Menu Monday – What’s for Dinner 

So… Many people may be wondering Just how I eat with this new plan… lots and lots of veggies.  LOL.  It’s a little hard when I am on the go every day.  At least veggies are easy to come by right now.  My garden and the bountiful basket thing we belong to are supplying all the veggies I can eat.

It’s not all boring. ( I know… most people think veggies are boring).  Here is a small example of my menu for the  week:

Saturday

Breakfast and lunch were on last weeks menu

Dinner – Tomato Pie and salad

This dinner was super easy and super tasty.

I used a whole wheat pie crust and baked it until golden brown.  I layered 4 sliced Roma tomatoes and sprinkled a like quarts salt and pepper over the tomatoes.  I sprinkled Vegan mozzarella cheese over the tomatoes after mixing it with a little chopped garlic.  Then I baked it for about 20 minutes.  After baking it I topped it with fresh basil.  It was so tasty!  The salad was mixed green, cucumber, and a zucchini from my garden topped with oil and vinegar.

Sunday

Breakfast – left over Tomato Pie

Lunch – Morningstar Veggie Burger with lettuce, tomato, Dijon mustard and onion, cherries

Dinner – Cucumber Tofu ( variation on Cumber Chicken that I learned from my friend Roger Shinkle years ago.

I am so glad that I was able to find Morningstar brand veggie burgers in the store.  They make busy times like these so much easier!

For Cucumber Tofu I do the following:

Cut the tofu into cubes and pat them dry with paper towel.  Lightly brown the tofu in 2 tsp of olive oil.  Take to tofu out of the pan and set it aside.  Dice the cucumbers in to bite size pieces.  I am lucky and my cucumbers are going nuts right now.  I have plenty!  I saute 3 chopped green onions, 2 tsp chopped garlic, 1 tsp chopped ginger, 2 carrots that I ribbon first.  Then I add the cucumbers and let them warm.  Then I add 2 Tbs of soy sauce, 2 Tbs rice wine vinegar, 1 tsp honey, and 1/4 tsp chili flakes.  I bring it to a boil and then add 1 Tsp of corn starch dissolved in 1/2 c water.  After it thickens and coats the veggies, I take it off the heat, add the tofu and toss.  I’ve made this dish many times.  It’s a favorite.

Monday

Breakfast – a fruit smoothie (I just throw a handful of fresh spinach, frozen strawberries, blueberries, a banana, 1 c of chai tea in a blender.  It does the trick.

Lunch – I take prepared hummus and chopped broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots

Dinner – Mexican Corn Risotto with Peitas (pumpkin seeds)

On this day I was making more than one meal at once.  I started with this…

Which turned into sauteing this…

Which turned into this…

… and this.

Truth be told, I ended up with dinner, lunch, dinner, and lunch from this one time of chopping and cooking.  Not bad if you ask me!

Mexican Corn Risotto is easy.  I took 1 c frozen corn, 1/3 c chopped onion, 1/2 red bell pepper chopped, 1 small jalapeno, chopped and sautes them in a little olive oil (about 5 minutes).  Then I added 1 c brown rice and 1 tsp chopped garlic and continued to saute the mixture for another 5 minutes.  Then I added 3 c of vegetable broth and let it cooked.  I covered it, but I would stir it often so it didn’t stick.  When I was ready to serve it, I added pumpkin seeds.

The salads were mixed greens from my garden, cherry tomatoes, cucumber from my garden, carrots, spinach, red bell pepper, garbanzo beans, artichoke hearts, stuffed olives, and almonds.  I used Goddess dressing for these salads.

Tuesday

Breakfast – fruit smoothie

Lunch – salad (see above)

Dinner Mexican Corn Risotto (see above)

Wednesday

Breakfast – fruit smoothie

Lunch salad (see above)

Dinner – Whole Wheat pasta and spaghetti sauce I made last summer from veggies out of my garden.

Thursday

Breakfast – fruit Smoothie

Lunch – hummus and veggies

Dinner – Tomato soup ( I like the organic Pacific brand I can find in the store).

Friday

Breakfast – fruit smoothie

Lunch – salad

Dinner – Mediterranean eggs with olives

I love this dish!

I chop zucchini (from the garden), onion, mushrooms, and saute them a bit.  Then I add tomatoes.  Sometimes they are fresh and sometimes they are tomatoes I canned from the garden the year before. I bring it to a boil.  Then I crack open eggs and plop them on top. (I am lucky to have eggs from my chickens in the yard too!)  Sometimes I add fresh spinach too.  I then top it with Vegan mozzarella cheeses, cover and let it simmer for about 10-15 minutes.  MMM… I’m hungry thinking about this one.

Saturday

Breakfast – Left over Mediterranean eggs

Lunch – Morningstar burgers.

So that is it.  I try hard to get about 1 pound of veggies a day.  I’d like to have cooked mushrooms and onions every day, but that is hard on my current schedule.  I get at least 3 fruits a day.  I try to eat seed or nuts daily.  I only have eggs, or maybe, a piece of fish once a week.  That’s it.