I am back with a new meal planner. And this week, I am going with a theme – “bean/legume, vegetable and fruit combo” every day. With this theme in mind, I have planned my dishes. Let’s see them in detail.
From this week onwards, I am not going to share explicitly the carbs that I am using for dinner. Many had asked for low-carb meal plan ideas. Sorry folks, I am not a dietician or a nutritionist also I don’t follow any particular diet. So it’s difficult for me to design a full low-carb diet plan.
One thing I can say for sure, my meal plans are very customizable. You can replace rice with any complex carbs of your choice, and also you can work around with seasonal veggies and according to your dietary restrictions and your schedule. Yes, your weekly schedule plays a significant role. Somedays you might have time for some elaborate cooking and somedays all we can do is some dosa or upma. That’s fine. I repeat folks; nothing can beat homemade food with love.
My goal here is to encourage home cooking and also to encourage you to plan and prep the meal, which in turn makes cooking easy. So far, I have posted 13 meal planners, and here is my 14th one. You can access all my previous meal planners under the category “meal planners.”
Here is this week’s Bean, Vegetable And Fruit combo Meal Planner:
Weekend Meal Prep:
- Last week, I survived without an idli-dosa batter. I am not going to take a chance this week. So I am planning to prepare my idli dosa batter and this time I am going with idli rice. No millets.
- As always, chop the vegetables and refrigerate them.
- You can soak the beans over the weekend and let it sprout or make sure to soak them the day before. If you want to let the seeds sprout, soaking the beans a couple of days ahead helps a lot. I will document my process of bean sprouting soon.
Meal Planning in Detail:
Monday:
- I am starting with the comforting idli with podi/idli gun powder for breakfast.
- For lunch, it’s the mint rice with raita. You can prepare the mint rice paste the previous day also.
- Dinner is yet another comfort food with green mung beans masiyal or dal. I am planning to make sweet potato podimas curry, which is pretty mild. But you can also make chaat with sweet potato, and that pairs well with the dal as well.
Tuesday:
- For the first time, I am going with dosa for both breakfast and lunch. Packing dosa for lunch is a bit tricky. That’s why I make it in small shapes like coins. You can call them as coin dosa or coin uttapam. These uttapams stay soft than the crispier dosa. I have a carrot coin dosa on my blog. You can add any vegetable puree to the batter and make the dosa. I am going with plain coin dosa this time.
- And for dinner, it’s the ulava charu or horsegram lentils stew with green beans stirfry. Our friend shared the store-bought paste with us, and I am planning to use that one. That’s why I did not add “soak horsegram lentils” as the prep-work the previous day. :-) Making ulava charu at home is not difficult either – I have both ulava charu and ulava charu biryani on my blog.
Wednesday:
- For breakfast, it is the puttu/steamed rice cakes with coconut. I am using the store-bought puttu mix.
- The soup weather is here, and we love soups for lunches. I try to add beans and lots of vegetables and even pasta in my soup. It’s very filling. I have included garlic-bread, as well for the side. But you can add bread of your choice. (PS: I will share my version of garlic bread soon)
- It’s been ages since I made pitlai. So I am planning to make bitter gourd pitlai (pitlai is a sambar variety) and pair it with potato curry.
Thursday:
- Back to the simple porridge and cheese sandwich for the kiddo. I posted my sattu porridge recipe on Youtube. I will share the recipe on my blog soon.
- Lunch is the idli with podi. We love idli for breakfast, lunch, and dinner :-)
- Also, I am making black chickpeas sundal which will be the neivediyam/prasadam(offering to God) and also our snack. PS: I missed to add the fruit banana along with the snack in the meal planner.
- Dinner is ven pongal, and this time with brinjal gothsu. I have one version on my blog, but I am planning to try the Chidambaram Gothsu version. I make it often, but for some reason, I missed to post it here.
Friday:
- I cannot skip oats from my weekly menu. So starting the day with oats smoothie and oatmeal for the kiddo.
- Lunch is a simple pasta with tomato-basil sauce.
- Also, I am planning to pack a sprouted moong dal chaat for a snack. As kiddo doesn’t like raw beans, I am planning to pack some cookies. PS: I missed to add guava along with the snack in the meal planner.
- Dinner is the humble semiya-rava khichdi and chutney.
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!
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