Beyond Rice and Tofu

The past week was a bit busy and thus I didn’t cook a whole lot. Or at least it seems that way. We didn’t get to the Hot and Sour Soup – it was just too much to make the lettuce wraps AND the soup. And we didn’t find the time for the Chickpea Curry, although it will probably be tonight’s dinner, even though I am feeling a need to grill something today.

This week should be relatively normal and so I am planning 4 meals as usual. Two of the meals will wait until the weekend since I have never made them before and they are a bit more complicated. You see, we went to the local international market and an Asian market this weekend – just to get one or two things – and of course ended up with too many goodies. Of particular note, I bought some frozen bean curd sheets and frozen lotus root. My husband spent a year in China in college and when he sees all these familiar-to-him ingredients, he wants me to make them into dishes he remembers. So, off I go, searching the web to find a good recipe to start with. Oftentimes, one of my first stops is Book of Yum. She spent time in Japan and has a lot of great ethnic, vegetarian recipes to share. I knew she had made lotus root before so I went searching and sure enough, I found a recipe that met my husband’s approval.

The plan for this week:

Fried Tofu with Lotus Root Stir-Fry and rice – a new-to-us recipe.

Sushi Rice Bowl with Miso Soup – sushi flavors without the hassle of assembling the rolls.

Chinese Vegetarian Chicken Rolls with Stir Fried Bok Choy – a new-to-us recipe and ingredient (bean curd sheets).

Black Bean and Quinoa Salad with Veggie Burgers

As always, this menu is posted over at OrgJunkie, where you will find hundreds of other meal plans. And I am also posting over at The Gluten Free Menu Swap, hosted by Gluten Free Goodness, where this week’s theme is kale. As you can see, I am still not with the program when it comes to following the theme. Oh well. Although I have been wanting to try the kale chips people are talking about. So, I will keep my eyes open for kale at the store and maybe I will make them as a treat.

What are you eating this week?

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This week will be a bit busy as I will be out of town on business two evenings, so that leaves the hubby to fend for himself. We also have dinner plans this weekend. So, meal planning is still happening but it just isn’t as robust as usual. Only three meals instead of the usual four. The other nights will be eaten out or leftovers.

You should also check out Meal Plan Monday at Org Junkie for some more ideas – some are vegetarian, some are gluten free, but all are fun to browse through. I am also going to go on over and post this at this week’s Gluten Free Menu Swap hosted by Celiacs in the House (even though I didn’t follow the theme – oops, sorry!)

P.F. Chang’s Lettuce Wraps with Hot and Sour Soup – I will be making a vegetarian (tofu) version of Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom‘s copycat lettuce wrap recipe. Does anyone know of a gluten free, vegetarian oyster sauce? I know there are vegetarian oyster sauces but are any gluten free?

Veggie Burgers and Wild Rice Tabouli –  I bought some Sunshine Burgers on “clearance” and we need to eat a few of them up. Tried and true recipe to follow for the tabouli.

Chickpea and Spinach Curry– another tried and true recipe. Serve with rice.

What’s cooking at your house this week?

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This week shouldn’t be too busy and so I am planning our usual four meals, with the other three to be either leftovers or something out of the freezer. It allows us the flexibility we need and prevents me from buying too much produce that would go bad and have to be fed to the chickens, rather than just feeding the girls the scraps.

Today I went back to my trusty recipe box for some of our old stand-bys. I also wanted to find a recipe that would work for this week’s Gluten Free Menu Swap theme of picnic or BBQ foods. This week’s swap is hosted by Heather at Celiac Family.

So for this week, we have the following lined up:

Spicy Ginger Noodles – a picnic worthy pasta salad

Creamy Chickpea Curry with Rice

Italian White Beans and Polenta

Taco Salad

As always, this menu is also posted over at OrgJunkie where you can find hundreds of other meal plans for inspiration! Enjoy!

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Just to keep you all inspired, here is our plan for the week with the usual four meals, three of which are tried and true and one is new-to-us.

Red Beans and Rice

Stir-Fried Tofu with Bok Choy  and rice from This Can’t Be Tofu! by Deborah Madison

Greek Lentils and Pasta from The Daily Bean by Suzanne Caciola White

Egg Noodles with Vegetables from Complete Book of Thai Cooking by Linda Stephen – this is new to us and I will be modifying it to be gluten free and vegetarian.

Don’t forget to check out OrgJunkie and the other Meal Plan Monday posts.

I will be back later this week with a restaurant review and some new recipe reviews.

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This week is going to be another busy one. And we are going to be eating out a few times at the end of the week, so I am only planning three meals this week. Plus, there is always stuff in the cabinets and freezer to make if we need it. I’d rather make something out of the cabinet instead of let produce go bad in the refrigerator. Weeks like these though, I do try to keep salad fixings in the frig so that we can have something ‘fresh’ tasting with our cabinet and freezer staples.

On another note, I am going to try to wean us off of bottled salad dressings for our summer salads. Over the years we have tried to eliminate excess sugar in our diets where we can because we ARE such sugar addicts. We’d rather enjoy our sugar in sugary treats and not in places where you don’t even know it is there. So this is another step in this process.

My husband’s dressing of choice is Wishbone Italian. Does anyone have a good homemade Italian dressing recipe they would like to share? My personal favorites are red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar dressings, and those are easy. I just need to find one for him.

So for this week, we’re going to have some things from a few of my favorite bloggers:

Yummy Grilled Tofu from Book of Yum with Artichokes and Salad – we will probably bake or broil the tofu instead of grill. This is our favorite tofu marinade and it has convinced non-tofu eaters that tofu can be good. Thanks, Sea! And I am going to attempt to make artichokes after Heidi gave me the courage.

Polenta with Lemon Asparagus and Chickpeas from Fat Free Vegan – since we don’t care for asparagus we’re going to use steamed broccoli instead. Maybe we will try asparagus one day again. But this week the new vegetable is artichokes.

Pasta with Tomato-Blue Cheese Sauce from The Pioneer Woman with Salad

And of course if you don’t find something of interest here, be sure to go on over to OrgJunkie and check out all the other Meal Plan Monday postings.

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