Or something. I feel like the KA checkin has slower but I still don't have the energy to kickass anyway. But I need to eat better. Badly. Anyone else? I'm sure this is tied to meal planning for me because midweek we end up just getting takeout or eating whatever crap is in the house and nothing fresh.
Totally. I feel like we need to eat better, but salads just never sound good and while my kids aren't super picky eaters, I still feel like I get stuck in a rut of things they'll actually eat without fuss
Totally. I feel like we need to eat better, but salads just never sound good and while my kids aren't super picky eaters, I still feel like I get stuck in a rut of things they'll actually eat without fuss
Yup. But pizza and Mac n cheese- even with peas- is really not doin it for me.
I need some good, balanced, dairy-free vegetarian meal ideas. R is our pseudo-vegetarian (except bacon and cheeseburgers) so she is kind of a wild card at dinner.
Post by linewifekat on Apr 25, 2017 8:17:34 GMT -5
This week I've started using my fitness pal and my fitbit again. I don't like counting calories but I need to write down my food so I don't mindlessly snack all day long.
I need some good, balanced, dairy-free vegetarian meal ideas. R is our pseudo-vegetarian (except bacon and cheeseburgers) so she is kind of a wild card at dinner.
Check out some vegan cookbooks. You might get some good ideas and you can always add things like eggs or whatever to tailor it for your family. We just did two weeks of Purple Carrot and, although one of the recipes was a bust, I got some good ideas. One was vegan sushi which is something I would NEVER consider making myself, but it was actually really fun and yummy. I went out and bought more ingredients (and some sushi grade tuna for DH) to make it again.
I really need to work on eating more veggies and fresh fruit and getting the rest of the family to as well. J is such a pain, he won't eat fruit without prompting, I need to cut it up and give it to him (or just eat a bowl of fruit on my own and he'll end up stealing half of it).
Post by grumpycakes on Apr 25, 2017 8:37:38 GMT -5
I'm definitely in for a healthy eating check in. I just got the Fresh 20 cookbook, so I'm going to use that for meal planning for a few weeks and see how it goes.
Post by linewifekat on Apr 25, 2017 8:41:50 GMT -5
@ grumpycakes I love making sushi. I've done it with cauliflower rice and it was really good. Of course my husband will only eat white rice but I enjoyed the veggie packed guilt free cauliflower rice.
@ grumpycakes I love making sushi. I've done it with cauliflower rice and it was really good. Of course my husband will only eat white rice but I enjoyed the veggie packed guilt free cauliflower rice.
Oh cool! Was it hard to roll? I would think not having the starchiness of regular rice would make it tricky.
I can totally see this becoming a hobby of mine. I had a blast last night making veggie and tuna rolls and frying up some tempura veggies to go with them. It was such a nice change of pace.
I really need to work on eating more veggies and fresh fruit and getting the rest of the family to as well. J is such a pain, he won't eat fruit without prompting, I need to cut it up and give it to him (or just eat a bowl of fruit on my own and he'll end up stealing half of it).
I think this is what my main goal is. M eats tons of fruit and few veggies. P eats anything we put in front of her. But we don't eat enough of either.
I was seriously thinking of making a color chart or something and seeing if we can all eat as many colors as possible each day - and that M might think that's fun. But really...really strings?
So my problem comes with time and meal planning and shopping. At work I click links and see recipes people post - but at home when my laptop is somewhere in a bag and its time to shop I don't go dig it out and look them up and write it down.
So I need to either print them out or screen shot things on my phone or something like that. And then get it to a shopping list so I have things...and THEN actually make it.
@ grumpycakes I love making sushi. I've done it with cauliflower rice and it was really good. Of course my husband will only eat white rice but I enjoyed the veggie packed guilt free cauliflower rice.
Oh cool! Was it hard to roll? I would think not having the starchiness of regular rice would make it tricky.
I can totally see this becoming a hobby of mine. I had a blast last night making veggie and tuna rolls and frying up some tempura veggies to go with them. It was such a nice change of pace.
I only did the rolls with the rice on the inside and I didn't use alot. I usually make rolls with cucumber, carrots, avocado, cream cheese and imitation crab.
So the one from Purple Carrot was roasted sweet potato strips (basically baked fries) avocado and pea greens rolled up in nori paper and sushi rice. Pea greens are hard to find, but I think finely sliced snap pea pods would be a good sub. They had a vegan mayo based dipping sauce that had a little toasted sesame oil, a little rice vinegar and some kind of peppery relish stuff that I've never heard of. It just added spice and acid so I think sriracha would be a good, if not better, sub.
I rolled them up with nori on the outside and skipped the sesame seeds because that seemed easier to me. They were also really yummy and we dipped them in soy sauce with wasabi.
So my problem comes with time and meal planning and shopping. At work I click links and see recipes people post - but at home when my laptop is somewhere in a bag and its time to shop I don't go dig it out and look them up and write it down.
So I need to either print them out or screen shot things on my phone or something like that. And then get it to a shopping list so I have things...and THEN actually make it.
Which feels like too many barriers.
When I am good at meal planning, I sit down for half an hour or so to plan meals and make a shopping list. I usually plan for 2-3 things I can make without a recipe and only 1-2 new recipes to try. That way, I only need to reference one or two sources and most of it comes out of my head.
I use pinterest for storing recipes, but I also have a word file for recipes that aren't available online. I collect cookbooks, so sometimes I grab one or two and browse through them for ideas when I'm in a rut. I buy most of them at used bookstores or yard sales so many are vintage and it's amazing the cool ideas you can find in them that you'd never find online.
ETA: you can store the recipes you find on your laptop on pinterest and then put the app on your phone so you only need your phone to access them for meal planning.
Stringy we've only been so so with meal planning recently, but the thing that saves us is having a well stocked pantry of shelf stable (or frozen) stuff. So we always have brown rice, bread or pasta as starches. We always have frozen meat, eggs, beans, yogurt or cheese as proteins. For produce we always have onions, garlic, frozen/canned tomatoes, bananas and lettuce and usually have an array (or smattering) of other things. From that we can always assemble something nourishing, even if it's not inspired. So often DH and I will text midday to figure out what we should have that night and we can come up with something with ingredients that we have at home. If we have our shit together we meal plan for the week on Sunday morning before we go shopping, but we both have to be on board for that.
Post by ABobLoblawLawBomb on Apr 25, 2017 9:28:30 GMT -5
I like cooking extra then freezing certain meals for when we hit the "I don't want to cook anything" slump. I also have a handful of meals that take minimal time and energy to prepare (typically using pre prepped frozen ingredients). It's not really ideal and doesn't taste as good as using fresh ingredients, but it's better than getting takeout.
We made homemade sloppy joes this weekend and then put it into a burrito. It was amazing. Both girls LOVED it. Then we made pasta with it and I have never seen either child so thoroughly clean their plate. It was sooo good. Definitely making that again.
Post by linewifekat on Apr 25, 2017 9:30:08 GMT -5
Stringy I get the ingredients at my regular store. If you don't like soy sauce, I've used coconut aminos before in place of soy when doing a whole 30 and it was good. I just added some salt to it.
Stringy we've only been so so with meal planning recently, but the thing that saves us is having a well stocked pantry of shelf stable (or frozen) stuff. So we always have brown rice, bread or pasta as starches. We always have frozen meat, eggs, beans, yogurt or cheese as proteins. For produce we always have onions, garlic, frozen/canned tomatoes, bananas and lettuce and usually have an array (or smattering) of other things. From that we can always assemble something nourishing, even if it's not inspired. So often DH and I will text midday to figure out what we should have that night and we can come up with something with ingredients that we have at home. If we have our shit together we meal plan for the week on Sunday morning before we go shopping, but we both have to be on board for that.
I try to do this too but we are unable to successfully throw things together most of the time. We have about 2 hours from getting home to kids in bed during the week - so doing anything that involves much of anything is out the window.
Post by linewifekat on Apr 25, 2017 9:48:10 GMT -5
I always have ingredients for spaghetti and chili in the pantry. I like keeping a few bricks of cream cheese in the fridge. You can make a quick cream based soup or dish with it. My favorite is chicken with spinach and Artichokes or chicken/shrimp with tomatoes bell peppers and onions.
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