A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

2017 Glenna's Dose of Reality Diet Meal Plan (Week 4) Jan 27th--Feb 2nd

A new week and guess what?  It's my birthday next week!  Even though on Tuesday there will be a date night going on but I am going to splurge a little with my cooking calories and make a few of my favorite things, like shrimp and grits, copycat Joe's Crab Shack Harvest Bay Mahi Mahi, and Springfield Style Cashew Chicken. At the very top of that list is my very favorite birthday dinner: My Mom's Chicken Chow Mein.  When we were kids we always got to pick the meal and that was my favorite. It's a simple stir fry-ish dish (not authentic at all, seriously) of chicken and vegetables over rice or noodles. Mom always served it over rice but by definition it should be noodles.  Either work great for me.  It's the tasty walk down memory lane that serves me the best. 

Happy Almost Birthday to me! 

 

THE WAY IT WORKS:

The way I work my plans is the opposite of most meal plans. This is not a concrete day by day, meal by meal, snack by snack down to the minute food plan. What works for me is to prepare for the week a pot of soup, bread from scratch, a sweet of some kind, and have readily and easily available the ingredients for a specific salad, breakfast, snack foods, and six dinner menus for the week. I add the salad and/or soup to many meals each night to add veggies to our day.  I have shopped for the groceries and prepared any veggies I need to like washing and cutting up carrots and celery for snacks, greens washed for the salad and its components in baggies in the crisper so that grabbing and throwing these items together is a snap.  My meal plans for dinner can be made on any night of the upcoming week as we want them and have time to prepare them.   Having soup, salad, homemade bread, and a sweet made in advance round out nightly dinners, make great lunches, and don't leave me scratching my head wondering what to pull together each day and ordering a pizza instead of eating in. My goal is to have a variety of from scratch "clean" foods easily fixable so we don’t get bored, and also to make the most of nutrients, without specific calorie counts, but including good oils, quality protein, and plenty of fiber from complex carbs. 

Because of my job, I work 12 hour overnights and those are usually clustered around the weekend so I look at the grocery ads on Wednesday, shop Wednesday or Thursday, and prep Thursday or Friday.  But that's just because of the way my work days fall. Anyone else following this idea would want to shop/prep/cook more heavily around their days off, whether that's mid-week or the weekend.

(Recipes that are here on my blog that I will be using have links.)

Week :

 Weekly Prep:

Breakfasts:  Cheerios, Oatmeal, Scrambled Eggs with Mushrooms and Green Onions

Soup:   Chicken and Brown Rice Soup

                  

Salad: Cut up Veggies with Homemade Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

Snacks: Clementines, apples

Lunches: Leftovers,  Soup of the Week

Breads:  Beer Bread (Can also use a can of any flavor soda in place of beer)

Sweets: Apple Crostada

Meal 1:

 Copycat Joe's Crab Shack Harvest Bay Mahi Mahi

Steamed Broccoli

Meal 2:

Chicken Chow Mein (Mom's Recipe)

Meal 3:

Vodka Marinated Pork Roast

Buttered Egg Noodles

Steamed Frozen Vegetable Medley

Meal 4:

Shrimp and Grits

Sautéed Fresh Mushrooms

Meal 5:

Halushki

Green Beans

Meal 6:

Homemade Springfield-Style Cashew Chicken

Steamed Broccoli

Scrambled Eggs with Mushrooms and Green Onions

I could have made this fancier, sound fancier, by making it a Mushroom and Onion Omelet but the truth is rather than cooking the eggs and mushrooms/onions separately and then combining, I actually prefer the taste of the mushrooms and onions sautéed and then cooked along with the eggs. I think the taste melds with the eggs better so, really, it's scrambled eggs with mushrooms and onions.  If you like eggs, like we do (and we eat a lot of them) this is a quick, easy, and versatile way to get in your protein and a vegetable.  Perfect for breakfast, of course, but Gene and I also love them for a light lunch or, along with hash browns, as dinner.

 

 

2017 Glenna's Dose of Reality Diet Meal Plan (Week 3) Jan 20th-26th

 With our work Biggest Loser official competition underway, I'm definitely paying more attention to eating at home.  I've talked a lot about diets over the years on the blog, experimenting with this and that and every other thing but what I have come home to over and over again, so to speak, is that, for me at least, it's not about cutting specific food groups out (except for processed foods) or adhering to a specific plan or count of macro ingredients. For me, it's always all about cutting out chemicals and preservatives and cutting back on sugar. 

The Mediterranean Diet is the most closely aligned with my own food/diet philosophy. I try to focus on lots of fruits and veggies, quality protein, fish every week, good yummy dairy, and NOT depriving myself of good wholesome food--even BREAD. Yep, that's right. I even ate bread and still lost 2 lbs this week!

I am prepared for a variety of meals this week from the sublimely simple to the copycat restaurant and have prepped a variety of foods to hold down the fort of the fridge this week as well:  crockpot chili, Greek Salad with Olive Oil Vinaigrette,  Angel Biscuits, and a simple Ricotta w/flavorings dessert/snack.  All are easy and fairly quick to prepare as we go about our busy lives. 

 

THE WAY IT WORKS:

The way I work my plans is the opposite of most meal plans. This is not a concrete day by day, meal by meal, snack by snack down to the minute food plan. What works for me is to prepare for the week a pot of soup, bread from scratch, a sweet of some kind, and have readily and easily available the ingredients for a specific salad, breakfast, snack foods, and six dinner menus for the week (leaving one night open for date night or leftovers or a new recipe). I add the salad and/or soup to many meals each night to add veggies to our day.  I have shopped for the groceries and prepared any veggies I need to like washing and cutting up carrots and celery for snacks, greens washed for the salad and its components in baggies in the crisper so that grabbing and throwing these items together is a snap.  My meal plans for dinner can be made on any night of the upcoming week as we want them and have time to prepare them.   Having soup, salad, homemade bread, and a sweet made in advance round out nightly dinners, make great lunches, and don't leave me scratching my head wondering what to pull together each day and ordering a pizza instead of eating in. My goal is to have a variety of from scratch "clean" foods easily fixable so we don’t get bored, and also to make the most of nutrients, without specific calorie counts, but including good oils, quality protein, and plenty of fiber from complex carbs. 

Because of my job, I work 12 hour overnights and those are usually clustered around the weekend so I look at the grocery ads on Wednesday, shop Wednesday or Thursday, and prep Thursday or Friday.  But that's just because of the way my work days fall. Anyone else following this idea would want to shop/prep/cook more heavily around their days off, whether that's mid-week or the weekend.

(Recipes that are here on my blog that I will be using have links.)

Week 3 :

 Weekly Prep:

Breakfasts:  Butter & Honey Angel biscuits w/peanut butter,  Cheerios, Scrambled Eggs and Toast

Soup:  Crockpot Chili          

       

Salad: Greek Salad w/Greek Vinaigrette

Snacks: Carrot & celery sticks w/peanut butter, Clementines, and  apples

Lunches: Soup and Leftovers

Breads:  Butter & Honey Angel Biscuits

Sweets: Ricotta w/Clementines & Pecans  from Eat Clean by Tosca Reno

MEALS FOR THE WEEK

Meal 1:

Restaurant-style Chicken Piccata

Greek Salad (of the week)

Meal 2:

Beef Braciole (Stuffed Flank Steak)

Greek Salad (of the week)

Mashed Potatoes

Steamed Broccoli

Meal 3:

Pork & Snow Peas with Mushrooms over Grits

 

 

 

 

 

 Meal 4:

Blue Hake with Balsamic Syrup

Tomatoes are expensive right now so I'll serve it with

Greek Salad (of the week)

Butter & Honey Angel Biscuits (of the week)

and steamed Brown Rice

Meal 5:

(Almost Meatless) Traditional Pasta Carbonara

Meal 6:

Copycat Benihana Chicken Fried Rice

 

 

Pork and Snow Pea Stir Fry over Grits

Besides healthy, my key themes these days seem to be "quick", "easy", and "adaptable", as in, what's already in my fridge/pantry?  But don't forget tasty. Of course the ultimate is, always is: does it taste yummy?  This meets all of those requirements.  On the table in the time it takes to cook grits, stir fry is always adaptable.  Don't have pork chops? Try chicken, beef, or shrimp.  Don't have snow peas? Try sugar snap peas, fresh green beans, or asparagus.  Mushrooms? Onions? Carrots, Celery? Any and all of the above if you have them (and if you're in the mood to chop them all).

The grits is a little different. Normally, you would serve stir fry over noodles or rice, but I was simply in the mood for something different and this worked to a "T".  The creamy grits were the perfect counterpoint to the savory pork, crisp snow peas, and earthy mushrooms.  We will definitely be eating this again--and soon!

 

2017 Glenna's Dose of Reality Diet Meal Plan (Week 2) Jan 13th-19th

Don't know about you guys but this week is going to be a little rushed for me. On the one hand, there's supposed to be a gigantic-ish freezing rain storm on the way this weekend. On the other hand, I have to work all weekend so....that sucks.  I love snow and storms when I get to stay home, snug as a bug in a rug, and listen to them but gee, amazingly, I'm not so fond of them when I have to get out in them.

But that's okay.  This is exactly the weather and situation the slow cooker was designed for and let's all remember to be thankful in our prayers tonight for whomever invented the blessed thing.

*********************************************************************

The Way it Works:

The way I work my plans is the opposite of most meal plans. This is not a concrete day by day, meal by meal, snack by snack down to the minute food plan. What works for me is to prepare for the week a pot of soup, bread from scratch, a sweet of some kind, and have readily and easily available the ingredients for a specific salad, breakfast, snack foods, and six dinner menus for the week. I add the salad and/or soup to many meals each night to add veggies to our day.  I have shopped for the groceries and prepared any veggies I need to like washing and cutting up carrots and celery for snacks, greens washed for the salad and its components in baggies in the crisper so that grabbing and throwing these items together is a snap.  My meal plans for dinner can be made on any night of the upcoming week as we want them and have time to prepare them.   Having soup, salad, homemade bread, and a sweet made in advance round out nightly dinners, make great lunches, and don't leave me scratching my head wondering what to pull together each day and ordering a pizza instead of eating in. My goal is to have a variety of from scratch "clean" foods easily fixable so we don’t get bored, and also to make the most of nutrients, without specific calorie counts, but including good oils, quality protein, and plenty of fiber from complex carbs. 

Because of my job, I work 12 hour overnights and those are usually clustered around the weekend so I look at the grocery ads on Wednesday, shop Wednesday or Thursday, and prep Thursday or Friday.  But that's just because of the way my work days fall. Anyone else following this idea would want to shop/prep/cook more heavily around their days off, whether that's mid-week or the weekend.

(Recipes that are here on my blog that I will be using have links.)

 

Week 2:

 Weekly Prep:

Breakfasts:  Scrambled Eggs & Toast;  War Eagle Mill 7-Grain Hot Cereal w/Berries, Cheerios & Milk

Soup:  Creamy Chicken and Cauliflower Soup

                 

Salad: Marinated Chopped Vegetable Salad

Snacks: Carrot & celery sticks w/homemade Ranch Dressing, oranges, & apples

Lunches:  Creamy Chicken and Cauliflower Soup, Leftovers, Deli Turkey & Whole White Wheat English Muffin Bread

Breads:  Whole White Wheat English Muffin Bread

Sweets: Magic Cheesecake

Meal 1:

Tuna Patties w/Homemade Tartar Sauce

Mashed Potatoes

Soup and/or Salad of the week

Meal 2:

Chicken Cacciatore over Spaghetti

Meal 3

Crockpot/Slow Cooker Kielbasa & Potato Casserole

Meal 4

Classic Quiche Lorraine (Bacon & Gruyere)

Soup and Salad of the week

Meal 5

Meatless: Purist Mac & Cheese

Marinated Vegetable Salad (salad of the week)

Meal 6

Teril's Brazillian Feijoida (Multi-meat Stew)

Magic Cheesecake

 

 

Magic Cheesecake, like all the other "magic" cheesecakes is one that forms its own crust. For those of us who can skip (meaning it's not our favorite part) the graham cracker crust, it's perfect.  It forms a slight crust but not so much that it feels like a thick pie or graham cracker or cookie crust.  The texture of the cheesecake itself is a little more substantial that regular New York style cheesecake but I love it.

I'm going to simply direct link to The English Kitchen blog since it's her recipe but I will tell you a couple of quick things I do differently. Nothing big.  I just added the zest and juice of a lemon the second time I baked it for a little more zip and I skipped the sour cream topping but only because I didn't happen to have any sour cream either time I made it.  The only other thing I monkied with is the sugar. Since I'm trying to cut back and cheesecake is not something I like super sweet, I only used half (1/2 cup total) the sugar. Still delish!

Thanks to Marie from The English Kitchen--I've tried several of her recipes and they're always keepers!

Magic Cheesecake Recipe from The English Kitchen

 Nutrition per 1/8th of cake (without caramel sauce, sorry!);  Calories:  302;  Protein:  9;  Carbs:  26;  Fat:  17;  Fiber: 1.

 

 

Tuna Patties with Homemade Tartar Sauce

 

 

 Hmmm....need a fast meal that's also healthy?  Tuna patties to the rescue. We're all trying to eat more fish (especially now at the new year, right?) and this is a quick, easy, budget-friendly, and family-friendly way to go.

All you need are a few items from the fridge and pantry: tuna, eggs, breadcrumbs, onion of some kind, and a couple of spices.

They are fried but I rarely use more than a tablespoon or two of olive oil and we're supposed to have a serving of olive oil a day as well, so it's still a win-win.  On the other hand, 29 grams of protein for a little over 200 calories is a definite WIN.

Plus, the end game is this: they're delicious!

 

Creamy Chicken and Cauliflower Soup

I love soup.  All kinds of soups, stews, chowders. Soups with veggies only, soups with beans, and soup with everything but the kitchen sink.  Let's face it: it's usually easy to make, you can usually use your crockpot, there is endless variety, it's customizable, it heats up easily in small portions, it's portable (think lunch)....what's not to love?  So when I was craving potato soup the other day, and even though I'm no a low-carber I still blanched at the thought of all the starch, I decided that potato soup made with cauliflower (love cauliflower!) and the chicken breasts that just happened to be thawed out in the fridge would be the ticket--and it was! I'm not going to tell you one of those cauliflower lies--"TASTES EXACTLY LIKE POTATOES!"-- it doesn't, it tastes like cauliflower, but it does taste delicious.

 

2017 Glenna's Dose of Reality Diet Meal Plan Jan 6-12th

As I said in my last post, 2016 was not kind to me in terms of health but that's okay.  I'm finally feeling better, more like myself again, and I'm ready to tackle life!  We're also, thank you to Ashley Hicks, starting a new Respiratory Department Biggest Loser competition this upcoming week and I'm ready (after tons of yummy white chocolate fudge and some decadent meals) to get back to the basics of healthy, clean, chemical and preservative free meals/cooking at home!  I haven't gained any of my 25 lbs lost last year but I'm ready to kick it up a notch and clean eat my way (weigh! haha) down to better numbers and better health.  So let's do this--right?!

I can't hear you! 

LET'S DO THIS!

The way I work my plans is the opposite of most meal plans. This is not a concrete day by day, meal by meal, snack by snack down to the minute food plan. What works for me is to prepare for the week a pot of soup, bread from scratch, a sweet of some kind, and have readily and easily available the ingredients for a specific salad, breakfast, snack foods, and six dinner menus for the week. I add the salad and/or soup to many meals each night to add veggies to our day.  I have shopped for the groceries and prepared any veggies I need to like washing and cutting up carrots and celery for snacks, greens washed for the salad and its components in baggies in the crisper so that grabbing and throwing these items together is a snap.  My meal plans for dinner can be made on any night of the upcoming week as we want them and have time to prepare them.   Having soup, salad, homemade bread, and a sweet made in advance round out nightly dinners, make great lunches, and don't leave me scratching my head wondering what to pull together each day and ordering a pizza instead of eating in. My goal is to have a variety of from scratch "clean" foods easily fixable so we don’t get bored, and also to make the most of nutrients, without specific calorie counts, but including good oils, quality protein, and plenty of fiber from complex carbs. 

Because of my job, I work 12 hour overnights and those are usually clustered around the weekend so I look at the grocery ads on Wednesday, shop Wednesday or Thursday, and prep Thursday or Friday.  But that's just because of the way my work days fall. Anyone else following this idea would want to shop/prep/cook more heavily around their days off, whether that's mid-week or the weekend.

(Recipes that are here on my blog that I will be using have links.)

Week 1:

 Weekly Prep:

Breakfasts:  Apple Pie Oatmeal, Scrambled Eggs & Toast, Cheerios and Milk  

Soup:      Minestrone      

                      

Salad: Cranberry, Orange, and Candied Pecan w/Fresh Orange Vinaigrette Salad

Snacks: Carrot & celery sticks w/peanut butter, oranges, & apples

Lunches: Julia Child Classic Chicken Salad (on Triscuits or as sandwiches)

Breads:  Working Towards Whole Wheat Bread,

Bacon Cornbread

Sweets: None!  (For now.  So tired of sweets after all the indulgence of the holidays!)

Meal 1:

Gene’s Country Ribs

Baked Sweet Potato

Sauteed Cabbage w/bacon and onion

Meal 2:

Country Chicken Quarters with Vegetables

Buttered Egg Noodles

Meal 3:

Meatless: Pinto Beans & Cornbread

Meal 4:

Honey Curry Mustard Roasted Chicken

Mashed Potatoes

Green Beans w/Walnuts

Meal 5:

One Pot Chili Mac with Cheese

Cranberry, Orange, and Candied Pecan Salad w/fresh Orange Vinaigrette

 Meal 6:

Sauteed Tilapia (or any white fish) Filets with Orzo Pilaf

Steamed Broccoli

Salad or Minestrone Soup

 

I have food. I have a plan. I'm going to go chop up some veggies and make some soup while my bread dough is rising.  What was I saying? Oh yeah, Let's do this!

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