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As you know, we’re planning to begin a 21 day detox program this Sunday, August 15. And here’s how you can join us.

I have gone back and forth between planning cooked dinners and sticking to raw.  I know that we will have more healing and repair take place in our bodies the less we tax it. There is a spectrum for how to eat and how it affects health (especially when healing). It goes as follows (best to worst)

1. Fasting (with water, of course. And only for specified time.)
2. Juicing
3. Raw/live
4. Mostly raw, some cooked, all whole (not processed), no animal products
5. Mostly raw, some cooked, all whole, some (clean) animal products
6. Mixed cooked & raw, mostly whole, some animal products.
7. Mostly or all cooked, Processed (comes in a bag or box, with chemicals), lots of non organic meat & dairy.

I admit (sadly) that our family normally would fall under number 6. We almost always have (live) fruit & nut smoothies for breakfast, cooked dinners (usually whole & vegan, but not always), and lunches vary the most. That’s where we’ll make the biggest change during the 21 days: green juice, and other raw stuff.

As far as dinner, I made a meal plan for the week which includes live and cooked foods for dinner; anyone who is exhibiting symptoms will have more of or completely the live. And, for example, if I am serving soup and salad, it will be a BIG salad, and a cup of soup. Not the other way around.  I focused on good food combining for each meal.

Sunday: Salad and Middle Eastern Chickpea Soup (minus the parmesan cheese)

Monday: Salad and Fresh Bread (from freshly ground whole wheat flour) (here’s why fresh ground is impt.)

Tuesday: Salad and Cuban Black Beans and Rice

Wednesday: Quinoa Salad with Lime and Fresh Mint from GlutenFreeGoddess

Thursday: Leftovers? Don’t know. Maybe veggie sticks with raw nut butter.

Friday: Salad and fish, steamed veg, homemade Challah (fresh ground flour), and raw almond halvah balls.

Saturday: Raw Granola with Almond Milk. Dinner: see Thursday.

Sunday: Salad and Lentil and Potato Stew with Spiced Oil

So this is our tentative meal plan to go along with the detoxifying supplements that we will be taking. As I search for more raw things to make, I’ll add them in. I’m looking forward to using my dehydrator for making snacks, and I’ll post any new recipes I try. If you have any raw or good whole recipes to share, please do!

Have you ever eaten quinoa? It’s a small grain-like food, similar in size to couscous or millet. I first tried it a few years ago and was intrigued. I found out how highly nutritious it is, but when I tried to make it at home, I just couldn’t get past the bitter/strong taste of it, so I gave up.

I’ve recently been interested in trying again. So I learned a little bit more about it, and now I’m determined. Here’s why.

Quinoa is not actually a grain (from the grass family), but a seed.  It contains all essential amino acids, making it a complete protein all on its own. (Unlike rice, for example, which must be combined with beans to make a complete protein). And, it’s gluten-free, which is helpful for those who have a gluten intolerance or for infants (above the age of one year) who are first being introduced to grains.

I’m all for nutrient-dense food. I’m learning that by serving such stuff, I can both save money (not wasting it on things that may fill the belly but not provide much nutrition), and increase health in my family.  So, I decided to give quinoa another try.

I found out that the bitterness I objected to was due to saponins, and that the way to get rid of it is to soak the quinoa first and then rinse it. I also used chicken broth instead of plain water for cooking it, and it was pretty good.

I made this recipe for Sweet Potato Quinoa the other day. It turned out ok; I didn’t add the cayenne pepper though.

I’ll be trying more recipes for this superfood in the weeks to come, and of course, I’ll post any recipes I really like. If you have any good quinoa recipes to share, let me know!

As I’ve mentioned, I struggle with menu planning. Even though I KNOW it works, it helps, it’s good to do, I just don’t like to do it, which is why it’s so helpful for me to post it because I know I’ll get it done then. As you may (or may not) have noticed, I haven’t been posting them the last few weeks. And, that means, I haven’t been making them. Which means, I sometimes have no idea what I’m going to make for dinner, even half an hour before said dinner -time. I have a goal of making menus one month at a time, and doing some amount of prepping ahead and freezing what I can. Right now, the most I’ve done is make a double batch of some things and freezing the extra, and making some mixes. These are helpful, but not what I have in mind for my freezer cooking goals. Today is Tuesday. I didn’t have my menu planned for the rest of the week yet yesterday (on Monday, my menu planning/posting day). But today I am going grocery shopping, so it had to be done. And then, I did the unthinkable…..I planned the menus for the rest of the month! Using this monthly menu planner from $5 dinners, I filled in the rest. I know it’s only 2 1/2 weeks, but for me it’s a lot. Unfortunately there’s not many things I can prep ahead, but I may be able to figure some out.

So, here’s what’s planned for the next 3 weeks:

M- Baked Potatoes, grilled onion&mushroom toppings, steamed green beans

T- Eggs & toast, OJ

W-Burgers (Father’s Day–we never had it)

Th- Rainbow Salad & (hopefully) Homemade Bread

F- Chicken Pot Pie, Broccoli, Challah, Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies&Almond Milk

S- Granola, Raw Granola, Almond Milk, Pasta Tuna Salad

S-Vegetable Stuffed Eggplant

M- Spinach & Chickpeas with pita

T- Homemade Pizza, Greek Salad

W- Pancake Supper

Th- Homemade Hummus, Couscous Tabouli, pita

F- Crock pot Sweet n Sour Cabbage&Beef soup

S- Couscous Salad

S- Taco Casserole

M- Eggs & Toast, OJ

T- L/O Cabbage Soup

W- Spaghetti, Salad

Th- Cabbage & Potatoes (pan fried)

F- Baked Fish, Macaroni & Cheese, Candied Carrots, Spinach

S-Leftovers????

What’s For Dinner?

Do those words fill you with dread? What about when it’s 5 o’clock and you still have no idea what the answer is as you’re standing in front of the refrigerator just hoping something will assemble itself and jump out at you? Now do you feel stressed out?

At this point, many of us would feel tempted to pick up a phone and order in. Or tell the kids to hop in the car for a “treat”. These choices will cost LOTS more money and give you much less nutrition, and much more chemicals and fat. Which you know you don’t want to do.

3 Reasons to Make a Menu Plan

1. Save Your Brain

I don’t know about you, but my brain is……hibernating. It started with my first pregnancy. You know: Pregnancy Brain. And then it was New Mommy Brain. And then it was Living With Little Children Brain, then more Pregnancy Brain, and so on. So while I used to consider myself an intelligent, thinking person, that person has been sliiiiippppiiing away, and I want to conserve whatever intelligence I have left so that I might be able to write coherent blog posts. In other words, the fewer decisions I must make on a daily basis, the better! It’s much easier to decide in one sitting what we will be having for dinner each night than to have to do it every day. And in doing so, I can plan to actually have the ingredients when I go to make the meal. Who would’ve thunk it?

2. Save Your Money

We’d all like to save money and use it for more important things. When you eat out, you spend MUCH more money than you do when you eat home. When you buy last minute items at the corner convenience store, you also spend much more money than you would for those same items at the supermarket, if you’d known you would want them. And when you buy random things at the grocery store, things spoil because you don’t have a plan to use them. What a waste!

3. Eat More Healthfully

When you make your own food at home, you are (hopefully) not going to fill it with MSG and other poisonous preservatives. You can be sure that convenience foods are toxic to your bodies, and with a little bit of planning, you can avoid these and know you are helping your family to be healthier. And it’s really easy!

So Here’s What You Need To Do.

1. Pick an amount of time you’d like to plan. I usually do 1 or 2 weeks at a time, but if you’re new to this and it seems too much, try 3 days.
2. Write down a dinner meal for each of the days you are planning for. Dinner is the most important meal to plan, so focus on that meal first. Remember to include side dishes.
3. On your shopping list, write down each of the ingredients you’ll need to make your meal. $5dinner.com has some nice printable planning sheets for menus and grocery lists.
4. Go shopping and save money because you’re not buying things you don’t need or won’t use.

It really is that simple.

And if you really don’t want to do all of this, you can go to SavingDinner.com and buy their menus, complete with grocery lists. They’re very inexpensive and will still save you lots of time and money.

What’s For Dinner is the theme of Day 27 of the Flylady’s babysteps. I’m so glad I’ve made this a habit because it’s really helped me. I even aspire to plan a whole month at a time and get into more freezer cooking….but I’m not there yet. One step at a time!

I usually post my weekly menu on Mondays. Doing this has helped me be accountable for getting it done. I love linking up to others’ menus; if you post one, let me know!

Do you menu plan? Why or why not? How long? I want to know what works for you.

Sunday-Eggplant Torte

Monday- Creamy Celery Soup and Tomato Basil Salad with Goat Cheese

Tuesday-Scrambled Eggs with Veggies and Hash Browned Potatoes

Wednesday- Baked Potatoes with grilled Mushrooms and Onions, steamed vegetable.

Thursday – Lentils of some kind

Friday-Baked Chicken, Steamed Broccoli, Apple Sauce, Black Bean Brownies

Saturday- Raw “Granola” with Almond Milk & fresh fruit, Leftover Celery Soup

Sunday- Burgers. (We moved Father’s Day to this week.)

Last night we had a Mexican Taco Casserole, and while I was making it I made a second one to give to a friend who is expecting a baby shortly so that they could have some extra meals frozen to eat when they wanted. That’s one of those things I love about casseroles.
And here’s our simple menu plan for the week.

Monday- Pancake supper with fresh fruit. Make mixes.

Tuesday-Cabbage & Potatoes

Wednesday-Creamy Carrot Soup and Salad. Extra soup to freeze.

Thursday- Cuban Black Beans and Rice. Salad.

Friday- Don’t know yet.

Saturday- Leftover Carrot Soup

Sunday-Father’s Day. Black Bean or Regular Burgers.

Another Monday. With all that’s going on around here (potty training, new bikes, forest fires causing us to evacuate–you know, the normal stuff), I didn’ t even remember that it’s Monday, and Monday means “post your menu plan”. And all I can say is that I am SO glad that I actually already had it planned out. In fact, if I’d been more on top of things, I could’ve already had it scheduled to post. Maybe next time.

Ha ha. I have to laugh. I just looked at my calendar and realized that I actually MISSED Monday, and today is Tuesday! Well, better late than never!

So, on with it.

Monday: Eggs scrambled with veggies. Toast.

Tuesday: Chinese Fried Rice. Pictured above.

Wednesday: Sweet n Sour Cabbage Soup. Dark rye bread.

Thursday: Mediterranean White Beans and Rice

Friday: Crockpot Sausage, Peppers, & Onions over pasta

Saturday: Leftover Cabbage Soup

Sunday: Mexican Taco Casserole

Have you made your menu plan yet for this week? It’s already Tuesday. What are you waiting for!

Here’s what’s on our menu this week:

Monday-Spaghetti w/ Simply Delicious Spaghetti Sauce, salad, garlic bread (I learned this great easy make-ahead garlic bread trick)

Tuesday-Middle Eastern Rice and Lentils

Wednesday- Potato Leek Soup and salad

Thursday- Pita Pizzas, veggie sticks with guacamole for dipping

Friday- broiled sole, steamed green beans, whole wheat couscous, Apple crisp

Saturday- leftover Potato Leek soup

Sunday- frozen pre-made veggie & tuna noodle casserole

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. We had a family beach day yesterday. It was our first time to the beach with FIVE children; the baby doesn’t sit well yet and needed to be held most of the time. But it was fun.

I can’t believe it’s time to post a menu plan. As I’ve said before, I’m glad for this accountability. I haven’t made my menu plan yet. I don’t want to. I’m making it right now, literally as I type. Sometimes I’m more organized than this; this week is not one of those times. So…

Monday-Burgers, fresh coleslaw, potato wedges
Tuesday-Gnocchi/pasta & salad
Wednesday-Minestrone soup & salad
Thursday-Scrambled Eggs & veggies, toast
Friday- Some kind of fish, steamed vegetable, apple crisp
Saturday- leftover Minestrone soup
Sunday- leftover buffet

I can’t believe it’s Monday again. Time flies, as you well know. I’m glad I’ve made this commitment to post my menu plan, because otherwise I might not make one. And that would be bad. Here goes:

Monday-Spinach and chickpeas, rice, labana cheese & pita.

Tuesday-Spaghetti with chunky tomato sauce (make double sauce to freeze for future use), Breadsticks, salad.

Wednesday-Creamy Carrot Soup (extra to freeze), salad

Thursday-Veggie & Tuna noodle casserole (make an extra to freeze), steamed veggie.

Friday- not sure. Probably fish of some kind, steamed veg, challah, Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk cookies.

Saturday- Leftover carrot soup

Sunday-Burgers & Fries, coleslaw

To see lots of other menu plans, go to orgjunkie.com