Shopping List: Lemony Chicken or Tofu, Easy Lentil Soup, and Surprisingly Good Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

The Family Plan #23

I’m going to keep this light and brief, because I can’t keep it light for more than a sentence or two right now. Send a little sunshine for my mom, please.

If any of these recipes just won’t work with what you’ve got, Epicurious has come up with an ingenious tool that has you plug in what you have, and it’ll show you what you can cook. It’s extremely visual, which I think helps.

Here’s the menu:

SUNDAY: Cook a double-batch of some kind of whole grain. Or do it sometime Monday, since we’re all home, all the time.

MONDAY:

Photo by Mark DeYoung on Unsplash

Lemony Chicken or Tofu with whole grain and vegetables with side grains and vegetables. Cooking Light’s Lemon-Grilled Chicken Breasts will work with more than just cutlets. If you’ve got bone-in breasts or even chicken parts, go for it. The recipe makes a substantial amount, so you should have leftovers. Vegetarians, you’re aiming for a double-batch of Baked Tofu Steaks with Lemon and Garlic from Veggies Save the Day. Whichever you choose, serve it with some of the whole grains you cooked and whatever vegetables you have on hand, fresh, frozen, or canned.

TUESDAY: Stuffed Sweet Potatoes with Hummus Dressing from Eating Well sounds too simple to be true, but surprise: It is. Top a baked sweet potato with black beans and greens, and drizzle with a sauce made by thinning hummus. You can use whatever beans you have and any greens too, even frozen. Heck, if you’ve got russets but not sweets, you can swap out the potatoes. If you’ve got enough, bake an extra potato or two for Thursday. No hummus? Email me and we’ll figure out an alternative.

WEDNESDAY:

Photo courtesy TheKitchn

Easy Slow Cooker Lentil Soup from TheKitchn, with crusty bread. I know a lot of you have a lot of lentils on hand, so let’s use some. This recipe is 100% pantry based—I consider hardy vegetables like onions, carrots, and celery part of the pantry. If you don’t have one or more, we can still make this work.

THURSDAY: Flexible Grain Salad from the Washington Post with Chicken or Tofu & Sweet Potato. The whole grains and protein you used on Monday meet up with Tuesday’s sweet potato for a stress-free dinner.

FRIDAY:

Photo courtesy Simply Recipes

Mediterranean Tuna Pasta from Simply Recipes is kind of like a warm pasta salad. It uses mostly pantry ingredients, too—and if you don’t have a fresh tomato, I’d say you’re fine if you’ve got can of whole peeled ones, or even a jar of roasted red peppers. You just want something a little juicy. And this recipe calls for lemon juice, but if you’ve used up all your lemons on Monday you can swap in some red or white vinegar.

Here’s the “shopping” list:

This’ll help you figure out which recipes you can make. Note that Thursday’s grain salad is such a free-for-all that I’m not including any specifics here—make sure you take a look! Items with an asterisk* are for vegetarian recipes only.

Produce

• 10 garlic cloves (M, W, Th)

• 2 small yellow, red, or white onions OR shallots OR 4 scallions (W, F)

• 1 teaspoon thyme leaves OR dried thyme* (M, Th)

• 2 sprigs parsley (F)

• Some kind of vegetables, fresh OR frozen OR canned (M)

• 4-6 good-sized sweet or russet potatoes (T, Th)

• 1 bunch or package kale or spinach OR frozen chopped kale or spinach (T)

• 1 carrot (W)

• 1 celery rib (W)

• 1 tomato OR 1-2 canned whole peeled tomatoes (F)

• 2-3 lemons (M, Th, F)

• 2 packages tofu, ideally extra-firm* (M, Th)

Pantry

• 2 cups of any whole grain (M, Th)

• Extra virgin or regular olive oil (M, W, Th, F)

• Dried thyme OR fresh thyme* (M, Th)

• 1 bay leaf (W)

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin (W)

• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander (W)

• 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika (W)

• Some kind of vegetables, canned OR frozen OR fresh (M)

• 2 (15-oz.) cans black or other beans (T)

• 1 quart low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth (W)

• 1 (14-oz.) can diced tomatoes (W)

• 1 cup green lentils (W)

• 1 teaspoon tomato paste (W)

• 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar (W)

• 2 (5-oz.) cans tuna, preferably packed in olive oil (F)

• 1-2 canned whole peeled tomatoes OR 1 fresh tomato (F)

• 1/4 cup kalamata olives (F)

• 1 tablespoon capers (F)

• 12 oz. fusilli or other short cut pasta (F)

Meat Counter

• 7-8 pieces of chicken, ideally skinless and boneless but bone-in will work (M, Th)

Dairy

• Prepared hummus (T)

• Plain yogurt or sour cream, optional (W)

• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (F)

Freezer

• Some kind of vegetables, frozen OR fresh OR canned (M)

Bakery

• Crusty bread (W)

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Be well, and hug your mom if you can.

Debbie