Monday Menu Planning – Week 8

Happy Monday, friends! Can you even say happy and Monday in the same sentence? My husband isn’t working today, so that it makes it a happy Monday for us! Those of you who know us well or are regular readers know that he is currently in training to be a mail carrier. The hours are a bit weird during training. We’re happy to have extra time with him, but it will be nice to finally get into a “normal” (what is normal, anyway?) routine when he is out of training.

Last week, I actually cooked almost every night, so I don’t have any rollover recipes from last week. I’m so proud of myself! The one new recipe we tried last week was a corn chowder. Since it had a chipotle pepper in it (I halved the amount), it ended up being a little too spicy for Claire. Peter absolutely loved it. Anything with potatoes and he’s in! I thought it was pretty good, but definitely not one of my favorites. It’s something I may make again, but it’s not going into a regular rotation.

On to this week’s menu! I was really hungry while I was planning this week’s menu and everything looked delicious, so I had a hard time paring down the menu. I’m finding that planning 5 meals typically works really well for us right now, so I stuck to that and saved the other recipes for next week.

Easy Vegan Coconut Curry Noodles Bowls (from Natt Wrobel) – This is a new recipe for us, from a food blog I’ve never heard of before. Thank you, Pinterest! But we all love Thai curry and rice noodles, so it sounded like a winner. I’ll let you know next week how we liked it.

Spicy Sofritas Veggie Bowl (from Pinch of Yum) – Have you ever had sofritas before? It’s my absolute favorite thing to get at Chipotle! It’s made from tofu, but has the texture of ground turkey. My iffy-about-tofu husband even really likes it. I’m not sure how well this will match up to Chipotle’s sofritas, but it’s from one of my favorite food blogs, so I’m hopeful. Sofritas uses chipotles to give that smoky flavor, but that obviously makes it very spicy. The last time I tried to make sofritas (from a different recipe), it was so spicy that it made it inedible for both Peter and Claire (I had avocado and tomato on mine, which mellowed it out substantially). In this recipe, I plan to use wayyyyy less chipotles than the recipes calls for. I’m hoping for the best! We’re pinching pennies and trying not to eat out, so I miss my Chipotle!

Pan Fried Sesame Tofu with Broccoli (from Budget Bytes) – Yes, I know. Two tofu recipes in one week. If you’ve never had tofu before, don’t be scared to try it. I instantly had a disgusted reaction anytime tofu was mentioned before I tried it. It can be so delicious and it’s CHEAP. I paid $1.44 at Walmart last night for a package. You can’t get meat for that cheap!

It honestly doesn’t have a lot of flavor, so sauce and marinating is key. The texture can be amazing if you cook it well. I’ve found that pan fried is our favorite way to have it (baking crisps it up too, but not as well as frying, in my opinion). The key to having good tofu is to drain it properly. It comes in a package filled with liquid. The first step in this recipe details how to dry it out enough to get it crispy and delicious. This is a new recipe to us (seeing a trend?), but Budget Bytes rarely steers us wrong! Claire is a huge tofu fan and a huge broccoli fan, so it feels like it’ll be a win. I’m also starting a new exercise program this week that involves a lot of weight lifting, so I’m definitely trying to up my protein!

Vegan Egg Roll in a Bowl (from My Whole Food Life) – I’m so excited to try this recipe! We love egg rolls in this house, but making them can be very time consuming. This is much faster. It’s hard to find a vegan recipe, though. Most of them have ground pork, turkey or beef. This recipe has portobello mushrooms (my new found love! I posted my favorite portobello burger recipe here), but I will probably add some edamame to add additional protein.

Sheet Pan Cauliflower Fajitas (from Nora Cooks) – Yet another recipe. Every single night is a new recipe this week. That means it could be an amazing week with new finds or I could cook duds 5 nights in a row. I’ll let you know the verdict next week. Anyway, I’m looking forward to trying this recipe. I love baking fajitas, but our favorite fajita recipe (here – if you aren’t adverse to meat, please try it! It’s amazing and so easy!) was meat based and I wasn’t certain of a good substitute when I first started out. So, we’re trying this recipe out and I will add either black beans or refried beans to the fajitas to give them some protein. I’ll also add some tomatoes, because what’s fajitas without tomatoes?

That’s it for this week! I hope you find a delicious, nutritious, plant based recipe from this week’s post. Whether you’re participating in meatless Monday, a vegetarian/vegan or just looking to consume more veggies, I’m sure you can find a recipe to try. Which recipe looks most appetizing to you? And have you tried tofu? Or does it scare/disgust you? Let me know in the comments below.