Dinner Menu for the Week of September 24

Sunday
Rice Pilaf with Red Beans, Salad, and Garlic Toast
Basic and yummy.

Monday
Pasta with Lentil-Tomato Sauce and Cheezy Toast
I cook the lentils until they are pretty mushy, blend them smooth with my wand mixer, and stir them into the pasta sauce. They add some heartiness to the sauce, but do not affect the tomato flavor. It's a way to make a pasta meal a bit more balanced. Cheezy Toast is basically toasted bread with Earth Balance spread and some nutritional yeast sprinkled on top.

Tuesday
Herb-Marinated Baked Tofu with Tahini-topped Kale and Roasted Red Potatoes
In the interest of healthy diversity, I try to only have a soy-based main dish 2 or 3 times a week. We love this baked tofu recipe--simple and very firm. The tahini sauce for the steamed kale is basically tahini blended with lemon juice, garlic, salt, and a bit of water to get the consistency you want. Mmmm.

Wednesday
Vegetable Barley Soup, Salad, and Italian Bread
My goal, especially now that it's fall, is to have a soup meal one night a week. I usually freeze half the batch I make so that I don't have to cook soup from scratch every week.

Thursday
Baked Tamari Tempeh with Green Beans and Mashed Potatoes/Gravy
Tempeh is a fermented, dense cake made from grains and soy. Tastes way better than it sounds! Fermented soy (tempeh, soy yogurt) can be easier to digest than unfermented (tofu, soy milk). I soak the tempeh slices in a marinade and bake for 25 minutes or so.

Friday
Pizza Night
We order take-out one night a week. It's usually from a local Indonesian restaurant that delivers to us, but we sometimes opt for pizza. We are currently loving a new pizza place that just opened on South Congress here in Austin--yummy fresh ingredients, great sauce and crust, and it tastes totally complete without cheese, unlike some other pizza places we have tried.

Saturday
Leftovers
We also eat leftovers one night a week. They don't go to waste this way, and we spend less.

Some extras I plan to make for my son's lunches/snacks:

Mac 'n Cheeze

Not-Tuna (a chickpea-based spread)

Zucchini Muffins

Hummus