Systems :: Food (part 2)

This part of our food system will talk about meals, meal planning and cooking. It's going to be a lot of reading so.... get comfortable. Or just skip this and wait a few days for more about the kids.


We are a work in progress. Every day there are ways we recognize we could improve our eating habits. How we eat now is a reflection of all those moments (about four years worth) put into action. With that disclaimer out there, here goes:

Basic stuff first -- We eat organic whenever possible. That means (for us) that we know what is in our food because it is required to be on the label, unlike 'regular' food where there are over 25,000 ingredients not required by the FDA to be on your label. Also we completely avoid what we consider to be poison: partially hydrogenated oil, corn syrup, msg (in all of its hidden forms), natural or artificial flavor and color, and the mysterious ingredient.... 'spices.' Since this is in pretty much everything you find in the center aisles of the grocery store, we just mostly shop the perimeter, leaving us with more perishable fresh food. We drink water with every meal. We don't have a microwave. And we prefer to cook with cast iron when possible (no teflon). So that brings us here.... and you all think we're crazy! That's ok.



Breakfast: Whole grain cereal with milk and fruit

This is our everyday choice. We eat oat-based cereals like Oat Bran or Toasted O's (as opposed to corn or rice based). It is our goal to make the switch to oatmeal soon -- starting with once or twice a week now and hopefully being 'off the boxed stuff' in six months or so. (see? baby steps) For fruit we just eat whatever we have -- a banana, a clementine, apple pieces, a cup of raisins. When our milk runs out before it is farm day, we eat yogurt with granola or wheat germ instead.



AM Snack: fresh fruit or veggie with cheese or nuts

My idea about snacks is that a truly hungry kid will eat anything he is offered. Hungry? First get a drink. Now, here's some carrots and cucumbers. No? okay then. With that said, my kids devour this snack regardless. Sometimes they have a small cup (always ready in the fridge) with salad dressing in it for light dipping. Chloe sometimes prefers hummus but usually they have ginger sesame dressing. This tiny cup of dressing is theirs for the week to use as they want. If it is fruit, they have apples or whatever is in season for a fruit salad. The cheese is never more than an ounce (a one inch cube) which they savor and enjoy. The nuts are usually cashews or toasted almonds. They don't love walnuts yet, but I'm working on it. All that crunching usually tires them out and fills them up without any empty 'cracker' calories.



Lunch: pb&j on 100% whole wheat bread with flaxseed sprinkles and more fruit and veggies

(Instead of a sandwich Todd eats leftovers from dinner and I usually eat any leftover soup or a veggie plate and cottage cheese or a salad with a piece of bread and butter, otherwise we always eat the same as the kids.)

I make one sandwich on store-bought bread (for now) with fresh-ground peanut butter and locally produced jam. I sprinkle flaxseed on it and cut it in quarters -- Evan gets 3/4 and Chloe 1/4. They always save their sandwich for last :-)
I give them different veggies and fruit from what they ate in the morning. Something like red or green peppers, black olives, celery with cream cheese, pears, grapes...

Weekend lunch: Since Todd is home, we eat a bit different. Saturday is scrambled eggs with sauteed veggies mixed in or on the side with toast and applesauce. Sunday lunch is salsa and chips with corn, black beans and sour cream. I like Sunday to be easy.



PM Snack: trail mix or cup of dried fruit/vanilla yogurt with wheat germ and berries/cottage cheese with peaches/popcorn

They can choose any of these with water to drink before eating anything



Dinner: whole grains and lots of veggies, sometimes with meat added -- planned according to my menu for the week

I base my menu plan on a Thursday shopping day so that's when my veggies are freshest. We use up the fresh stuff early on and depend on leftovers and frozen stuff later on. I like simple meals, not a lot of casseroles and fancy recipes. Here is the basic framework I use and then I elaborate to make it different each week where I want to:

Thurs: salad
Fri: pizza
Sat: soup
Sun: spaghetti or meatloaf
Mon: rice + beans
Tues: rainbow pasta
Wed: salmon + veggie

*Salad is lettuce with hard boiled eggs, white beans, peas, shredded cheese and tomatoes (Todd uses dressing, I don't) -- kids get a veggie plate and an egg with everything separate including some small lettuce leaves and a cup of dressing.

*Pizza is on store-bought crust (for now) and includes mushrooms, onion, peppers, tomato and mozzarella cheese. Sometimes we add bacon.

*Soup is usually stared with homemade broth and has rice or pasta with either lentils or beans and includes lots of veggies. This often contains some sort of leafy green like swiss chard. Sometimes we add meat -- slices of keilbasa or shredded chicken. If there is no rice or pasta in it we'll add bread to the meal.

*Spaghetti is Sunday dinner since I always have meaty sauce frozen in the fridge -- I cook it in huge batches with three jars of sauce to one pound of beef and add in my own peppers, onions, mushrooms, zucchini... whatever I have to stretch it a bit more. We use whole wheat pasta and have been trying to add a green veggie to this meal -- broccoli or zucchini or spinach -- either in the sauce or on the side, but are not very consistent with it yet. If I have a meatloaf in the freezer we use that instead of spaghetti.

*Rice and beans night is pretty open. Some options: traditional red beans and rice with onion and garlic and two sides of veggies; baked beans with rice pilaf and veggies; bean soup with rice and veggies added; black beans and rice with keilbasa with veggies as sides...

*Rainbow pasta is my name for refrigerator drawer clean-out day. Any veggies still unused get chopped up and put in this. It's just cooked pasta and veggies with onions and garlic and cheese on top-- Parmesan, cottage cheese, cheddar... whatever we have. I try to get a leafy green in this meal too, if there's not enough in the pasta, we have a side salad.

*Salmon day is always the same using our favorite salmon recipe -- I've tried a ton and this one always gets devoured so we do 'salmon quesadillas' (I know, sounds awful... but it's not). The salmon is seasoned with garlic and basil then heated in whole wheat tortillas with mozzarella cheese. Since this is the last day of the week there are usually no veggies left in the fridge worth eating so we pull from the freezer for green beans, mixed veggies or just plain old buttered corn.

After dinner: unsweetened applesauce with cinnamon
This is our option for a quick and healthy fill-up.


Some notes about dinners: Meat is not the main course anymore -- it is added in small quantities for flavor. By combining foods right we are able to get the complete proteins we need at each meal/snack without relying solely on meat. And since we will never be vegetarians, we are getting our b-12 in meat. Sides of veggies are just steamed and lightly seasoned with butter and salt -- there are so many options here. When there are lots of leftovers we adjust the menu and I always have a pile of squash on the counter to add as a veggie when we need it. I'd like to add in more variety with our whole grains, but that's still in the works. Things like spelt and millet and buckwheat.... I know, what are those, right? Baby steps.


Treats: you thought we were angels right... after all that health food :-)
I do have to say this -- The less junk we buy, the less craving for sugar and empty foods we have. We don't keep a lot of candy in the house so we aren't preoccupied by it. We allow a treat once a day and everyone's fine with that. Todd and I model self-control for them and they just follow along.

I buy dark chocolate candy bars for myself; I really don't care about any other treats. The kids have chocolate chips, jellybeans, sundrops (m&ms without the crap), ginger snaps and vanilla ice cream. All these come from the co-op and are organic when possible. I don't even go in the packaged desserts/snacks aisle if I can help it since I prefer to try making my own. We make cookies and muffins once a month or so. They know they can get themselves 15 sundrops or four ginger snaps or a layer of chocolate chips in a snack cup. I let them choose their treat time even if it's right after breakfast (it usually ends up after lunch) and they help themselves.

When Giant Eagle has all the candy in the checkout aisle on sale, the kids are allowed to ask for Rolos (I don't remember how this started... ) so we waste fifty cents on garbage and use it as a lesson in comparisons. Sugar is far from forbidden, but we do want them to be informed.

Chloe has been known to make one single Rolo candy last from 9am till after dinner.
Evan can make 25 chocolate chips last three days.
They know how to savor and enjoy what they eat and they are happy kids :-)

Well I think that covers everything. And if you made it this far, I am amazed. That was even a lot for me!!