trying something new

I have revamped my cooking habits over the last eight months, which is one reason I have been so absent here. We now eat on a weekly meal plan, for dinner at least, and it has helped in a lot of areas. Here is what we started out with:

Mondays- baked potatoes and broccoli

Tuesdays-grilled meat (usually chicken) and carrots and melon

Wednesdays-breakfast (usually pancakes and smoothie)

Thursdays-Thai noodles with broccoli

Fridays-soup and rolls

Saturdays-Mexican (usually tacos)

Sundays-Italian (usually pasta casserole or spaghetti)

I started doing this in June and it has now evolved to this:

Mondays-fish and vegetables (usually broccoli) and brown rice

Tuesdays-bbq pulled pork and carrots and mashed potatoes

Wednesdays-breakfast

Thursday-grilled burgers and corn on the cob and melon

Friday-tacos

Saturday-soup and rolls (our favorite is broccoli and cheese)

Sunday-Greek pasta and feta

We've done stir fry vegetables and rice, individual foil dinner with meat and vegetables, and a few other things that the kids fought me on week after week. Those things didn't stay in the rotation once I could think of something else healthy that I was willing to try. Some of our favorite ingredients lately are feta, laughing cow spreadable cheeses, and egg beaters. Feta is good on so many things I would never think of pairing it with. My kids love it!

Eating on a schedule like this has really simplified a lot of things for our family, like grocery shopping and planning, food storage, calorie counting (for me), and cooking time. I have loved it and recently expanded it to my other meals. I have a schedule for my breakfast and lunch and snacks that I try to stick to. It takes a lot of stress out of trying to help myself and my family eat more healthy meals.

I will be posting a few of the recipes I use a lot in this new eating plan. Most of them are very simple, but maybe they'll be helpful for you. They are all like around here, even by my six little ones. Well, the five that eat them, anyway.