Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Weekly Challenge - Week 10 (3/5/2013)

Make a meal planner.
 
 

Ideally, you will make a meal plan for the whole week and you will get the ingredients you need when you go grocery shopping, but if this is too overwhelming, start with planning out just one day.  The next week, plan two days, until eventually you are planning out the whole week.

Include on the meal planner your three meals, plus your morning fruit, your daily raw nuts (not shown on the planner above but add to yours), and an afternoon snack.  It is easy to make a blank meal planner in Excel, or draw a grid on a piece of paper and fill it in.

When I taught classes five years ago, Jennifer helped me put together a two week meal plan, complete with weekly meal plan spreadsheets and recipes. Above is the first week's spreadsheet. If you would like to receive a copy of the spreadsheets and recipes, let me know and I'll email them to you. 

Use meals you know how to fix and that your family likes.  Get their input.  Use ideas from our two week planner.  But try not to use foods or ingredients that contain any of the items on my foods/ingredients to avoid list.  Put your meal plan on your refrigerator or somewhere that you will see it throughout the day.

As Jennifer said in her update, the key to success is "The biggie: plan, plan, plan!"  You don't have to be a victim of the food industry.  Plan out your meals so you can buy God-made ingredients when you go to the store.
 
Advanced challenge for those already planning their weekly meals:
 
1.  Find one or two better quality ingredients to use for one of your recipes.  For example, buy local 100 % grass-fed meats, free-range eggs, or raw milk.
 
2. Use something less processed.  For example, make some butter from fresh milk, or your own whole grain bread for sandwiches.  Have fun and experiment with something new. 

 
 
"From the fruit of their lips people are filled with good things, and the work of their hands brings them reward."  Proverbs 12:14

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