One of our traditions is that on Sunday mornings we do a little informal kitchen inventory and menu planning and then go to the grocery store for our weekly provisions. It’s a nice bonus to do it at a time when the rest of the world is at church because then we can shop in a near-empty store. We’ve been going to Aldi lately, which maybe I’ll say more about at another time, but right now I’ll tell you that we got everything we needed for these meals plus, you know, the rest of our weekly stuff, for about $150. We used to spend $200-250 at Kroger. So satisfying!

I figured I’d share the menu plan, but before I get into it, here are a couple of things I made last week that I really liked:

Here’s the plan for this week — and, if I think of it, I’ll follow up next Sunday with photos of the favorites:

Sunday: Three Cheese Tortellini with mushrooms, kale, and Field Roast (CW)

Monday: Big Salad. Probably a kale base with slow-roasted tomatoes, roasted garbanzo beans, artichoke hearts, Kalamata olives, feta. Maybe a grain as well.

Tuesday: Jambalaya (CW)

Wednesday: Slow-cooker curry and brown rice. Coconut milk base with sweet potatoes, bell peppers, garbanzo beans, and some really good Thai red curry paste from the Asian supermarket.

Thursday: Some kind of wild rice soup that CW is making from A Year in a Vegetarian Kitchen

Friday: Creamy tomato soup (also from AYIAVK) and grilled cheese sandwiches. I’m going to get the Good Bread.