Which explains, basically, why we live on a diet of fresh fruit, cold cereal, BLTs, and lots and lots of cucumbers in the summer. Oh well. I file my Summer Cooking Method away under “great survival experiences for the kids” and move on. At least it’s not Lunchables every day.

But then fall time comes, blessed blessed Fall time, in which the garden no longer needs to be weeded because everything is dead, and the aroma of candy corn is in the air…

Fall, my friends, is for cooking.

Virginia is for lovers (hon, why have we never been there?), specialization is for insects, and fall is for cooking.

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve made Manly French Onion Soup, Cheese Ravioli with Butternut Squash, Panfried Tuna Steaks, Bacon Glazed Roasted Vegetables, Spaghetti and Meatballs, Cornbread, Beans and Yellow Rice with Smoked Sausage, Buffalo Chicken Caesar Salad, and…

Well, maybe that’s it.

And in the last couple of weeks, we’ve also eaten fresh fruit, cold cereal, sandwiches… and yes, even a couple of cucumbers. Apparently those items are just staples in our diet. Ah well.

My menu for this week had me making Stuffed Crescent Rolls for dinner tonight, which would have been a perfectly quick-to-eat and delicious meal (ideal for church night) if I had made them. Unfortunately, I kind of forgot about the whole “you have to start crescent roll dough several hours before you intend to eat the crescent rolls” detail.

Oh well. Tomorrow’s another day, it will still be fall, and there’s cooking to be done. Stuffed Crescent Rolls or Corn Chowder? I’m feeling a little crrrrazy. I think I’ll make both.

Tonight, it’ll be leftover spaghetti and meatballs. At least it’s not a Lunchable.

Yuck image by Very Quiet.

I hate dropping a couple of hundred dollars at the grocery store only to realize, a few days later, that I have nothing to cook for dinner. Blech. Where did that food go?
I can’t help it if you have five hungry teenage boys in your house – that’s a different story – but here are a few things I do to stretch the grocery budget and still produce a filling, healthy meal.

P.S. One option I didn’t list here is “don’t cook anything for dinner”; you will save money on your grocery bill but eventually the troops will revolt. You can only serve cold cereal for dinner so many times… (Our personal limit is 3x in a week. Not that I’ve tested that… um… often.)

1. Make a menu.

Basic, I know. Don’t believe me? Check it out:

• OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday & whole section of Menu Planning Resources
• Hillbilly Housewife says you should and you’ll save lots of time.
• SimpleMom says it helps you use coupons and cook seasonally.
• CookingLight has six simple steps for menu planning.
• Even Iowa State Extension is in on the menu planning thing. C’mon, you can’t argue with Iowa State.

2. Shop sales on meat.

Meat is usually the most expensive (single) item on the grocery list. Plan your menu around the meat sales so you’re getting the best deals on meat for the week. Compare prices at a couple of different stores in your area, too. You might find one offers consistently better prices on meat. Shop there.

3. Add a fresh, healthy side to every meal.

Salad, for example, which does not have to be expensive. It will be if you purchase organic baby greens and 27 different gourmet salad add-ons plus one of those $5 bottles of salad dressing. Simplify your salad: make your base a nice mix of romaine, spinach, and iceberg.

I know, I know, iceberg has no nutritional value, blah blah blah. It’s hefty and crunchy and I like it in my salad, so there… not to mention it’s super cheap. I wouldn’t recommend a salad composed entirely of iceberg, but hey, if that’s your thing…

4. Have a leftover night.

Otherwise you’ll have 7 Tupperware containers of aging food that you end up throwing out a few days later. That’s a waste. Leftover night means you save money and it also means you don’t have to cook. Wheeee!

5. Eat vegetarian once or twice a week.

Our vegetarian meal this week is spinach-stuffed shells, a recipe from this lovely lady, and I can’t wait to eat it. There’s nothing wrong with a vegetable soup, meatless pasta, or big bowl of spicy black beans and rice. In fact, those are some of my favorite meals. They work great as leftovers for lunch, too.

6. Try some ethnic recipes.

The point being to branch out into recipes from cultures in which meat (a huge hunk of it for every meal) has not been so readily accessible. Thus, the cookbook from “Cattle Ranchers of Australia” probably won’t help you out here, even if they do include a genuine aboriginal side dish or two.

Think of dishes like stirfries and curries, which can incorporate meat but in small amounts. I love Jeffrey …. cookbook for a great selection of doable ethnic dishes that you won’t think to search for on the Internet.

7. Double the veggies, halve the meat.

You’re making spinach lasagna, say, which calls for 1.5 pounds of ground beef and 8 ounces of spinach. Switcheroo: 16 ounces of spinach and more like 3/4 of a pound of ground beef. Spinach is cheaper than beef. The trick is to watch your proportions, overall. Keep enough meat so you get the flavor and texture, then amp up the other stuff. You’ll be healthier, too.

Our Menu This Week:

• Monday: garlicky chicken soup, homemade crescent rolls, big green salad
• Tuesday: spinach stuffed shells, big green salad
• Wednesday: bacon-chicken mac & cheese, asian red cabbage salad
• Thursday: Leftovers! Wheeee!
• Friday: mozzarella meatloaf, mashed potatoes, fresh fruit
• Saturday: Soup of some sort, egg salad & chicken salad sandwiches
• Sunday: lasagna, spinach salad

I should probably throw a dessert in there sometime… makes my husband happy.

This post is linked up with OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday. Go there for lots of great menus and recipe links.

Image courtesy of  stevendepolo.

…that IS the question.

Our menu for the week

Sunday: (as in, yesterday) Joe made us a huge pot of garlicky, warm smoked sausage and potato soup and french bread.
Monday: green salad with baked lemon chicken (it was going to be grilled, but it’s raining, so never mind), garlic-butter breadsticks.
Tuesday: cheesy, ultimate comfort food: homemade mac’n'cheese {recipe below} with ham, on the side we’ll have stir-fried cabbage and fresh fruit.
Wednesday: we’ll have smoothies for dinner (kids will get leftovers), then snacks with our home Bible study group. I’ll do a tray of olives, prosciutto, cheese, and crackers and either the oatmeal cookies or these oh-my-goodness chocolate butterfinger cookies from Rach’s Blog Bite. Oh my goodness. Chocolate + butterfinger + cookies.
Thursday:So I’m indebted to Rach again for another great recipe: the tortellini salad that sounds amazing. Yum. I’ll do some dill-marinated cucumbers on the side.
Friday:Fajitas with green peppers and onions, pineapple salsa and chips, and some fresh guac if avocados aren’t outrageously expensive. Mmmm.
Saturday:either homemade pizza or grilled brats, potato salad, and red beans.
Sunday:a big pot of chicken and dumplings sound just right. Salad, a tray of fruit and cheese, and maybe some apple pie for dessert, unless I can talk Joe into making some of his amazing chocolate mousse. I think I’m gaining weight just thinking about this meal.

Let’s talk about homemade mac’n'cheese. Actually, let’s talk about any luxuriously comforting creamy baked pasta dish. It all comes down to the sauce, my friends. The homemade, creamy, and, yes, easy to make sauce.

Basic White Sauce

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
In a large saucepan or saute pan, melt the butter until it is all liquid; immediately sprinkle the flour on and start whisking until the flour and melted butter are mixed together in a lumpy, doughy looking thing. Yum. Looks promising, doesn’t it? Don’t panic. Turn the heat down to very low, or pull it off heat for a moment, and get out
4 cups of milk
Pour in about a cup of the milk, more or less, and whisk away until the lumpy-doughy butter/flour mix has made a saucy mixture with the milk. Keep whisking to get the lumps out. Keep the pan over low heat so the milk won’t scald. Now pour in another 1 or 2 cups of milk, whisk, and then let it bubble until it starts to thicken. Now pour in the rest of the milk, whisk, and keep it over low heat. Give it a stir every now and then. You want to let it just cook on very low heat so it thickens. This would be a good time to season the sauce, so pull out
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
Stir the salt and pepper into the sauce. Now, if you want to, you can add more seasoning. For example, I might add
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried chervil
1 teaspoon lemon zest
if I want a creamy sauce with some good herby flavor and a little zesty kick. Something a little lighter, good for Spring, to pour over pasta with peas, mushrooms, and Parmesan shavings. But today I’m making mac’n'cheese, so light and springy is not exactly what I’m going for. Instead, I’m going to add
1 tablespoon (okay, I’ll probably add 2) minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon dried parsley
Now, once the seasonings are added, you just want to let the sauce simmer a bit so all the flavors meld together and the sauce bubbles away and gets thicker. You’ll want to taste it and add more salt and pepper as needed. (If it’s a bit too salty, don’t worry; you’ll be pouring it over pasta, so you want it to have a good, intense flavor. If it’s much too salty, add another cup of milk.)
That’s it for white sauce. Since I’m turning this into mac’n'cheese, though, we need to add…. cheese. Glorious cheese.

to make the mac’n'cheese

I generally just use whatever I have in the refrigerator. This week I have cheddar and monterey jack, so I’ll grate enough to make about 2 cups of cheese total and then dump that into the sauce, stirring so the cheese doesn’t stick on the bottom. Once the cheese is melted, the sauce is finished. Now, set the sauce aside and continue on:
Cook 1 pound of pasta (shells, macaroni, mostaccioli, whatever you like) according to package directions. Drain and pour into a 13×9 baking dish or a 3 quart casserole dish or whatever else you have handy that is oven-safe and will hold 1 pound of pasta plus sauce.
Fry up 1 pound of bacon or a couple of big slices of ham, or saute 1 pound of chicken breast, or cook 1 pound of ground beef, or any combination you like, or just leave out the meat altogether. It’s superfluous, as far as I’m concerned, because I’m really just interested in the cheesy pasta, but my husband really likes his homemade mac’n'cheese with chicken and bacon.
Once the meat is cooked, drain it if needed to get off the excess grease, then let it cool enough to handle. Chop it up into bite-sized pieces, then dump it in with the pasta.
Get your sauce and pour it over the cooked pasta.
Now you have options. You can cook it right away, or you can cover and refrigerate it until just before dinner time. Whenever you’re ready to cook, uncover the pasta and stick it in a 350-degree (F) oven. Cook it for 20 minutes, then sprinkle about 1 cup of grated cheese on top (any kind) and let it melt.
Serve. Eat. Don’t count calories for this one.

This post is linked up with OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday.

Here are a few things I do to make mealtime as conflict-free as possible:

• I try to introduce one new food at a time, or to balance something I know they don’t like a whole lot with something they enjoy. Don’t overwhelm your child with new foods all at once. Try to stick to something familiar and something new.
• I give child-sized portions, and I don’t always require a clean plate. Our rule is no dessert without a clean plate. Key: Decide how much you want your child to eat; are you a “clean your plate” mama? If so, be sure not to overload the plate. Kids don’t need the same amount as adults; if they’re still hungry, they will ask for more.
• I don’t let them have more of one thing unless they’ve eaten everything on their plates. My kids will consume mac ‘n’ cheese and smoosh the green beans over to the side. I’m great with giving them more mac ‘n’ cheese, after they’ve eaten the green beans, too. Key: Don’t let your child’s whims control you. You are in charge of presenting a balanced meal. They don’t get the whole “food groups” concept yet. Let them earn the privilege of having more of what they want, by eating all of what they get.
• I give options, when I can. For example, today at lunch Robbie wasn’t loving his Mexican rice with cheese. He had eaten over half of it, enough (I knew) to fill his tummy, so I gave him the option: either finish the rest and get a cookie, or be excused now and no cookie. He chose to be excused now. Fine by me. Less sugar! Key: Give choices when you can, but don’t renege! You undermine yourself if you cave and give out the cookie later… Set the boundaries and give a few choices, then stick to it.
• I try to create familiarity with the food I want them to eat. Familiarity is your friend when it comes to kids and what they want to eat. The more often they see something and touch, smell, and taste it, the more likely they are to learn to enjoy it. So I dish out fruits and vegetables, curries and Thai dishes, spicier (not too spicy) foods and pickled foods, in appropriate portions. The more they try new and different foods, the more they will learn to love them. Mara now has a real affection for a little Frank’s Hot Sauce on the side whenever Daddy offers to share… Offer the same food over and over again, in tiny portions, to get kids familiar with it.
• I let them help in the prep work when possible. And it’s not always possible, certainly; but food preparation does amazing things for kids who used to be picky. Mara and Robbie were not fond of boiled eggs until I let them help: Robbie “tap-tap-taps” the egg, then passes it to Mara, who peels it quite nicely. Kids like to eat food they’ve helped to prepare.
• I don’t keep food in the house that I don’t want them to eat (for the most part). Sure, we have treats like cookies and ice cream sometimes. We’re certainly not perfect in what we eat. But I do avoid processed foods, boxed foods, prepackaged stuff. I try to go for the real deal, because I know if that’s what they grow up eating, that’s what they will think of as real food (and that’s what it is!). Feed your kids what you want them to love.
• I keep it really low-pressure at restaurants and in the homes of friends/family. That’s not the time for food conflicts or battle of the wills over what’s on the plate. I order them what I know they like; eating out is a treat for everyone. And I don’t make an issue over whether they clean their plates or eat their vegetables. We deal with that stuff at home, where there’s not a crowd of folks who have to listen to us! Deal with food battles at home; avoid the conflict when you’re out.

• What are your toddler eating tips? How do you deal with refusal to eat? What’s your policy on clean plates? How do you handle taking your children out to eat? I’d love to get more tips and advice from Moms out there.

Our Menu for the week -

• Monday: Fajitas
• Tuesday: Chicken Salad Wraps
• Wednesday: Smoothies for supper
• Thursday: something in the slowcooker…
• Friday: Homemade Pizza
• Saturday: Grilled steak kabobs, spinach salad… and something else
• Sunday: (church potluck) Chicken & dumplings, deviled eggs

Linked up with OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday.

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Image courtesy of efleming on Flickr.

I know there’s plenty of conversation and controversy over what kids should, how much they should eat, whether you should make them eat or not… We discuss it endlessly, from when to start babies on solid food to how many snacks a toddler should get to the factors of childhood obesity.

I think it comes down to a simple statement: what and how your kids eat is a matter of training. Don’t misunderstand; I’m not saying you should spank them if they don’t clean their plates or force them to choke down a bowlful of mushy broccoli.
And I’m also not saying that my kids are perfect eaters (whatever that is). They prefer a cookie to a vegetable any day, and they push food around on their plates, and they “drop” things they don’t want to eat…
Because they’re still in training.

Food Is a Battleground

I know that experts recommend not making meals a time of conflict. I know that we’re supposed to avoid making food, and whether kids eat it, a matter of discipline. The reasoning is that this is how we create eating disorders later in life, and that kids naturally know when they’re hungry, and that they will eat when they need to.

“Don’t Make Meals a Battle”

Um. I beg your pardon. Let’s start with the first point, “don’t make meals a battle.” Listen, I don’t know what the children of these experts were like, but with a fiercely independent two-year-old, everything is a battle. And how, in the the name of all things that are good parenting, does it help my child for me to be consistent, firm, and “the authority” in all things up till mealtime?

No toddler I know can, or will, separate life into neat categories that way: either you’re in charge or he is, and that’s that. If you do a great job of being a parent up till lunch time, then let him make the calls, all he knows is that somehow he’s in charge now. This is self-defeating behavior for a parent.

“This Is How We Create Eating Disorders”

Let’s move on to point two, “this is how we create eating disorders later in life.” Parental abuse is a cause of disorders (though, by far, not the only factor and certainly not always the cause): eating disorders, emotional disorders, and psychological disorders. But loving, clear, and consistent discipline – about anything – is not a cause of disturbances and disorders. If it were, then our kids would have disorders over everything that requires discipline: emotional disorders about saying please and thank you and sharing things, psychological disturbances over getting dressed, answering questions, and not running in the street.

Kids need training about what is best to eat just as they need training about what is best to say (not things like “Wow Mom that man is ugly!” or “Gimme that toy NOW!”).

“Kids Will Eat When They Need To”

Finally, point three: “kids naturally know when they’re hungry, and they will eat when they need to.” Well, yes, kids know when they’re hungry and mine have never had a problem communicating that. And yes, kids might eat when they need to but they might not eat what they need to. Any kid I’ve ever met will happily live on a diet of soda, cookies, and carbs – exclusively – for as long as he’s allowed. Children may also ignore their need for food if they are distracted, upset, overtired, or trying to be in charge.

I’ll give you a little example: Robbie (middle child, first son, strong-willed) was about 13 or 14 months when he learned to sign “more” and “please” for his food (I started teaching him much later than my other 2). He did it pleasantly and consistently for a few meals, so I knew he understood and remembered. Then we hit a point at lunch time one day and he simply refused. I was feeding him something, I told him to say please, and he would not. He had eaten about half his meal at that point, and I spent the next thirty minutes trying to get him to say please so he could finish his meal.

Finally I gave up: no please, no more food. I cleaned him off and got him down. Dinner time came. He sat in his little booster seat and signed please for maybe 2 bites, then steadfastly refused again. Another 20 or 30 minutes, and no change. He went to bed with only 2 bites of supper and I felt like a horrible mother.

Morning. I was so ready for breakfast. I wanted to feed my baby badly. I knew he would be hungry now. I just knew he would sign please and I could stuff his little belly full. Would you like to guess what happened? I offered the food, I told him to say please… and he refused. I say “refused” because I could tell he was making a conscious choice. Once again, I instructed and offered, over and over, for 20 minutes or so. Nothing. No change. Once again, I got him down out of his chair and felt like a horrible mother.

Now: did he need food at this point? Was he hungry? Did he instinctively know he wanted to eat? You bet! Of course he was hungry. Of course he needed food. Of course he knew he wanted it. But what he wanted more was to win, to be in charge, to exert his little will over Mommy.

Lunch time. I was praying. Into the seat Robbie went, and I sat down and I gave the instruction… and he did it. He signed please. He complied, peacefully and happily, with every bite and he ate a great lunch. And I felt like I wasn’t such a horrible mother, especially over the course of that afternoon and the next few days, as I saw a distinct change in his attitude toward me and Joe. He had been whiny and defiant and testing us at every turn; after the missed meals and Mommy’s win, it was like he got it. Oh. They really mean what they say. I can’t push them around.

(By the way, Robbie is still strong-willed, now, at 2 1/2, no surprise. He needs to know we are not messing around, and then he will comply, but if he senses uncertainty or weakness, he will do everything to take charge. He still chooses to test us over food at times; a couple of weeks ago it took him about 20 minutes to eat a single bite of avocado, with me standing right beside him and catching it every time he spit it out…).

My summary is this: Outright defiance deserves clear discipline, whether it is over food or anything else. Food is not a magical, mystical, disorder-laden area in life. It’s just part of life, like wearing clothes or taking baths or putting on seat belts. Children need to be taught the appropriate skills and behavior regarding food, just as they need to be taught skills and behavior for other parts of life. I am not saying that every meal should be a battle.

In fact, I am rather careful to decide when I’m willing to have a battle. Sometimes it’s not up to me; sometimes Mara or Robbie or Zeke acts in such a way that I am honor-bound, as a parent who wants to train according to the Bible, to respond with appropriate instruction and discipline. When that happens, I deal with it as I would any kind of misbehavior. Then we finish eating. When there isn’t any defiance or deliberate misbehavior, we sail along our merry dinner hour as smoothly as we can.

This week’s menu

Wkend: homemade mac’n'cheese with chicken and bacon (courtesy of Joe, our weekend blue-plate-special short-order cook. Love you honey!)
Monday: curry with white rice, green salad
Tuesday: dagwood sandwiches on homemade bread
Wednesday: chicken salad wraps
Thursday: spinach salad with strawberries, avocados, and whatever else looks good
Friday: friends over for dinner. Probably get Joe to do some amazing grill work on pork/steak kabobs, & serve them up with a big green salad, some fruit, and a dish of hot buttered pasta with Reggiano cheese.
And that’s as far as I’ve planned…

—

Linked up with OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday.

Sometimes I complain about living on a budget, but really, I like* the challenge of coming up with good meals for my family without spending a fortune. I find that the limits actually help me to be a little more creative in the kitchen.

We do a lot more meatless meals, which is healthier anyway. I’ve resurrected some old Southern favorites that I kind of forgot about, and they are so good. And I’ve found that the more I make myself the more money I save, plus it all tastes better.

I’ve started grocery stopping once every two weeks instead of once a week; it works better for us, overall, schedule and money wise. Sometimes I have to make a run for fresh produce, and we get fresh raw dairy (milk and eggs) every week.
I’m finding some keys for cooking frugal without sacrificing. See, I’m kind of food-obsessed. I read cookbooks for fun. M.F.K. Fisher is one of my favorite authors, right up there with C.S. Lewis. So if being on a food budget means I have to eat low-quality food, I’m going to rebel. But that’s not what it means. A food budget just means you need to get a bit smarter.

• Quit centering your meals around meat. Meat should be part of the meal, not the main attraction.
• Eggs are one of the best all-purpose, frugal, and versatile ingredients you can use.
• Presentation matters. Make it look good.
• Serve a little of the more expensive stuff and a lot of the cheaper stuff. Small serving of dairy or meat, large serving of beans, rice, pasta, or seasonal vegetables.
• Buy seasonal!
• Love it? Grow it yourself or buy it in bulk.
• Keep it simple; you don’t need all the variety that you can get at the grocery store.
• Fresh garlic, fresh onions, and a couple of fresh herbs (cilantro and parsley are my favorites) can help you turn the most basic staples into a gourmet meal.
• Borrow from other cultures, those which have built their cuisines on non-wasteful lifestyles.
• Processed foods are the enemy of the frugal cook! Try to buy things in their most basic form.
• Homemade is cheaper! And better!
• Save desserts for the meatless nights.

Here’s my last 2-week menu, that came from a $125 grocery trip. Of course, we had some leftovers and pantry staples already plus our milk & eggs.

dinners:

fried ham, biscuits, cheese omelet and oven fries
beef goulash with peppers and onions, egg noodles
cheesy baked penne with cauliflower
white bean and chicken chili, salad
jerk chicken with rice, black beans, and pineapple
black-eyed peas with ham, cornbread, scalloped potatoes
thai soup with rice noodles
broiled tilapia, salad, 3-cheese crustless quiche
butter-sauteed gnocchi, roasted tomato soup
chicken fried rice
french onion soup, homemade garlic breadsticks
salvadoran stuffed masa flatbread

lunches:

leftovers, boiled eggs & salad, apples & peanut butter, tuna salad, soup
(we get really fancy around here for lunch…)

breakfasts:

ham biscuits
cold cereal
breakfast casserole (make with leftover scalloped potatoes)
muffins (apple cinnamon, cranberry-oatmeal)
homemade granola bars?
homemade raspberry cheese danishes

desserts:

chocolate chip-cranberry-oatmeal cookies
from-scratch chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting
madeira cake
anzac biscuits
homemade graham crackers?

*…but in a recent conversation with my husband I did explain that, to me, being truly (monetarily) rich meant I could go grocery shopping and buy whatever looked good, whatever I wanted to cook for my family, without thinking about the cost. He said that financial riches, to him, meant a huge bathroom with a huge soaking tub & built-in computer & tv for movies…  We all got dreams!

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This post is linked up with OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Monday.

A few food thoughts for today…

- Be wary of any miracle food. Olive oil, fish, leafy greens, apples, whatever. Doesn’t mean the food isn’t good and good for you, but no one food is the miracle cure or diet key.

- All things in moderation.

- There is no perfect “diet.”

- Think about food on a “real food scale” according to the processing/prep needed to make something edible. On this scale, the “most real” food would be fruits and vegetables (requiring the least preparation) and then fresh milk, dairy products, and meats and grains kind of on an even keel. You could get really technical by breaking down cooking time etc., but that’s not the point. The point is just think of how fresh and “natural” a thing is when you eat it, and go for those on the fresher end most often.

- There is more to life than what you eat.

- Be simple.

- Be fresh.

- Enjoy your food.

- Stay close to the earth and close to home.

- Consider nutrients, genetics, and a changed environment. A tomato today isn’t the same as a tomato 50 years ago.

- Consider your cooking style, region, background, budget, time, and energy when planning your food and menu and eating lifestyle.

- I hate diets.

- I love food.

- Routines help when you’re short on time and/or willpower. Same thing for breakfast, same thing for snack…

- Drink more water.

- Emotional, mental, spiritual state and lifestyle are part of your “diet.” They affect you physically.

- Nobody in the past had it perfect, either. We can learn from our ancestors, but we shouldn’t just copy them blindly.

- Any diet requiring elaborate preparation, special tools, or expensive ingredients is not going to happen in my life.

- I refuse to feel guilty about food.

- Availability does not mean a food is worthwhile.

(I’m no food or nutrition or diet expert. I just love food and I love being healthy.)

Here’s my menu for this week:

• chicken stir fry (boneless, skinless chicken breasts, loads of fresh broccoli, onion, green pepper, and homemade sweet & sour sauce with fresh chopped pineapple. All over white rice.)
• broccoli cheese soup a la bread co (carry over) (if I get it right, I’ll post the recipe!)
• beef fajitas (thin sliced lean beef sauteed with green pepper and onion, served with shredded lettuce, homemade mango salsa, and roasted garlic)
• winter squash curry and rice (I’ve been craving curry. Can’t wait for this: chunks of acorn squash in a rich coconut-milk curry sauce with lots of garlic and onion, topped with raisins and peanuts and fresh diced cilantro.)
• roasted tomato soup and whole-wheat gnocchi (still deciding if I’m going to put the gnocchi in the soup or serve it, buttered, on the side.)
• garlic-citrus tilapia filets, sauteed mushrooms, and kale. (i have no idea what to do with the kale…)

Routine Meals:

• breakfast (for me) – grape nuts, a banana, and milk. oh, yes, and let’s not forget the coffee.
• breakfast (for the kids) -  granola/cereal bar or a mini bagel, banana, and milk. Zeke gets mushed banana, a bottle of raw milk, and a mini bagel. He eats a lot.
• breakfast (for Joe) – raisin bran
• (yes we have exciting breakfast around here!)
• lunch (for me and Joe) – salad with grilled chicken or a boiled egg, leftovers
• lunch (for the kids) – almost always a combo of fruit or veg (apple, baby carrots), a few carbs (crackers), and protein (cheese, peanut butter, leftover meat). It’s enough for them and is easy for me. Zeke eats the pureed version of veg, fruit and/or protein and a few crackers.

Happy Cooking, Happy Eating