Meal Planning Strategy

When it comes to meal planning knowing yourself is half the battle.  If you are like me, you like to put off meal planning as long as possible.  Why?  Because it seems so daunting.  At least for me it is.  I am working on simplifying my meals. Which will then hopefully lead to less items in my cart, and less time writing items down, and less time searching the grocery store.

Knowing yourself.  I used to think that I had to think of 7 meals all at once. This can deterred me from making a weekly meal plan.  I have a hard time of coming up with 7 different meals that I know I am going to want to eat.  Unfortunately for me if I am not in the mood for a certain food even if I love it.  I just can't eat it.  Does anyone else have this dilemma?  This is why when I go to meal plan for the week, I only make myself come up with four meals, or three if that is all I can come up with.  But there are seven days in a week you ask? Yes there are seven days in a week.  But usually we will make something with the ingredients we already have, or have left overs. Which happens every once in a while.  Frozen pizza usually saves us about once a week and we typically go over to families on Sunday.  We will usually run to the store to fetch things here or there to come up with another meal.  We typically like to dine out as a family once a week as well. 

Grouping like ingredients when writing out your list of ingredients
I know this one sounds a bit obvious.  But for me I had to make myself do it.  Take the time to make a category for Produce, Breads/cereals, Meats/fish, Nuts, Dairy/cheese, Canned goods, Baking items, and Miscellaneous items.  I love the the Misc. category because nothing will get lost. And everything has a place.  If you  tend to buy a lot of spices then I might add a spice column.  Before you go grocery shopping it's good to scan your spice drawer and cabinets to see what needs to be restocked and what things you already have.  This way you are not doubling up on things, like produce.

Pick a day of the week to go grocery shopping and do it! 
I picked Monday as my day to go shopping.  I was good for two weeks and then fell off the wagon the third week.  So I need to get back on.  I noticed that some of the items at the grocery store needed to be restocked. I think it was due to the weekend and everyone doing their shopping and depleting all the food.  But the nice thing about Monday morning shopping is that it's pretty quiet and your children feel comfortable enough running throughout the store:)
  
 Keep recipes and recipe books all in one location
If you want to start meal planning it's nice not to have to round up different cook books and recipes all throughout the house.  I will print out a recipe and then I will jump right into making it.  This leads to getting the recipes all splattered. I need to remember to put them in my hand dandy binder.  If you haven't started a binder with sheet protectors then, now would be a good time to do that.  This way you can keep track of all your recipes and keep them in tip top shape for years to come.

I am still working on meal planning and grocery shopping.  Tell me what have you done to make it more enjoyable and more efficient.  Is writing out meal plans totally out of style for you?  Have your found some amazing app on your phone/I- pad that is amazing?  Do tell!

3 Quick Dinner Ideas

Crust Less Quiche-this is simple and you do not need a recipe-  I use about 5-6 eggs, 1/4 cup of milk and then I throw in whatever we have.  Last time I used, a yellow pepper chopped, potatoes chopped, green onion chopped, and 1/2 a cup of shredded cheese.  I mix, it all up and put it in a 9 inch pie pan.  Cook it in the oven for approximately 30-35 minutes on 350 degrees.   And then you have a simple and easy dinner.  Severs approximately 4 people.

Breakfast Burritos or Dinner Burritos-I could go on and on about how satisfying breakfast burritos are but I am not going to.  I use bacon, I am a dear fan of bacon.  Scrambled eggs, black beans, salsa, and avocados are a perk as well.  I try to use Avocados whenever I can.  They are just too good not to put in every recipe imaginable.  Wrap in a whole wheat tortilla.  Add some fresh spinach just for kicks and  try not to snarf it down:)

6 layer Bean Dip-  I love to use Amy's brand of  black beans, ( that are mashed) sour cream or plain Greek yogurt, shredded cheese, diced tomatoes, diced avocados, and diced black olives.  I like to eat them with Garden of Eating Blue Chips.  Sliced,  green, red and yellow peppers would be great for dipping as well!  And you could always do a mixture of both, peppers and blue chips.

Tell me about how you make these dishes you own, and keep them nutritious and satisfying!

Chocolate Shake

No photos today but I'm hoping soon!  I am all about chocolate and I found a chocolate shake recipe on A Blog About Love that she got from another blog called The Spunky Coconut.  Mine is a lot different but it is where I got my inspiration.  So here is what I did.

2 Tablespoons of raw cocoa powder. (I like my chocolate)
1 banana (preferably frozen) but it doesn't have to be
1/2 of an avocado
3/4 cup of almond milk (use milk if you like)
2 Tablespoons of chia seeds or flax seeds
1 Tablespoon of maple syrup optional but I highly recommended it
1-2 handfuls of ice

Put in a blender and mix for 30 seconds to a minute and there you have it!  It is mighty delicious! 

chicken, salsa, avocado

I am learning the older I get that recipes do not need to be lavish all the time.  They can be simple and quick and that is ok.

Grilled chicken- I cooked the chicken on the cast iron skillet.  Roughly about 5 minutes on each side. I flipped it regularly as to not brown the sides.  I ended up putting a lid over it to keep in the moisture and hopefully make the chicken more moist at the same time.  I didn't use any oil or water.

Salsa-  I used the organic Kirkland brand from Costco.  It does not disappoint if you are looking for a good store bought salsa.

Avocado-the pretty much speaks for it's self but I like to cut it in half, take out the pit and then continue slicing the avocado into horizontal perpendicular rows.  And then spoon it out or you could use a fork instead.

Simple and easy.

Food for thought

This is a going to be short and sweet.  I hear people use the term cheat days.  I am not sure I like the word cheat when it comes to food.  Maybe if you look off of someone's home work and copy, then yes I would use the word cheat.  But as for eating food I think we should empower ourselves and be happy about what food choices we are making.  And if we aren't going to be happy about it then we shouldn't do it.  And if you are happy about the food choices you are making then you could use the term celebration day instead of having guilt and saying cheat day! 

What do you think???

Real Life Breafast

Today was an inventive hodge podge kind of breakfast.  I wanted to eat somewhat healthy and didn't really have a lot of time since we needed to leave for preschool.  Also I haven't been to the store lately so we just grabbed whatever was in the fridge.  We found left over pancakes, carrots, red peppers and blueberries.  Definitely a breakfast to remember.  Colorful if nothing else.

Food Boundaries when it comes to sugar.

Hello, so this is something I think about a lot since the decision is constantly being brought before me.  Yes I struggle when to let me kids and myself have sugar and or sweets .  But I don't really call them sweets I just usually process it in my mind as sugar.  I want my kids to have a healthy relationship with Sugar as well as myself.  I want them not to be afraid to eat it or to do it with shame.  I want them to be empowered and not shameful.  I know I have made some mistakes in the past with sugar and my kids.  I believe this is because we never set proper food boundaries with sweets.  I know it is a work in progress.  Sometimes my daughter will say things like "I don't like sugar."  When clearly she does like sugar!  I want her to know that it is ok to like sugar!  It just needs to be kept in moderation in my opinion.  So what is moderation?  Moderation for my family is not going to look like moderation for your family. 

So that is why I believe everyone should have a discussion about what is moderation with sweets for their family.  How does it look?  How often, and how much. The kids should be involved in this to a certain extent depending on their age/maturity.  And the beautiful thing about this is you can try it out for a week and then re-evaluate.  Life is all about being flexible.

For me and my family we had the talk, I think it went really well and my oldest who is five was involved and able to participate.

Our family food plan regarding Sugar.  It is very basic and simple! 

Sunday dinners everyone get dessert.    
Birthdays and Holidays (The big ones, like Christmas, Valentines day, Halloween, Easter, Thanksgiving)
Family outings once a week or less to get a treat.  Whether it's to the local Donut shop, or ice cream or to Nana's (grandma's) freezer to get a Popsicle. Or the occasional baking cookies day.

For moms
Of course there will always be baby showers and girls nights that come up.  But I think if you keep the portion size to a minimum then it should be ok.

I am a huge fan of sharing dessert.  The other day we all split one gelato and it worked out fine.  (Good thing the spoons are so small :) 

Benefits to cutting down on sugar.

Think of all the money you will save, and the health benefits are too numerous to count!  Happy Food boundary setting.

Tell me your success stories of your failures,  I want to hear about your plans!

All Beet Up!

If nothing else make this juice just for the fun pictures.

All Beet up juice-- 4 carrots chopped, 2 beets chopped, 1 lime chopped and juiced.  It was delicious!!!  I loved, loved the lime juice!  It was packed a poweful punch!  I don't know if you can tell from the picture but the lime is a size of a lemon.  I'm not sure where I've been or if this is something new?  But I'll take it! 

Up Beet!

Up Beet Salad!  So this is probably the first time I have EVER had beets in my salad.  And can I just tell you they are sweet.  Beets are sweet.  If someone would of told me Beets were sweet I would have looked at them like they were crazy.  They do have a bit of an earthy taste but I kind of like that about beets.  We all have a rugged side to us and a sweet side.  So I feel like beets are relateable:)  Ha Ha.  The avocados I used were so ripe and at their peak flavor.  There is nothing better than a perfectly ripe Avocado.

Salad--Mixed baby greens with baby Kale, chopped beets, chopped carrots, and chopped avocadoes.

Dressing--balsamic vinegar, and  olive oil (not shown on salad)

Food for Thought

          No pictures of food today just thoughts.  I know eating good food that's not heavy on the carbs and sugar can sometimes be a chore.  Take salads for instance.  Sometimes I begrudgingly eat salads.  It's not that I don't love salads, but because sometimes they can start to taste the same.  Today when I was eating a salad for breakfast.  Yes for breakfast.  (My husband left it on the counter, and forgot to take it to work.)  I was eating it and not paying attention to flavors or texture.  Basically I wanted to get it over with and move on the the next thing.  But I knew that was not good for me or my body.  So my body relaxed more and tried using my senses to really enjoy the salad that was before me.  It was much more tastier and much more enjoyable then just "getting it done."  Take time to enjoy your food.  Even if you have had that same food time and time again.

Richness

There is something about foods with a richness in color.  They are vibrant and happy and might I add delicious.  Today I made a simple juice.  I used two beets chopped, 4 carrots chopped and one medium sized apple chopped and juiced.  There you have it.  Also I hear beets are high in iron so thats a plus.  And they are just so darn beautiful when you juice them.  I have yet to try straight beet juice.  One day, one day!  Oh and have you ever heard the term beet red?  Need a juicer, ask a friend who might have one hanging out in their cupboard...  Good luck.  The one we are using and loving is an Omega Juicer.  

Colorful Nibbles

Lunch-- There is nothing worse then going for your lettuce and finding it smelly.  So today we improvised and nibbled on a little bit of everything.  1 egg, broccoli, carrots, green grapes, red peppers and of course GOAT cheese.  If you aren't a fan of goat cheese try the aged goat cheese.  It is positively the best cheese I've tried since Gouda.  Go ahead and goat cheese, I triple dog dare you!

Almost All Green Salad!

Salad -- mixed greens, chopped broccoli, avocadoes, green beans and crumbled goat cheese.

Dressing--basalmic vinegar, olive oil, and honey.

Simple Salad

Lunch or Dinner

Here is an easy to throw together lunch.  Just as long as you have all the ingredients on hand. 

Simple Salad--Greens with baby Kale.  Baby Kale is much more palatable.  So if you think yuck when you think Kale "think baby Kale"  baby steps, baby steps:)  Cut up mushrooms, sunflower seeds, sugar snap peas and crumbled goat cheese. 

For my dressing I drizzled on  oil and basalmic vinegar.  And as my daughter would say TA DAAAA!