Meal Plan: week of July 25

This week, some neighbors of ours went out of town and unloaded (much to our delight) their CSA box on us. So, in addition to planning meals for the week, I wanted to take advantage of our extra bounty. We have lots of great salad supplies, so in addition to the meals below, we'll sprinkle the week with salads.

• Today: I am making zipper cream peas and vegan cornbread. We have a giant honeydew melon from the neighbors to dig into as well. This is a meal from my childhood. There's almost nothing I like better than fresh boiled peas and zipper creams are one of my absolute favorites.
• Monday: this used to be our build-a-bowl night and I'm going back to that routine. I serve a whole grain (often quinoa), a protein (tomorrow it will be chickpeas or leftover peas) and a green for mixing up into a bowl with toppings. The girls can eat the items separately and I often offer them whole-grain crackers or veggie straws along with the meal. Husband and I add Sriracha or toasted sesame seeds.
• Tuesday: this is our taco night. I've got Quorn ground round sitting in the freezer; I'll take advantage of that by adding taco seasoning and sauteed onions to make a veg "beef" filling. I'll serve with beans for the girls and traditional taco toppings.
• Wednesday: This chickpea salad. I am taking another batch into work for our staff luncheon on Thursday. I'm also making a batch of Heidi Swanson's amazing chocolate chips cookies to send in for the luncheon and some extra as an end-of-summer camp surprise for the girls' teachers. These are my absolute favorite chocolate chip cookies. They are not healthy, FYI.
• Friday: pizza night. E and I went through cookbooks yesterday to see what pizza dough recipe options we have on hand. If we get inspired and have the time, we may try to make our own dough. If not, we'll fall back on pita pizzas.

This weekend has been incredibly productive so far. I made about 8 cups of fresh cooked garbanzos last night and today I have already made two batches of fresh hummus, one plain and one with a roasted pepper. One will go in the freezer. I also made a batch of Swanson's Grandma's Grain hot cereal which I will eat from all week (sadly, I was out of walnuts this morning). And I used some overripe bananas in this recipe for vegan blueberry banana muffins. I can't eat them b/c I'm allergic to bananas (though I can say they smell divine!), but they'll go in the girls lunches (and an extra dozen will go in the freezer). I made them with ww flour because it was all I had on hand. And I added about a quarter cup of almond milk because they seemed a little dry.

I am pretty sure today's incredible productivity was the direct result of starting my day with a run.