PS – Like last week, I have just mentioned grain in this week’s meal planner too. You can pick your favorite ones like millet or quinoa or hand pound rice or other preferred ones. Also, for roti, I am using whole wheat flour. You can use mixed flour and make colorful rotis. As I mentioned in my previous meal planners, I have started my home remodeling series post. So far, I have posted about why we started the remodeling and things to consider before remodeling. Please do check it out. And this is my 20th meal planner. I can’t believe I have shared 20. Thank you for all your comments. Your encouraging comments keep me going. There is no doubt about it. Once again, my heartfelt thanks. You can find all my meal planners under my meal planners category link. I want to increase our vegetable intake, and this is another veggie-loaded meal planner like this planner that I posted in September. Also, like last week, I have included afternoon drinks in this one as well. PS – These beverages are mostly for us than for the kiddo. :-) You can relish them as a mid-morning drink or as afternoon drink instead of your tea or have them along with your lunch. I am trying to avoid my caffeine intake, so I relish these drinks around 2 PM. Now back to this week’s meal planner without idli and dosa.
Meal Planner For March 1st Week-
Weekend Meal Prep-
Chop all the required veggies. You can chop mushrooms and bell peppers the day before. This time I got sliced mushrooms, and I usually chop bell peppers over the weekend during winter. But summer I cut it just the day before or as required. Make sure you have sufficient yogurt for buttermilk. Soak black chickpeas and let it sprout for the Kala channa chaat or make sure you soak it the day before. Make bitter gourd gojju
Now here are details and the recipe links. I have highlighted the fruits and vegetables that I have used.
Monday:
Veggies – Bittergourd, cabbage, and zucchini Fruits – Strawberries
Starting the week with filling puttu. For lunch, it is going to be the Kongunaadu special, arisi paruppu sadam. Instead of rice, I am going to use millet, and I am going to pair it with cabbage curry. And for snacks, it’s strawberry with lemonade. I add a tsp of chia seeds. For dinner, it is bitter gourd gojju. I usually make it like my wild lemon gojju style with freshly ground spice powder. The salt and jaggery amount slightly differ, though. I will post the recipe soon. I am pairing it with cabbage curry and zucchini kootu.
Tuesday:
Veggies – Mushroom and mixed vegetables – carrots, green peas, potato and zucchini for kurma Fruits – Avocado, strawberries and dry fruits (figs)
Planning to make avocado toast for us and creme cheese toast for the kiddo. I love to sprinkle some Trader Joe’s chili-lime-pepper seasoning on my toast. For kiddo’s one, I just spread some creme cheese on a toast and add some strawberries. Lunch is the mushroom cheese quesadilla. For a snack, it’s mixed dry fruits and nuts with buttermilk. Dinner is roti with mixed veg kurma and mushroom stirfry.
Wednesday:
Veggies – Bell Peppers. Carrots and cucumber for the chaat. Fruits – Apple
I am planning to make overnight oats for us and a pesto sandwich for the kiddo. Lunch is again roti with leftover kurma. For the snack, it is an apple with cold tea. I like Tazo passion fruit decaf tea. I brew it in the morning and let it cool. You can find my recipe here. For dinner, it’s rice/grain with trevti dal, bell peppers curry, and kala chana chaat.
Thursday:
Veggies – Carrots and Cucumber Fruits – Tomato
As always, my Thursday meals are without onion and garlic. I am planning to go with pongal and gojju for both breakfast and lunch. Snack is parboiled carrots and cucumber along with buttermilk. I don’t prefer raw carrots for snacking, so I parboil them. For dinner, it’s arisi upma with tomato gojju and chutney.
Friday:
Veggies – Spinach, Potato + bell peppers, carrot, cucumber for the salad Fruits – Apple
As always, it’s a paratha Friday, and this week it’s the paneer paratha with raita and mixed veg salad. Snack is apple and lemonade. I love lemonade with rose syrup. It’s easy to make, but it is exotic for sure. Give it a try, and I am sure you will love it. I usually don’t add Friday dinner on my menu. But starting this week, you will find the Friday dinner menu also. This week it’s the simple rasam with spinach kootu and potato curry.
I hope this menu planner helps, and you all can draw some inspiration. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. I will share the daily updates on my Instagram and my FB group. So stay connected! If you like this meal planner, then you will like this bean, veggie, and fruit loaded meal planner and also this semihomemade meal planner. Happy Cooking!
title: “Vegetarian Meal Planner” ShowToc: true date: “2024-10-26” author: “Julie Goodwin”
Are you new to meal planning and prepping or looking for new ideas?
I have been sharing 5-day weekly vegetarian meal planners for the past two years, and I have over 46+ Indian vegetarian meal planners on my blog. You can check them out all under the “meal planner” category. Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comment section.
This week’s meal planner
This week, I am opting for some quick and easy recipes that you can make in less than 30 minutes of active cooking time. There is a little disclaimer here; make sure to do all the prep work a bit ahead. :-) You can find easy lunch and dinner ideas in this week’s menu, and let’s get straight into it. Let me talk about the prep work and planning each day and each recipe individually. Without any further ado, here is this week’s meal planner. Please check the recipe links below. Note – Use the grain of your choice. Instead of rice, you can use millets, quinoa, or brown rice. Also, you can make multigrain roti or quinoa, or ragi roti too.
Monday Menu
For breakfast, I have overnight oats, which of course, you can plan and prepare the day before. I have recently shared overnight chocolate oats, and you can check it out. It’s our favorite tomato rice with raita for the lunch box. You can prepare the tomato rice masala the day before, and on Monday morning, you can make the rice, saute the masala and add the cooked rice. Leftover rice works well too. And for dinner, I have the White beans stew, the Moroccan loubia, which freezes well. You can prepare it over the weekend or whenever you make it, make it in bulk and freeze, and it comes in handy for dinners. You can serve it with rice or other bread varieties.
Tuesday Menu
I have one of our staple breakfasts for Tuesday, it’s dosai, and I am pairing it with coconut chutney. You can switch the sides and serve it podi or thokku etc. And for lunch, it’s the pesto pasta. You can make the pesto before as a part of your weekend meal prep or use store-bought pesto. For dinner, I have an easy-to-assemble pita pocket salad. I am planning to use store-bought pita bread and canned chickpeas. Of course, you can use homemade chickpeas.
Wednesday Menu
I have a pesto sandwich for Wednesday’s breakfast using the leftover pesto from Tuesday. I don’t have a detailed recipe on my blog, but it’s pretty simple to make. Smear some pesto on the bread, place mozzarella slices or chunks, and grill it on a pan or panini grill. For lunch, I have the humble pressure cooker arisi paruppu sadam, and I plan to pair it with air fryer potato curry. I will soon share the potato curry recipe made in the air fryer. For arisi paruppu sadam, there isn’t much chopping involved, and you can make it quickly. For dinner, I have a simple miso noodle soup. With store-bought miso paste, it’s easy to make this soup. Again, I plan to share this recipe soon, so stay tuned.
Thursday Menu
As always, Thursdays are my no-onion, no-garlic days. I have humble idli with podi for breakfast and the same idli but with sambar for lunch. And I am planning to use the sambar for dinner by pairing it with upma. If you have cooked dal, it’s easy to make a sambar, or opt for an easy pressure cooker sambar with masoor dal.
Friday Menu
I have waffles for breakfast. I recently shared one with quinoa flour, and you can check it out. For lunch, I have roti with Kolhapuri paneer. You can opt for store-bought rotis or fresh roti. You can knead the dough well ahead, and I need to start making rotis in bulk which I haven’t done so far. I will soon start sharing my tips and tricks. As you can see, I am not using many vegetables this week, and I am okay with that. Some weeks are like that, and I accept it. :-) From the above menu, here is the weekend meal prep that you have to do for this week.
Weekend meal prep
Prepare the tomato masala. Prepare idli-dosa batter. Knead the dough for roti or just the day before. Prepare the pesto and cook the chickpeas if you plan to use homemade chickpeas for the pita pocket salad.
I hope this vegetarian meal planner helps, and you all can draw some inspiration. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. Looking to expand your meal planning? Take a look at our other Vegetarian Meal Planner alongside this one. I will be sharing the daily updates on my Instagram and my FB group. So stay connected! Stay Safe & Happy Cooking! Vidhya
