I am uninspired food-wise today. Part of me wants to eat the same old same old and another part of me wants to make some fabulous new creations. I have weeks where things flow and I can think of hundreds of new recipes that I’d like to try. Other weeks, I feel like boiling a pot of water for pasta is about all I’m capable of doing. I know that when I get a meal plan together for my week, I tend to be more in control of my eating. I like having a new recipe to look forward to and enjoy trying different things.
I have tried a few times this weekend to get a meal plan together, but it was thwarted by other chores around the house. Another problem is I have waaaaaaay too many recipe binders to choose from! It’s very overwhelming. I have 4 binders now filled to the brim and I must say that they are haphazardly put together which is part of the problem, too! I tried just picking out a cookbook and going from there, but that wasn’t working out either. I’m just organizationally challenged this week! I plan on getting better at meal planning for the future. As life gets busier, it really is a time saver and a great tool for staying the healthy eating course! If you need some meal planning inspiration, check out Heather’s blog and Andrea’s blog. Both of these ladies are awesome meal planners. Heather even does hers a month in advance. Now that’s some planning!
I started the morning with the promise of something new to try. I got this Kashi Island Vanilla Cereal at a bargain price (99 cents with a coupon!) the other day…
I teamed it up with some blueberries and skim milk…
This was a dud. The cereal was great, but my blueberries stunk. They were really sour – blech. Then, I realized that I had them in the fridge for an ice age, so even though they looked okay, they were probably bad :(
We went off to church with a stop at the Walmart before hitting home and it was there that trouble found it’s way into the cart. Big daughter wanted to get some candy corn and although, I tried to talk her out of it, she really wanted them, so in the cart they went. Can you guess where they went next???
Sugartopia! Those big honkin’ pumpkin ones really sugar you up good! I poured them into a pretty bowl when we got home because putting them out in the open for all to see is the best idea in the whole world. NOT. They look so pretty in the bowl, but they don’t like to stay in there. Large handfuls get removed quite a few times a day. You can’t eat just one. Ever.
My stomach pretty much hated me after that, but later I thought I should get something other than sugar in it. Nothing sounds good after a sugar bomb is lying in your stomach, but I decided that eggs would be the least offensive. I made up an egg white scramble using egg whites, diced ham, baby spinach and a slice of asiago. For some crunch, I had a flax cracker on the side…
Since it was an outrageously beautiful day, I decided to go on a long walk to soak in the sunshine and fresh air. It was wonderful! I jammed to some tunes (is it weird that I mouth the words to the songs as I walk??) and before I knew it, I got in a nice 3.5 miles. I felt invigorated when I was done; the sugar slugs didn’t get to me!
I felt a little hungry later, so I nibbled on a Choco-Cranberry-Almond Granola Bar before dinner…
I was in the mood for a giant bowl of pasta for dinner. I was also still in the zucchini mood, so I combined them to make Angel hair with Zucchini and Chickpeas. This was a “no sauce” pasta dish. I just sauteed the zucchini in a little evoo and garlic and added a can of drained and rinsed chickpeas to warm through. Before the pasta was done, I saved 1/2 cup of the pasta water and added it to the zucchini mixture along with 1/4 c. parmesan cheese. When the pasta was done, I tossed it with the zucchini mixture and sprinkled with more cheese. Delish…
Hope you had a great weekend!
ONE GOOD THING : I took a nice walk instead of giving in to the lazy sugar crash!
Question of the Day: Do you plan your meals for the week?
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19 comments:
I definitely plan my meals in advance otherwise I would struggle with day to day impulse decisions if I'm in a rush and don't have time to think properly before getting dinner. I've also started sorting my fave recipes by season. It keeps the overwhelming number of tasty options to a more manageable size and encourages me to buy foods that are in season which is better for the environment and my wallet.
Hope you find your foodspiration this week!
I *heart* link love. :) Thanks!
You always make fantabulous food. I know you will come up with something. There's also something rather comforting about eating leftovers or a casserole. So see your point exactly.
I have to plan my meals for the week or I'll have no clue what I'm making from day to day. I sit down and make out a menu and a grocery list at the same time and then hit the dreaded grocery store.
I just have NOT felt like cooking lately. WIsh I were wealthy and had my own chef. :)
I plan all meals and snacks for the house a week at a time. One day I got 5 minutes and 3 brain cells together and created a master list of 15 different breakfast, lunch, dinner, afternoon and evening snacks with calorie counts and saved it on my computer. Then I added a few more and I now have like 25 different ones. I sit down on Tuesday , open the list and it is just mix and match, create the shopping list, print out the menu and post it to the fridge on Friday and I am good to go. I did this because I kept getting stuck and one day I felt like if we ate one more meal of chicken breast and salad i would lose my mind !
Pasta looked tasty!
yes I have to plan...I make a shopping list based on recipes that I pick out on the weekend and today (Monday) is my shopping day. If I dont plan I will be too tempted to grab easy stuff that may not be as point friendly to me. :)
I plan my meals for the week 95% of the time (the week I don't do this isn't pretty). And if I'm being real good, I will cook all the hamburger at once in seperate pans or grill and seal~a~meal the meat to use in the dish during the week. (Same with Chicken, I will buy the large family pack of chicken breast and cook them all at once in the slow cooker or grill and package them individually for each dinner).
2nite, I have chicken breast in the crock. Later I will add potatoes and lots of carrots to cook with it. 2nite we will have Chicken and brown rice. Later in the week I will make Chicken veg soup w/whole grain noodles. Easy smeesy :)
Those big, candy pumpkins are the devil! hehehe
I try to plan most of my meals. If I don't, I get so far off plan it isn't funny.
Oh, I sing out loud along to my mp3 player. And air drum! I'm a master at air drums! ;)
I definitely have to plan my meals... or else dinner ends up sounding like "so... what do you want for dinner? I don't know what do you want" and on and on and on ;-)
Like you, the weeks where I plan, I do so freaking much better than the weeks where I fly by the seat of my pants. I try to plan every week, but honestly, some weeks I suck at it. This week I tried to make a list of 5 meals, and we will eat them in no particular order (with left overs here or there.)
Sometimes being in a food rut is what feels best and is easiest...dont be too hard on yourself! Oh and those EVIL FREAKING PUMPKINS have invaded my office. GRR.
Some weeks I plan, others I just wing it. I definitely find that if I plan I tend to eat a wider variety of foods. When I "wing it", I tend to eat the same things over and over. That said, I think the planning is a lot of work sometimes, so that's why I skip it!
Huh!! Your pasta dinner is SO refreshing to see because I always think of pasta as something that needs sauce. It's awesome to look at it from a cleaner flavor perspective…I think I might have to try that soon!!!
dANG that's a great deal for cereal!!!
I plan all my meals for the week days, but I don't usually plan for the weekend. It is easier to get my lunch ready to bring to work in the morning if I already know what I am going to eat each day. It also makes grocery shopping much easier.
that candy corn - I hope I can resist the temptation to put something like that in my mouth because with food/sweets, I'm like the alcoholic who better not take the one drink. I'd be eatin' that candy, then pour a tall glass of cold milk to wash it down, then I'd be looking for something salty to balance the sweet, would never end.
I think your food is always inspiring and interesting. So looking from the outside, you never ever look "uninspired"!:)
Thanks for the shout out! :) As you know, I do plan meals.
Meal planning is actually pretty new for me; I only started about 5 months ago. I only plan weekday meals, Tuesday through Friday because those are the crazy nights. On Mondays we usually have leftovers from the weekend, and on the weekend I like to experiment... But sometimes it would actually be better if I had a plan!
Meal planning has truly changed our life. Evenings are so much less stressful, and I find that planning meals helps me be a bit more "reasonable" at the grocery store...
I don't really plan my meals, but I tend to have some of the same ones each week.
i wish i planned my meals for the week; it would probably make for better eating and spending less money on groceries!!!
I wish I could figure the planning out. I find when I plan meals I have far too much leftovers in the fridge and it gets wasted (even with a leftover night).
I usually plan the night before what I will eat. I have the basics in my house, if I don't I stop at the store on the way home from work. But if I want to try a new recipe I plan that on the weekend.
I never really plan my meals because I want to give myself the option to eat what I want and crave, but I have a general idea of what I will be eating at the beginning of the week.
LOL! Putting the pretty candy in a pretty bowl is not such a great idea is it?
I am an erratic meal planner. But when I do, I know it's the right thing and that I should do it all the time. It helps me to think about food less, it keeps me on track and ultimately, it saves me money because I'm using ingredients I have on hand and not always doing those last minute shops which can lead to expensive impulse purchases.
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