meal planning thoughts, I know we still have Swiss chard growing strong and I need to use some more up. We are also headed out to dinner with some friends at a gluten-free friendly restaurant this weekend. It is one I have never been to before, Casa Vieja, but they list gluten free options on their menu so hopefully it goes well! I am sure it will, other celiacs I know have been there and they say it is very gluten-free friendly. Perhaps another Restaurant Review is in order?

So with that in mind, this is the plan for the week:

Italian Rice Salad with some added white beans

Black Eyed Peas with Swiss Chard perhaps with a side of rice or polenta

Mediterranean Salad with added salad greens

So, yes, only three meals planned for this week since we will be eating out one evening and the other three evenings are saved for leftovers. With only two people in the house, we have plenty of leftovers usually, and I enjoy not having to cook every night. If we need to we always have our emergency go-to foods, like plain-old spaghetti or a chickpea curry, or a Trader Joe’s something-or-other in the freezer, just in case.

In other exciting news, I bought myself an ice cream maker this weekend! I have been coveting them for a couple of months now, especially the recipes over at The Whole Kitchen and Simply Sugar and Gluten Free. And we just happened to stop in Bed Bath and Beyond, and oh, surprise, they had just the one I wanted! (They had previously been sold out.) And I had a 20% off coupon. Yeah! So, this week, ice cream is on the list too! And since it is my husband’s birthday week, he gets to choose the first batch. And he chose Peanut Butter Cup. I will be sure to let you know how it turns out!

Also, next week, I am hosting the Gluten Free Menu Swap and the theme is cucumbers! I have about five cucumbers ready to be picked and they are just going to keep on coming, so please, post (or send) cucumber recipes! Even if you don’t have a cucumber recipe, please join us, we’d love to have you! The ‘rules’ and all the info is over here at Gluten Free Goodness.

This post is also cross-posted over at Org Junkie where you will find hundreds, literally, hundreds of other meal plans for inspiration.

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Meal Plan Monday, July 5, 2010

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , on July 5, 2010| 6 Comments »

I suppose it is Monday. With the long holiday weekend, I wasn’t really thinking it was Monday and hadn’t thought about our meal plan for the week. And then I checked my email and saw all my fellow food blogger’s Meal Plans for this week. So I got on it.

I started by looking in the refrigerator and freezer to see what needs to be eaten. We have some leftover quinoa, a couple of red bell peppers and half a bag of frozen stir fry vegetables. This past weekend we went to the Santa Fe Farmers Market and I picked up some chard to go along with my own small harvest of chard. I also harvested a bunch of basil this weekend and made some pesto.

Also, over at Gluten Free Goodness, the theme for this week’s Gluten Free Menu Swap is Summertime Foods. So with all that in mind, here’s our plan for the week:

Quinoa, Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burgers – some variation of the many recipes I have found out there with the leftover quinoa, beans and sweet potato. Served with steamed artichokes and salad.

Potato and Swiss Chard Curry –  probably with some rice or salad on the side.

Edamame and Vegetable Stir-Fry with San-J peanut sauce and brown rice.

Moroccan Chickpea Salad – one of my favorite salads, especially for summer. Omit the pita for gluten free.

Creamy Pesto Rigatoni with Chunky Tomato Vinaigrette – it’s even better when you can find fresh, ripe tomatoes but I have been craving this, so I will make it with cherry tomatoes.

This meal plan is also linked up to Meal Plan Monday at OrgJunkie.

What are you eating this week?

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Meal Plan Monday, June 28, 2010

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , on June 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Just a quick post this evening as I try to figure out the grocery list for the week. Once again this week I am trying to work on some of the food we have in the freezer and refrigerator.

One item I need to get out of the freezer is part of a box of Sandwich Petals. I ordered two boxes of them back when they had their Buy One, Get One deal and I couldn’t eat them quick enough so I put the second box in the freezer. I hope they are still good. I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to make enchiladas or quesadillas with them… But I think in honor of not turning the oven on, I will be making quesadillas. I also have a lot of leftover shredded cheese from making pizza.

So here’s the plan:

Sichuan Tofu with Garlic Sauce and Steamed Broccoli

Black Bean Quesadillas with Rice and Salad

Lemon Quinoa Salad

Pasta with Chickpeas, Sun Dried Tomatoes and Goat Cheese

This menu plan is posted over at Org Junkie on Meal Plan Monday – be sure to check it out for other ideas.





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Meal Plan Monday, June 21, 2010

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , on June 21, 2010| 4 Comments »

This week I am looking around carefully at what I have in my kitchen and what I need to use up. And I was determined to use the (frozen) block of paneer from the trip to the international market! I looked in one my favorite cookbooks for a recipe and decided on the classic Muttar Paneer (Mutter Paneer, Mattar Paneer, so many different spellings, you pick…). A lovely dish of homemade cheese (paneer) and green peas in a tomato sauce.

We have also had a good crop of snow peas this year, even though I thought we planted them too late. We ate some last week but they have surprisingly kept on coming, despite the brutal heat (and lack of rain) we’ve been having here in New Mexico. So back to the cookbook shelf to see what else we might do with them.

I also have some salmon in the freezer (for me, the flexitarian) that needs to be eaten.

And I also have a couple of special events this week for which I need to bring a dish. I am thinking of making desserts for both events, but I haven’t decided which ones yet. I have been looking at the following: Slow Cooker Peanut Butter Cup Cake (who doesn’t love chocolate and peanut butter?) or Almond Butter Blondies (I need to use up some almond butter) or Gluten Free Flan Cake or GF Easy Sponge Cake (with fresh June strawberries!)…it’s official – I have too many recipes bookmarked!

As usual, just four recipes and we will eat leftovers or something out of the freezer the other three days. So here it is:

Baked Salmon (me) and Baked Tofu (husband), Stir-Fried Snow Peas with Scallions and brown rice –  the snow pea recipe is from Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian cookbook.

Muttar Paneer with rice – Muttar Paneer recipe from Indian Vegetarian Cooking from an American Kitchen by Vasantha Prasad – one of our favorite, well-worn, well-splattered cookbooks.

Spaghetti and Salad – for the one busy night when I might be getting home late.

Red Curry Coconut Noodles – with chickpeas instead of chicken. I like the addition of the broccoli slaw for more vegetables.


This Meal Plan is linked up to Meal Plan Mondays and Gluten Free Menu Swap. Check them out for more ideas!

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Meal Plan Monday, June 14, 2010

Posted in Meal Plan, tagged , , on June 14, 2010| 3 Comments »

This week’s theme over at the Gluten Free Menu Swap is strawberries!! And I love strawberries! When I was small, my grandparents grew strawberries and every spring we would get our fill. And to help preserve some of the harvest for later, my mom and grandma would make strawberry freezer jam, which I loved to eat over ice cream. Yum! This week I am going to try a couple of new strawberry recipes.

For dinner this week, we will be enjoying:

Pasta with Asiago Cheese and Spinach with Salad – we didn’t get to this last week.

Homemade Pizza and salad – I had a request for pizza AND bread, so I will use the HBin5 Gluten Free Crusty Boule recipe for the crust and make a loaf of bread or maybe some naan.

Gingered Skirt Steak with Snow Peas and Rice – we will be making it with tofu and using all the snow peas from the garden.

Veggie Burgers and Strawberry Spinach Salad with Avocado and Champagne Vinaigrette – I haven’t decided yet whether I will make my own veggie burgers or if we will just eat some out of the freezer.

In keeping with the theme of strawberries, I might also try my hand at making some of Amy’s Strawberry Orange Cornmeal Cakes.

What are you eating this week?

This week’s Meal Plan is also linked up to Org Junkie’s Meal Plan Monday where you will find a TON of other menus for inspiration. Be sure to check it out!

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