Menu plan (80% plus Daniel Fast approved)

I planned this menu with the goal of striving for at least six servings of veggies/fruit per day.   It seems hard to reach this goal if you don't plan it out in advance.  This week, our protein will mostly come from beans, fish, and nuts.  It isn't 100% DFA, but you could easily modify a few things to reach that goal if you are interested.  If you are thinking about a Daniel Fast, this menu would certainly help prepare you as it is mostly based in plants. You would only need to eliminate the fish, make a few small adjustments on the stir fry recipe (no alcohol or added sugar) and avoid adding cheese to the lentil casserole and baked potato. 

Sunday:  Whole grain cereal with fresh mango
                Baked potato with baby green salad
                Lentil and green bean casserole
                Nectarine

Monday:  Oatmeal with cinnamon and raisins
                 Brown rice tortilla with peanut butter and granny smith apple
                 Grapes
                 Baby carrots
                 Grilled tilapia with squash and zucchini

Tuesday:  Whole grain cereal with banana
                 Brown rice tortilla with peanut butter
                 Clementine
                 Homemade trail mix (dried fruit, nuts, seeds, and grain)
                 Cabbage kale salad with chickpeas and pear (recipe later if this is good)

Wednesday:  Oatmeal with cantaloupe
                      Leftover salad with grapes
                      Veggie tacos

Thursday:  Whole grain cereal and a clementine
                   Leftover veggie tacos
                   Apple
                  Chinese veggie stir fry with rice

Square foot gardening

I started my first square foot garden this past week.  I am using the above book for a reference guide.  I started off with a kit I purchased at Sam's club.  For soil, I used 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 blended compost.  The vermiculite was the toughest ingredient to find; I had to go to a plant nursey.  The big box stores don't carry it.  Maybe one day I'll have my own compost pile, but for now I purchased a couple of different composts.  To mix all the ingredients together, I layed them onto a tarp and mixed them up, then shoveled them into the boxes.  My daughter had a lot of fun mixing the dirt with me.  I have cute pictures but need to find the thingamajig that allows me to upload from the camera.  :)

I measured some latts I bought at the hardwared store and cut them to size to divide each box into squares.  Latts are cheap; I spent about 4 dollars and had leftover wood.  Each square is about a foot, give an each or so.   I planted seeds of different veggies into each square and labeled the squares on the latt.

Voila! 

I will keep you posted on how this turns out!  Hopefully I will find the thingamajig so I can share some photos soon.

Growing your own Green Onions

I saw this on Pinterest and had to try it.

I took a few green onions and cut off the green portion, leaving the white roots.

I put them in a glass of water and set them by a window.  Every 2-4 days, I dump out the water, rinse the roots, and put new water in the glass.

After a few days they started growing!  Imagine never having to pay for green onions again! 

Menu Planning

We didn't used to plan menus . We used to walk back and forth from the fridge to the pantry, asking each other "What do you want?"  "That doesn't sound good".  "How about this?" over and over.  After adding a child to the mix, I knew evenings would be hectic and that is when I started planning menus.

Here are some reasons to plan your menu in advance:

1) We KNOW what is for dinner!  No more wasting time thinking or talking about it.  It is what it is.

2)  It lowers your grocery bill.  You write it all down, then make a shopping list, and follow the list!

3)  You can plan according to your schedule.  If I know I am working a long shift, I plan something simple or plan a crockpot meal.  If I know I have the day off, I plan a more labor intensive or time consuming meal.  If I know the weather is going to be 70 in December, dinner will be simple that week so we can enjoy those days outside instead of cooking.

4)  It lowers your eating out bill.  Instead of panicking over what to eat and automatically going out or ordering in, you've got a plan in place.  We still schedule meals out, but it is planned and budgeted for in advance (most of the time).

5) It prevents frequent repeat meals.  "Didn't we have this three days ago?  And two days before that?"

Tips on planning a menu
1)  First, write down all your favorite meals and side dishes.

2) When planning your first menu, start small.  Plan 3-7 days in advance.

3)  Write down the days of the week.  Start filling in some of your favorites.  Be aware of scheduling conflicts.  If hubby is working late, I don't want to make his favorite dish that night.  If you have to be somewhere shortly after dinner you don't want to pick something that takes longer to prepare.

4)  Use choosemyplate.gov to help you calculate how many servings of each food group you are getting.  You can personalize your free profile so you know how many calories you need to maintain or lose weight.  You want to shoot for 100% in the grains, veggies, fruit, and protein categories. 

5)  Brainstorm.  Share ideas with friends and neighbors.  In the beginning, I really struggled with coming up with a variety of meals.  I started asking people what they were having for dinner to get ideas.  Flip through a cookbook or two for ideas.  Try new things!  I also often browse www.wholefoodsmarket.com for ideas.

6) Once you have a menu planned, make a shopping list. 

There are tons of menu planning websites and blogs with cute ideas using notecards and color coded devices.  I just jot it down on scrap paper and stick it on the fridge.  Be as fancy or as simple as you like!

Some people base their menu planning off what's on sale in the weekly store ads.  I have tried this, but found that most of the food items on sale were processed, so it wasn't worth my time to flip through all the ads. 

Do you have any more tips on menu planning?  If so, let me know!  I love new ideas!

A two year old cooking?

Our daughter is twenty six months old.  Here is one example of how she can help prepare dinner. 

They say that when kids help prepare meals they are more likely to eat them.  We are glad to get her involved in preparing healthy foods at an early age.  

Tonight, she helped make our winter pomegranate salad.

First, she helped tear up the Romaine lettuce.

Then, she pushed the button on the salad spinner (over and over).  You will not have drier salad if you spin it yourself! 

Then she moved all the lettuce into the big salad serving bowl.

She even put in the sliced pears, too! 

Next, she poured the pomegranate dressing into the bowl.

Finally, she helped toss the salad. 

I'll try to catch more of these shots in the future-she is usually close by when I cook.  It warms my heart to see her learning and having fun (and yes, actually helping) all at the same time.