Shabbos- dinner – challah, chicken soup, chicken, baked butternut squash, baked yams, carrots and celery, sauerkraut, power bars and lollipops; lunch – chicken, beef cholent, kishke, mini pumpkin kugels, cucumber salad, orange cranberry relish, power bars, peach crisp
Sunday – breakfast – oatmeal; snack – ants on a log (celery spread with peanut butter, topped with raisins); dinner – leftovers – kasha, rice, baked beans, lentils, soup, cooked vegetables, salad (I like the fridge to be empty to start off the week :))
Monday – b – polenta; l – hearty vegetable soup; d – pizza with nut flour crust, salad
Tuesday – b – coconut mango pancakes; l – hard boiled eggs, vegetable sticks; d – falafel, salad, techina
Wednesday- b – chocolate zucchini muffins; l – shopping day so I’ll pick up something; d – corn chowder
Thursday – b – sweet potatoes with almond sauce; l – corn chowder; d – beef and pinto beans
Friday – the last few weeks the kids have enjoyed a special baked treat about an hour before candlelighting – it’s always something made with challah dough
Every time I make a nutritional change to our diets, it means that menu planning becomes more time consuming for a while until I get used to thinking about the new way I’m changing over to. I’ve made a number of adaptations over the years, and each time, there’s a learning curve as I have to readjust the kinds of foods I make, looking for different recipes and taking into account new and different information. That’s the challenge I’m having right now, trying to make gluten free meals (as well as trying to cut down on grains in general).
I’ve depended heavily on wheat flour for our breakfasts in particular – muffins, biscuits, pancakes, and waffles regularly appear on our breakfast table. The easiest thing is just to stop having them, and eat eggs and yogurt every morning instead. That idea has a lot of appeal, honestly-the kids love omelettes and yogurt with what I call grainless granola (sliced almonds, shredded coconut, sunflower or sesame seeds, and raisins) – it would make menu planning so much simpler! But instead I’ve been looking for substitutions since my kids really enjoy this kind of food.
Last night I told my dh (not for the first time) that I wished I was a person who could have one or two weekly menus and use them forever. It would be so easy to know that Wednesday night was always baked salmon, you know? No brain work, no time, no thinking involved. But as he said to me, “You’ve never been like that.” Sigh. It’s true. It seems so boring and limiting. But boring has its definite advantages. 🙂
Avivah
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