Another vegetarian, gluten-free Menu Plan Monday

It’s time for another retroactive week of menus! Why a retroactive menu plan? Well, I love checking out other bloggers’ menu plans for the week, getting inspiration (or just getting hungry) and, when I have a good-energy week where I cook a fair number of meals, I want to share my menus with others so they can hopefully be inspired. But because I never know how my energy will fare from one week to the next, planning a week into the future is a potential set-up to feel like a failure. In contrast, retroactive menu plans are a celebration! (And yes, I’m so tired I’m using the exact same writing from my previous MPM post! But who cares? It’s the menu that’s important, not the intro!)

This week I have the excitement of hosting the awesome Gluten-Free Menu Menu Swap, where every week a group of gluten-free bloggers share our menus for inspiration and drool-inducement. I got to pick our “theme ingredient” of the week (which folks have the option of incorporating or not, depending on how it works with their week), and I picked Nuts & Seeds.

As a gluten-free vegetarian, I know nuts and seeds can be an important source of protein and many other nutrients. But I just don’t like nuts that much; I never want to eat them raw, for instance. So I am hoping to draw inspiration and ideas from my fellow Menu Swappers and hopefully find some delicious ways to wiggle them further into my diet.

The Menu Swap is headquartered at the wonderful GF Goodness, so if you want to participate in the future, or just see where the next few weeks will be hosted, you can get all that info there!

I will also be linking this post to the giant Monday menu compendium over at I’m an Organizing Junkie, which links to over 300 bloggers and their menus for the week.

And now, a week’s worth of gluten-free and mostly vegan eating, with links to recipes and photos galore! (I did manage to squeeze in a few nuts and seeds here… pine nuts, walnuts, sesame seeds, and even the humble peanut.)

Monday: Baingan bartha, sweet and sour red cabbage with raisins, white rice, vegan kheer (Moosewood Lowfat Cooking rice pudding recipe with cardamom added to the spice mixture)

Tuesday: Chile-cheese tamales (Trader Joe’s), Que Sera Cabbage Salad, and roasted root vegetables with herbes de provence

Wednesday: Kale with kale sauce, chard with pine nuts and raisins, red and white quinoa pilaf, Deborah Madison tofu

Thursday: Omelette with Bravo Farms humane cheddar and eggplant tapenade

Friday: Buckwheat soba noodles with steamed broccoli, sauteed red onions, marinated sauteed tofu, and homemade peanut sauce (from the freezer) and toasted sesame seeds

Saturday: Burma Super Star! (Our favorite restaurant in the world)

Sunday: Roasted cauliflower soup with cheese toasts or, for the vegan option, mushroom-walnut pate toasts

And now let’s see what nutty goodness the other Gluten-Free Menu Swappers have planned for the week…

Cheryl at Gluten Free Goodness loves nuts and cooks with them all the time. (I need her to be my mentor, clearly!) She has an incredibly delicious-sounding Roasted Tomato Soup with Caramelized Onion in the line-up, to be served with cashew cream. Also, she will be making something that I thought they served only in the buffet line in heaven: chocolate covered pomegranate seeds. Can I come over, Cheryl?

Sea at Book of Yum offers up a weeklong world-tour of vegetarian and mostly vegan recipes, heading from Italy to India to Japan. She is loving the walnut these days, especially as a breakfast powerhouse. She’ll also be topping her sweet potato and portobella pizza with “cheese” made from pine nuts, which Duck and I are going to have to make immediately. I love sharing vegan pizza with my baby but sometimes a girl needs a little dose of rich, savory mouthfeel mixed in with the veggies on her pie! So thanks for that, Sea!

Angela at Angela’s Kitchen is getting ready for Christmas with her family in such an inspiring way: peaceful, joyful, and lots of gluten-free holiday treats like lefse!  She’s another nut & seed natural, making cashew “cheese” sauce, using flax seed as an egg substitute, mixing them into some of her delicious-sounding breads. She has a yummy, hearty week planned – I must be craving beta-carotene because I’m salivating over her Penne with Pumpkin Sauce and her Sweet Potato Skillet Hash Browns!

Kimberly at Gluten-Free is Life is feeling a little rushed in the preparing-for-Christmas department, and I’m not surprised when I take a look at the awe-inspiring list of sweets and baked goods she has planned for the week. (Orange Pecan Topped Cream Cheese Banana Nut Bread – is that even legal?) She has a delicious and kid-friendly week planned with fun dishes like breakfast-for-dinner and inside-out burgers!

Esther at The Lilac Kitchen has lots of sickies at home right now so she has a pretty flexible menu planned, including what is probably the most popular meal in my house, “rice and stuff.” I am in awe of her and the other Gluten Free Menu Swappers who do the Daring Baker challenges – doesn’t that mean basically making up your own, alternate recipe every time?

Ginger at Fresh Ginger is another nuts & seeds fan (and points out that the majority of the seeds she uses are spices – of course! I forget that my cumin and mustard seeds and fennel are all seeds, and have their own great health benefits.) and will be making a nut brittle this week with pumpkin seeds and red chile. She has a delicious week of meals planned out, with a wonderfully intricate dish each night. My favorite is the Hot Tamale Soup, made from homemade tamales, grass fed beef, and home-canned tomatoes. Wow!

M-Elle at Cooking & UNcooking returns to the menu swap with a menu plan so delicious and filled with nutty goodness that I am packing my things to move to her house at once! (I know you said you’re exhausted M-Elle, but I am a very low-impact guest, I promise!) She works nuts & seeds into every crevice of her menu, from Pumpkin Seed Bread and Crispy Pecan Chicken Fingers to Ginger Almond Nori Rolls – raw sushi rolls where almond pate takes the place of the rice. Like many of you, she has a big week of holiday baking ahead – including a gingerbread house!