Last week I promised a review of how my menu plan worked along with my plan for this week. I will go over breakfast, lunch and dinners separately.

The breakfasts were completely different to my 0lan. I had spotted bagels at the store and had that with peanut butter. The plan was smoothies but when it came down to it I just didn’t want that. I don’t think bagels are a great choice to be honest but I find that if I ignore a craving I tend to overeat everything else until I give in to the craving. I never stood a chance with cereal either as Joey ate all the cereal it Hin two days.

Lunch I planned much better. We didn’t do that well with our salads to be honest which was a bit of a surprise. Normally this is a easy option but it just didn’t happen this week. We were busy some days so had to find something while out. That day I found a reasonably ok vegan salad from Mark and Spencer’s which I mixed with beans and had with melon slices. Other days it seemed sensible to go with the leftovers option to make sure they didn’t build up in the fridge. Two of my kids are back to work so evening meals are often too big when they are eating out.

Dinners did mostly go to plan. One night we had something different than planned but still within the healthy plant based category. You will have seen the recipes for the chick’n noodle soup and asparagus risotto both of which came out really well. I still need to write up the recipe for Spanish omelette but that came out pretty good too. The potato and cauliflower pie didn’t go as well. The filling was fine. Just roasted potato and cauliflower then covered in my nacho cheezy sauce. That part was great but the pie crust didn’t work out. It was more like a naan crust than a pie one. Some experiments work and some don’t.

This week is not planned with lots of new recipes in mind. I just needed to plan an easier week because I need to finish my final assignment for my Open University course. I can’t overwhelm myself and get this done as best as I can. That doesn’t mean we revert to junk food though. It just means a bit less experimenting.

1. Burgers and chips. This might mean some sweet potato chips for me. I am not sure but I have sweet potatoes and need to use them. I have Vegilante Zinger burgers for Alan and I but for the others I am going to make burgers from scratch. I might get fancy and have a go at making the yeast rolls from my grandmother’s recipe. I have been meaning to do that and I do find bread making calming.

2. Roast vegetables with mashed potato. Pretty straightforward I guess. I have some turnip in the freezer which I can add some onion, carrots, and maybe some courgette. When I do mash it is very easy. I don’t even peel the potatoes first. Just chop up the potatoes and boil. Sometimes I add onion to the potatoes at the beginning. Mash it all up with a bit of soya milk and lots of nutritional yeast, black pepper, a bit of salt, and some paprika. I am thinking about having a bit of cabbage on the side as well. I could add cheezy sauce to the mash as well.

3. Baked Beans and cornbread. This one was a request from Joey. Personally, I think this one should be a much more occasional meal as it does have too much sugar in it but I do like to make sure everyone is happy with something. Joey is one of my meat eaters so the fact that the only meal request from him was for a vegan recipe seems like a win to me so I am going for it.

4. Pasta with veggie sauce. Just your typical pasta sauce with lots of veggies added and a bit of lentils. The great thing about my pasta sauce is that it is a good basic sauce which can be filled out however your like. Just this on wholewheat pasta with a bit of nutritional yeast. Quick, easy, filling and good.

5. Curry and rice. Not sure what the main ingredients will be. Chickpeas and spinach? Maybe. Sweet potato maybe. Probably not. There will be onion, tomato, perhaps some peppers. Curry is great because it can adjust to whatever you need. This will be a hodgepodge of what I have to work with. Matching it with rice means I don’t have to do anything extra.

6. Vegetable soup. I have some barley and I love vegetable soup with barley. I love barley. I don’t know what I will do with seasoning. I just want barley vegetable soup. You will have to follow me on Instagram (five_bean_soup) to see how that comes out.

7. Sausages and mash. Yup, mash again. Emily loves mash. Everyone loves sausages. Alan and I will have the Richmond vegan sausages. In fact I think everyone will get those vegan sausages this time and I don’t think anyone will mind. We can have some store bought baked beans with it.

Other than my weekly Thursday burger night, the plan is not labelled to a night because I want to be able to change my mind. If something in life changes then the meal plan can change too.