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The third installment of the Bean and Veggie Meal Plan Analysis:

I’m analyzing Zom’s Adventures’ meal plan today.  She does such a great job with healthy foods, though, I don’t have a lot to say!  Her meal plan has recipes and commentary throughout, so for any recipes that you want to read more about, go to her menu plan page for the full text.  (I cut out the recipes because it seemed like too much to get through to see my comments.)  As usual, my voice is in italics.

Monday: Spiced Chicken/Tofu with Mini Millet Cakes

Tonight: Soak beans overnight for all day cookin’ tomorrow.

There’s already carrots and red pepper “hiding” in the millet cakes, so other than throwing some beans on a salad and including a side veggie, I don’t have any real ideas here!  You could cook your beans for tomorrow one day early and use a few tonight on the salad.

Tuesday: Tacos with Salsa and Fresh Tortillas
Blender Salsa
Rustic Flour Tortillas, adapted for laziness

Again, Zom already has beans in this meal, 2 cups with her pound of ground beef.  Well done!  And the salsa is packed with healthy tomatoes and peppers - maybe try fresh garlic for its health benefits next time?

Wednesday: Basil Sage Calzone (in the crockpot!)

Herb Olive Oil Bread
Tomato Sauce
Fixins:
cheese
peppers
leftover meat/field roast grain sausage
onions
garlic
or whatever you’d like

What a great recipe!  The tomato sauce and peppers add great veggie appeal to this meal – one could always add spinach for a super food layer or sweet potato/squash frozen cubes to the tomato sauce.  I add anything and everything to tomato sauce, usually in frozen food cube form, and it doesn’t affect the taste as long as I don’t overdo it. I don’t know that any beans would improve this meal – they might mess up the texture.

Thursday: Orange Ginger Chicken/Tempeh Noodles
Lots of good veggies already in this dish, and again, I think beans would just get icky.  Try to have cold beans on salad with the meal or for lunch as a way to get them into your day somehow.

Friday: Crockpot Tamales
Another incredible recipe, that already includes beans.  This week’s meal plan, at least, has as many beans as I will in my week (probably more, since we just got back from vacation and I’m not meal planning well!).

Click here for the full bean prep and uses post, and here for the health benefits of beans.

Zom has such super recipes, with lots of veggies and beans.  What a good example of varied meals (I love how it’s all over – Mexican, Italian, Asian, back to Mexican…) with nutrient-dense foods and lots of fiber and protein.  Well done, Zom!

If you’re interested in me analyzing your meal plan, email it to me (click contact) or go to this post to leave your link in the comments.  If you do it at the beginning of the week, I’ll try to get to it right away so you can actually make (some of) the changes I recommend.

The Others
Meal Plan Analysis Number One
Meal Plan Analysis Number Two

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Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.