Meal Planning, Curried Lentils, and a Random Story

The Husband and I plan our meals for the week ahead of time, trying to maximize use of ingredients we already have and the new ingredients we will buy on our weekly grocery trip.  I build the grocery list and meal plan simultaneously, trying to create a week's worth of healthy, interesting meals as thriftily as possible, using the same set of ingredients for multiple recipes without being repetitive or boring.  I also make a point of having one totally vegetarian meal and one meal that has a salad as a main course each week, even if that means spending a little more or buying a few specialty ingredients I can't use in other things.

For example, next week's meal plan will be:
Pasta with Ham and Peas
Ham and Broccoli Cheddar Quiche
Citrus Shrimp Salad
Thai Pineapple Fried Rice with Shrimp
Sweet Potato Crockpot Chili

We will also make a week's worth of breakfast burritos and freeze them for use throughout the week.  This plan is great because there are only two expensive ingredients involved... the Turkey Ham and the shrimp.  We will buy a turkey ham, use a third in the pasta, a third in the burritos, and a third in the quiche.  So, a $6 protein purchase goes toward two dinners and a handful of breakfasts.  Same with the shrimp... we'll buy a $7 bag of frozen shrimp, use it in the salad and the fried rice.  We could always do better in terms of budgeting, but this kind of meal plan fits neatly in the intersection of our priorities... health, frugality, variety, flavor and quickness.

Today's dish is one of my new favorites for vegetarian night.*  It's cheap, easy, and since I make it in the crockpot, it's ready when I get home from my Zumba class and am starving!  I serve over rice, barley or couscous, which I make a day ahead or The Husband makes while I'm Zumba-ing.


Curried Lentils

Nouns:
1.5 cups lentils, picked over and rinsed
4 carrots, peeled and grated (grating takes forever, and I usually load up the crock before leaving for work in the morning, so I just run the peeled carrots through my mini food processor, or use bagged shredded carrots)
1 small onion, diced
2 tbsp curry powder
1 veggie bouillon cube
2-3 good squirts of ketchup (okay, if your gourmet sensibilities are offended, feel free to add tomato paste, vinegar, sugar and salt instead... but ketchup is easier)
3 cups water
salt and pepper to taste

Verbs:
Put everything in the crockpot.  Turn on low.  Go to work.  Come back.  Eat.  I left mine for almost twelve hours, because I have long days involving a commute and then the gym, and it was fine.  It will be ready to eat after about 7-8 hours if you're in a big fat hurry, though.



* I can never eat lentils without thinking of my friend Todd, who lived with me and my dear friend Miriam the summer before our senior year of college. That summer Todd subsisted almost entirely on lentils, since they are basically the cheapest protein source you can find and Todd was even more broke than your average broke-ass college student.  This is not Todd's lentil recipe.  Todd made his lentils palatable by covering them in salsa and sour cream, making a pinkish vomitous mass.  These lentils actually taste good and only resemble vomit a little bit.  Yummm.

This is photo of Todd and the Husband at my wedding.  There were no lentils involved.