menu plan december ii & real food challenge updates

December is in full swing!  The Real Food Challenge has also been going strong.  There was just one night in the past week when no one had thought about what we were going to have for dinner.  Someone brought home some fast food, and I went for it.  Bad idea.  Within hours, my stomach felt upset.  In the morning, I felt like my insides had rusted.  Also, my fingers and feet were swollen.  I've noticed that I'm very sensitive to holding water on my hands and feet if I'm not eating correctly.  It's kind of like my instant inflammation-meter.  Throughout this week, as I've been focusing on only putting things in my mouth and my body that will support health, my fingers have been been slim, and my shoes have started to be a little more loose!

So - onward and upward!  I've started giving away my homemade Christmas baskets.  My sister's family got theirs first, when we were there for Thanksgiving, and the church staff got theirs on Friday at our Staff Christmas Party.  I'll do a full post on them soon, but they have been so fun to put together.  I've been organizing them around a theme (Afternoon Snack, Chip & Dipper, Easy Entertaining, etc.) and including plenty of homemade and home-canned goodness.

Let's get to this week's eats.

Some notes:  we literally always have one of two things for breakfast if we are at home.

1)  -- scrambled eggs from our Mennonite hens
     -- homemade sourdough toast/English muffins/biscuits
     -- raw butter we have been making from our Mennonite cow cream
     -- local raw honey or homemade preserves
     -- seasonal fruit from our CSA or something I canned like peaches, pears, or applesauce

2) -- pancakes
    -- raw butter
    -- real maple syrup
    -- seasonal fruit

Vicki usually requests #2.  If we have time, I'm happy to oblige.  However, for the month of the Real Food Challenge, I'm probably going to stick to eggs.  If I do any sourdough baking, though, we will use the excess starter to have sourdough pancakes.

Since it is so monotonous, I'm not going to put breakfast on the menu plan.

Lunches are pretty much always leftovers.  If I do some actual cooking for lunch, I will put it in the plan.  If not, just assume it's something unexciting.

For drinks, we always have raw milk on hand.  We also drink Berkey filtered water, kombucha, or homemade soda from our ginger bug.  I made a cranberry soda last week that is amazing.

Finally, I try to make one dessert-ish item that we nibble on all week for snacks and desserts.  For this week, I'm making a big batch of baked apples.  I used a standard recipe from my BH&G cookbook, but subbed sucanat for the brown sugar.  I'll do a recipe for it soon!

Sunday
-- lunch:  we had chicken wings!  I brought sweet potatoes to make oven fries, and carrot sticks with ranch dressing on the side.
-- supper:  Family Dinner.  We've had a few weeks off, and I'm excited to be reunited with everyone.  I'm bringing baked apples, as shown above.

Monday
-- lunch:  egg salad, homemade sourdough bread, cranberry ginger bug soda, home-canned pear sauce
-- supper:  Moroccan-style stuffed acorn squash (this has been a huge favorite lately!), kale salad

Tuesday
-- lunch:  same as Monday except with tuna salad and homemade sourdough pita
-- supper:  hamburger corn pone.  I will do a recipe on this soon, but it is a Southern dish that I was unacquainted with before moving to Nashville.  Basically think:  shepherd's pie, except with chili on the bottom and cornbread on the top.  It's ridiculously good.  Plus a vinegar slaw on the side.

Wednesday
-- lunch:  carrot ginger soup, grilled cheese on homemade sourdough with pepper relish
-- supper:  home-fried fish & chips with cod and roast potatoes, roast broccoli
Thursday
-- lunch:  same as Monday except with chicken salad (sensing a theme!?)
-- supper:  pork carnitas soft tacos with sourdough tortillas, home-canned salsa, sour cream, cheese, avocado, pickled cabbage & onion salad

Friday
-- lunch:  same as Monday, maybe with some home-canned cranberry sauce if I finish the jar of pear sauce
-- supper:  kale pizza with homemade mozzarella and sourdough crust, roasted sweet potatoes

Saturday
-- lunch:  leftovers
-- supper:  roast chicken, mashed turnips, sauteed turnip greens, maple-glazed carrots, homemade sourdough rolls

[This post submitted to Menu Plan Monday 12/8/14.]

menu plan december i & real food challenge!!

I'm back!!  Thanksgiving and the wedding were awesome.  I will do a full recap this week, but here is a sneak peak of the kids at our lunch break on the way to my sister's house.  I got wise and packed a cooler full of awesome, nourishing foods.  The weather was merciful and we were able to get out at a rest stop, run and play and stretch our legs, and enjoy some raw cheese, homemade sourdough bread, raw milk, kombucha, satsumas, and veggie beef soup.  Way more satisfying than fast food.  And probably even faster.  :)

I think I caught Todd mid-chew.  He's usually much cuter than this.  

Before I get into our meal plan for the week, I want to announce my challenge, and invite others to join in!  I strive for a diet free of processed foods.  A diet that is supportive of health and also responsible to our environment and local farmers.  But we all know that life gets in the way.  I am not in control of every bite that goes into the mouth of my family.  And, to be honest, if I were - I would get a little crazy, I think.  I have that perfectionistic streak.  

However, I am in control of everything that I eat.  By that I mean that no one is holding a gun to my head and making me eat chips or popsicles or candy or whatever.  And for this month, I want to be extra-mindful of what goes into my mouth.  I have two main areas that cause me to struggle in this:

1)  I work full-time and often have to scramble to find something to eat for lunch.

2)  We eat most evenings with my amazing grandmother-in-law.  She is always open to me cooking, but getting all the ingredients there and prepped and ready after a long day can be challenging.

So, for the month of December, I'm doing a Real Food Challenge!  Every bite that goes into my mouth this month will be carefully considered.  You can read about what I believe constitutes real food here.  I would love to lose some weight and also feel healthier this month.  Does anyone want to join me!?  I know this is a hard month to do this kind of challenge, but it just felt like the right time.  Comment below if you'd like to join in for accountability.  :)

Now, on to the food!

Some notes:  we literally always have one of two things for breakfast if we are at home.

1)  -- scrambled eggs from our Mennonite hens
     -- homemade sourdough toast/English muffins/biscuits
     -- raw butter we have been making from our Mennonite cow cream
     -- local raw honey or homemade preserves
     -- seasonal fruit from our CSA or something I canned like peaches, pears, or applesauce

2) -- pancakes
    -- raw butter
    -- real maple syrup
    -- seasonal fruit

Vicki usually requests #2.  If we have time, I'm happy to oblige.  However, for the month of the Real Food Challenge, I'm probably going to stick to eggs.  Unless I make pancakes from sourdough starter.  (Sidenote:  I really need to update you on my sourdough journey!  It has changed a lot since that last link.)

Since it is so monotonous, I'm not going to put breakfast on the menu plan.

Lunches are pretty much always leftovers.  If I do some actual cooking for lunch, I will put it in the plan.  If not, just assume it's something unexciting.

For drinks, we always have raw milk on hand.  We also drink Berkey filtered water, kombucha, or homemade soda from our ginger bug.  Lately I've been drinking the buttermilk left after butter-making - yum!

Finally, I try to make one dessert-ish item that we nibble on all week for snacks and desserts.  For this week, I will make a brown rice pudding from some soaked rice.

Sunday
-- lunch:  we were on the road!  We had leftover Thanksgiving ham, raw cheese, sourdough bread, raw milk, satsumas, homemade cranberry sauce, and some leftover pumpkin-sorghum pie.
-- supper:  we had just arrived home and ate some leftover BBQ pork, potato salad, white beans with pepper relish, potato chips, and God knows what else.

Monday
-- supper:  ham & white beans, soaked cornbread, pepper relish

Tuesday
-- supper:  beef soft tacos with homemade taco seasoning, whole wheat sourdough tortillas, sour cream, raw cheese, pickled cabbage salad (going to adapt Deb's recipe a little), avocado, chopped tomato (can you believe I still have a few little green tomatoes that ripened on the counter!?)

Wednesday
-- supper:  shrimp in Thai red curry peanut sauce (recipe coming soon!), Asian green beans, soaked brown rice

Thursday
-- supper:  pork chops and cabbage braised in apple cider, mashed sweet potatoes, pear sauce

Friday
-- supper:  ham & pineapple pizza on sourdough crust with homemade mozzarella, marinated tomato salad

Saturday
-- supper:  roast chicken, roasted spiced cauliflower and oven fries, leftover pickled cabbage salad

What are you going to eat!?

[This post submitted to Menu Plan Monday 12/1/14, the Homestead Barn Hop 12/1/14, and Fat Tuesday 12/2/14.]