Meal plans

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Anybody want to share? In no particular order:
Brazilian stew with palm hearts - recipe from Lad Iguanas
Cauliflower cheese and jacket spuds
Nigella's fish finger bhorta
Thai green curry with tofu
Shallot tart with rocket salad
Veggie chilli

Cauliflower katsu sounds good. Is it the Jamie Oliver one?

It’s actually from an amazing book called Vegan Japaneasy - taken the photo here

Thank you :)

I missed a week-

I struggled this week, and it's not the healthiest, so gonna have to add some veg somewhere!

Enchiladas
Lasagne
Beef burgers and chips
Pizza night
Pie and roasties
Chinese night
Carbonara

Turned out my top up shop was expensive. Sigh. To be fair, it wasn't really main meal food - more breakfast/lunch/snack stuff which I hadn't thought through and ordered extra off originally and the three bottles of wine I bought

@Kobanidaughters can you talk to me about Tofu? I like what I think is Silky Tofu. In restaurants etc. And I have a memory of wanting to do a recipe using it from Jamie Oliver. But I've yet to find Tofu in the shop called, "silky tofu" and the one I did buy was grainy and awful and in no way improved the butternut curry I was making... Any advice as you clearly are a tofu person?

We've got a delivery on Thursday. So far it consists of Prosecco, peach juice, pastry and eggs. All major food groups covered?

Well, I overheard some of DD's lesson on nutrition today and they discussed grains. So toss in some barley and you're good!

Sure @SpaceOp though it’s been a long road in my relationship with tofu! There are two kinds, the regular kind and what’s called silken tofu which has a much smoother texture and what you normally have in miso soup in restaurants. It falls apart quite easily so I tend to only use it for specific Japanese recipes or when it’s blended to make things like quiche and mousse

The trick with the former stuff is to press it, just pop some kitchen towels above and below a block and rest some heavy cookbooks on it for 20-30mins. Then I usually marinade as well as it’s so bland but soaks up flavours really well. M
I’ve never had much luck with baking tofu but we usually dust it in a mix of salt, pepper, nutritional yeast and cornflour and then fry, that makes it delicious!

In no particular order:

Broccoli and cheese baked potatoes
Chicken, chorizo, thyme & roast veg
Chicken and bulgar wheat salad
Chicken sausages, sweet potato mash
Homemade margherita pizzas
Mushroom bourgignon and dumplings
Char siu pork, broccoli and rice

@Kobanidaughters

Sure *@SpaceOp* though it’s been a long road in my relationship with tofu! There are two kinds, the regular kind and what’s called silken tofu which has a much smoother texture and what you normally have in miso soup in restaurants. It falls apart quite easily so I tend to only use it for specific Japanese recipes or when it’s blended to make things like quiche and mousse

The trick with the former stuff is to press it, just pop some kitchen towels above and below a block and rest some heavy cookbooks on it for 20-30mins. Then I usually marinade as well as it’s so bland but soaks up flavours really well. M
I’ve never had much luck with baking tofu but we usually dust it in a mix of salt, pepper, nutritional yeast and cornflour and then fry, that makes it delicious!

@Kobanidaughters Interesting, thank you. If I put silken tofu into a curry, sort of like in miso soup, do you think that would work? I love that kind of tofu and do feel that my veg curry could do with a bit of protein.....

And where do I bloody buy it!? Because I've never had much luck. Although possibly I've been searching for silky tofu and not silken tofu!!

@SpaceOp

Well, I overheard some of DD's lesson on nutrition today and they discussed grains. So toss in some barley and you're good!

Will quinoa or cous cous do?

The best thing to do with tofu imo, is to buy a solid block and press it.
In a shallow bowl mix oil, soy, honey, five spice powder.
Slice the tofu and dip into the mixture.
Put on a baking tray and bake, turning once, until lovely and crispy.
I often then slice it into match sticks for using in a Thai curry, but it's also nice in baguettes as a kind of banh mi type thing.

Mon - pork / veggie option, stuffing, mash and veg
Tues - chicken / veggie burgers and sweet potato wedges
Weds - jacket potato
Thurs - pitta bread pizzas
Fri - fish night / falafel
Sat - fajitas
Sun - tbc

Family of 3 including a toddler and im the veggie.

Not had pitta bread pizzas for years! I used to cook them regularly when the kids were little, and also as a student.

My grocery order now has:

• vegetarian haggis, to be eaten with sweet potato mash, creamed leeks and green vege (or maybe mashed swede instead of the sweet potato mash, except I hate peeling it!)
• hearts of palm to make the Las Iguanas recipe again, that I started the thread with
• more veggie hotdogs because we really enjoyed them last week

And I've given up again now out of boredom/exhaustion!

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie could you post your Las Iguanas recipe? I LOVE hearts of palm

You could try @SpaceOp it does break up very easily so if you do I would put it in right at the end and don’t stir too vigorously! I live round the corner from a Japanese supermarket so I get all my tofu there - silken is def harder to find in traditional supermarkets than the normal stuff

Placemarking again because I need to return to meal planning this week.

I disagree with the above the best thing to do with tofu is deep fry it

Here’s mine for the next 7 or so days;

Tuesday: Crispy skin chicken thighs with paprika potatoes
Wednesday: Sausages and Cheesy jacket potatoes
Thursday: Chicken Arrabbiata stew with dumplings
Friday: Homemade Pizza
Saturday: Steamed buns and homemade sushi
Sunday: Roast Pork
Monday: Pesto fish fingers
Tuesday: Chicken curry

Really weird week for me as it's my lovely mum's funeral this week and DD's third birthday. I'm going to be a mess!

T - chicken and tarragon casserole with green beans and French bread
W - roast beef, dauphinois, rocket salad (after mum's funeral)
T - cauliflower cheese linguine with pancetta
F - pork fillet in prosciutto with baked cheesy peas gnocchi
S - jerk chicken burgers, coleslaw, wedges
S - roast lamb
M - party picky food for DD birthday.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday meals all from the Jamie Oliver 7 Ways cookbook

Cbd I hope the funeral goes as well as such things can.

Kobani I think I posted the recipe earlier in the thread, but if not it's on the Las Iguanas site, under Vegan recipes. It's delicious.

Sun - Roast chicken dinner
Mon - Beef Stifado
Tue - Smoked fish florentine bake
Wed - Lamb & Rosemary meatballs with mint sauce
Thurs - Diet Coke chicken with either wedges or rice
Fri - takeaway

We use Gousto for 2-3 meals a week

Will quinoa or cous cous do?

Based on your basket, I think the quinoa would probably just about pass the grade!

@Cbd333 sounds like a tough week but the roast beef after the funeral sounds grand. Weirdly, I think having a little one around somehow makes it a bit easier - I had 3 year old ds and was heavily pregnant with DD when my mum died and honestly, I think Ds and the knowledge of DD are what got me through. Hope you're okay.

Ok, so silken tofu, added at the end (doesn't really need cooking?) and normal tofu, pressed first then either friend or baked after marinating? Final tofu question, if I DO go with regular tofu from supermarket, good brand recommendations please? We have an Asian grocery fairly near by but I haven't been in and am not sure if they do Japanese as well. will have to investigate.

Name change fail there. but doesn't really matter!