Friday, March 23, 2012

Sometimes, you just need a helper!

I really love having a weekly menu. I think that much is obvious. Lately though, we’ve come to a point in our lives where delegating certain things is best for the sake of sanity.
So, I turned to Professor Google and searched for organic weekly menu plans. One of the results was http://emeals.com/ with a plan called Natural & Organic. Wait a minute… that name sounds familiar… they’re the folks who advertise on Dave Ramsey’s radio show (Rylee requests  we find his show when we’re on the road)! I looked at their site in the past, but wasn’t a fan of the menus heavy on prepared foods. Lo and behold, Emeals recently rolled out a Natural & Organic plan. It is available for Whole Foods or Other Stores. I chose the generic plan to use at Earth Fare and a few other local places for odds and ends. After using the coupon code on www.daveramsey.com , a 3 month subscription was $17.85.
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Rylee and I went shopping today for the first time using this service. The Monster Book of Monsters binder, augmented with a new menu section, in hand to keep us organized. Each week’s printout contains 2 sheets: 1) the menu featuring recipe instructions 2) grocery list divided by categories. I put these back to back in an old sheet protector. This enables me to mark on them with a dry erase pen. It was so nice to have a brain on paper that took me all of a minute to print and a few moments to review and note substitutions. One such substitution was  in a recipe calling for beef. Since I had a coupon for 75cents off ground turkey, I made that switch! I also had a coupon for our preferred brand of salad. I plan to use that in place of the head of lettuce called for since we routinely eat mixed spring greens for dinner. Easy peasy!
Tonight we plan to have Black Bean Burgers and Sweet Potato Fries. Tomato, spring greens, and cheese will be available for topping. I might even make some fresh green onion mayonaise and sweet chili ketchup. I’m hungry already!

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Menu Plan: Clean out the pantry!

Ryan JAN12
That’s my love up there smiling. He puts up with me.
(You’ll see where I’m going in a minute…)
The past few months have been crazy hectic with us being out of town more than we were home. Hence the lack of posts & menu plans. Hockey season has been intense this year. Throw in caregiver arrangements for my Mother who lives a few hours away and the EE has been a glorified laundromat. We’re back now and my grand plans can recommence!
A while back there was a huge pantry/refrigerator/freezer purge and it was a great first step. The next step is removing boxes & bags from the kitchen. What do I mean by that? Convenience foods full of things we can’t pronounce and unnecessary ingredients. Prepared foods we can make from scratch in a frugal, timely and healthier manner.  The side effects for this step are simple, yet profound: intake of more fresh fruits & veggies, more accurate portions (3 people eating a box of pasta is not OK), less waste/recycling, save money (buying only what can be eaten in short order). At least that is what appears to be happening around here!
Step 3, transitioning to predominately organic or natural foods, is slowly happening with each grocery trip. I’m also looking into reducing the amount of gluten we regularly intake. I really want to make more of our bread at home, too.
The menu this week is about using up things as much as anything, so here are our options for supper:
~ cheddar brats, whole-grain chips, baked beans
~ 5 spice chicken & dumplings
~ minted lamb sausage & couscous
~ pepperoni tortilla pizzas
~ chicken alfredo gnocchi
~ pierogi, fried cabbage, fire roasted tomato & garlic sauce
~ We’re going to a pizza party one night, so that makes 7 meals!
Dinner usually consists of leftovers, fresh fruit & veggie plates, or sandwiches (egg, pb & j, grilled cheese). Breakfast options vary between cereal, yogurt with granola, grits, and oatmeal. Snacks tend to be things such as fruit, carrot sticks, tomatoes, crackers with pb or cheese, and a glass of milk.
Thanks for reading and being my conscience. accountability. friends!