What's on our plates?

It's getting colder here so we're turning to more hearty, warming dinner dishes. We have a night out for a carol service and a night of local food so the list isn't very long this week.

• Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup - I just use a can of tomato puree instead of tomato paste. The celery seed adds a weird flavor so use it with caution. 
• Buffalo Chicken Chili - I haven't tried it yet, but it comes recommended by someone in my neck of the woods. I'll use my Wonder Bag for slow cooking.
• Paneer Tikka Kebabs and Veg Biriyani - You'll want to have a box of chat masala on the side to hit those kebabs with. Amazing! Also, if you want to dabble in Indian cooking with tried and true recipes, Padhus Kitchen is an amazing resource. She explains Indian cooking really clearly with lots of photos in the recipes. 
• Pumpkin Gnocchi with Sage Sauce and Italian Sausage 

I hope these ideas might give you a little food inspiration for the week ahead. 

What's on our plates?

This week we're eating:

Sunday
Chinese vegetable stirfry using Charlie sauce

Monday
Baked macaroni and cheese
Steamed broccoli

Tuesday
Chicken tortilla soup

Wednesday
Veggie spaghetti sauce with pasta
Green salad

Thursday
Rice, lentils, and vegetables

Friday
Salisbury steak with onion gravy
Mashed potatoes
Steamed green beans

What's on Our Plates

If you're looking for some food inspiration, here's what we're eating this week. On the two chicken days, I'm splitting 500g of chicken, as I'm only cooking for 2.

Sunday
Grilled chicken with bottled barbecue sauce
Brown rice
Steamed broccoli

Monday
Chicken Tortilla Soup
* Swap fire roasted tomatoes for other canned tomatoes
* Substitute any other cooked bean

Tuesday
French Dip Subs

Wednesday
Vegetarian Pad Thai

Thursday
Pita bread
Falafel
Tahini sauce

Friday
Moo Ping
Thai vegetables in oyster sauce
* Use only the sauce portion of the recipe with whatever veg we have.
Sticky rice

Master List for Meal Planning

Rachel here.  I am not as good as Lizzy at writing recipes!  But, I find that sometimes it can be helpful just to know some recipes that work here or that are easily adapted to life where the ingredients sets are a bit different than what you might be used to having in your home country.
So, I wrote up a post on my blog, sharing my "master list" for fall that helps form my base for meal planning.  Hope it might be useful to some, so feel free to pop over and read the original post to see the list with lots of links for recipes (many of them back here on this blog!).

Also, I have a pinterest board where I collect recipes that I know would work where we live here in Nepal (and probably much of Asia) and usually make some quick comments on my pins as to what I would need to change, if anything.

What's on Our Plates?

I am not the best at coming up with or writing recipes, but I told Lizzy maybe I would post some meal plans on here, as I do enjoy finding recipes that work well here or can easily be adapted and making a plan for the week.  I put my original plan here and noted a few changes that I ended up making.  Seems that the end of the week usually brings some changes in plans!

Monday
Breakfast--cereal
Lunch--Office
Dinner--Moroccan Chickpea Stew (with leftover chicken pieces, green beans, and carrots added in and no greens)

Tuesday
Breakfast--oatmeal with bananas
Lunch--egg salad and crackers, cucumbers, fruit
Dinner--One Pot Spaghetti, roasted vegetables
peach crumble

Wednesday
Breakfast--cereal
Lunch--Cheesy Beans, fruit
Dinner--leftovers
apple muffins
On Wednesday evenings, we meet up with our team, and we bring a snack to share and pack dinner for the kids and then eat a quick dinner of leftovers when we get home because my husband has to jump into work calls.

Thursday
Breakfast--pancakes
Lunch--office
We had to wait on a plumber and ended up at home with leftovers instead.
Dinner--Spanish Bean and Rice Casserole with a can of corn added in, served with tortilla chips and some leftover roasted veggies.  I cooked a bigger batch of black beans earlier in the week to use for the cheesy beans and for this.

Friday
Breakfast--eggs and toast
Lunch--leftovers
Dinner--miso-glazed tofu with udon noodles and veggies (with different veggies subbed than the original recipe)
Friday got a little strange for us.  Our kitchen wasn't really available at lunch, so we ended up eating cereal!  :)  And, we didn't make it to get the miso paste I had hoped to use, so for dinner, I cobbled together some bacon, veggie, cheese skillet stuff and made some quick biscuits.  If I had the ingredients around, I had been meaning to put together a batch of Lizzy's bisquick mix, which would have made the biscuits even easier, but this biscuit recipe was fairly quick and easy to pull together as well.

Saturday
Breakfast--Cereal
Lunch--out
Dinner--leftovers

Sunday
Breakfast--french toast
Lunch--out
Dinner--macaroni and cheese--the Kraft stuff from a care package! :), salad

What's On Our Plates?

I haven't done one of these posts in a long time, but sometimes it's helpful for people to see what other people are eating for some inspiration. Saturdays and Sundays are usually pretty laid back as far as meals go, often the day dedicated to cleaning out fridge leftovers.

Day 1:
Lunch - Leftovers
Dinner - Spanish Beans and Rice with Salsa and Roti

Day 2:
Lunch - Sandwiches, Chips and Salsa
Dinner - Panzanella Salad + Fridge Cleanout

Day 3:
Lunch - Rice, Sambhar, and Coconut Green Bean Fry
Dinner - Mexican Chicken Casserole

Day 4:
Lunch - Egg Fried Rice
Dinner - Philly Cheesesteak Sloppy Joes, Texas Caviar, and Oven Fries

Day 5:
Lunch - Roti with Soy Bean Soup
Dinner - Vegetarian Pad Thai

Day 6:
Lunch - Indian Fried Rice (recipe to come) with Chickpea Curry
Dinner - Steak, Sauteed Green Beans, Roasted Potatoes

Day 7:
Lunch - Tingmo with Sauteed Greens (recipe to come)
Dinner - Lentil Tacos

So there you have it. A week's worth of meals. Hopefully something in there will inspire you, too!

Another Meal Plan

I hope you all (at least those of you who celebrate it) had a great Thanksgiving. We did. I ate way too much, and it was glorious. Yes, I am even guilty of packing a couple rubber bands in my pocket to allow for the fact that I might pop a button on my pants after all that eating! We leave for a short trip to the U.S. in a week, but here's what's on our menu for the coming week. Some will be first time experiments, but mainly I've aimed at relatively simple meals that will consume the ingredients we don't want sitting around for a month.

Wednesday
Lunch: Poori Masala from Padhus Kitchen
Dinner: Toad in the Hole (what?!?), Sauteed Greens, and Fruit Cocktail

Thursday
Lunch: Veg Fried Rice
Dinner: Fried Chicken, Potato Salad, and Steamed Broccoli

Friday
Lunch: Egg Curry with Roti from ABCD's of Cooking
Dinner: Vegetarian Chili

Saturday
Lunch: Baked Macaroni and Cheese with Veggie Platter and Dip
Dinner: Miso Soup, Jasmine Rice, & Korean Pancakes

Sunday
Dinner: Loaded Baked Potatoes

Monday
Lunch: Rice with Lentils and Vegetables (Sounds so appetizing, doesn't it? Ha!)
Dinner: Tacos

Meal Plan 3

Yes, we've had some silence in blog land thanks to hubby wishing I might apply my efforts elsewhere...such as writing more important blog entries pertaining to work. Since it only takes a few minutes to give you a meal plan and some links, I thought I'd share what's on our plate this week. With the changing of the weather, I wanted to take advantage of that fall feeling as long as I can so I've added a few more hearty recipes until the pumpkins get ripe enough to have truly autumn-inspired meals.

Monday
Loaded Potato Soup and Salad - This soup from Gina and Pat Neely is fantastic!

Tuesday
Pasta Agli e Olio and Garden Salad - Cut back on the parmesan to make it affordable.

Wednesday
Pressure Cooker Beef Stew

Thursday
Poppy Seed Chicken, Rice, and Steamed Vegetables

Friday
Homemade Takeout: Vegetable Fried Rice

Saturday
Apps Night: Hot Spinach Dip, Deviled Eggs, Crudite with White Bean Dip

Sunday
Pigs in a Blanket with Green Bean Salad in Mustard Dressing

For recipes with no links or the crescent roll dough called for in the Piggy recipe, I'll post as I use them.

Balancing Act Plus a Meal Plan

In the course of a week here, I try very hard to create various balances: cost/variety, vegetarian/meat, electricity/no electricity, time required/payoff for time, and healthy/less healthy. That often means thinking a lot more about food than I would necessarily like to, but hopefully underscores your feelings that making and preparing for food in South Asia takes a lot of work. Here's this week's meal plan for dinners:

Wednesday
Italian Chicken Chowder with Crusty Bread
If you don't already follow Sara Beth at Market2Meal, you totally should. She's got loads of wonderful recipes that are practical to make here. 

Thursday
Spaghetti with Garlic Bread

Friday
Moroccan Chickpea Stew with Rice and a Mediterranean Salad

Saturday
Hamburger Helper - Don't be hating...

Sunday
Veg and Tofu Stirfry with Noodles

Monday
Tuna Rice Casserole

Tuesday
Eggplant Melanzane, Pasta, and Leafy Green Salad

Just a few comments if you're thinking something sounds gross, and you're wondering why I'd eat that if I like food. Yesterday, my husband and I were talking about weird foods that we missed--his Hamburger Helper, mine tuna casserole. He's not a big fan of the casserole, but we've never had it in the 11 years we've been married so it deserves a chance. I'm not a huge fan of Hamburger Helper, but I recently stumbled across a Make Your Own version that seems to be fast enough to work with our busy Saturday night Skype schedule. Will let you know how they turn out!

Getting Started - Meal Planning

From my 7 years in South Asia, I've learned that planning can be both your best friend and worst enemy. When it comes to food with longer preparation times, planning tends to be your friend. In an effort to keep both myself and my husband from a million grocery trips each week, I plan all of our meals for a week at once. We buy all the main ingredients once a week so we only have to run to small fruit and vegetable sellers near our house over the remainder of the week. I don't really like planning breakfasts except for special occasions so I just keep random makings of breakfast in my pantry.

Honestly, getting creative in the kitchen with limited ingredients does not take a lot of magic tricks, just some know-how in terms of finding good recipes and adapting them. Here's what's on for this week:

Monday 
Lunch: Rice with Lentils and Mixed Vegetables
Dinner: Thai Cashew Chicken, Pumpkin Leaves in Oyster Sauce, and Steamed Rice

Tuesday
Lunch: Leftovers from Monday
Dinner: Spaghetti or Eggplant Melanzane with Garlic Bread

Wednesday
Lunch: Rajma Masala and Roti
Dinner: Taco Salad and Southwestern Corn

Thursday
Lunch: Vegetable Biriyani
Dinner: Miso Soup, Japanese Cucumber Salad, and Jasmine Rice

Friday
Lunch: Palakura Pulusu, Radish Curry, and Rice
Dinner: Chicken Nuggets, French Fries, and Steamed Vegetables

Saturday
Lunch: Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches (Yes, we adults do still like them!)
Dinner: Pizza and Salad

Sunday
Lunch: Brown Rice Salad
Dinner: Out at a cheap neighborhood dive

Monday
Lunch: Rice with Lentils and Mixed Vegetables
Dinner: Thai Noodle Soup with Minced Pork

Tuesday
Lunch: Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Dinner: Breakfast Casserole and Fruit Salad

 I'll try to provide or link you up with the recipes I've used over the next week.