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Meal Plans

Except for the occasional magically delicious pasta salad, I am actually pretty bad at winging it. If I get towards dinner time and I don't have a plan then I end up saying “spaghetti” and grabbing the jar of sauce from the pantry. It's not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just that I'm happier when I don't feel like I'm resorting to an easy meal quite so often. So I need to plan. I went to the grocery store today, and before I went my husband and I talked through a partial plan.

Here's what I'm going to make in the next couple of days:
  • Black bean quesadillas (actually made these tonight.)
  • Chili with beans and either chips or corn tortillas depending on the results of a future trip to the store.
  • Beans and cornbread, adapted from the Pioneer Woman's recipe
  • Braised cabbage with red beans and rice from the Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen
  • Vegetable soup

And there are two things I'd like to get to making in the next week:

  • Korean-style beef served with spinach, green salad and rice from Madhur Jaffrey's Cookbook, which I picked up from a used cookbook merchant at the Farmers' Market. The limiting factor here is that it serves 6 so I need to invite guests. (Yes, I suppose I COULD scale it down, but that violates the spirit of the book, so I feel duty-bound to feed this recipe to family and/or friends. Would you like to come over?)
  • Cinnamon rolls from Uprisings. I made them years ago, and really appreciated that they were a sweet breakfast treat that wasn't a sugar bomb. They definitely fit in here and I want to try them again.

What do you want to cook this week?
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Comments

  1. Justine LNovember 5, 2010 at 2:27 AM

    Actually, this will depend on my CSA ... and it's the last week for that! I get the list tomorrow afternoon, and spend the hour or so following stressing about how I'm going to use all of the vegetables. Though it's bound to be a little easier tomorrow, since I won't feel pressured to use them all before the next box comes ... huzzah!

    Love Madhur Jaffrey. I was thinking about picking up her _World Vegetarian_ cookbook. Wish I'd had the braised cabbage recipe two weeks ago. (!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jennifer ThorsonNovember 5, 2010 at 6:13 AM

    I recommend World Vegetarian. It's encyclopedic, and the African peanut sauce alone might be worth the price of admission.

    Let me know if you need the cabbage recipe.

    ReplyDelete
  3. MaudNovember 5, 2010 at 3:51 PM

    This week? It's Friday. If I do any planning, it happens on a Monday and lasts till Thursday at the latest. By Friday I'm usually winging it with carbonara, and Ssturday and Sunday are totally free of plans - we might end up eating out, and if not there's always whatever's in the freezer. Though I have a vague hope to try your pumpkin coconut soup this weekend. Ask me again on Monday.

    ReplyDelete

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