Leading By Example with Meal Planning

Week 3 in the Series

I haven't shared with you my weekly meal plan in a while and this is a great week to let you peak into my kitchen.

Thursdays I get a New Roots Organic produce delivery. I base my menu off of what I get and what random foods I may have left in the fridge. The cookbooks I used this week were Mollie Katzen's Vegetables Dishes I Can't Live Without (Veg Dish), Feeding the Whole Family (FWF) by Cynthia Lair, Moosewood Cookbook (MW) by Mollie Katzen (can you tell I'm a big fan of hers :-), and a few made up on the spot.

Saturday I spent 2.5 hours preparing all of the lunch/dinner recipes below. My wonderful husband kept things running smoothly by cleaning up along the way. In our house we have this rule: "Whom ever cooks is absolved of cleaning". So on these marathon cooking days he chips in so the mess isn't overwhelming at the end of it all. Bless that man for what he puts up with! 

Weekly Menu
Breakfast:
1. Deviled Eggs, Sliced Tomatoes, Whole Wheat Baguette
2. Steel Cut Oats, Frozen Strawberries, Walnuts, Brown Sugar (made with Rice Milk)
3. Protein Smoothies with Frozen Strawberries and Fresh Bananas

Lunch/Dinners:
1. Veg Dish p 96 Ruby Chard, Pressure Cooked Black-Eyed Peas, Grilled Halibut on the BBQ
2. FWF p 144 Millet Croquettes with Leftover Lentil Soup (also from MW p 25)

3. MW p 101 Vegetable-Walnut Pate stuffed in Mini Sweet Peppers, Grilled Chicken, and Brown Rice
4. (Own) Sauteed Cabbage Raab (1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 cup diced onion, 2 tsp olive oil, 1 tbsp minced garlic), Fresh Caught Boiled Shrimp (Today was open boating season and friends caught their limit in fresh shrimp today, THANKS for sharing them!), with Baked Spaghetti Squash
5. Leftover Combos: Blacked-eyed Peas on Brown Rice with a side of Ruby Chard, Remaining Vegetable-Walnut Pate on Warm Pita with a low fat string cheese (Yummy Snack!), Put remaining Cabbage Raab in Tomato Sauce, add any leftover shrimp or chicken and serve over Spaghetti Squash, Breakfast for Dinner option: Over-easy egg served on top of warmed Millet Croquette and a few slices of fresh fruit.


Good luck putting your plans together this week. Leave comments with questions and your personal stories. We love hearing from you!

This is my new pressure cooker! If you have any tips I'd love to hear them.

Meal Planning 101

Week 2 in the Series

Ahh, meal planning. It is such a double edged sword. On one hand, I love shopping for fresh foods and getting excited about what I can create with them. On the other hand, carting around a toddler who refuses to sit in a shopping basket is not my idea of a fun way to spend my time. So I’ve had to get creative in my approaches. (Thank God for AmazonFresh and the QFC daycare at U Village!)

To understand meal planning, it’s important to know which food groups you need to plan for at each meal.   Check out the picture to see which foods are needed at the different meals of the day. These plate models are adapted from the Idaho Plate Method . You can print your own for free under teaching materials on the site.

This picture tells you which food groups to include but it doesn’t tell you how much. This will be based on your personal calorie needs. When we work together, I calculate out specific calories based on multiple factors.  From here we figure out how many of each food group you need in a day to make up this calorie level. To get a general sense of your nutrition needs and portion sizes, check out the MyPyramid website.

Now that you have a clear picture as to what food groups you need to fill up on, it’s time to start planning. The first place to begin is your kitchen! Rummage through your cookbooks and online recipes to see what excites you. If you aren’t motivated to prepare a dish or even excited to eat it, then why cook it? Remember from the last post, you are looking for 2 breakfast recipes, 1-2 snack recipes, and 4 dinner recipes to prepare.

Now take your chosen recipes and see how they fit onto your plate models. What pieces are missing? Which are in excess? This is the time to balance the scales. If your dish is mainly pasta, consider serving it as a side and add a salad. Do you have protein? Milk/dairy? A fruit?

Most people prefer to move their dairy and fruit options at the main meals to eat as their snacks. This is completely fine to do.

Formulate your grocery shopping list using the balanced out plate model handout. Note that creativity and variety are not in any way stifled through this process. Instead, you now have a foundation to guide your planning and cooking process.

The next step is yours! Weekly Challenge: Print out a Daily Meal Plate handout, peruse your cookbooks for inspirational recipes, and balance your plates. The kids love this activity because they can color in their meals and feel they have some say in their food choices.

Zen Recipe Corner:
Veggies All Ways
Servings variable

1 small bunch collard greens, chopped
1 small bunch rainbow chard, stems removed and chopped
3 turnips, diced
¼ c diced red onion
½ tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp canola oil
½ fennel bulb, diced
½ cup dried cranberries
¼ cup apple cider vinegar

Directions:
Rinse and drain collard greens and rainbow chard. Add to large bowl and sprinkle salt on. Massage with your hands for 1-2 minutes. (This makes the greens less bitter.) Heat skillet on medium high heat, when pre-heated add oil. Let heat for 1 minute. Add onion, turnip, and fennel. Sautee’ until almost tender. Add greens to pan in small bunches. Let cook down a bit before adding another handful. With last handful of greens add in apple cider vinegar, black pepper, and cranberries. Sautee until greens have wilted. Add more salt/pepper to taste.
Serving Suggestions: (You can really use any veggies you like in this recipe and it’ll come out great!)
1.    as a side dish (goes great with fish and quinoa),
2.    add choice of meat, brown rice, and peanut sauce for a quick left over stir fry
3.    Mixed in with scrambled eggs & ½ oz shredded mozzarella
4.    Stuff into a hummus lined whole wheat pita pocket topped with fresh goat cheese
5.    Add the last bit to a tomato sauce and toss with whole grain pasta

Meal Planning 101

Meal Planning at its core is quite simple.

1.    Pick one day each week to plan your meals for the week.
2.    Choose 2 breakfast recipes, 1-2 snack recipes, and 4 dinner recipes to prepare.
3.    Make your grocery shopping list from those recipes.

Seems easy enough, yet we find ourselves roaming down the grocery aisles tossing random food items into our cart without thinking the meal through (example: grabbing lean ground beef and spaghetti pasta not realizing there is no more pasta sauce in the cupboard). Or we confront our daily nemesis, “What’s for dinner?” with the perfect response, “Take Out!” Which I’m sure the kids just love to hear!

Unfortunately these habits create STRESS, cost MONEY, take TIME away from your family, and increase your risk for CHRONIC DISEASE such as hypertension and heart disease. I bet you didn’t realize that was HOW IMPORTANT MEAL PLANNING is.

What is stopping you from doing this already?  Is it your low confidence in picking meals your family will enjoy? Do you really dislike cooking? Do you need ideas to get you started?  Do you not feel comfortable cooking and preparing meals?

This may sound silly, but it is important to know and acknowledge what is holding you back from this. If you are reading this, then I’m guessing one of your main core values is providing healthful foods to your family and for yourself. Do you see how this perceived barrier is preventing you from reaching your healthy eating goals?

Weekly Challenge: It’s time to take your first step towards meal planning!
Step 1: Identify your Nemesis! What is holding you back from doing this each week?

Step 2: Challenge the Nemesis! Is it true that you really can’t cook? Ask your family/friends what was the last dish that you made which they enjoyed eating.

Step 3: Re-think the thought! What can you tell yourself so that you will be able to get through this perceived barrier and begin meal planning?

Step 4: Post It! Write down this new thought and post it in a highly visible place so you will be able to remember it.

I’m looking forward to seeing you hear next week when we dive more into the meal planning process. We will define what a balanced plate looks like at meals and snacks as well as chat about portions sizes and meal timing. See you then!

Zen Recipe Corner:
5 minute Mexican Pizza (GREAT AFTERNOON SNACK IDEA)
Serves 4-8 (2 each with meal, 1 each as snack)


Ingredients:
8 tostada shells
1 cup chile verde sauce
2 cups fat free refried beans
½ cup chopped fresh basil leaves or fresh cilantro leaves
1 tomato diced
½ cup black pitted olives, diced
Hot sauce-as desired

Directions:
Place tostada shells on baking sheet. Pre-heat oven to 275 degrees. Spread ¼ cup of refried beans on each tostada shell. Sprinkle each pizza with the chopped basil, diced tomatoes and black olives. Heat in oven for 5 minutes.

Serving suggestion at a meal: add grilled chicken for more protein and serve with a tossed green salad.

Kid Helpers? This is an extremely kid friendly recipe. They can sprinkle on toppings and line the tostadas on the pan. 2 years and up may be able to help spread the refried beans with your help-using a butter knife or plastic knife.

Save the Date...May 18th 7-8:30pm

What’s for Dinner?

Week 5 in the Series

Hey Mamas and Papas,  time to check in! We are wrapping up the first part of our Feeding Your Family Series. This week is the time for HONEST reflection.

Can you answer all 3 questions?

1.    What day of the week do you meal plan?
2.    What day (s) (no more than 2) do you grocery shop?
3.    What day (s) of the week do you cook and prepare food (no more than 3 or 4)?

If not, make those decisions, write them down on your calendars, and set up a reminder system to keep you accountable. These 3 questions are your building blocks to finding peace with food.

I want you to notice that I did not ask if you knew HOW to meal plan, HOW to grocery shop, HOW to prepare the food. We are going to spend the next few weeks exploring these components in more detail. At this point, it’s important that you become consistent with the knowledge you currently have.

The Game of 20 Questions! The questions below are meant to bring awareness and help you to navigate more clearly, your personal path to creating peace with food. You are the only person seeing these responses so answer HONESTLY! And remember: you can’t help someone else, including your family, until you begin to help yourself.

Grab a pen and paper! 
1. Do you enjoy cooking?
2. Do you enjoy eating?
3. What inspires you to cook?
4. Do you skip meals?
5. Do you eat main meals in your car more than 2 times a week?
6. Does your family eat together at a table 4 or more times per week?
7. Would you or someone close to you consider yourself a picky eater?
8. What textures, foods, smells do you typically avoid or limit?
9. What thoughts run through your head when you see an overweight person?
10. What thoughts run through your head when you see a normal weight person?
11. What thoughts run through your head when you see a very thin person?
12. Who does the food shopping in your house? (If it isn’t you then get that person to read with you.)
13. Who does the cooking in your house? (If it isn’t you then get that person to read with you.)
14. Do you dine out more than 3 times a week (including breakfast/work cafeteria)?
15. Does your cooking repertoire consist of 6 or less recipes that you rotate through each week?
16. Do you eat planned snacks every day?
17. Do you eat breakfast every day?
18. On a scale of 1-10, how much to you value providing quality, nutritious food to yourself and your family? (10 being the highest)
19. You’ve made it through all these questions, what is keeping you here?
20. You deserve a reward! What is a non-food reward you can give to yourself?

Loads of questions, I know! But knowing this information is going to be helpful in assessing your food attitudes and what you are modeling to your children as appropriate behavior. Remember, you can’t help someone else, including your kids, until you begin to help yourself.

Stay tuned! Next week we dive into the art of meal planning. Thank you to one of my followers for asking for recipes. I'm happy to start adding a fun recipe each week. See you next Monday.

P.S.  I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! PLEASE WRITE YOUR STORIES & QUESTIONS IN THE COMMENTS BELOW. If you like what you read, SHARE IT with your friends and family.

Recipe:

Massaged Kale, Apple & Quinoa Salad

(adapted from Cynthia Lair’s Feeding the Whole Family Cookbook)
Preparation time 25 minutes
Makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients:
2 pre-baked chicken breasts, diced
1 bunch kale
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/3 cup sunflower seeds, toasted
¼ cup diced red onion
1/3 cup currants
¾ cup diced apple, (½ apple)
2 cups cooked quinoa
¼ cup olive oil
2 tablespoons unfiltered apple cider vinegar

Directions:
Cook quinoa as you would pasta. (Add to boiling water, boil until tender, then drain. For extra fluffy effect, add uncooked quinoa to dry pan and lightly toast while water is coming to a boil.) De-stem kale by pulling leaf away from the stem.  Wash leaves.  Spin or pat dry.  Stack leaves, rollup and cut into thin ribbons (chiffonade). Put kale in a large mixing bowl. Add salt, massage salt into kale with your hands for 2 minutes. To toast seeds, put in a dry skillet over low to medium heat and stir constantly for a few minutes until they change color and give off a nutty aroma.

Put kale in a fresh bowl and discard any leftover liquid.  Stir onion, currants, apple, quinoa, chicken and toasted seeds into kale. Dress with oil and vinegar and toss.  Taste for salt and vinegar, adding more if necessary.

PS This is a great recipe for your kids to help with. They can mix, add, taste test.

FACT: Kids are more likely to try it if they’ve helped make it. Weekly Challenge: Involve your kids in helping you with at least ONE meal this week.