Meal Planning 101
 
In these challenging and stressful time the last thing you need is to make food another source of stress. It should be one of your major sources of joy, comfort, camaraderie
and nourishment. Now how to do that? With families working more and more hours outside of the house to make ends meet who is to cook? Clean? Shop? Someone has to do this. Most of the time this job gets left to Mom. We need to rally the troops and bring the family back to “family dinner” and have the FAMILY participate so they can all full participate  in and appreciate the nourishment.
 
The number one thing to do to save you time , money and your sanity is to plan. No plan is a plan to fail. We have all arrived home later that anticipated due to traffic or some other delay and had crashing blood sugar while the little ones melt down around your ankles. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a meal cooking in the crock pot? Have something in the oven already waiting for you and your tired and hungry little ones? Or at least a few short cut last ditch meals in your own personal recipe book to save the day. In this day and age we need to be our own super heroes and teach our partners and children the same skills.

Meal planning can involve the family and be a fun activity even for little ones. I really want to emphasize that you need to start where you are at. Most of my meal planning involves just dinner. That will cover lunches for everyone the next day so I knocked two meals out in one shot. Breakfast is picked by my 5 year old. Every night as we are walking out of her bedroom she orders up breakfast for all of us. Pretty easy when we have about 3 or 4 choices. Eggs made various ways with veggies and sometimes cheese, cooked cereal, waffles or pancakes. Makes life pretty easy. Throw in occasional smoothie that can be slurped down in the car and you have no excuse for not having breakfast. I have the blender out the night before filled with the ingredients. Yoghurt, berries a banana that no one will eat because is had the audacity to get brown and some green food powder. Put into the fridge over night. In the morning breakfast can be down in under 2 minutes.

Do not try to do what others do or make their recipes. Start by making the meals you like and you can guarantee the family will eat and you have ingredients for. So many times I go to try a new recipe and I have half of the ingredients. After trying to get to the coop and wondering around trying to find the rest of the supplies, all the fun has been taken out of the meal and I forget about it. Ideally you plan at least 3-4 days in advance but at first start with dinner tonight! I literally use the back of   a coop receipt to scratch out the weeks meals. Normally this is on the weekend so I can make sure we have everything we need or plan trips to the store accordingly.  The list is then posted on the fridge and the night before I make sure I have something  defrosting for tomorrows dinner. We have even found a list from previous weeks and just repeated that weeks meals. A really organized friend of mine even has the whole MONTH planned out on the frigid. Over achiever! Really that would be the easiest and best way to go. The hardest part is finding a calendar. After that it is all down hill.

Pick one meal that you love to make and the family loves and assign it a day. Ours was pizza. At first we ordered pizza every Thursday. Then I got organic pizza from the coop and saved a bundle. Then I added spinach and mushrooms and extra cheese to that pizza. Next I bought a crust, a can of sauce and “made” my own. Spent a ton on that. I peaked when I made my own crust ( I had perfected a GF one, a Neapolitan one,  and a sourdough one) sauce, grated my own cheese, had nitrate free and or local sources for everything else. Now….I buy Lakewind’s crust for $2 and do everything else from scratch. I have a system that I make double sauce and grate double cheese so now I only have to do this every other time. Freeze the rest in a designated place in the freezer and now I don’t even have to search for the ingredients. Take them out that morning and pop them in the fridge and everything is ready to be assembled while the oven is heating. The pizza is dense enough that everyone has lunch for the next day. Two meals knocked out in one shot. Very simple. I love pizza so this is not work for me. I can have my 5 year old help with grating cheese or assembling the pizza while the two year old naps. We do this on Thursdays because I am home in the afternoon and choose to devote about 45 minutes to cooking and spending time with my daughter. I get a big return on that investment.

Now add another meal to this one. Ours was chili. I would soak beans over night Tuesday and put them in the crock on Wednesday morning on low. When my husband got home after work he would throw in raw hamburger, tomatoes and chili powder and bump the heat up to high. While that was finishing he could get the girls outside and play. We always made enough for two full meals for the family, freeze one container, and enough for lunches for all the next day. Knocked out three meals with that one.

Now think about seasonal meals. In summer we grill bratwursts once a week but that could easily be hamburgers or hotdogs. No kid would argue with those. Get a grill basket and throw in all veggies in it and you are done in 20 minutes. We love peppers, zucchini mushrooms. Heck even add frozen organic french fries. As you get more into this you can make homemade fries in the oven*. In the winter the crock pot is out about 4 days a week. A bone in shoulder pork roast cooked on low for 8 hrs makes amazing sandwiches, enchiladas, salads or even breakfast muffins*.

The last thing to have in your arsenal are those “it hit the fan and we have no money to eat out” times. Leftover can save you if you have been cooking all week. This is what lunch is every Saturday. We clean the fridge out and everyone gets to pick what they want. Another meal that can save the day and bank are nachos. Any frozen meat that you have will do. A jar of salsa, some sour cream and if the stars align a ripe avocado and greens and you have a fairly balanced meal. Beef sticks, carrots cheese and cucumbers make a great summer lunch at the beach. Cheese quesadillas also take about 5 minutes to make. I buy the sprouted corn tortillas by the case when on sale at the coop. They freeze wonderfully.

Worse case is get the kids something healthy, put them to bed and have wine and chocolate for dinner. You are an adult. Sometimes you need to do it.




Breakfast Muffins
(GF)
½ lb breakfast sausage (any meat will do. I have used shredded pork)
3 eggs
2 TBS coconut oil, butter or bacon drippings
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp onion powder
3 tbs sifted coconut flour
¼ tsp baking powder
3-6 tbs salsa
¼-1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese (any cheese will do)

Cook meat and set aside. Blend together eggs, oil, salt and onion powder.
Combine coconut flour and baking flour and whisk into batter until there are no lumps. Fold in salsa and meat; do not over mix. Fill greased muffin cups with batter. Sprinkle cheese on top of muffins. Bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes. Makes 6 muffins.

*I use more cheese and blend some into batter and then put the rest on top. It make the muffins less crumbly. Make a double batch. Send 1-2 with kids  for lunch.

Tupa ‘Tatoes
Serves 4

3 medium sized potatoes
Olive oil
1-3 tsp Sea salt
1 tsp Paprika
½ tsp onion powder
¼ tsp Garlic powder
Black pepper -optional
Parsley-optional

Wash and cut potatoes into desired shapes. We do classic straight fries shape but wedges work great also. Toss with enough olive oil to coat in a large bowl. Place single layer on a parchment cover baking sheet. Bake in a preheated oven at 450 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Turn over and continue baking till golden brown.
Remove from oven and place back in same bowl used for tossing in olive oil. Add more oil if potatoes are dry. Season with the above spices or make up your own favorite mix!
Serve immediately with sour cream or Wilderness Family Naturals Mayonnaise.

Dr. Carrie Clark is a Chiropractor and co-founder of Edina Chiropractic.  www.edinachiropractic.com