Menu B: Grocery List & Instructions

I’d hate to give anyone carpal tunnel from excessive scrolling, so I’m just going to put these up as Google Doc files.  A few notes:

The Barbeque Tofu recipe is cooked overnight, although the recipe specifies that it should be cooked on low for 4-6 hours.  I’ve assumed you have a crock pot capable of cooking for 8 hours on a lower heat setting than it uses for 6 hours.  If your crock pot doesn’t work like that, you may want to change the order of recipes around (unless you normally sleep for only 4-6 hours).  The Pinto Beans & Rice crock-pot recipe is supposed to be done around 3 hours after you put it in, so you can just start the Barbeque Tofu right after the beans are done instead.

The Eggplant Pomodoro recipe also calls for making a sauce to put on the eggplant rounds.  I really don’t like thawing sauces, and it’s an easy tomato sauce, so I haven’t included the ingredients in the grocery list.  If you’re up for making it, check out the recipe and add it to the list.

Link:  Grocery List for Menu B  (doc file)

Link:  Instructions for Menu B (doc file)

Let me know if you find any mistakes.  I’ve been through them both a couple times to check, but as I haven’t actually tested the instructions, I haven’t had the chance to come face-to-face with anything glaringly wrong.  Hopefully you won’t either!  (Comforting, right?  Seriously though, I think it’s all in order.)

And finally, instead of chopping things into bowls, you could use ziplock bags or even grocery sacks – it would save on counter space, since they’re condensable, and there would be about 14 fewer bowls to clean (always good!).

Menu B: Recipe List

This is more ambitious than Menu A, mostly because it just plain makes a lot of food:  66 servings total.  If you’re cooking for 2, you’re covered for a solid month, and if you’re cooking for 3 and have a few spaghetti nights/dinners elsewhere, it should still work out.

Also, since Menu A requires two sometimes hard-to-find ingredients (the nutritional yeast and vital wheat gluten), this menu won’t use either one. 

• Pinto Beans & Rice (crock pot) 
• Eggplant Pomodoro 
• Tortilla-Black Bean Casserole 
• Delicious Pakistani Dhal 
• Ethiopian Spicy Tomato Lentil Stew 
• Moroccan Vegetable Stew with Herbed Couscous 
• African Peanut-Potato Stew 
• Caribbean Beans & Quinoa  
• Barbeque Tofu (crock pot) 
• Cumin Rice with Eggplant & Peas 

There was almost an accidental world theme where every recipe would have clearly been from a specific country.  I ended up ditching a French Lentil Soup recipe (okay, I don’t think that’s actually from France, but still.  Cute.) and an Enchilada recipe because they were too similar to other things, but I’m much happier with what I replaced them with, and hey – now there’s no accidental world theme!  I love international food, but I think that’s one of those things that sounds great until you actually announce it to your roommate (“Hey!  Guess what?  Every dinner you eat for the next month will be a recipe themed on a different country!”)  If I tried that stunt, my sister would either kill herself or me – not sure which, but I don’t like my odds.

Of course, if you’re into the world cuisine idea, the last two recipes still give you enough latitude to claim it. 

Grocery list and instructions to follow.