Meal Plan Monday, for a happy new year!

So we've had an eventful Christmas time, I'll have to write a whole blog post to whinge about it, so I will just cut short to say this; at some point last week, my whole household was ill, house guest included!

Anywho, it's a new year and I'm finally back at work so what better time to get the life in order, right?

Between sickens, sleepless nights and the excuse that "it's Christmas!" - used until the 5th of January - our eating habits have gone down hill big time. I find that having a menu set for the week helps our routine a big deal, plus it saves having to run around the kitchen like a headless chicken trying to work out what to do for dinner.

So to start the year well, I'm back on Meal Plan Mondays with some wholesome dinners. I hope you like them ;)

Monday – Thai style Salmon soup

(I was addicted to this before pregnancy and haven't attempt making it again since, recipe to follow)

Tuesday - Sweet potato cottage pie with green veggie

Wednesday - *Jumbo Beef Balls with pasta for Dave and Harry and *vegetables for me

Thursday - Isabel's Chicken Nuggets with coleslaw for Dave / salad and veggie for the lill guy and I

Friday - Curried  Turkey

Saturday - Turkey & Veggie Meatballs with sweet potato mash

Sunday is my cheat day and I'll be off to my work's Christmas party - that's what happens when you work with hospitality -  so no planning here :)

 

*I'm doing a little detox myself this week and not eating dairy, grains or gluten

 

*Recipe for the Jumbo Beef Balls, from the Beyond Diet website

 

This is a very large recipe but you can easily half it.

 

Ingredients

2 lbs. lean ground meat (I use half beef and half turkey)
2 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 tbsp dried basil
1 clove garlic, minced
2 eggs
1 tsp. Celtic Sea Salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl, weight out 3oz balls and cook in pan on the stove. You can cook with Coconut oil if you want little more flavor. If you want to include a fat add butter to the pan. You can I like to sautee' onions to go with it..

 

PS: the recipe says to weight 3oz of meat for each meatball but that is for portion size only as I have to count how much protein I eat on every meal, you can easily just eye the size of the patties if you prefer.

 

I'm linking up to Mrs M's weekly linky, stop by for more great menu ideas #mealplanningmonday

Meal Planning Monday

Photo from Beyond Diet

I had a hard time last week, between tonsillitis, sinusitis and Harry coming down with yet another cold i gave into the world of ready meals and take-away. Result? I feel like crap! So today I'm had some green juice for breakfast and soup for lunch, nothing drastic, just giving me body a little break. 

Or course if you want to keep things on track you need a plan so this week I'm making sure we have a healthy, quick and tasty menu to make my life easier.

Monday - "baked-fried" chicken with home-made coleslaw - recipe below

Tuesday - Spelt pastry beef pie

Wednesday - Rice and beans with slow cooked beef

Thursday - Pork fillet with veggie and sweet potato mash

Friday - Butternut squash soup

Saturday - Full English for lunch as I'll be working until late



OVEN FRIED CHICKEN


RECIPE FROM BEYOND DIET

Ingredients

1 cup gluten free oat flour (you can grind up rolled oats as well)
Celtic sea salt to taste
Ground black pepper to taste
Onion powder to taste
Garlic powder to taste
2 lbs organic chicken thighs

Directions

Heat oven to 200C. Rinse and pat dry chicken thighs. Season chicken with salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder to your taste. Place oat flour in brown paper or plastic bag. Shake chicken in bag of flour a few pieces at a time until coated. Spray 13 x 9 inch pan with olive oil or coconut oil or use non stick aluminum foil. Place skin side up in pan. Bake uncovered for about 1 hour or until tender, basting occasionally wit pan drippings.

for coleslaw grate some carrots and chop cabbage and anything other crunch salad that you might like, mix with cream fraich, dijon mustard, pinch of garlic powder and salt and pepper to taste.

I'm linking up with Mrs M, stop by for more menu ideas xxx

Meal Planning / Motivational Monday (18.11.2013)

So over the weekend I went a bit crazy with sugar - my ultimate goal is  to cut sugar out of my diet. It is a hard one to do but I know it is not impossible. I do hope I can get to a point where, if I happen to have something sweet, that will no longer mean I'll feel horrible about myself and end up confiort eating for the next week.

I think I'm on the right track but as with everything in life, there are good and bad days. For now I'm only being strict with two things - I do not drink soda and I do not eat crisps/chips. Well, thinking back I did had a couple of chips on Saturdays we went out for a meal. I must say though, I did not order chips, they came with my meal and I did't know that would happen and yes, it was one of those things that I did without even realizing, still I think I had a couple and that was it.

I'm still proud of not drinking soda or eating crisps though, two weeks and counting!

I did manage to stick with the plan for most of last week, only on the day we had pie I was so tired that ended up buying ready made pastry rather than trying to make my own.

So..he is this week's menu, There's no fish there, mainly coz daddy D isn;t kin on it so I tend to have fish for lunch a couple times of week, and Harry usually has it too.

MONDAY - Dill seasoned Salmon with vegetables and salad (chips for Daddy D)

TUESDAY - Spelt spaghetti w Turkey meatballs in bacon and garlic sauce

last week we found the spelt spaghetti had good  texture but needs a sauce with a bit more of body, so this week I'll make something a bit creamy - with bacon and cream fraiche.

WEDNESDAY - beef stew w spelt buttermilk biscuits

We ended up not having this dish last week so back in the menu with it :)

THURSDAY - Chicken curry

again, the actual chicken is ready in the freezer as it makes a quick meal for my work days

FRIDAY - Butternut squash soup, coz the weather demands!

SATURDAY - it is Doctor Who night and I'll be working until 4pm so I'll take a break and buy something on my way home

SUNDAY - Slow cooked beef w rice, black beans and  veggie

in Brasil most kids will grow up with a daily serving of rice and beans, because I no longer have a pressure cooker I still haven't tried that with Harry but decided to make a dish out of tinned  beans to start with and once he is used to it  I'll start slow cooking big batches and freeze...a girl gotta do what a girl gotta do ;)

again I'm linking up with the lovely Mr M and the ever so supportive Pinkoddy Lady

 

Meal Planning Monday (11.11.2013)

Nothing too complicated, it's all about eating as natural as possible and eliminating processed foods from our cupboards and tummies. There are certain thing that I do try not to have at all: sodas, juices - unless I just made it fresh there and then -  and deep fried stuff. On the day to day basis I also avoid gluten and hydrogenated fats (vegetable oils) and make sure we eat plenty of protein and good fats and carbs - and of course plenty of fruit and veggie. I set myself a challenge to stop drinking soda and eating crisps and chips, I've done it before so I know it it possible. So far I can say I have been free from those foods for a week...and counting!

I do worry about my weight and my self image - as most ladies out there - but my healthy eating goal goes beyond that. I want to invest now on a healthier future and make sure that, when the time comes, both my body and mind can grow old gracefully. I'm only 35 and yes I think that's young - but planning for the future is probably the best way to preserve a young soul. On the top of all that, in a world where kids are growing up with obesity problems I hope to give my little guy a fighting chance to live a healthier and happier life.

I do try and watch what I eat most of the time but give myself a break once a week, to a treat that I really fancy or go out for a special meal with daddy D and friends. Don't fool yourself, of course I fall off the wagon,, usually straight into a little guilt trip every now and then. I have good and bad days as everyone else but I find that planning ahead helps keeping the bad times to a minimum: If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!

So when it's time for our weekly food shop I'll go through the freezer (I tend to cook and bulk to have quick meals ready in the freezer but also to save us some money) and plan 6 dinners, because if I know what I'm cooking there's no rushing around at tea time or the temptation to just order a takeaway.

At the moment I am experimenting with spelt - have successfully made spelt baguettes and pizza, the results were delicious - still I do try to keep the grains and starchy foods to a minimum so even spelt is really a little healthy treat that I might have at dinner time, during that day I try not to have any meal containing grains to balance it out.

This week for dinner, we will have:

Full English

 served with homemade turkey sausage

Turkey bolognese with Spelt pasta

Slow beef spelt pie 

I slow cooked a big roasting joint last week and will

experiment with a recipe for spelt

Slow Cooker Beef Stew with American Buttermilk Biscuits
again experimenting with spelt

Chicken curry with rice and spinach

not sure if it will be indian or thai yet but the actual chicken is ready in the

freezer which means a quick meal when I get home from the office

Pork steak with mash, green beans and baby carrots

a regular on a weekly planning, again because it is a very quick option for after work

I do cook a lot with turkey, it can be a versatile meat if you know what to do with it but  it's also a healthy and cheap option to having beef all the time. So just to make things more interesting, I'll share a little turkey recipe this week, as I'm hoping to do this every Monday on the Meal Planning linky, enjoy!

Ingredients

1 lb ground turkey
1/2 onion
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Celtic salt
1/4 tsp sage
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 Cup Chicken Broth
Coconut oil

Directions

Finely Chop Onion - you can use a food processor to speed things up. Add all the Spices to the Chopped Onion. Remove the Onion/Spice Mixture and place in mixing bowl. Add Chicken Broth. Mix Chicken broth into Onion/Spice Mixture. Add Ground Turkey and mix by hand. Marinate for about an hour or overnight. Wet fingers lightly and roll into small balls. In a small frying pan, brown on both sides in Coconut oil until cooked through. I swapped all my frying pans to ceramic quoted ones so I only use the tiniest amount of oil when cooking.



For more Menus ideas and/or inspirational reads visit Meal Planning Mondays and Inspirational Monday linkies.