Monday, February 14, 2011

Menu Plan Monday – The Vegan, Gluten Free Way!

Last week I wrote this article about menu planning for my friends at EasyLunchBoxes.com, so this week I am joining up with many other bloggers on the web to bring you:



Except here at the Good Old Days Farm, Menu Planning has a twist… It’s all vegan and gluten free!  So if you have the kind of diet restrictions or allergies that make people ask, “What can you eat?” this menu plan just might be for you!

I remember one time when I first got married, Papa the Farmer came home from work to a wonderful spaghetti dinner I had prepared.  (This was long before our Gluten-Free days!)  It was all laid out on the table looking beautiful and I was so excited about it.  He took one look at it and disappointment instantly flashed across his face.

“Don’t you like spaghetti?” I asked.

“Well…” he said very slowly.  I could see he was thinking about exactly how he should approach this conversation so as not to hurt the feelings of his new bride.  “I like spaghetti…. It’s just that we’ve already had spaghetti three times this week….  and it’s only Wednesday.”

Oops. 

I hadn’t noticed.  So these days, I give each day it’s own theme to ensure variety!

Sunday – Vegetable Casserole (Broccoli Casserole with brown rice and Salad with Olive oil and Lemon Dressing)

Monday – Beans (Pinto Beans on Cornbread topped with the usual Taco Condiments)

Tuesday – Soup & Salad (Minestrone Soup, Salad with Tofu Dill dressing)

Wednesday – Patties (Lentil Patties with Celery/Carrot Topping, Rice and Salad with Olive oil and Lemon Dressing)

Thursday – Beans (Italian Bean Casserole with Rice and Salad with French Dressing)

Friday – Chinese (Rice Noodles in a Honey-Ginger-Garlic Stir fry with Salad and Tofu Dill Dressing)

Saturday – We always share our meal on Saturdays with friends, so I only have to make one dish!  This week I’ll make Quinoa with onions and cilantro!

You see?  We vegan, gluten-free people CAN eat well! 

Menu Plan Monday is the brain-child of Laura at "I'm an Organized Junkie."  Each week she posts her own menu plan and LOTS of other bloggers link their weekly menus to hers.  Click here to check it out!  Most of the menus are not vegan or gluten free but some are so there are plenty of ideas for everyone!

4 comments:

  1. Yay! Another vegan, gluten-free blogger *and* menu planner! So exciting! I love reading menus where I can actually eat everything on them. :)

    What a sweet story about the Week of Spaghetti. Menu planning really is such a great tool for getting all kinds of variety into our weekly cooking.

    All your meals sound delicious this week! Is the cornbread recipe you use online anywhere or from a particular cookbook? That's something I haven't tackled yet for both vegan and gluten-free.

    There's a whole community starting up of vegan, gluten-free bloggers. It's called xgfx, and you can find it at: http://xgfxcommunity.blogspot.com/ Come check it out, I think we can all inspire each other!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for posting that link! I checked it out and it looks great! I plan to sign up!
    The cornbread recipe is just based off the recipe on the cornmeal package. I replace the whole wheat flour with cornmeal and I use food grade hydrogen peroxide (maybe 1/2 tsp?) to raise it. The recipe could probably use some tweaking... it comes out kind of heavy, but I smother it in pinto beans, so it doesn't matter to us! =)
    Oh - and about the Week of Spaghetti, I think Papa the Farmer was being a bit unfair. I think we had macaroni at least one night that week! LOL! =)

    ReplyDelete
  3. My friend eats gluten free, and I can't imagine the work you all go through to eat that way. I admire you all!!

    Thanks for sharing with me about your blog!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Caroline! The initial adjustment phase is a challenge, no doubt! I was in the first trimester of pregnancy when my family needed to switch over to gluten free. The LAST thing I wanted to think about was food, but I HAD to think about it. One morning I walked into the kitchen exhausted and nauseous and found myself praying, "Oh Lord, please don't let anyone be hungry today." Oops. Good mothers feed their children every day! That's when Menu Planning became a survival skill in our house!

    ReplyDelete