Menu Planning

My Problem:

After intense googling, I have found overwhelming information that menu planning is infact much more effective and actually a cheaper way to grocery shop and eat healthier.  The catch?  It is one of those things you just know Satan and God met up to decide how to throw it out to the world.  Atleast, for my husband and I it is difficult. 

SATAN: "So, God, how about we make that menu planning thing the worst nightmare on earth?"

God:  "I thought that was you."

SATAN:  "This stuff is ten times worse than I ever want to be."

For us, conflicting interests divide our bill and pretty much work as hard as possible at doubling it.  I don't know a single "healthy" thing he would eat for lunch, other than a turkey sandwich, and quite frankly, he'd be pretty mad if I took away the pizza bites for turkey sammiches.  So, while I may buy turkey sammiches for the kids and I, he won't eat them more than once.  Therefore, I buy both things instead of just one.  It generally has been working this way for most meals.  For dinner, I just plan whatever, which includes some sort of veggie, hopefully, and go from there.  I've been planning a bunch with lots of veggies, and since I don't have any sort of garden, veggies get expensive, especially on top of everything else, like pizzas, meat, snacks, dairy, ect.  That's just one more item building up.  This spring, I'm going to attempt to grow a garden, and hopefully it works. (More in another post, probably next week when I plant strawberries/garlic.)

My food pyramid:

My husband's food pyramid:

So conflicting!  Next time, I'll get him to sit down with me and help me out in making the grocery list, because he needs to eat healthier too, and we will save more money that way.

How I am currently planning:

Step 1:

Right now, I figure out how many days until the next time I have to grocery shop.  Example:  This time, I planned from October 1-17, because you NEVER. EVER. want to go grocery shopping at the Commissary on a military pay day.  (1st and 15th)  The commissary raises their prices by about ten cents, and it is PACKED.  Everyone goes on payday.  So, I do my best to plan enough meals to last until the stocking day after pay day. (in this case, it is a Tuesday.)   Here, nothing good is left if it isn't stocking day, because this place is tiny, and the economy prices are generally more expensive.  Better quailty though.  I just happen to like the commissary, probably because it is familiar to me already and a small token of home in the states.  

Step 2: 

I work on picking out enough dinners for each night until the next planned grocery shopping trip, plus one or two for back up meals.  I make sure to pick a good variety, usually two or three of each category:  meatless, hamburger, pork, fish, pizza night, steak, ect.  Its best to plan things you already have most if not all the ingredients to.

Step 3:

Make a grocery list for everything you need from the meals planned.  I do this in the kitchen, simply because I know what I have and what I don't, and can look if I don't remember and it not take a long walk to the kitchen.

Step 4:

Next, I plan out a few fancy breakfasts, like muffins, pancakes, eggs and bacon.  You get the jist.  After planning out a few based on the number of days I'm planning for, then I add needed ingredients to the list as well.

Step 5:

I make sure I have a full bag of each type of flour I need as well as sugar and other common ingredients and add to my list accordingly.  I also check all the other things needed in the house like cleaners, toilet paper, shower items, ect. 

Step 6:

Lastly, I add all the random lunch items we normally buy, like turkey deli meat, lettuce, pizza rolls, and things like that.  Lunch at my house is usually find it eat it.

Then, I go to the store and spend a crap ton of money on food and other items.  Some weeks, I dread that shopping trip. 

mmm food!

But, if I didn't go, I wouldn't have food for the next few weeks.  Just as I'm not going to have muffins if I don't go cook them now.



Tomorrow, I'll try to post: "Things I wish to change about meal planning, and how I aim to do so."  It might be a few days before I do though.



**Images courtesy of google image searches.

Making Homemade Bread

One of our first home changes, was bread, oddly enough.  I'm not sure why we chose to do this, but I'm glad we did.  See, bread from the store is cheap and tasty, but not as awesome of quality as bread from the bakery, which is about five times more expensive.  So, we decided if we made home made bread, we'd get a cheap good quailty loaf, and that's exactly how it turned out.  I wish I knew how to make the top braided like the Germans at the bakery do, but that's another lesson for another day.

With just a few simple ingredients, and a great recipe, the bread was wonderful!  Of course, it isn't wheat bread, and I haven't tried making wheat bread yet, but hey, this white bread is tasty, and maybe healthier because it lacks all those random additives and such.  For the record, my mixer was broken when I made this the first time, so it was quite the arm work out, but still turned out nicely.  Thankfully, we ordered one, and it should be here in a months time.  Gotta love APO shipping!  Here's the recipe:



Ingredients:

2 (.25 oz) packages active dry yeast.  (If you bought the jar that contains about 16ish packages, its 2 1/4 tsp per package, so 4.5 tsp total)

2 tbs white sugar

2 1/2 cups warm water (110 F - 115 F or 45 C)

3 tbs shortening/lard

1 tbs salt

6 1/2  cups bread flour  (King Aurther makes the most amazing flour ever.  I highly recommend it.)

Extra flour for surface covering

Olive oil (or any oil you happen to have on hand.  I just like using olive oil for most things.)


Directions:

1.  In large bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water.  Stir (I whisk'd) in shortening, salt, and two cups of flour.  (Get out your spoon/mixer.)  Stir in remaining flour, 1/2 c at a time, beating well after each addition.  When the dough has pulled together, turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic.  (8ish minutes.)

2.  Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour. (If you live in a cold place, just preheat your oven to 250 F, and place bowl on the back of the stove where the oven's extra heat will seep out.  It will help it rise more efficiently.)

3.  Deflate (Punch down with all you've got!) the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and form into loaves. (This works best by rolling until mostly smooth, and then rolling up so the bottom is the ends tucked under nicely.)  Place the loaves into two lightly greased 9x5 inch loaf pans. Cover the loaves with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled in volume, about 40ish minutes.  (generally, let it rise until it reaches the desired loaf size.  This can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on climate.  Yeast works by warmth and moisture, so the warmer and wetter, the faster it is going to rise, to a certain extent.  You don't want to over heat it or over soak it, because that will end in a soggy loaf trying to cook and rise simultaniously. )

4.  Preheat oven to 425 F/220 C.  
5.  The second after you put the bread into the oven, AFTER it is fully preheated, turn the temperature down to 375 F/190 C.  If you forgot this step, don't worry.  The crust will just be twice as hard, as it would if you lowered the temperature; the middle is still soft and tasty just like it should be.  (If you happen to have a teething baby, the harder crust works great for them to chew on.  It keeps my son quiet and happy most of the time.)

6.  Allow bread to bake for about 30 minutes or until top is golden brown and bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.  (I personally find tapping the bottom of a hot pan with your finger a bad idea, so be sure to use a fork or something else.)  If you forgot to lower the temperature, it is usually done by 20-25 minutes, so make sure to check on that. 

This recipe turned out so tasty, moist, fluffy, and overally amazing for turkey and cheese sammiches.  Out with the store bought, in with the home made!  Hope everyone who tries this loves it as much as we do.

Introduction: Why change?

For starters, lets go to the beginning.  About a month ago, I realized all things wrong with my diet, my house, and overall, my life.  I realized I wasn't getting anywhere near the best quality out of my life and how I was living is no longer going to cut it.  Of course, there will still be lazy days, and there will still be spend hours in the bathroom after a bad dinner turned into a trip to burger king, and least of all, there will still be jammie days full of nothing at all, and that is ok, so long as it isn't every day.  So many things needed changing. 

I wanted to go from this:

to this:

Greetings from McHell.  The place that serves you unhealthy grease and MAKES YOU LIKE IT!  Yeah.  I was pretty addicted, and it tastes amazing, that is, until it hits your stomach and pretty much goes out the other end.  Now doesn't that steak look so much healthier?  It, surprisingly, does taste much better, and won't leave you spending hours in the bathroom.  Yay for awesome dinners!




I wanted to go from this:

to this:

Donuts aren't exactly the healthiest choice on the block either.  Trading my afternoon snack from donuts, cookies, brownies, ice cream, and a ton of other unhealthy snacks to veggies sounds like a right choice to me!  What's better than a snack full of yummy vitamins and vibrant colors?  (Of course, I'll definitely post recipes of awesome sweet n healthy snacks!  Those will probably be my first go.)



The second I realized how horrible my diet really was, I decided my goal will forever be to make it a bazillion times healthier, so hubby, myself, and our children would be able to experience a healthy diet of their own as well.  Things needed to change here if we wanted a healthier life, more energy, and overall better everything.  Also, what better reason to learn to cook!?


On top of changing the diet, I wanted to change my house.  Living in a gross mess isn't good for anyone.  Granted, I dont think mine is actually that bad, but it isn't exactly clean either.  I wanted to go from this:

To this:

I mean, come on.  Who doesn't want a clean house?  The question is, how does a person keep a clean house with two kids under the age of three destroying everything ten seconds after it is cleaned?  Hopefully, I'll find that answer soon.


Along with diet and a clean house, I am working on overall changing my attitude about life, love, and the joys of parenting.  Afterall, life isn't easy, and neither is change.  I feel like I need to do so many things to make a better quality of life, so here's to my exploration into the unknown!  I hope you all enjoy reading this, and that the experience isn't just mine alone. 

Cheers to a new lifestyle!

*Credit of images goes to google images search listings.