Monday Menu Planning – Week 3

Welcome back to another week of Monday Menu Planning! Cooking is something I absolutely love. I love being able to provide healthy, plant based meals for my family (if you’re interested in why we eat plant based, check out this post). And I love being able to share those recipes with you! I hope you find some delicious, new favorite recipes to make for your family. Whether you’re plant based, wanting to cut back on meat, save some money or just try a new recipe, there’s something here for everyone!

If you’re interested in checking out more weekly menu plans, you can find week 1 here and week 2 here.

Without further ado, here’s what’s cooking this week!

Easy Vegan Fried Rice (from Minimalist Baker) – Who doesn’t love fried rice? It’s one of our favorites! This recipe does have tofu in it, but don’t be scared away by that. I had never tried tofu until last summer. I was honestly not interested in it at first. I found so many recipes that involved tofu that I decided to give it a whirl. Turns out there’s a bit of a learning curve to cooking tofu, but it doesn’t have much of a flavor. It really takes on the flavor of whatever sauce you cook it in. Another huge bonus to tofu is that one block costs less than $2 (at least where I live). I haven’t tried this recipe yet, but I like that it’s all inclusive, so I’m not using one recipe for the rice, one for tofu, etc. I typically prefer fried tofu, but I’m willing to give baked tofu another try. I would recommend draining the tofu (the author of this recipe explains how to do so) for at least 20 minutes to get as much liquid out as possible so it will crisp up well. If you’d prefer not to use tofu, you could leave it out or substitute with chicken or something else you’d prefer.

Slow Cooker Coconut Curry Lentils (from Budget Bytes) – We LOVE this recipe! As I’ve said before, we really love ethnic foods and Indian might be our absolute favorite. I will be substituting the sweet potatoes with regular potatoes, because I have some I need to use some up. I also typically use a little more curry than the recipe calls for and add a dash of cinnamon, but I don’t alter this recipe much. This recipe is amazing with na’an bread. I’m still trying to find a recipe for vegan na’an that doesn’t involve nondairy yogurt (I can’t find any near me. Sad face), but I used to make na’an all the time. If you’d like to try it and a little Greek yogurt won’t upset your stomach, try this recipe (also from Budget Bytes). I first started making this na’an before Claire was even born, so I can attest to its foolproof deliciousness.

That’s only two recipes, but I didn’t make the chili recipe from last week. We will have salad and veggie burgers one night and probably at least one leftover night (both the curry lentils and chili make pretty big quantities). There’s a lot going on our lives right now (I’ll probably post on that in the near future), so I was looking for quick or crockpot meals this week. That trend will likely continue in the weeks ahead.

In regard to the veggie burgers, I highly recommend Aldi! I’ve tried one or two recipes and haven’t found one I’m happy with. Aldi’s veggie burgers don’t have a lot of weird ingredients in them (unlike every other prepacked veggie burger I’ve found), they’re organic and don’t break the bank ($2.50-$3.50 per box at my Aldi, depending on the variety).

Hope you’re interested in trying one of the recipes we’re making this week!