Well, it's the end of the month and that means I need to come up with another monthly meal plan. We have quite a few things in the freezer so March already looks yummy!
I'm still using the sparkpeople.com account information to help me with breakfasts, lunches and snacks. It even provides detailed information for suppers, but I prefer to use my own meals and compare them with the calories which I'm supposed to be eating.
Some exciting things on schedule for the month of March are our Kingdom Hall remodel, working in the Kitchen and serving the friends meals, participating in a community yard sale (all the proceeds from the sale of my things will benefit the Chatt Hills Charter School) and visiting family. Several of us are going to help prepare and serve some meals to the volunteer workers during the Kingdom Hall remodel. We're going to be working with the Spanish congregation to provide meals Thursday-Sunday. The other two congregations will be handling the last weekend. This might change as the we get closer.
We've been implementing a few food changes over the last couple of months. The first was moving from white rice to brown rice. It was a slow process, but I think my husband likes it pretty good. It has a chewier texture over white rice and it takes such a long time for it to cook. I've been precooking it and bagging it up in 1-1/2 cup portions and freezing them. I'll share a simple picture tutorial showing how I do this later on. It's a huge time-saver and I love having it in the freezer waiting on me. The second is eating brown bread, preferably 100% whole wheat. The kids and I already eat wheat bread, my husband still prefers the white bread (but I'm working on it!). Recently, I started eating the Healthy Life Bread. It's only 35 calories per slice. I don't know about you, but when I eat a sandwich, I prefer to have a top AND a bottom. The other bread I was buying was 70 calories per slice. It might seem silly to you, but in my mind I was feeling deprived only eating one slice of bread. And for this whole-life-changing-healthy-eating-thing to be successful, I need to avoid all feelings of deprivation. So far, so good! We have also considerably decreased the amount of white sugar we are consuming. I've been using honey as a replacement in almost everything. I love honey and can't really tell the difference.
Next we're going to be working on our meat and vegetables. I already mentioned before about buying a cow and having it processed for food this year. It looks like that might be happening over the next month or so. I'm so excited, I can't even express it in words. My friend Carrie (who blogs at Natural Moms Talk Radio) has agreed to go "half-ers" with me. We're going to "share" the cow. There is no way we can possibly keep 500 lbs of meat in our freezer. Besides, I don't think we can eat that much beef in a year's time anyway. We're going to work out the logistics later on. As for the vegetables, I'm going to be planting another garden this year. I love getting out there and planting seeds and seeing the little sprouts push through the ground. It's just so amazing to think about how God created everything and seeing the life in the seeds. It's a blessing to be able to have a little piece of land to put in a garden. My children love to see the fruits of our labors, and I have to admit, I get a little giddy too!
Now about the meal plan this month:
We've been implementing a few food changes over the last couple of months. The first was moving from white rice to brown rice. It was a slow process, but I think my husband likes it pretty good. It has a chewier texture over white rice and it takes such a long time for it to cook. I've been precooking it and bagging it up in 1-1/2 cup portions and freezing them. I'll share a simple picture tutorial showing how I do this later on. It's a huge time-saver and I love having it in the freezer waiting on me. The second is eating brown bread, preferably 100% whole wheat. The kids and I already eat wheat bread, my husband still prefers the white bread (but I'm working on it!). Recently, I started eating the Healthy Life Bread. It's only 35 calories per slice. I don't know about you, but when I eat a sandwich, I prefer to have a top AND a bottom. The other bread I was buying was 70 calories per slice. It might seem silly to you, but in my mind I was feeling deprived only eating one slice of bread. And for this whole-life-changing-healthy-eating-thing to be successful, I need to avoid all feelings of deprivation. So far, so good! We have also considerably decreased the amount of white sugar we are consuming. I've been using honey as a replacement in almost everything. I love honey and can't really tell the difference.
Next we're going to be working on our meat and vegetables. I already mentioned before about buying a cow and having it processed for food this year. It looks like that might be happening over the next month or so. I'm so excited, I can't even express it in words. My friend Carrie (who blogs at Natural Moms Talk Radio) has agreed to go "half-ers" with me. We're going to "share" the cow. There is no way we can possibly keep 500 lbs of meat in our freezer. Besides, I don't think we can eat that much beef in a year's time anyway. We're going to work out the logistics later on. As for the vegetables, I'm going to be planting another garden this year. I love getting out there and planting seeds and seeing the little sprouts push through the ground. It's just so amazing to think about how God created everything and seeing the life in the seeds. It's a blessing to be able to have a little piece of land to put in a garden. My children love to see the fruits of our labors, and I have to admit, I get a little giddy too!
Now about the meal plan this month:
Last month, the daily themed meals worked out well so I'm planning to do it again this month:
Monday: crock pot night
Tuesday: soup night
Wednesday: breakfast for dinner
Thursday: Tex-Mex night
Friday: pizza
Saturday: family favorite
Sunday: new recipe night/fish?
- Turkey Tetrazzini, salad and green beans
- breakfast - Rabbit in the Hole, fruit
- Fiesta Salad (sharing recipe soon)
- pizza - Thin Crust Pizza
- Chicken Fried Rice with carrots, peas and green beans
- Bobby's Baked Tilapia* with brown rice, asparagus, green beans
- Crock Pot Salsa Chicken* over Brown Rice with Broccoli and Green Beans
- soup - Garbanzo and Chorizo Soup (one of my favorite soups!)
- breakfast - Breakfast Casserole, yogurt, fruit
- Stacy's Southwestern Chicken and Rice Skillet
- pizza - Thin Crust Pizza
- family dinner
- Subway
- Crock Pot Rotisserie Chicken, Green Beans, Potatoes (using leftover potatoes for lunch, making stock for the tomorrow's supper, reserving some chicken for tomorrow's soup)
- soup - Chicken Pasole*
- breakfast - Scrambled Eggs, turkey bacon, fruit, toast
- KH meal
- KH meal
- KH meal
- KH meal
- Slow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken* with brown rice, sweet peas, broccoli and green beans
- soup - Lasagna Soup with salad
- breakfast - Egg White Omelet filled with veggies and low fat cheese, fruit, toast
- KH meal - yard sale
- KH meal - yard sale
- KH meal
- KH meal
- Crock Pot Teriyaki Chicken* over Whole Wheat Pasta, Green Beans and Carrots
- soup - Taco Soup (in the freezer from January) with cornbread
- breakfast - Scrambled Eggs, turkey bacon, fruit, toast
- Fiesta Salad
I'll be checking the freezer to see how much rice, beans and chicken stock I have in there. That will determine how much I need to pre-cook for the month.
Hope you have a great month!
This has been linked to :
Mommy's Kitchen Monthly Meal Plan
2 comments:
Great plan!
You have a yummy month lined up, and a busy one to!
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