Meal Planning

We eat entirely too much fast food. Not because we particulalry like it, but because I am a HORRIBLE cook, we're on the go a lot, and my poor husband just runs out of ideas and steam mid-week. :( He's a great cook (and he cleans he kitchen, too!), but winter produce can be so uninspiring and we fall into the trap of eating too much processed stuff and we all feel like fat, over-processed slugs now. Meh. :p

CS Dad is off to the grocery store right now to pick up some staples we'll need to get us through the big blizzard the next few days. There won't be take-out available if we get the projected 2 feet of snow they say is coming. :p And, honestly, who could blame the poor guy who owns the pizza place for staying home in a 'paralyzing blizzard'? ;)

Coming up with kid-friendly meals that Spawn will eat is always a challenge. You may notice a theme in the planned meals this week - salad. Spawn puts up a fight like you've never seen when it comes to eating salad. (Which totally baffles me because I LOVED salads when I was a kid - even those awful, limp, school cafeteria salads. I still love salads!) So what I've done is mixed foods he LOVES with foods that will challenge him. We have a 'three bite rule'. You have to try three mommy-approved bites of any one food item on your dinner plate before you decide not to eat it (due to being either full or just grossed out :p). And you can only opt out of one item at each meal, so if he skips the salad, he still has to eat the veggie to get his fruit and yogurt for dessert before bed. ;) He has willingly choked down zucchini marinara to avoid eating salad in the past. =D It's an evil mama I am. ;)

This week's meals: (Only 5 as we'll have an abundance of leftovers to pick at the rest of the week for the remaining dinners and lunches).

French Bread Pizza (with mushrooms, black olives, or pepperoni) with oven-roasted brussel sprouts with balsamic glaze and a basic lettuce/tomato/cucumber tossed salad with pickled baby corn, some fresh spinach, and balsamic vinaigrette.

Beef, bean, & cheese burritos with oven-roasted sweet corn and a small taco salad. (Same basic salad as the tossed salad, but with black olives, cheddar cheese, and taco sauce.)

 

Ham steaks with baked sweet potatoes (or maybe we'll make sweet potato oven fries), green beans, corn bread, and cranberry sauce.

Battered haddock filets, roasted new potatoes (with butter and dill), tossed salad with some fresh spinach and balsamic vinaigrette, and oven-roasted corn.

Grilled Turkey-Ham & Cheese on Wheat with Vegetable Beef Soup made in the crockpot with leftover oven-roasted corn and new potatoes, mixed veggies, beef broth, beef cubes, and barley.

 

My goal is to cover at least half of our plates with veggies. We haven't been doing that - not even close. CS Dad is not a veggie person and neither is Spawn. While Spawn does take vitamins, I don't think they can reasonably make up for real fruits and veggies. I LOVE veggies, but living with Crohn's Disease can sometimes make it difficult for me to eat veggies - especially during a flare-up. :( So, I want to take advantage of this lull between flare-ups that I'm celebratng now to get my guys into good eating habits. Wish us luck!

 

So, meal planning - do you do it? Have you tried it? What worked for you? Did you find yourself including more fruits and veggies or other things that are good for you?

 

Chrissi, Cyber School Mom