A "Normal" Meal?

As I was eating dinner the other night I was considering how normal my meal seemed but how different it truly was. We had Hamburgers and Fries! YUM!

So, why is that different?

Well, let's start with the buns--I made them earlier in the week. First, we ground the whole wheat grain in our grain mill and then soaked it with raw Apple Cider Vinegar overnight for all our bread for the week. They next day, I made it using natural ingredients, such as honey for the sweetener. When I made the bread some of it I made into rolls and then squished them flat for hamburger buns! The fresh bread tastes so good!

And then there's the meat--it was actually ground venison! I can't really taste the difference on a hamburger. This is my low cost way of getting meat without hormones or antibiotics. Wild food is much better than something "caged" in a barn. And I get the extras from the hunter in my family--what a blessing!

Next there are the fries--they are store-bought--GASP! But there are sweet potato fries made with good oils (and I think they are organic--but I don't have the package any more!) I love to add Real Salt (that's a brand name) as I really enjoy my salt!

How about the toppings? Besides Organic green leaf lettuce, we have homemade ketchup (with organic tomato sauce, honey, tamari, raw apple cider vinegar, fresh minced garlic, and Real Salt) and Mayo (store-bought and made with grape seed oil.)

I guess that's about it for a "normal" meal at my house! It is possible to be healthy without giving up all your old favorites--if you are willing to invest a bit of time in the kitchen. And it's an investment that will pay great dividends!

My new menus

As I mentioned, I've been re-doing my menus--boy, I'm not getting through this project very fast. I'm being too much of a perfectionist on trying to get my recipes just right, etc. My goal is to finish my first set of recipes and grocery list today. But I did want to share my menu list--as requested :). Maybe it will help you think of recipes you can eat.


Week 1
Bean Burritos (Double Portion and Freeze)
Javanese Dinner (Double Portion and Freeze)
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Chicken Broth/Tomato Rice Soup

Bread: Tortillas, 2 Loafs, and Cinnamon Rolls
Lunch: Cashew Chicken Salad

Week 2
Fajitas
Hamburger
Tomato Zucchini Pasta
Chicken Curry

Bread: Tortillas, 2 Loafs, and Hamburger Buns
Lunch: Farmer’s Omelet

Week 3
Mac and Cheese
Easy Lasagna
Tuna a la King
Taco Chip O’le (Double and Freeze)

Bread: Biscuits, 2 Loaf and Rolls
Lunch: Fried Rice

Week 4
Chicken strips
Pizza (Left over chicken for pizza?)
Quesadillas
Quiche

Bread: Tortillas, 2 Loafs and Pizza Crust
Lunch: Taco Salad



Extras to freeze or just as an extra menu :
Chicken Tetrazzini
Barbecued Franks ‘n Beans
Sausage Strata
Enchilada Casserole

Majority of my recipes come from Sue Gregg cookbooks--especially Main Dishes and Meals in Minutes. The Meals in Minutes cookbook is full of recipes to fill your freezer. Amazon has it (as listed in the box on the left side) or Sue Gregg has her own website.

Yes, this is a lot of cooking--everything is homemade--but that's why I plan the menus out so that I can save time on the planning, shopping, preparing end (as well as only making mistakes once!) and put it into the cooking. B/c of my health--my husband helps out with a lot of this (another reason to plan it so it's all laid out) and I may be just dreaming that I'll actually make the bread each week! But my 7 year old is really excited about learning to make bread and she can grind grain all by herself (just pour, turn a switch and watch until it's done!)

Also, we eat "breakfast" for dinner as an unplanned meal (eggs, pancakes, or in an emergency, Ezekiel cereal!) and usually at least one meal can be eaten 2 nights a week. And leftovers and sandwiches for most of our lunches. Hope this helps as you evaluate what you actually eat and plan for healthier, easier meals. I'd love to hear about any healthy menus you plan out.

Menu Make-over: making healthy meals even better!

Well, after 2 years of eating the same food, we decided it was time for a change. Partly b/c we were tired of some recipes, but also b/c we've discovered some allergies in my daughters that were making some recipes hard to fix.

So, this time I had made up a rating system for our current recipes. Mom, Dad, and older daughter got to rate each item from 0-3. Our three year old added a point to items she loves. As it turned out, we are keeping all the items that scored 7 or higher and getting rid of anything 4 or lower. Some of the middles may be back-up meals--I'm still working on it. Since I had 6 menus before I cut it down to 4 this way and am adding in a few other meals. I'm also planning one lunch meal a week (as in preparing something instead of having leftovers or Almond Butter and Jelly sandwiches.)

I'm also making several other improvements. My new menu includes when I'm buying a whole chicken to cook in my slower cooker and make broth. And that week has a soup recipe and a meal that requires chicken and broth for the sauce. The rest of the chicken and broth I can freeze.


My latest health improvement is making bread as I received a grain mill and Bosch mixer for Mother's Day and my birthday. YEAH! The fresh ground flour in recipes SO good. So, my menu includes making dough once a week for bread, rolls, cinnamon rolls, pizza crust, and even hamburger buns (not all the same week!)

Another improvement is I'm actually planning on which meals to double and freeze and including this in my recipes and grocery list. AND I'm actually typing up my recipes and putting them in a binder in page protectors. (I did this the first time I made menus--but not with the second, most recent menus.)

I can't wait til I'm done! I'll have my very own cookbook. I plan to type up all my recipes I use and store my cookbooks away for the next time I decide to tweak my menus.

If you didn't catch my earlier post on menus, see Menu Planning Simple and Easy for how to get started.

So, anyone want to join me?

PS--I'm been on a summer sabbatical from blogging! Hopefully I'll get back to blogging more soon.

Menu Planning--Simple and Easy

If you're like me, you not usually satisfied with menus others have, b/c it doesn't suit your taste or your budget or your healthy standards. But it sure would be easy to have it all laid out. In one month, you can easily have a month's worth of menus you love without doing much more work.

It's easy to do and you'll have your grocery list ready without any work every week! So, here's the plan:

1. Make a list of your family's favorite meals. Be sure to write down the cookbook and page number. Determine how many meals you need to fix a week. We do 4-5 dinners and eat leftovers (or hot dogs!) the other days. Or sometimes we fix something new on one of the other days. Decide how many weeks you can go without repeating a meal. The first set of menus I did was 4 weeks. The second set was 6 weeks. You could start out with only 1 week if you are still searching for healthy recipes. And just add a week at a time as you find more good recipes.

2. Start grouping your meals into menus. I made my list a word document, so I just clicked and dragged the meals around. Make sure to balance quicker-to-prepare meals with more time consuming ones. I also wanted to spread out meals with rice, meat dishes, chicken dishes, and Mexican dishes, so my similar meals were spread out. I'm big on variety! Print out this master list and stick it on your frig so you can see your menu choices for each week, including the cookbook page number.

3. Next, on a new document, make a grocery list for all the ingredients needed for Week 1. Group the lists by sections of the stores (or by separate stores if necessary) and leave space to write in additional things. Also, make a list of things you probably don't need, but might need to check to make sure you have enough of. I actually write down something like check: beans (1 cup), so I know exactly what to look for. You might also want to prepare double proportions of some meals and freeze half. You'll have frozen meals with out eating processed food.

4. Continue making the grocery list for each week. I did this only when I needed it, so it took me 6 weeks to finish this process. You could also do this all at once. It's easiest to print the next grocery list a week ahead and when you run out of something, just add it to next week's list.

5. Perfect it. Did you realize you didn't have enough of something? Fix it on your grocery list. Did you realize you want a certain side to go with a dish? And it to the menu and the grocery list. You might want to add notes on your master menu page about which things need to be soaked a day ahead (for those of you who soak your grains.) After another round of using the list, you should have any kinks worked out. Just think of all the mistakes you won't make! You could also add in lunches.

6. (optional) Type up all your recipes for the week on a single page. Put it in a sheet protector. Then, you save yourself having to look up the recipes and can add in notes to yourself (like use the big pot or start the rice at this point.) You could also make this a once a week cooking plan. Figure out which recipes could be made ahead, such as casseroles. You can cook and freeze some meals. Chop up some of the vegetables. Make a loaf of bread and a salad for the week. Get creative and make it work for you.

Advantages of this system:

--You save hours a week of: deciding what's for dinner, making a grocery list, stopping by the store for something you forgot or for a last minute meal plan, go back to the other side of the store for that produce that you didn't see at the bottom of the list.

--Since you are cooking the same things every so often, you get good at and more efficient, especially, if you make notes to yourself. Before you know it you'll be a professional chef.

--You prevent tons of frustration b/c you can learn from your mistakes and not repeat them. Oh, wait, you probably don't forget to buy things, forget to soak things, not understand the recipes, etc. Maybe it's just me!

--AND don't forget, you will end up eating healthier this way, b/c if it's this easy, you will cook at home more often and have time to cook from scratch. Planning makes it possible.

PS--Almost all my recipes come from Sue Gregg's cookbooks. Meals in Minutes is a good one to start with. It makes cooking healthy easy.

One question I had was what to do if you don't know what recipes you like. I suggest that you try to find a week's worth of meals(even just 4). At least you can use this menu every couple weeks and use the unplanned week to experiment with new recipes until you find some more you like. Then you can add a week at a time as you find what you like.