Remember when I told you I promised to keep this blog real life? Typically I meal plan on Sundays, but that didn't happen this week, so I bring you to (spontaneously) Meal Plan Monday! Sometimes you just have to break routine and make things work. It's a short week this week, plus spring break is next week, so I'm trying to keep things simple while still sticking to my budget. It was actually pretty simple to come up with this week, and I didn't overthink it. Maybe I'll try more Meal Plan Mondays to keep things fun and easy.
Here's my plan for the week. I'm focusing on weekdays just to get us to our fabulous Friday off (eating out day!) and then I'll think about Saturday's meal. Maybe I'll finally try that sweet potato pizza crust I pinned and never made.
I love my refrigerator magnet menu from alaBoard to help keep me on track for the week. This week all my dinners are written in green. Anything I'm doing for meal planning or extras I write in a different color at the top of the day or along the side. This week I'm experimenting with celery soup because we have a TON of celery coming off our Tower Garden. It's already smelling delicious! Maybe I'll have a new recipe for you later this week. I know a few friends have asked me how I substitute for recipes that call for things like canned cream of celery soup. Maybe I'm onto something with my vegan version!
Here's a breakdown of our week, day by day.
Ingredients
3 large bananas, mashed
1/4c vegan butter (I use Earth Balance soy free in the red package.)
1/2c coconut palm sugar
1 flax egg (1T ground flax + 3T water)
1t baking soda
1t baking powder
1/2t pink Himalayan salt
1 1/2c flour (white, wheat, 50/50, oat flour or this amazing recipe for GF flour from A Little Insanity all work perfectly. I use what I have.)
1/2c Enjoy Life allergy friendly chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375. Add sugar and flax egg to mashed bananas. Stir in dry ingredients one at a time, ending with flour. Add chocolate chips. Spoon into muffin tin - we prefer mini muffins - and bake for 15 minutes for mini, 20 minutes for regular size muffins. Voila.
Monday
Truth time, I pulled this out of the freezer and apparently I didn't write down what I put in it. All I wrote on the bag was "add cooked noodles." I assume I was making my steak and noodle recipe, so I'll guess what I put in it for you. I combined all ingredients in a bag and froze. Next time I'd write cooking instructions on the bag, but you'll want to cook this on low for 6-7 hours at least from frozen.
2lb stew meat
1t pink Himalayan salt
1/2t pepper
1T onion powder
1t garlic powder
1 bay leaf
2T olive oil
Here's where I get creative, because we don't have noodles. Ha. I cut up 6 small yukon gold potatoes, and the four mini carrots we had left and tossed them in the crock pot with two cups of my homemade veggie broth from the freezer. Done.