I’m still working on increasing the amount of real food in our diet. The children ate corndogs and pizza this weekend. Sometimes you just gotta grab and go. I’m trying to plan ahead for this and did make 2 bags of meatballs from fresh ground hormone free chuck to keep in the freezer.
Husband dear is still on Atkins and told me not to buy him any more soda (diet). Yay! He’s lost 13 pounds so far.
Our menu:
Sunday: bison roast, gravy, spinach, creamed cauliflower, whole wheat egg noodles.
(Hmm. I think I’ll write it in Restaurant Menu-ese)
Wild roasted bison and natural juice reduction, buttered greens, cauliflower creme puree, served with whole grain pasta lightly coated in a butter sauce.
Tasted just like beef.
Monday: Kids, spinach mushroom ravioli with tomato sauce Parents: cornish game hens, brussels sprouts supreme, wilted spinach with garlic and olive oil, fancy salad (greens, toasted pecans, dried cranberries, blue cheese crumbles. MMMMMMM my favorite salad EVER!)
Tuesday: Roasted chickens, mashed potatoes, cauliflower puree, kale with caramelized onions. (New fave way to eat kale. Slice onions, caramelize in butter or olive oil. When onions start to brown, add washed chopped kale. Toss so the onions aren’t all on the bottom of the pan. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a crushed clove of garlic. Put the lid on the pan and let it wilt and cook. Love it, I don’t have to mess with it while I’m putting together the rest of dinner and washing forks because I failed to plan ahead.)
Wednesday: Pizza (homemade this time, with whole wheat garlic crust, tomato sauce, shredded cheese. Topped with uncured pepperoni (the only kind Mr R can have) on one, bacon and pineapple on the other. I’ll make husband something I pick up when I hit the store tonight (steak? The poor man never had eaten a steak at home!)
For lunch we’re going to have the leftover chicken as a pot pie with those nom-nom-nommy cheddar cheese biscuits. There’s no way to low-carb that so we’ll have it while Atkins Daddy is at work.
Thursday: Chicken alfredo, perhaps with mushrooms. I’m about mushroomed out, truth be told, but husband dear specifically asked for them. He could live on mushrooms and pickled vegetables. Maybe he was a hobbit in a former life.
Friday: Well, one thing I’ve found about real meat is that I have to go to the store often in order to procure it. So I’ll know what we’re having Friday when I shop on Wednesday or Thursday.
I am so excited, we found a source for grass fed, organic beef at $4.70 per pound! We have to get a freezer first, probably with our tax refund. I spent our “freezer money” on a sore tooth.
Can I just vent here? CNN had another clip on how difficult it is to live on food stamps and how much sodium food stamp recipients eat because they *have* to eat so many processed foods.
Then they had one of their correspondents live on a food stamp budget ($176 for one adult, in his case) Oooh, he barely made it. They show clips of him shopping with a food stamp mentor. He goes on about sodium in processed food, walking past bags of whole rice, boxes of plain minute rice, and grabs three boxes of Zatarain’s to toss in his cart. He whines about eating nutritious food, as he muses which box of instant potatoes to buy. Um, get a clue. Buy an actual potato. More nutrition AND cheaper. Yes, I actually yelled at the TV and told him to get a clue. Hopefully he heard me and will put his box of MSG back on the shelf and make real rice.
I have some medical tests I need to schedule, so menu subject to change depending on if and when I am home! For more organized menu plans, check out Laura at OrgJunkie!
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I hear you about the food stamps…the USDA says that for our family of three on a “frugal” budget (the lowest of the four budgets) we should be spending about $90 a week to feed our family. I know I don’t do as good as some, but I spend around $40 or so a week (I use to spend around $130 for the two of us before I quit work to be a SAHM). I shop ads, use coupons when they apply, I don’t buy convenience foods, etc. It just goes to show that if all American’s were as diligent as the few are, we wouldn’t have the dependence that we do in 2010.
Oh, yummy! You should just write a recipe book!
the menu you provided is only helpful for women and children.
Er, okay. That’s different.
My man will eat roasts and spinach and chicken and so on, most food and nutrition stuff I buy is gender neutral. Except the prenatal vitamins.
I have a hard time getting my husband or kids to eat any kind of rice unless it is well seasoned such as the Zatarain’s or a Spanish rice mix. I have even tried making my own using plain rice and adding salsa and seasonings. Nope, they won’t touch it. We eat a LOT of vegetables but no one here would eat kale or spinach. We do eat carrots, broccoli, green beans, corn and celery. (That’s just what I bought this week.)
Neither one of my daughters are big on meat either. If we grill a steak, they are more than likely eating pbj that night. What can you do?
My kids all seem to go through cycles. So my daughter might pick at her meat all week but clean up on the veggies and starches, but the next week leave the potatoes on her plate.
I hate the processed food stigma that goes along with using food stamps. We eat lots of fresh foods at our house and have no problems sticking to our food stamp budget.
I fail to see how a menu full of real, whole foods is for women and children only. Men don’t eat meat, vegetables, and whole grains?
I *love* kale with garlic. I’ll have to put in the caramelized onions! Sounds delish!
We’re on a food stamp budget, too. Our family of four gets $395 a month and I have been able to keep our budget under that each month. We are real food eaters, too. (You can see my menu plans on my blog.)
A few years ago we bought 1/4 cow and it was great for having beef we could trust right in the freezer. We’re talking about doing it again, but can’t use our food stamps on it, so it’s still up in the air. I just bought 12 lb. ground grassfed beef at our Grocery Outlet for $2.29 a pound and was stoked!