Week Seven Meals

Making It Easy for Mom

I'm just a mom on a budget, trying to keep my family healthy.

My son's shopping list:  He changed the worksheet because he said the items in the box weren't all healthy.  If a six-year old can recognize that, we have no excuses not to as well.

"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food."  Hippocrates

Featured Food:  Fruit Salad

I have no idea why, but my kids are really, I mean really, into eating fruit salad lately.  So, for those of you with picky eaters, maybe changing up the presentation might help.  If you add a citrus fruit into the mix, your other fruits won't brown quickly.  If citrus fruits can slow down oxidation of fruits, imagine what great antioxidant help they give your body too!

Grocery List:  This is based on a family of four.

Produce:

-Bag of organic apples

-Bag of organic pears

-Bunch of bananas

-Bag of clementines

-1 lemon

-1 box of poultry spices

-Bag of organic carrots

-10 large baking organic potatoes

-4 yellow onions

-Bag of organic garlic

-2 limes

-Container of organic spinach

-2 red onions

-5 large tomatoes

-5 avocados

-4 organic red peppers

-2 jalapenos

-1 organic yellow pepper

-1 organic orange pepper

-3 stalks of organic celery

Cold Stuff:

-3 dozen cage free or organic eggs

-Container of cream cheese

-Box of organic butter

-14 Probugs (for the kids to have with breakfast)

-Loaf of Udi's white gluten free bread

-Container of organic sour cream

-Container of organic heavy cream

-Bag of organic shredded mozzarella cheese

-Bag of organic Mexican shredded cheese

-2 bags of sprouted grain corn chips

-Box of Van's gluten free waffles

Meat:

-2 packages of bacon

-1 roll of Jimmy Dean natural sausage

-2-3 boxes of Hormel preservative free lunch meat

-Large whole organic chicken (Costco sells 2 for the price of one in a regular store.)

-4-6 pork chops

-1 lb mild Italian sausage

-1 lb organic or grass fed ground beef (Costco sells it for $4.00 per pound.)

Dry Stuff:

-Box of Mary's Gone Crackers (Costco has a big box for about $7.00)

-Gluten free flour

-Box of Panko gluten free bread crumbs

-1 jar of organic pasta sauce

-1 can of organic pinto beans

-1 can organic corn

-1 can organic black beans

-1 can organic diced tomatoes

-1 packet original taco mix

-1 packet of organic ranch mix

-1 bag of nuts (pecans, walnuts or almonds for your salads)

-Bag of organic white rice

-1 Box of organic chicken stock

-1 small can of organic tomato sauce

-1 bag of organic pinto beans

Check Your Pantry/Fridge:

-Kosher salt

-Organic olive oil

-Vegenaise

-Italian seasoning

-Oregano

-Turmeric

-Pepper

-Cayenne Pepper

Breakfast Options:  So my blog inspiration (my best friend in Chicago), the very one that didn't have time to eat breakfast a few months ago, offered a great idea for those of you without time to cook eggs daily.  (She's come a long way, huh?!!) She has discovered that if you make your eggs in a muffin or cupcake tin, then you leave them already cooked in the fridge and can warm up one or two quickly for breakfast.  Bake them at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.  

Monday:

Breakfast:  Eggs with bacon

Lunch: Meat roll-ups

Use about 5-6 pieces of meat and roll each one up with some cream cheese.  I like to eat these with Mary's Gone Crackers.  Make sure to eat some fruit too.  

Dinner:  Roasted Chicken

Put your chicken in a pyrex and squeeze a lemon over it.  Put the lemon pieces inside the chicken.  Then rub it down with kosher salt.  Then mix your soft stick of butter with a about a half a cup of olive oil and the poultry spice mix and brush that on the chicken.  Cut up four carrots, four potatoes, and two onions and place them all around the chicken.  Put in the oven until the chicken is cooked.   Cook at 450 degrees for 10-15 min and then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and roast for 20 min. per pound.  

Make a spinach salad with a dressing of one freshly squeezed lime, two cloves of pressed garlic and some olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Make a fruit salad for dessert.

Tuesday:

This is a typical breakfast in our house.  

Breakfast: Eggs with veggies (like kale)

Lunch: Using some of the leftover chicken from last night, make a chicken sandwich on Udi's bread. I like to use Vegenaise instead of mayo. I would also put spinach on the sandwich too.

Dinner: Pork chops, mashed potatoes and avocado salad

First I peel my potatoes (we use about 6 organic brown baking potatoes) while I boil a large pot of water.  When my potatoes are boiling, I begin to get my pork chops ready for the oven.  I use 1-2 pork chops for each adult and my kids usually share one pork chop.  I first get my bowls ready.  Bowl 1 is about 3 eggs beaten.  Bowl 2 is some gluten free flour.  Bowl 3 is a mixture of Panko gluten free bread crumbs, italian seasoning, salt and pepper.  I then dip my pork chop in bowl one, followed by bowl 2 and finally bowl 3.  I fry them in a bit of olive oil to brown them.  Then I stick them in the oven for about 30 min. at 350 degrees.   While they are in the oven I am getting my avocado salad ready.  You cut up into thin slices red onion (maybe half a red onion) and then thinly slice some tomatoes and avocados.  Next lay the tomatoes on the bottom of a dish, followed by the avocados and on top the onion.  I dress the salad with some freshly squeezed lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper.  Your potatoes should be done by now, so I use heavy cream, sour cream and butter when I mash them up.  Not too much of any of the three.  There you go.  Dinner is served!   If you are craving sweet after, have some fruit.

Wednesday:

Breakfast: Eggs on toast with salami (my husband's favorite)

Lunch: Leftovers from last night

Dinner: Stuffed Peppers

This is my six year old's favorite meal.  Take 3-4 red peppers and cut them lengthwise, and place them in a baking pyrex.  In a pan brown your mild italian sausage; you can also use ground beef or ground turkey.  If you don't use italian sausage make sure you season your meat with italian seasonings.  Drain the fat and when it's almost cooked, add one cubed yellow onion.  Then add some fresh (or dried) oregano.  Enough to make it pretty green and smell good.  When the onions are transparent, add about half a bag of shredded mozzarella cheese.  Mix it all up so it looks cheesy.  Then fill the peppers in the pyrex with the mixture.  Use a jar of organic pasta sauce and pour over each pepper.  Then top each pepper with some more mozzarella cheese.  Bake in the oven at 350 degrees until the peppers are soft (about 40 min.).  While the peppers are baking you can make a small salad and cut up some fruit.  Your kids should love this one too.

Thursday:

Breakfast: Eggs with bacon and veggies

Lunch: Meat roll-ups

Use about 5-6 pieces of meat and roll each one up with some cream cheese.  I like to eat these with Mary's Gone Crackers.  Make sure to eat some fruit too.  

Dinner: Taco Soup

This is a favorite in our house, and so easy to make!  To make taco soup, put one can of pinto beans, one can black beans, one can corn, one can diced tomatoes, one pound of ground beef browned and drained, and one packet of original taco mix and one packet of ranch mix into the crock pot.  Make sure you dump the juice from the cans too.  You could add a little water too, to make it the consistency you'd prefer.  Cook on low for 6-8 hours.  I then cut up avocados, jalapenos, onions and some cheese to put on top right before you serve.  Remember the corn chips?  Those are great to make and serve with the soup too.  Fruit for dessert.

Friday:

Breakfast: Fridays are our fun breakfast day when we pancakes, waffles or some other gluten free sweet.

Lunch: Salad

A great time to use up all your veggies and lettuce.  Pour some nuts and avocados on that salad too.  You can also add a hard boiled egg and some cheese.

Dinner: It's Lent, so being Catholics, we don't eat meat on Fridays. Here is my awesome rice recipe. I brown one cup of white rice with one tablespoon of butter. Then I cook it according to the directions using chicken stock as the liquid. In a pan, I saute one cubed red onion, one cubed yellow pepper, one cubed orange pepper, one pressed head of garlic, two large cubed tomatoes, and three cut up stalks of celery. I add about 3 tablespoons of tomato sauce, and season with salt, turmeric, and a little dash of cayenne pepper. Once the rice is cooked, I add the pan of veggies to the rice and stir it all up. It's so delicious! I usually make a pot of pinto beans to eat with this.

Pinto Beans: Boil water with about 1 Tbsp of kosher salt. When the water is boiling, add the beans.  When the beans begin to boil, transfer this to the crock pot.  Cook on high 4 hours.  

Rice and beans can also be served on tostadas or in a corn tortilla.

Week Seven Information

Making It Easy for Mom

I'm just a mom on a budget, trying to keep my family healthy.

"We shall not cease from exploration.  And at the end of all our exploring, we will be to arrive where we started.  And know the place for the first time."  

T.S. Eliot

Book Recommendation: In Defense of Food:  An Eater's Manifesto

Pollan, Michael (2008). In Defense of Food:  And Eater's Manifesto. New York, NY: The Penguin Press.

Pollan is an investigative journalist on the quest to figure out what we should be eating.  He has written many books on the topic of food, and I plan to review some of them.  Pointing out that most people spend "half our food dollars on meals prepared outside the home", Pollan challenges us to really figure out what we are eating by asking ourselves if we even know what we are putting into our mouths.  There is a story about Aborigines that shows when fed a western diet, these people suffer from metabolic syndrome, but when put back into their native ways, they reverse this disease.  Pretty powerful to think that food can affect us that much.  Pollan suggests we live by the motto "shake the hand that feeds you."  This sounds like a very simple way to get healthy and know where your food is coming from.  Perhaps if farmers' markets aren't available to you, then at least try finding out where the food in your store originated.

Something my kids have taught me this week:

Glitter, Paper, Very Big Fuzzy Fuzzy

My kids love crafts.  In fact we have a really large area in our kitchen dedicated to crafts.  They paint, stamp, color and create all sorts of things.  They have been telling me for quite a long time that they need some more paper.  Well apparently I wasn't paying enough attention.  My four-year old wrote a list of items she needed from the craft store.  I had no idea my four-year old could compose a list.  Perhaps I needed to be reminded that my kids are capable of new things all the time.  

Bloom's Taxonomy is used by teachers to challenge and evaluate students.  Check out this flip chart and maybe start requiring more challenging tasks for your kids.  By using this pyramid's suggested levels in daily life, you will be giving your children a great head start in how to think, apply knowledge and evaluate themselves.  

Podcast Recommendation:  My son gets ear infections once or twice a year.  I have always treated them with antibiotics, but I decided no more because of my research into antibiotics.  About two weeks ago he started with a sore throat, which usually means an earache for him.  Three days later he was screaming and crying with ear pain (this was the hard part).  Every parent hates to see his/her child sick.  However, I didn't want to take him to the doctor, knowing he would just prescribe an antibiotic, and we would continue our vicious cycle.  So, I used ear oil and pain reliever.  Guess what?  It kind of worked, until three days later when he was in pain again.  This time I called Dr. Georges, our chiropractor.  I took my son for an adjustment with special focus on his ear.  And finally, he beat the infection and no antibiotics were needed!  Hooray!  My methods were justified in this NPR Podcast.  

Brain Power Idea:  Treasure Map

Treasure Map

My kids love it when I make a treasure map and hide something where the X marks the spot.  I have done it both indoors and outdoors.  Using words and pictures for my youngest, and just landmarks for my oldest, the kids spend a lot of time trying to locate their treasure.  Wrapping the treasure in tinfoil makes it fun too.  My husband makes very complex maps and my son enjoys the challenge.  The best part?  Now my kids make their own maps for each other.  

Methods to get your kids to eat new foods: I received a question asking about how to get your kids to try new veggies.  The key word here is try because once they have tried them, about 10-13 times, they will eat them because they like them.  They might not like every veggie, but they will find some to be delicious.  I have found that giving the raw version of the fruit or veggies is the tastiest, and let's be honest, easier to prepare.  On top of that, the raw version is almost always the most nutritious way to eat veggies and fruits.  Okay, drumroll please...I bribe my kids.  Isn't that what all good parents do?  Here is strategy six of six.

Method 6:  Coins:  Same idea as the sticker chart, but with coins.  The big difference is that you can carry coins with you.  If you are working on a behavior like sitting down at church, you can have a coin in your pocket to reward the child instantly.  This immediate rewarding is best for small children.  You don't have to use coins.  You can use something you already have in your house, like beans or paperclips.  I started using these coins when both my children could read what they said.  

The grocery list and meals will come out on Saturday.  

Week Six Meals

Making It Easy for Mom

I'm just a mom on a budget, trying to keep my family healthy.  

"Whether you think you can, or you think you can't-you're right!" Henry Ford

Featured Food:  Baked Potato Bar

During Lent we don’t eat meat on Fridays, so I have gotten creative with what we do eat.  My husband makes a baked potato by rolling it in olive oil and kosher salt.  Bake it at 350 degrees for about 60 minutes (make sure you poke some holes in it too).  Then I put out a lot of toppings including olives, cheese, green onions, sour cream, butter, and if you are eating meat, bacon bits.  This is a super filling meal that has good fats, carbohydrates and fiber.  

Snack Ideas for Kids
-Carrots (my kids love the big ones, and they are cheaper)
-Cucumber strips
-Apples with almond butter

Grocery List
Produce
-2 bags of organic apples
-Bag of organic pears
-Bag of clementines
-Bunch of bananas
-Bag of organic carrots
-2 cucumbers (for snacks)
-Large container of fresh organic spinach
-Large container of organic spring mix
-8 avocados
-1 organic orange pepper
-1 organic yellow pepper
-1 organic green pepper
-4 red onions
-Bunch of garlic
-2 limes
-2 bunches of organic green onions
-Bunch of organic fresh cilantro
-1 yellow onion
-8 medium sized organic tomatoes
-1 lemon
-3 jalapenos
-4 large organic baking potatoes
-1 large head of broccoli

Meat
-2 packs of bacon
-Jimmy Dean natural sausage
-6 organic chicken breasts
-Package of lunch meat
-4lbs grass fed ground beef

Cold Stuff
-Box of Van's Waffles
-Butter
-Probugs yogurt for the kids with breakfast. I buy 14 a week.
-3 packages of sprouted grain corn tortillas
-2 bags of organic Mexican shredded cheese
-Container of cream cheese
-Container of organic sour cream

Dry Stuff
-Bag of organic beans
-Bag of gluten free noodles
-Box of Mary's Gone Cracker
-1 large can organic tomato sauce
-1 small can organic tomato sauce
-2 cans organic kidney beans
-1 box organic quinoa
-1 box organic chicken stock
-Bag of almond accents

Check your Pantry
-Almond Butter
-Olive oil
-Coconut oil
-Salt
-Pepper
-Garlic Powder
-Onion Powder
-Paprika
-Soy Sauce
-Gluten free flour
-Chili powder
-Cumin
-Oregano
-Tabasco

Breakfast:  My son’s teacher told me that after five weeks of eating real food, her first grade son now wakes up and looks forward to breakfast.  In fact she made him Van’s waffles one morning, and he was kind of disappointed wanting his eggs. It feels good to feel good; even our smallest people understand that.

Option 1:  Eggs with veggies, sausage or bacon cooked in butter or coconut oil

Option 2: Protein shake or Van’s waffles

Sunday: Make a pot of organic pinto beans
Boil water with about 1 Tbsp of kosher salt.  When the water is boiling, add the beans.  When the beans begin to boil, transfer all the contents of this pot to the crock pot.  Cook on high 4-6 hours.  Remember you can save your bacon grease to refry your beans in it.


Also make a fruit salad. For some unexplainable reason, my daughter loves to have a fruit salad as her fruit choice. I make one fruit salad that lasts for two days.

Monday:
Breakfast: Option 1 with Probugs yogurt

Lunch:  Bean tostadas
Take some sprouted grain corn tacos and brush them with olive oil. Put them in the oven at 300 degrees for about 10 minutes or until they are crunchy like a tostada. Then cover them with some refried beans, cheese, lettuce and avocados.

Have some fruit salad on the side  

Dinner:  Salt and Pepper Chicken with Noodles

Okay so take your 2-3 chicken breasts and cut them into large cubes.  Make a flour mixture of some gluten free flour mixed with kosher salt and black pepper, and if you'd like garlic powder and onion powder.  Sometimes I even use paprika too. Dip your cubes in that and fry in small amount of olive oil or coconut oil.  DO NOT cover; I learned this the hard way; hence my capitals.  Then when the chicken is almost done, add the red onion slices and pepper slices.  I used orange and yellow peppers with a yellow onion.  Also press 4 cloves of garlic and add that into the mix.

While the chicken is cooking, boil some water with a splash of olive oil.  When the water is boiling, add your noodles and cook until soft.  In a separate pan, melt some butter with some pressed garlic.  When the noodles are done, put them in the pan with the butter and garlic and mix it all up.  Now you have some Olive Garden style garlic pasta, but much healthier.  You can make a small spinach salad with olives and red onion too.  My kids are really into the squeezed lime, olive oil, salt and pepper dressing.

Tuesday:
Breakfast:  Option 1 with Probugs yogurt

Lunch: Meat roll-ups
Use about 5-6 pieces of meat and roll each one up with some cream cheese.  Sometimes I put green onions in the cream cheese too.  I like to eat these with Mary's Gone Crackers.  Make sure to eat some fruit too.  

Dinner: Tacos and Refried Beans

Brown 1-2 lbs of ground beef.  When it’s brown, sprinkle some gluten free flour into it.   Not a lot, like two tablespoons.  Then add some garlic powder, onion powder, dried or fresh cilantro, salt and pepper.  Add a little water just to make it seem to have a little gravy.

I use sprouted grain corn tortillas as the shell for the tacos. I top my tacos with lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and sour cream.

Refry beans on the side.

Make a fruit salad.

Wednesday:
Breakfast:  Option 1 with Probugs yogurt

Lunch:  Salad with meat and/or hard boiled eggs
You can choose what to put in your salad, spinach, avocado, red onion, etc..., but also add your hard boiled eggs, and some lunch meat.  Top it with some shredded cheese.  If you like almond accents, add a few of these too.  Eat some fruit too.  

Dinner:  Chili
This recipe is from Nutritional Weight and Wellness' collection.  I love this Chili so much and it's very easy to make.  I have simplified their recipe a little.

Brown and drain 2lbs of ground beef.  Chop and saute in a little olive oil one yellow onion, one green pepper, and two cloves of garlic.  After your veggies are sauteed, put in your ground beef, 2 Tbsp chili powder, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp oregano, 1/4 tsp Tabasco, 6 medium fresh diced tomatoes, and one large can organic tomato sauce.  I also add 1-2 cans on kidney beans and out it all in the crock pot on low all day.  Then you can serve it with olives, sour cream, and green onions on top.  This would be a great recipe to make some sprouted grain corn chips and avocado cups on the side.  


Thursday:
Breakfast:  Option 1 with Probugs yogurt

Lunch: Leftover chili and some fruit

Dinner: Pollo a la Plancha

In the morning, prepare your guacamole and chicken. To make guacamole, cut up 1/4 red onion, 3 jalapenos, 1 clove garlic, add 3 avacados, one cubed tomato, some kosher salt and squeezed lemon juice. A secret to keep your guacamole from turning brown is to put your avocado seeds back in the guacamole. Next hammer out 2-3 chicken breasts and marinate in the fridge all day in a little soy sauce (just enough that it is absorbed by the chicken and the chicken is light brown) with garlic powder and onion powder.
When you get home fry the chicken breasts in some olive oil and top with guacamole.  

I would also make some quinoa.  Put a little olive oil and some kosher salt and fry one cup of quiona.  When it's light brown, add one small can of tomato sauce into a measuring cup and fill the rest of the recommended liquid with chicken stock.  Cook the recommended time.

Friday:  We are Catholic, so no meat during Lent on Fridays.  
Breakfast:  Option 2

Lunch: Salad

A great time to use up all your veggies and lettuce.  Pour some nuts and avocados on that salad too.  You can also add a hard boiled egg and some cheese.  

Dinner: Baked Potato Bar with Broccoli and Fruit Salad
Make a baked potato by rolling it in olive oil and kosher salt.  Baking it at 350 degrees for about 60 minutes (make sure you poke some holes in it too).  Then I put out a lot of toppings including olives, cheese, green onions, sour cream, butter, and if you are eating meat, bacon bits.  

Steam broccoli and add either cheese or butter. Use up the rest of your fruit in a fruit salad too.