Weekly Menu - week of September 7th

This menu will use up a lot of the canned beans we stored up prior to the hurricane. I don't know if I mentioned it before, but it's surprisingly difficult to find shelf stable vegan food. I hadn't realized how much we factor fresh and refrigerated foods into our menu, but living without power for a week really made that clear. I am so sick of processed foods right now, and can't wait to start drinking my fresh fruit and veggie smoothies for breakfast again, and have fresh veggies with dinner!

We have a bad habit of not using foods we buy ahead of time in bulk, and then we end up tossing them because they've gone bad, which is essentially the same as just throwing our money in the trash can. When we moved here, we were determined to not stockpile food in our pantry, fridge or freezer. Over time, though, our fridge and freezer gradually began to accumulate more and more stuff, and while it wasn't that much food on an absolute level, it was still more than we wanted to amass. Thankfully we were able to eat 90% of it before our power went out, including some stuffed bell peppers that I made and froze several months ago, but it really sucked to have to throw food away when the power went out. We're that much more determined now to not let it happen again. Our plan now is to only buy groceries for a couple days at a time. Yes, we'll have to go to the store more often, but it's on our way home from work and class, so we won't have to make additional trips out of the house, and small shopping trips are so much faster than big ones, plus there will be less likelihood of things spoiling in the fridge before we get around to cooking them. We'll see how it goes!

Here's our planned menu for the week. As I said, it heavily features beans. ; )

Sunday - veggie kebabs, mashed potatoes, cole slaw, chips (bbq with the in-laws)

Monday - pinto bean burritos, pico de gallo

Tuesday - black beans and rice, pico de gallo

Wednesday - baked beans, bread, salad

Thursday - black-eyed peas, sweet potato, kale and rice casserole

Friday - leftovers, most likely

Saturday - tailgating before the football game!