meal planning: help!

[spydah]

I'm the type of person that cooks in bulk to save time. No, I don't get tired of eating the same food the next day as left overs. Recently, I've wanted to venture out of my comfort zone and I want to explore more in the kitchen.  I come to you for meal planning advice. I'm trying to eat healthy and eat less pasta and rice. Don't get me wrong, I will still eat pasta and rice, just less of it. I am trying to make the effort to eat less processed meat. Yes, I do like tofu. What meals do you recommend to diversify my food ration through out the week?

Thanks in advance.

[The Captain]

I highly recommend allrecipies.com - you can search recipies by ingredient.  I do not have any affiliation with that board.

[Deleted]

One way is to simply add a salad to the front end of your meal so you are eating more veggies and less of the other stuff.

Woman's Day gives you a month of meals with recipes included - they have several months available on their website.

www.womansday.com/food-recipes/month-of-menus/

[kittensaver]

I agree with captain. Pick a cuisine you like and delve into it more deeply. Italian? Indian? Tex-Mex? American Comfort? Whatever floats your boat. One of the advantages of searching and cooking more from a particular cuisine is that you will quickly collect all the basic pantry ingredients and spices/herbs. It can be very expensive to "cuisine-hop" for everyday and weeknight meals, because each of the world's cuisines have their own (sometimes very different) pantry staples.

Allrecipes can help you not only find recipes based on a main ingredient, but give you a shopping list as well .

[spydah]

Thank you Captain. I will look into that website!

[spydah]

Thank you Anne. That is a good suggestion. I've been eating more salads lately. I will look into the website and I will end up copying the monthly meals and editing them to fit what I want.

[spydah]

Yes, kittensaver. For sure I will theme my weeks. That just seems easier!

[Peace Of Mind]

You lost me at tofu. 

I recommend roasting a whole chicken with veggies.  Easy and delicious and versatile. 

[Deleted]

Soups. I've been making a big pot a once/twice a week and then there is always something there to eat.. Easy enough to add a salad, fruit, "sandwich" if you want...

[spydah]

Apr 8, 2013 19:41:14 GMT -5 Peace Of Mind said:

You lost me at tofu. 

I recommend roasting a whole chicken with veggies.  Easy and delicious and versatile. 

haha! I was jut using tofu as an example that I will try anything healthy. Hmm, chicken. I love me some chicken!

[spydah]

Apr 8, 2013 19:42:46 GMT -5 oped said:

Soups. I've been making a big pot a once/twice a week and then there is always something there to eat.. Easy enough to add a salad, fruit, "sandwich" if you want...

Now there's an idea. Soups is on my list of meals to make.

[thyme4change]

Anyone use soy sausage as a substitute in recipes that the sausage is ground up and browned?  A friend used soyrizo in some mexican dish once.  She was an "okay" cook (at best.)  And I didn't really like the meal - but I couldn't tell if it was the soyrizo, the recipe, or the cook.  

I have a recipe for Canton noodles that uses sausage.  I love the flavor of the whole thing, but was wondering if I substituted a soy sausage, would it taste basically the same?

[The Captain]

Soy is never an acceptable substitute for pork.

For shame!