(& a little update on my dreams for my business)
So today is the day I am going to start writing my experience with all the things. Living life budgeting time for homeschooling, exercise/ movement, healthy eating, farm projects, parenting & wifing well. I plan to touch on how I am navigating food allergies & intolerances, mental health, challenges, budgeting (all resources not just $$), understanding the kids and Tom as individuals – with individual needs, wants, likes and dislikes all while trying to understand myself enough to stay whole for them and to record our story – not just for our own eyes but also with the thought that God is working through us and our circumstances so maybe someone else needs to read this and know that if it’s not good… it’s not finished.
I am not quite sure how this will look. I suppose it’s a good idea to eventually seperate these ideas but for now I am certain that I will find a way to give the enemy a seat at this table – through self doubt and perfectionism/ procrastinating… so I will proceed with this mumbo jumbo of a plan understanding that, eventually, even the organizational growth and evolution will tell a story. One of perseverance, consistency and just getting out there and starting. Food is always a great place to start 🙂
Nutrition
So I start our weeks on Sunday… but plan for meals from Monday – Sunday. I find that this way I have the days covered. It works for now – but I am not 100% certain that it’s the ‘right’ way of planning our meals for our family. Often times, weekly, biweekly or even monthly planning seems appealing because we tend to use similar ingredients (most fresh and/ or frozen) and having six relatively shall I say selective eaters albeit through taste, texture or tolerances, I need to stick to a plan that works for us and I have just been hesitant to swap weekly for any of the other time frames because it will take more time than I budget for meal planning in order to switch it up and add more strategy (use all the food in different ways vs aiming to have little to no left overs except proteins and rice) as well as seasonal availability and incorporating homesteading techniques to off set much of the shopping because we know what we grow.
Usually while sitting on the couch pseudo watching a game, a race or a movie I jot down what I know we have in the kitchen in several categories. It’s an organized brain dump of sorts and I have found that it helps to use headings that are adapted to your nutritional goals. For us, I want to be sure to have protein, carbs, and fat in healthy portions and also have 1-2 veggies/ dinner. Breakfast (mostly eggs from the chickens and veggies canned from last season or in dry storage) and lunch (left overs, shakes, sandwiches or salads) are an ‘on your own’ kind of plan with the understanding that leftover protein (especially smoked/ grilled, rotisserie chickens, and rice play a star role if your looking for having a rice bowl or burito/ wrap moment.
I encourage the kids to be creative and stretch their minds.- not just because it keeps it easier to plan these meals but also because they have proven to use strange combo’s that I’d never think of that are incredibly delicious… peanut butter on burgers anyone?). These meals are really the only meals that they have gluten as well. This is important to me, as a celiac, because the verdict is still out if it is healthier to stay away from (good sources of) gluten when you can digest it or to be selective in what you choose to represent gluten…. I would rather err on the side of the Creator thinking that this protein may act a lot like lactose and in that case – if you don’t keep dairy in the loop while you are able to digest it science has proven that there is a high probability that you will lose tolerance to lactose just by staying away from it. So good quality dairy and gluten is available for those of us who can digest it well.
Personally, I have been fasting through breakfast and lunch with the exception of some lower calorie drinks. So my eating window starts around 1pm and ends at around 8P. It has been working on making me less reliant on food to heal my heart aches and more focused on prayer. Not to mention the tasty drinks I have fallen in love with such as Matcha, homemade lattes, kombucha, golden milk, various teas and water kefir just to name a few. It also helps with my weight loss goals which point directly to my bigger personal and family wellness goals.
For us, the categories that work are:
- proteins – with an * beside the frozen ones to help with remembering to thaw them
- fresh produce – with an ! beside the ones that are ripe/ ready for use
- starches/ carbs – like brown rice noodles, rice, quinoa, potatoes, or homemade bread/ 2 ingredient dough
- dairy/ refrigerated – things such as greek yogurt, cottage cheese, almond milk, etc.
- leftovers/ pre prepped frozen meals/ parts of meals
- canned veggies left
Then I look at the weather for the week. Not only does this check a box off for understanding what projects to tackle, but it also helps with planning. For me, a cozy meal is in order on a rainy day and a sunny day is when I want to smell the smoker’s puffs infilitrating the air when we step out on our deck. It’s March here as I type this… the cozy is replaced by no oven/ cool meals when it gets warm… although an occasional cozy meal on a randomly cool Summer evening is always an option. Knowing the weather just helps me picture the week more accurately.
Then I look at the calendar. When will the slow cooker save the day, when can I reliably be around to monitor the smokers temp, when is a good day to start the sourdough bread/ crusts, etc.
Now onto the actual planning of meals.
I start by listing the breakfast and lunch items we have so the kids know what is fair game to use and what is being planned on for dinner sometime this week. It also gets their creative thoughts flowing on what they could create in the kitchen throughout the week.
Then I brainstorm recipes that have gone well in the past, look through our binder – which is labeled by matches with our weekly themed meals (which is super convenient), and lastly any recipes I book marked that fit into the ingredients we have or that need little more to make.
- Monday: American/ Meat
- Tuesday: Mexican/ Veggie
- Wednesday: Asain/ Chicken
- Thursday: Spotlight/ Various
- Friday: Mediterranean/ Seafood/ Veggie
- Saturday: Soup/ Sandwiches/ Various
- Sunday: Slow/Meats/ Batch (for lunches)
After I get a menu planned, I put it up on our weekly menu collage frame along with the suggested breakfast and lunch ingredients.
This weekly menu wall art, along with the grocery store list on a white board that everyone contributes to, are two of the most important communication tools in our kitchen.
And that is all. I would like to improve on taking inventory, advanced meat ordering to get the choice cuts we like along with the fresh meat that is available locally. I also want to evaluate bi weekly or monthly menu planning for efficiency in time and foods…. but for now this is working for us and why fix what’s not broken!?