Meal Plan Update

Last week, I tried out some new recipes with my first week of meal planning. If you didn't catch the first post, here's another look at the past week's menu:

 

 

Here are some reviews of a few of the recipes I tried:

Mexican Chorizo 

The Mexican Chorizo recipe that I made last Thursday was another Happy Herbivore hit! Her Chorizo recipe uses quinoa, which is pretty awesome. I ate the quinoa chorizo with leftover corn tortillas from Wednesday's taco night, Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream, Daiya shredded cheese, and some romaine lettuce. I'll definitely be adding this to my cooking repertoire. It's super simple to make and another way to make quinoa delicious.

Cornbread and Baked Beans

I don't have any pictures of the Happy Herbivore cornbread and baked beans that I made last week because they were that good. We demolished them! The baked beans were amazing, and much better than any baked beans that I've ever had before (probably because they were not canned). Also, the cornbread was moist and delicious, and the first time that I've tasted good vegan cornbread. It was very quick and easy to make, and I plan to make it again several times in the near future!

 Cheezy Shells and Broccoli 

 Whole Wheat Shells
 

 Cheezy Sauce
 

 Pre-Cheeze Sauce 

 Close-up of Cheezed Shells

 

 Finished Cheezy Shells & Broccoli

This recipe of Easy Cheezy Shells and Broccoli came from Vegan Comfort Foods from Around the World By: Veronica Grace  AKA Low Fat Vegan Chef. I've made this recipe before, but the first time I didn't have all of the ingredients to make the cheese sauce, so I just mixed some of them with a processed vegan cheese. This time I followed the directions.

 

I think this recipe is pretty good, but I would not recommend it for your omnivore friends and family. My omnivore husband was not a fan. It doesn't exactly taste like cheese, but it is a good sauce. The sauce doesn't have any added fat, so if you want to add a little bit of oil or vegan margarine to the sauce for a more creamy taste, I say go for it. I'm trying to be healthy and lose weight. So I only added a little extra paprika and chili powder.

 

In conclusion, the first week of meal plans went really well! I'm currently working my way through week 2 of Meal Planning, and I'll try to post an update on some of the new recipes I tried out sometime this weekend.

Breakfast Idea from Happy Herbivore

I'm a big fan of Happy Herbivore's blog and website.  I recently checked out her meal plans to get some fresh ideas.  On the 3-day sample meal plan, I found an awesome recipe for Berry Berry Quinoa.  Now, I like quinoa (small grain with lots of protein, pronounced keen-wa), but I've always made it for dinner, and I never thought of making it as a breakfast dish.

In her recipe, Happy Herbivore uses two types of berries (preferably strawberries and blueberries), quinoa, cinnamon, and sweetener (maple syrup or agave nectar).  It's delicious!  In the picture below, I used red quinoa because I thought it would look good together with the berry colors, and I also used frozen blueberries.  I don't have permission to include her recipe, but it's in her free 3-day meal plan.  I also just bought a weekly meal plan to get some new ideas and because I loved the recipes from the free plan.  There're only $5 for a week-long meal plan, and they include a handy shopping list, so that you don't end up wasting money or time at the grocery store.  Also, you can cook all your meals for the week ahead of time if you prefer!

Happy Herbivore Meal Plans - If you'd like to try the Berry Berry Quinoa recipe (and others) go to this website and click on the free "3-day Sample Meal Plan".

I'm excited to try out my weekly meal plan and learn some new vegan, low-fat recipes this week!

***I also should probably mention that I paid for the meal plan, and my review is my personal opinion, not driven by anything else. (You can probably tell that because I don't have very many readers or followers of my blog.) Companies aren't exactly clamoring to get in on the action of my famous blog. That's okay because I don't blog for them. I write for me. :)***