So how did it go?

I have been dealing with a torn meniscus that I just can’t seem to heal and this was a tough week.  My injury seems to be making it very hard to stand still for long and I am using two hiking sticks to assist my walking.  Needless to say this is making being in the kitchen for long very difficult.

I did not end up making all the salads, dips or the raw bread that I had intended.  I did get some premade hummus and personally ate a fair bit of salad.  It’s summer so that is quite appropriate anyway.  Better to enjoy as much fresh, local produce when it’s available!

Because I wasn’t really ready for the week, I ended up at a loss many times.  I ended up eating bread and cheese too much.   Neither is really helpful when dealing with a healing issue.  I had a craving for chocolate so I made a couple of smoothies with frozen bananas, almond milk or coconut milk, some coconut water and cacao.  Yum!  So this week, more smoothies and I will make some raw bread and crackers.

For everyone else, I made most of the meals that I had planned.  Of note, I made Korean beef from my Nourishing Traditions cookbook.  My suggestion is to cut down the amount of soy sauce.  Everyone found it too salty.  I don’t cook with much salt so we are all probably more sensitive to saltiness.  I also made Quinoa salad from Oprah’s magazine.  That I found to be really good, although I served it as is and not on arugula.  Quinoa is difficult for me and I am going to have to come up with my own technique.  Fortunately I had a lot of time and extra broth.  I ended up adding almost two cups of extra broth and it took almost an hour to get nice fluffy quinoa.  More on this what I have been doing wrong.

Lately I have been cooking food off the cuff.  I am finding that I have not really been cooking and eating like I really personally want to.  Planning ahead of time really helps me to stay on my own healthy food track and takes the stress off feeding everyone else.  Usually I plan for Sunday to Sunday, but this time, I took out my cookbooks and got so excited about the things I was finding that so I decided to put 8 days of food in my weekly plan.  Fortunately it’s Saturday… so tonight’s meal is now planned.

I have put salads, dips and dressings onto the plan but I haven’t designated which meal they will go with.  I often do that so that I am prepared with ideas for sides that I will serve with our daily meals.  Because I am primarily vegetarian, my meals often are just the ‘sides’.

I do believe in go-to foods and I use them when I forget to organize, but I also like to try lots of new foods and tastes.  I’m always in search of new go-to’s, especially new ‘sides’!

I have been working on a cleanse that is a cross between the GAPS diet and the Body Ecology diet.  For me that is adding bone broth, trying to cut out gluten and adding fermented foods.  Without preplanning I have found that in a pinch I am looking in my kitchen and settling for what I find.  Several times this has meant a sandwich or pasta.   So I need to be prepared.  I have added a ‘bread’ from my raw cookbooks, condiments and even kombucha to my weekly plan.   These all take some time to prepare, dehydrate and/or ferment, so after the farmer’s market tomorrow, prepping it is!

June 30 2013

So here was the plan for this week

In general, the meals were pretty easy.  I had one major fail though… I need to practise steaming wontons.  I can’t even bring myself to take a picture.  What a gummy mess!  My family were troopers though.  They took the filling out and pretended that there were no wonton wrappers.  It was a bit labor intensive to eat which is unfortunate because the process of making wontons is also labor intensive.

There were some leftovers which I personally love.  It makes lunch easy to pack or eat on the go.

 

April 15 2013

Here is a blank sample form you can use to create your weekly menu

weekly meals sample form