Long have I struggled with the mighty food guidelines - the pyramids have rarely made sense for me. The new visual representation of a plate with a glass of milk makes more sense - however I still struggle with putting it into action. This post has nothing to do with that. In an effort to stop buying perishable ingredients for only one meal of the week, we have decided to try this thing called "menu planning" for a week at a time and use things like cilantro in more than one meal, thus wasting less food. (How's that for a long sentence?) To keep us accountable, I'm putting it out here where my parents can see and will hopefully call me out on it!
Sunday: Cheese Ravioli with Pesto made with fresh basil from our garden so we won't need to "stretch the pesto by adding a little fresh baby spinach"
Monday: Black-Eyed Pea Salad with Ham and Cilantro (from Weight Watchers Shortcut Cookbook - 9780848726294) using up leftover cilantro from the corn salsa we made this weekend however instead of black-eyed peas we will be using some purple hull peas we have from the our CSA membership
Tuesday: Chicken Pesto Pasta to not let good pesto go to waste
Wednesday: Veg Head Chili and Chile-Corn Muffins from the freezer (which will also be a meatless day for me)
Thursday: Lamb chops with potatoes and salad
Friday: Tacos (made with Penzey's taco seasoning) with beans and rice
Saturday: Evening over at good friends who will be feeding us homemade paella
As you can probably tell, I'm struggling a bit with balancing that plate/glass to have my proper amounts of vegetables, fruit, grains, protein, and dairy. However, baby steps, right??
