Month of Vegan & Lenten Menus, with Recipes

Planning a Repeating Month of Vegan Meals Makes
Meal Planning a Breeze!

A while back I did a post on menu planning for a year - it turned out to be a pretty popular post. All sorts of blogs and websites discuss meal planning, and a lot of people seem to think they
should do it, but many have trouble getting it done. For me, it saves time, money and stress - so what's not to love? But, I don't like having to re-do it every week - that's a hassle!

While I sometimes do menu planning for a year, I also like to follow this simpler method. I make a plan for four weeks that can be repeated over and over. It can be used three ways: 1) strictly go through the schedule, using the days in order 2) if you don't like so much structure, but still want to enjoy the benefits, shop for a week's menu, and use it to glance at on those nights when you don't know what to cook, knowing that you have what you need on hand, or 3) use it for planning bulk cooking menus, and simply grab the meal you want out of the freezer whenever you want it.

I find it pretty easy to keep groceries on hand to make most of these recipes without a special shopping trip. I keep most of the pantry ingredients on hand all of the time, then I simply need to shop for produce. Since none of the recipes use meat and dairy which must always be served fresh, many of these recipes can be prepared without running out to the grocery for those basics.

This is my own perpetual Vegan menu. Our whole family uses this during times like Lent when we all eat Vegan meals (for those of us who are Orthodox Christians, we are currently in Lent). I have a separate menu for those times when some of us eat differently (and perhaps I'll post that another time.)

I find this menu format the easiest to use- it is a simple word processing document, so I can cut and paste things where I need them. If we eat out, or I want to try a different recipe one of the nights, no problem! I've seen all sorts of fancy, artistic menu planners, with color coding and "pieces" to move about to different nights, but to me nothing beats the simplicity and ease-of-use of a basic computer document. (Not to mention, that if I had something with pieces, my daughter would think it was the perfect toy - and soon the pieces would be lost!)

When planning a month's menu, I like to think of a theme for a day of the week and follow that. For Omnivores, that might mean Beef on Monday and Pork on Tuesday. For me, it might mean that one day each week is Soup, or Mexican, or Italian, or Pasta, or Lentils, or Greek, or Grains, or Something-over-Rice - well, you get the idea! Then, it is easy to fill in a month of Wednesdays, for example, with my chosen theme. It is also easy to bulk-cook a whole month of Wednesday meals in an hour or two. (I refer to this as "Vertical Meal Planning" - but I printed this menu portrait-style, so when you look at it here, it will actually be horizontal. I did that just to be confusing ; )

 I like to offer myself options for a given night - usually one more time consuming and one simpler, one for hot weather & one for cool weather, or two menus that are too similar to serve close together. I also plan things according to our typical schedule for a day - for instance, on Sundays we often have friends come to lunch right after Church - so I might plan something that can be made in advance or in the Slow Cooker.

I have a print-out of this menu hanging inside one of my kitchen cupboards - just open the door for a menu at a glance.

Maybe this perpetual menu will work for you. But, if it doesn't, you might enjoy making a perpetual menu of your family's favorite recipes.

I typically serve a variety of things with meals that are not listed here - maybe salad, slaw, bread, fruit, a pickle & olive tray, and dips or spreads, but I don't list these things on my menu in addition to the entrée. I think of them as accessories!

Most of the entrees here have already been listed on my blog, and so I provided a link. Some of them are still to come - If I remember, I'll add more links as time goes on.

Sunday   (Bread, Salad & Fruit are Assumed)	Black Bean Enchiladas, Chips, Salsa	Italian Rice Salad with Red Lentil Soup	Black Bean Soup or * Pasta Fagioli or *Fasolia Yachni	Tofu Creole  or *Tabbouleh, Lebanese Bean Salad, Dolmades, Hummus
Monday	Family Favorite  Lentil Soup	Lentil Shepherd’s Pie or * Lentil Rice (or other) Salad with Veggie Burgers	Three Bean Dal, Fattoush or Salad	Lemony Dal
Tuesday	Fasolakia Yachni	Bamies Yachni	Mediterranean Eggplant over Rice  or * Stuffed Eggplant with Salad	Peas & Artichokes Yachni
Wednesday	Chili Cornbread Casserole  with Slaw or * Chili-Topped Potatoes with Salad	Stuffed Manicotti or * Spaghetti	Tofu Tamale Pie or * Fill your own Tortilla	Kibbeh or *Mushroom Barley Soup or *Split Pea Soup
Thursday	Giant Beans or Veggie Burgers & Oven Fries	Revythia	Spiced Black-eyed Peas or * Chickpeas in Ginger Sauce	Mediterranean Chickpeas over Rice or *Curried Chickpeas over Rice
Friday	Bulgur Pilaf	Lemon Rice	Confetti Pasta Shells	Black-eyed Peas or *White Beans (prepared the same way)
Saturday	Pad Thai or Orzo Pilaf	Stir fry Veggies	Moujendra	Vegan Pizza
Notes:

 This is being shared on Healthy Vegan Fridays, Menu Plan Monday, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, My Meatless Mondays, Jill Conyers Menu Plan & Vegetarian Challenge, Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, What's Cooking Wednesday, Simple Living Wednesday, Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways, The Thrifty Home Penny Pinching Party