Psuedo Primal Meal Plan #2

They're Back!  MEAL PLANS!  Let's see how far we can go this year?
3 weeks?
5?
2?
52?!

Anyway we've moved to a whole food/primal (paleo but with dairy) diet.  We have drastically cut our sugar and carbs and after just a week of it I already feel much better.  So here is our meal plan for this upcoming week.  I think it sounds delish!  I do leave some room for a few carbs - because being too strict with a diet will likely equal failure.  So here goes:

(Breakfast is almost always plain oatmeal with a tbs of Pure Maple Syrup for the kids and oatmeal or an egg for me.)


Saturday Lunch: Going Out Lunch (our once a week treat)
Saturday Dinner:  Salmon Patties, Salad and Apple Slices

Sunday Lunch: Ham and Egg Crepes**
Sunday Dinner: Tuscan Chicken, Asparagus Soup, Salad

Monday Lunch: Chicken Quesadillas
Monday Dinner: Beef Tostadas*, Avocado Salad

Tuesday Lunch: Ham and Crepe Roll-ups, Yogurt (A) or Applesauce (G), Dried Fruit (Lunch Box)
Tuesday Dinner: Slow-cooker Pork, Old Bay Roasted Potatoes, Salad

Wednesday Lunch: Quinona Cakes and Fruit
Wednesday Dinner: Chili-Lime Chicken, Bacon Potato Salad

Thursday Lunch: Elbow Veggie Noodles with Pesto, Hard-boild Egg & Yogurt (A) or Diced Ham & Applesauce (G), Dried Fruit (Lunch Box)
Thursday Dinner: Cheese Ravioli with Apples and Almonds, Salad

Friday Lunch: Leftovers!
Friday Dinner: Cottage Pie, Salad

*Whole Wheat Tortillas
**Homemade Crepes with Whole Wheat Flour

I realize that there are grains in this weeks meal plan, but very limited and drastically cut from our previous heavy-carb diet.

Pseudo Primal Meal Plan #1

So this is our meal plan from last week.  We did pretty well sticking to the plan, too!

Saturday Dinner: Meatballs, Spinach Salad, Carrots and Asparagus

Sunday Dinner: Thai Pork Salad

Monday Dinner: Chicken Sausage and Broccoli over Soba Noodles, Spinach Salad

Tuesday Dinner: Spiced Braised Beef with Sweet Potatoes

Wednesday Dinner: Marinated Chicken, Carrot and Asparagus Stir Fry

Thursday Dinner: Veggie Fritatta, Red Leaf Salad

Friday Dinner: Pork Scallopini (beaded with ground almonds), Mashed New Potatoes and Parsnips, Red Leaf Salad

Meal Plans 4-9 (100 Day Challenge)

Day 4
Breakfast: Cereal and Milk with Bananas
Lunch: BBQ Pork Sandwiches, Kiwi and Chips
Dinner: Spagetti Squash and Marinara with Zucchini and Spinach Salad


Day 5
Breakfast: Mango Lassi and Toast
Lunch: BLT's, Wild Rice and Quinoa
Dinner: Chicken Breasts, Brussel's Sprouts with Almonds, Bacon and Raisins


Day 6
Breakfast: Oatmeal and Toast
Lunch: Sandwiches or Leftovers
Dinner: Potato Tacos


Day 7
Breakfast: Eggs and Toast
Lunch: Taco Salad
Dinner: Chicken Alfredo Pasta, Salad

Day 8
Breakfast: Cereal and Milk
Lunch: Leftovers or Sandwiches
Dinner: Hamburgers, Carrots and Parsnips, Wild Rice


Day 9
Breakfast: Waffles
Lunch: Leftover Burgers
Dinner: Chicken Pizza

Meal Plans #1-3 (100 Day Challenge)

Day 1
Breakfast: Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal  (Totally a winner!  Although next time I'm going to try it with half milk and half water.)
Lunch: Chicken Tacos, Quinoa, Spinach Salad and Mandarin Oranges
Dinner: Open-faced Steak Sandwiches, Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Day 2
Breakfast: Overnight French Toast  (Not good.  Used orange marmalade per several recipes and it just tasted like orange peel - yuck!  I will now work on creating the perfect Overnight French Toast recipe!)
Lunch: Leftover Delight!  Instead of eating out with friends we will be making sure nothing goes to waste.
Dinner: Pork Roast and Wild Rice

Day 3
Breakfast: Homemade Waffles
Lunch: Lunch Out  (We got Quiznos and had a picnic in the park!  It was great fun!)
Dinner: Sausage Jambalaya, Swiss Chard

First Spring Meal Plan of 2011!

It is finally warm out! We have the windows open and have been playing outside. I LOVE IT!

This week my meal plan challenge was to only use what we had in the house. This is actually the 2nd week in a row that we've done this. I haven't been to the store for more than Milk, Eggs and Deli meat in 2 weeks!! Although I will have to go on Thursday as we are running low on produce.

• Turkey Burgers with Guacamole, Spinach Salad and Mandarin Oranges
• Grilled Chicken over Spinach Salad with Mandarin Oranges. Chips and Salsa
• Eggs in Sauce over Polenta
• Ham and Veggie Soup (May end up doing Corn Chowder with Ham instead)
• Sausage Jambalaya
• Grilled Salmon and Alfredo Pasta
• Pizza Night for the boys while I have a Girl's Night Out!
  

Not very Spring-y, but next week I'm busting out some great spring-time recipes!

For Serious - It's a meal plan and I'm sticking to it!

Last week we all got sick. Michael had the flu, I had a sinus infection, Greyson had a cough. It was no good. In the week when we should have been eating healthy things to help our bodies, we ate total junk instead. I was just too tired to cook, and we weren't even home for 2 days (my wonderful mother-in-law cooked for us - so we had 2 days of good food).

Basically this week I wanted good and good for us food. Even Michael agrees. When he SUGGESTS a salad - it is REALLY time for a salad.

So here is our meal plan for the week:

• Asparagus Soup with Bacon, Parmesan Cheese and homemade Croutons
  Salad
  Apple Slices with Cheese
  (I make this soup at least a few times each Spring, when asparagus is cheap and in season. It is so good, and I leave out the cream - it doesn't need it.)
  
  
• Citrus Marinated Chicken over Salad
  Mango and Kiwi
  
  
• Pasta Bolognese (ground beef, carrots, spinach in tomato sauce)
  Salad
  Cheese Toast
  
  
• Hot Pizza Dip
  Bread-sticks for dipping
  Salad
  Cuties and Banana Slices
  
  
• Ground Beef Burritos (Spinach, Carrots, Cheese)
  Rice
  Mango
  Avocado
  
  
• Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole (with Broccoli)
  Salad
  Mixed Fruit
  
  
• Bread Pork Chops
  Sweet Potatoes
  Asparagus
  Apple Slices
  

Holy Moly - A meal plan!!

I've been posting our weeks meal plan on the dry erase board in our kitchen, but I've been terrible about posting them here. So here is the plan for this week:

• Baked Chicken with Carrots, Potatoes and Biscuits.
• Cheesy Turkey Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes
• Pork Chops with Apples and Baked Sweet Potatoes
  
• Chicken, Spinach and Rice Casserole
• French Toast and Sausage
• Pasta and Spinach Salad
• Pizza and Salad
  

Meal Plan: Januray 8th - January 14, 2011

This week my grocery store was running an AMAZING DEAL on the chicken breasts we like. I have to admit that chicken is something we are really picky about. And while I love these chicken breasts they can be so expensive! This week they were half-price. So I bought 14 packages of 3 breasts. Considering a single chicken breast usually feed our family of three this is enough chicken for awhile. I've been putting 2 breasts in bags with marinade and putting them in the deep-freezer.

I'm excited to have this ready to go!

So on to the meal plan for the week:

1. chicken breast over salad with havarti cheese
2. pork roast with apples in the crock-pot
3. bbq sandwiches with sweet potato fries and apples slices
4. roasted chicken with rice and mixed veggies
5. ham and egg casserole
6. cottage pie
7. leftovers or frozen pizza night!
   

Meal Plan: January 3rd - Jan 7th

On the menu this week in no particular order:

1. Pot Roast and Veggies over Quinona
2. BBQ sandwiches, Sweet Potato Fries and Apple Slices
3. Chicken Enchiladas with Rice, Corn and Avocado
   
4. Grilled Chicken over Spinach Salad
5. Pasta with Meat Sauce, Cheese Toast, Spinach Salad

Meal Plan: December 27th through January 2nd

Okay, so deciding specific meals for specific days just didn't work for our family. So this week I just made a list of meals, made sure we had everything we needed to make them and then we just decided what we wanted to eat on that day.

Here is the week's meal list:

Roasted Chicken with Veggies
Chicken Jambalya, Cheese Toast and Salad
Frozen Pizza and Salad
Pot Roast with Carrots and Potatoes
Barbecue Beef Sandwiches, Salad and Fruit
Spicy Sweet Potato and Chicken Stew

Back to Meal Planning!

We fell off the meal planning wagon AGAIN! Sigh.
So here's my attempt to get us back on track.

	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Saturday	Blueberry Pancakes and Yogurt	Turkey and Cheese Sandwiches, Apple and Kiwi Slices	Cranberry Pork Roast Baked Potatoes, California Mix
Sunday	Eggs and Toast	Pulled Pork Sandwiches, Apple Slices and Carrots	Chicken and Rice Soup
Monday	Bagels, Yogurt	Soup or Pork Sandwiches	Meatloaf Pie
Tuesday	Cereal	Almond Butter Sandwiches, Apple Sauce, Pretzels	Taco Bake
Wednesday	Oatmeal with Fruit and Yogurt	Ham and Broccoli Roll-up, Mandarin Oranges, Yogurt	Chicken Fried Rice
Thursday	Waffles with Almond Butter	Taco Bake	Spicy Sweet Potato Stew
Friday	Cereal	Fried Rice or Stew	Coconut Salmon, Twice Baked Potatoes

A Full Week's Worth of YUM!

- Sunday -
Breakfast: Buttered Toast and a Banana
Lunch: Leftover Sausage Pasta
Snack: Banana Wonton Bites

These were GROSS!! I was so disappointed.

Dinner: Steak and Rice (I'm tweaking this recipe and will post my final recipe if it's good!)

Sadly, this was not a stellar recipe either. Greyson liked the rice and sauce, but no one really like the meat. So, not going into the keeper pile, nor am I going to try to salvage a recipe. Sorry.

- Monday -
Breakfast: Oatmeal and Eggs (From this month's Everyday Foods Magazine)

I was too tired to make this so we had bananas and English Muffins instead.

Lunch: Leftover Steak and Rice or Turkey Sandwich
Snack: Banana Wonton Bites

Nope. Opted for cereal instead! Oh and banana chips - we've been eating a lot of banana chips.

Dinner: Grilled Brats and Potatoes, Mandarin Oranges and Kiwi

- Tuesday -
Breakfast: Cottage Cheese Pancakes and Black Berries

Michael woke up early and we ended up making eggs and English Muffins instead. It was good!

Lunch: Leftover Brats and Potatoes
Snack: Rice Cakes with Almond Butter and Jam
Dinner: Chicken Curry over CousCous

I attempted to make brown rice instead of couscous, as I'm trying to improve my rice cooking skills. It's only came out so-so. Why can't I make rice?!

- Wednesday -
Breakfast: Pancakes and Berries!
Lunch: Leftover Chicken Curry
Snack: Crackers with Cream Cheese and Raisins
Dinner: Pasta Bake (Made last week and in the freezer), Cheese Toast and Spinach Salad

- Thursday -
Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs with Spinach and Cheese
Lunch: Leftover Pasta Bake
Snack: Apple Slices and Yogurt
Dinner: Turkey Tacos with Spinach, Avocado, Cheese and Bulgar-Carrot Pilaf. Chips and Salsa.

- Friday -
Breakfast: Oatmeal with Berries
Lunch: Turkey Burritos
Snack: Granola (time to make a new batch!)
Dinner: Soup Night! (What's left in the fridge and what can I make with it?), Bread and Spinach Salad

- Saturday -
Breakfast: Bacon and Eggs
Lunch: Leftover Delight!
Snack: Granola
Dinner: Sloppy Joes (with shredded carrots), Pineapple and Quinoa

Yum! 9/10/10

Breakfast: Oatmeal and Apples

Lunch: Taco Soup and Cornbread

3:00 Snack: Cornbread and Jam (really it is unsweetened fruit spread)

Dinner: Crock Pot Turkey Breast, Sweet Potatoes and Salad

We ended up going out to eat, so the Turkey has been packed in the fridge for another day.

It's starting to feel like autumn and I'm craving the flavors of fall!

Yum! 9/9/10

Breakfast: Hard-boiled Eggs and Toast with Jam

Well Greyson is a mess this morning. When he woke up at 5:45 this morning we didn't let him go back to sleep. So he's a tired and grumpy monkey. Which meant that eating breakfast didn't go so well. I like it though.

Lunch: Leftover Pizza and Breadsticks

3:00 Snack: Rice Cakes with Almond Butter and Blueberry jam

Dinner: Turkey Taco Soup, Avocado, Cornbread and Mango

The soup was only okay. Even after hours of cooking the rice was still a little crunchy...

Yum! 9/8/10

Breakfast: Oatmeal with brown sugar, mixed dried fruit and yogurt

This was a hit with Greyson! He wasn't sure at first and did a few fake bites (taking the spoon to the edge of his mouth, but not putting it in) before taking a bite - then there was no stopping him! He ate his whole bowl full and asked for more.
Hooray for oatmeal day!

Lunch: Sausage and Tomatoes (from last night), Salad, Watermelon

Well, I sent Michael to work with both leftover sausages. So I'm eating a weird, but strangely good lunch. A "sandwich" made from ham and leftover cauliflower gratin sandwiched between 2 whole-wheat crepes! It was surprisingly yummy!

3:00 Snack: Almonds and Yogurt

Yummy snack. Vanilla yogurt with a spoon of blueberry jam, some almonds and some graham crackers!

Dinner: Ordering Pizza for Michael's Birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Yum! 9/7/10

Breakfast: Watermelon, Crepes with Jam and Ricotta Cheese

The Crepes were only okay. I still haven't mastered the art of a really thin crepe. Also, as much and I want to like Ricotta in things for the boost of protein and calcium, I'm still really "meh" about it. Greyson ate 1/2 of his and them tossed his plate on the floor. Great.

Lunch: Grilled Chicken (from last night) wrapped in a tortilla with broccoli slaw, watermelon and chips (for the adults, almond crackers for G)

So this lunch didn't happen. Well it did, I just left it at home. So I bought a salad at work. Boo. Since I didn't eat it for lunch it became my 3:00 snack (minus the watermelon and chips) since my work salad wasn't that good.

3:00 Snack: String Cheese and Deli Turkey

Nope. See above.

Dinner: Baked Sausage with Grape Tomatoes (from the garden), Cauliflower Gratin and Watermelon

No real surprise that I was the only one who liked the cauliflower. I thought it was great. G put a bite in his mouth for all of a second before spitting it back out. Michael took 2 begrudging bites.

Mid-Week Meal Plan

Tuesday Dinner: Grilled Bacon Cheese Burgers, Grilled Peaches, Side Salad

Wednesday Lunch: Burgers and chips
Wednesday Dinner: Grilled Chicken over Salad

Thursday Lunch: Chicken Salad Sandwiches
Thursday Dinner: Tacos with Brown Rice

Friday Lunch: Tacos
Friday Dinner: Eggs in Sauce over Toast, Salad

Saturday Lunch: Sandwiches
Saturday Dinner: Something with chicken....

Meal Plan: 7/25/10- 7/31/10

Wow, I haven't done a meal plan in a LONG time. Because of that our food budget, and attempts to eat well have taken a hit in weeks past. So, no more! I am getting this family back on track!

Sunday Lunch: Turkey Sandwiches with Lettuce, Tomatoes from the garden and Carrot strips. Apple slices and Chips
Sunday Dinner: Stuffed Ricotta Chicken Breasts, Purple and Yukon Gold roasted potatoes, Salad

Monday Lunch: Chicken and Potatoes, Salad
Monday Dinner: Beef Stir Fry and Soba Noodles (Veggies in Stir Fry: Broccoli, Green Onion, Red Pepper, Carrots, Sweet Potatoes, Summer Squash and Water Chestnuts)

Tuesday Lunch: Stir Fry
Tuesday Dinner: Turkey Burgers, Sweet Corn on the Cob, Salad with Grapes and Apples

Wednesday Lunch: Turkey Burgers or Chicken Salad Sandwiches
Wednesday Dinner: Bacon and Tomato Pasta with shredded Carrots and Squash, Cheese Toast and Salad

Thursday Lunch: Pasta
Thursday Dinner: Beef and Corn Bread Casserole

Friday Lunch: Casserole
Friday Dinner: Eggs in Sauce over Toast, Salad

Saturday Lunch: French Toast Cheese Sandwiches and Sweet Potato Fries
Saturday Dinner: Clean out the Fridge - Leftover Delight!

Meal Plan: 6/27 - 7/3

Sunday
Lunch: Chicken Sandwiches, Chips
Dinner: Beef and Veggie Stir-fry

Monday
Lunch: Leftover Stir-Fry
Dinner: Pasta with Meat Sauce and Shredded Veggies, Side Salad, French Bread

Tuesday
Lunch: Leftover Pasta
Dinner: Parmesan Tilapia (I use Ranch Dressing instead of Mayo), Orzo and Veggies

Wednesday
Lunch: Sandwiches, Chips, Fruit Slices
Dinner: Brats on the Grill, Asparagus, Kiwi

Thursday
Lunch: Brats, Chips and Applesauce
Dinner: Ham and Cheese Quiche

Friday
Lunch: Quiche or Sandwiches
Dinner: Baked Potatoes with Bacon and Cheese

Meal Plan 6/13/10 - 6/19/10

Sunday
Lunch: Hot Dogs and Chips
Dinner: Corn and Potato Soup, Salad

Monday
Lunch: Turkey Sandwiches
Dinner: Grilled Turkey Tenderloins, New Potatoes and Green Beans, Pineapple Custard

Tuesday
Lunch: Turkey Salads
Dinner: Monte Cristos and Sweet Potato Fries, Sliced Kiwi and Grapes

Wednesday
Lunch: Sandwiches
Dinner: Turkey Burgers, Cole-slaw, Apple Slices

Thursday
Lunch: Turkey Burgers
Dinner: Sausage, Pepper and Spinach Pasta

Friday
Lunch: Sausage Pasta
Dinner: Parmesan Tilapia, Rice, Steamed Veggies