Tag Archives: breakfast

Meal Planning – Not Fun, but Worthwhile

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GroceryListbyMegStewart

Image by MStewartPhotography on Flickr

As Saturday evening approaches, I start to prepare myself for the festivities ahead. Party with friends? No. Out to the bars? Nope. A little time in the casino? Nuh uh. Movie and popcorn? Hardly. Saturday night is meal planning and groceries. Oh yeah, I know how to live it up!

Meal planning and grocery shopping are not my two favorite chores. I don’t actually know anyone who has them on that list (though I am sure some of you are out there). But, they need to be done and my life goes much more smoothly when they are.

Without meal planning, my grocery shopping strategy is to go through the sale ad, see what is a loss leader that we need to stock up on (far fewer than I used to when I was buying more prepared foods), catch a few other things on sale, and then try to remember everything we’ve run out of recently and restock. Some weeks, that works fine. Others, I get the groceries home on Sunday and realize that, while I have purchased $200 worth of groceries, I don’t seem to have anything to make for an actual dinner.  Ooops.

The better plan, for me, is to start my Saturday night fun by coming up with 5-6 dinners for the week. I consider what we haven’t had for a while, what seems fitted to the weather or to the most recent crops in my area, what I’m in the mood to make, and whether anyone has written something on the “Dinners that I Hope Happen Soon” board on the refrigerator. I only select 5-6 dinners to make because there will almost certainly be leftovers for 1 night, and there may be a pizza night or an event in there that takes up the other one. I try to vary the prep time across meals, so that I have some flexibility.

Once I have an idea of what I plan to make that week for dinner, I can then create a shopping list that includes all of the ingredients that I need. It also allows me to start making some tentative decisions about which meal to serve which night, though I leave those pretty loose, so that I can adjust based on how a day unfolds and the amount of time available. If I buy items that I worry will spoil quickly (though those are usually things for the omnis and not the vegans), then I know that the meal that involves them will probably be Sunday evening (grocery pick-up day) or Monday at the latest.

For breakfasts and lunches, because it is “serve yourself” around here, I don’t plan specific meals. Instead, I just keep a general list of things we should have available and try to replenish each week.

Once I make my list of dinners, and buy what I need for those, I can fill in the rest of the shopping list around that.

This process makes my week so much easier. Each day, I come home from work and look at the list and figure out what I am up to making that night, and what I have time to get done. If I am out of the house for a night and Mr. VeganAsana needs an idea, the list is available on my desk. Sometimes, I switch it up as I go, because I decide I want something different, I end up with a fresh ingredient that I didn’t plan for, or time becomes an issue. But, the plan is there, so I have a starting place.

Using this system also allows me to look at each meal for nutritional purposes and determine what I need to adjust. It’s easy for me to make too many carbohydrates and not enough of anything else if I just throw together meals at the last minute.

So, that’s my basic strategy for meal planning. What’s yours?

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Vegan Breakfast – Tofu Scramble Recipe

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We really enjoy breakfast at all times of day, so it was imperative early to find a vegan substitute for eggs. Tofu makes the most easy sub, and a tofu scramble is very simple to make. There are as many tofu scramble recipes as their are people cooking them, but here is an uncomplicated starting point!

Ingredients

1 block firm or extra firm tofu, drained
1 small-medium onion, diced
1/2 red pepper, diced
1 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp mustard powder
1-2 T nutritional yeast flakes
2 T olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Process

Add olive oil to the bottom of a frying pan. Sauté onions  and peppers until they begin to soften. Add turmeric, ginger, chili powder, mustard powder, yeast flakes, and salt and continue to cook for 2-3 more minutes. Once vegetables are nicely done, crumble in a block of tofu, continue to sauté while stirring and breaking up tofu into scrambled bits.

Once heated through, add other desired toppings and serve. Delicious, filling, and high in protein!

Options:
~ Add black or kidney beans with the tofu and serve with salsa and vegan sour cream for a vegan huevos rancheros.
~ Add mushrooms and vegan swiss or monterey jack style cheese
~ Add broccoli and vegan cheddar style cheese
~ Add other vegetables, like fresh diced tomatoes, hot peppers, green beans, kale, edamame
~ Vary your seasoning to taste, adding more ginger, hot sauce or hot pepper flakes, liquid smoke, etc.

Also, see this breakfast casserole recipe for another vegan egg-like option.

Vegan Biscuits and Gravy – Good Comfort Food!

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If you grew up in the middle or Southern U.S., or had family roots there, you probably ate some biscuits and gravy in your childhood. There is no sense in pretending a plate of biscuits and gravy is good for you (though I have had chickpea gravy, which is certainly better for you but less yummy), but it tastes good and it’s one of those foods that, on a fall day, feels just about right.

It took me a while as a vegan to even try making biscuits and gravy, because most soy milks seemed far too sweet. So, it wasn’t until I found some unsweetened soy milks (Silk has one, as do others), that I gave it a try. If you are hoping for a healthy recipe, go read some of my others. If you just want yummy comfort food, read on!

Vegan Soda Biscuits
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 c soy milk
1/2 tsp white vinegar
4 tbsp of soy butter, shortening, or oil

Combine salt, soda, and flour (my original recipe calls for sifting them  – I don’t sift, but if you do, rock on). Work in the shortening/butter/oil until mixture becomes crumbly. Add vinegar to soy milk and stir (this will “sour” the soy and create something like buttermilk). Add milk mix gradually until mixture gets to a consistency that is not sticky but is doughy. Kneed until smooth but don’t over knead; roll out, and cut. Bake 12-15 minutes at 420*  Note: these aren’t big fluffy biscuits, they are dense soda biscuits. For fluff, go with a yeast dough recipe.

Vegan Fauxsage Gravy
1/2 package of faux sausage (we like Lightlife)
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 cups unsweetened soy milk
Salt and pepper to taste

In a skillet, brown the faux sausage in a bit of olive oil, separating to small pieces as it cooks. Set that aside. Add the vegetable oil and flour to the skillet and whisk until smooth. Heat over medium/high until bubbly. Slowly add the unsweetened soy milk. After fully combining, bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Lower heat to get gravy to a simmer and continue to stir often. Add salt and pepper and allow to simmer for 5-8 minutes, adjusting thickness if needed with extra soy milk. When finished, stir cooked sausage back in and allow to cook another minute to heat through. Serve over fresh biscuits.

YUM!