~ Menu Plan Monday ~
I asked the family what meals they wanted to have this week and created my menu plan around their requests. I sometimes get bogged down with menu planning . . . it’s not my favorite thing in the world to do . . . so it’s nice to ask everyone for some ideas now and again and go from there! So, first is my menu plan, but be sure to read about some changes I’ll be making in what we eat each week.
Monday – homemade chicken nuggets, ramen noodles or rice, veggies
Tuesday - ham slices, baked red potatoes, green beans
Wednesday – tacos, avocado slices, dessert (not sure what I’ll make yet!)
Thursday – lasagna, corn, salad
Friday – tilapia, salad, baked potatoes
Over the weekend, I pulled out a handful of my favorite books so that I could get focused again on cooking the most nutritious foods for our family. The books that I referenced were:
12 Best Foods Cookbook: Over 200 Recipes Featuring The 12 Healthiest Foods
SuperFoods Rx: Fourteen Foods That Will Change Your Life
SuperFoods HealthStyle: Simple Changes to Get the Most Out of Life for the Rest of Your Life
Here is a summary of the best foods for us. What I love about these books is that they provide TONS of recipes for me to incorporate each week. The foods in (parentheses) are good substitutes for those foods listed in bold. This list is just meant as a guide and not medical advice. I highly recommend checking out these books yourself. My menu plan next week will show you how I incorporate more of these foods into our meals than I am doing at the moment.
apples (pears): eat one daily
avocado (asparagus, artichokes, extra virgin olive oil): 1/3 to 1/2 avocado multiple times weekly
Beans (all beans – pinto, chickpeas, lima, great northern, navy -, lentils, legumes, green beans, green peas, sugar snap peas): four 1/2-cup servings per week
Blueberries (purple grapes, strawberries, cherries, raspberries, cranberries, raspberries, currants, blackberries, boysenberries, other dark colored berries): 1-2 cups daily
Broccoli (bok choy, cabbage, cauliflower, collard greens, kale, mustard greens, turnip greens, Brussel sprouts, Swiss chard, rutabaga, kohlrabi, broccoflower, arugula, watercress, daikon root, wasabi, liverwort): 1/2 to 1 cup daily
cinnamon – sprinkle it on your oatmeal, in your coffee, in soups, fruit dips … use it often!
dark chocolate is considered one of the 12 best foods! Yum! Sidekicks include red wine and green tea.
flax is noted as an alternative to salmon … the keypoint being that we need to get in our Omega-3’s each week
Fruits: kiwi, canteloupe, apricots, dried fruits w/no additional sugar or high-fructose sugar added to them
honey: 1-2 tsp multiple times weekly
onions is listed as one of the 12 best foods, too. Sidekicks include garlic, shallots, leeks, green onions, and chives
olive oil, extra virgin (canola oil): 1 Tbl most days
Oranges (lemons, grapefruit, tangerines, limes, kumquats): 1 serving daily
pomegranates (plums): 4-8 oz of 100% pomegranate juice multiple times weekly or any amount of seeds
Pumpkin (carrots, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, orange bell peppers): 1/2-cup most days
Soy (soymilk, soy nuts, tofu, edamame, tempeh, miso): 15 g soy protein daily in 2 separate meals or snacks
Spinach (kale, collards, mustard greens, turnip greens, romaine lettuce, orange bell peppers): 1 cup steamed or 2 cups raw most days
“super spices“: cumin, turmeric, oregano, thyme, garlic
Tea (green or black): 1+ cups daily
Tomatoes (watermelon, pink grapefruit, papaya, guava): one serving of processsed tomatoes/day … or … multiple servings of fresh tomatoes per week
Turkey (chicken): 3-4 servings/week of 3-4 oz. Weekly
Walnuts (almonds, pistachios, sesame seeds, peanuts, pumpkin & sunflower seeds, macadamia nuts, pecans, hazelnuts, cashews): 1 oz, five times weekly
Whole Grains, especially Oats, wheat germ, ground flaxseed (brown rice, wheat, barley, millet, buckwheat, rye, bulgur wheat, amaranth, quinoia, triticale, kamut, yellow corn, wild rice, spelt, couscous): 5-7 servings daily
Wild Salmon (halibut, canned tuna, sardines, trout, oysters, clams, mackerel, herring, sea bass, Omega-enriched eggs, flax or ground flaxseed): 2-4 times/week
Yogurt (kefir, soy yogurt): 1-2 cups most days
It’s a great idea to include the family in the menu planning.
Your menu sounds delicious.
I’m just waiting on my coffee to finish brewing. You have a terrific week.
Happy MPM.
Nice menu. I joined MPM for the first time this week too, though I must confess I’ve already gone off the menu twice…and it’s only Wednesday. Ahh!
I’ve been trying to incorporate flaxseed meal into things to boost our Omega-3’s. I like to mix it in with meatloaf, you never know it’s there. I also love topping mashed sweet potatoes with the flaxseed meal and cinnamon – the meal has a slightly nutty taste, so it’s kind of like crushed nuts. I like to use the meal in breading, especially on things like salmon patties where bread crumbs are required instead of flour. I’ve read you can use flaxseed meal in baking too, but I haven’t dabbled in that yet!
Great list, though! I’ve just discovered pomegranate juice too – Minute Mail has a lovely pomegranate + other fruit juices but it’s a bit pricey. But delicious!