Meal Planning Archives

Got to watch out for the local wildlife.

Confession time: I spent the last 4 days in the land of fast-food courts, restaurants and grocery shops. After the last few months confined in my small town with one Woolworths and limited, although tasty, restaurants, I went a little overboard after a road trip down to Adelaide.

Family time

I stayed with my little sister and her family in their gorgeous, massive, all-white house. Her house is the perfect cross between a prestige show home and family home. This always intimidates me because I’m constantly spilling things and I leave things, like books, laying around. I wonder sometimes how we are related. She has all the maternal instincts; she cares so deeply about everyone around her, and she has the energy to keep a white house spotless after working a fulltime job with two young kids. Wonder woman has nothing on her. One day, when I grow up, I want to be like her. She seems to have it all figured out.

Our mother and younger brothers came down for a couple days as well, so it was a loud and rambunctious affair. My family is a sarcastic lot, we love a bit of cheeky banter and some of us can talk until the cows come home. No conversations are off topic, and we leap from philosophical questions to dick jokes and back again with ease.

We decided to have a roast lamb with roasted veggies and cauliflower bake for tea Friday, because it was our first night together and a celebration was in order. Cooking for ten people requires a bit of juggling but we made it work. Disaster nearly struck when I realised that rosemary was nowhere to be seen in the pantry or fridge and salt was at critical levels. Nevertheless, we prevailed! Mostly due to my husband running out to the corner shop and grabbing some precious rosemary so I didn’t have a meltdown over my lamb and potatoes.

Girls day out

The ladies made an escape from the children the next morning and made for a river, where under a shady tree, we communed with nature. Well, it communed with us. Mosquitoes, midges and march flies swarmed within a few minutes and decided we were a tasty banquet. Beating a hasty retreat and cursing nature we went in the opposite direction and went to a mall. Retail therapy is a thing. There were a few things left of my pre-approved list of purchases I needed to get.

We treated ourselves to the magnificent delights of San Churros. Their Spanish hot chocolate is honestly heaven in a cup. Not going to lie, I have thought about just deep diving into a vat of that beverage. I wonder if it would be good for your skin? After that, I cried over the variety of fresh produce available in a market store and I managed to get some fresh okra for these week’s starter dish. I also found a cheese store and splashed out on different varieties to make up a cheese board for the adults to enjoy in the afternoon.

That night I gave a lesson to my youngest brother 12, on how to make lasagne. It was quite fun, though nerve racking watching him using the knife. He did very well, and we made just enough for everyone to enjoy with garlic bread and a garden salad.

Sunday morning, there was time for brunch with a friend I haven’t seen forever, before leaving Adelaide and heading home. There is something therapeutic about having a long meal with good company, and long drives with good music. After unloading the car and having tea, we decided on the menu for this week. It looked like this:

Week 4 Menu Planning

I decided to try out a recipe for vegetarian gumbo, a New Orleans dish that normally includes of a glorious roux (flour and oil/butter/bacon fat, whisked over a low heat until it goes from pale white to a rich cinnamon colour), the holy trinity of creole cooking (celery, capsicum and onion), seafood and andouille sausage. Swapping out the seafood and sausage for beans and using olive oil in the roux made this perfect for me. To go with the gumbo, I made some cornbread. I made two, turns out I confused the salt for sugar and basically made an inedible mess in round one. Round two turned out much nicer, you could even eat it! Luckily, I choose to make this on a day I didn’t have work, as it takes a couple of hours to make.

Next up was a mushroom carbonara, which I tried making the traditional way without any cream or milk, just eggs and cheese. It didn’t turn out that great, but I tried. Perhaps I didn’t take the egg/cheese emulsion slow enough, so the constancy was not quite right, more scrambled egg than creamy, smooth sauce. I shall endeavour to try making it again, as I don’t like to be defeated by mere food stuffs. It is a blow to my admittedly fragile ego.

Thursday night was the start of night shift for me, so I gave up the reins to the others of the household. My crib consisted of gumbo and carbonara leftovers. My sister ended up making the pumpkin risotto without sage as the shops were sold out, and my mischievous fluffers had taken offense to the plant I had tried growing previously.

Friday afternoon I baked up veggie meatballs and faux chicken strips to add to salads. My quick and easy recipe is just bagged lettuce leaves, coleslaw mix, tomatoes, cucumber, feta cheese and either the meatballs or strips. Add different dressings every day and you never get bored of it. A toasted cheese and tomato roll is breakfast while I work, and I’m done for the day.

Saturday was more of the same. Night shift is quieter than days, so the challenge is stopping the urge to munch on everything in sight, and then having to hit the vending machine for a sugar hit.

Sunday through to Tuesday was again spent sleeping for night shift and I ran away to Adelaide again for my block off. It was time to pick up my new reading glasses. Yes, I am now dependent on glasses to help me do what I love most, reading. And embroidery. But I look cute in them, so everything works out. I got back home in time for the start of a new month and a new topic. My March blog is actually up before this one as I had forgot to press the publish button and left this one on preview for a week and a half. All I can do is apologise and promise to do better in the future.

I am continuing with my meal planning and will be adding new habits as I go. My fridge and grocery bill has never looked better.

Until next time,

Kay

Failing to plan, planning to fail.

Welcome

For my first month I have decided to tackle my eating habits. To say I could eat healthier is an understatement. During my low periods lately, my diet has consisted of blocks of milk chocolate and multiple cans of Pepsi max a day. Tasty, yes. Good for me, not especially. Water? What is this strange word you throw in my direction? The only time I drink water is in my herbal teas at work and occasionally a coconut water if I’m feeling adventurous. But now I’m taking control, but this is not another diet.

Backstory

To put things in context for you: for most of my life I have been overweight to morbidly obese. I had tried every diet, fad, exercise program I came across. I have shimmied my way through Zumba, pumped weights to Eye of the Tiger, ran like Mr Darcy was waiting for me at the finishing line and did my best to Zen my way through yoga. I have choked down weight loss smoothies, made my family suffer the consequences of the Cabbage soup diet in my teens (becoming a wind instrument is not what was advertised!) vilified carbs…no now its sugar…. dairy…the list is endless. I had developed unhealthy attitudes for food. I tried starving myself, became bulimic, starting a binge and purge cycle which got out of control. And that’s what it was all about control.

I was bullied by strangers, friends and family about my weight. I became so self-conscious in my teens, that anyone looking at me meant they were thinking about how disgusting I was. I still fight these thoughts today. I realise that rationally no one has the time and energy to spend thinking that much on another person’s physical attributes. When was the last time you spent more than five seconds thinking on a stranger’s body or even a friend? it is something I must unlearn, but this will be a subject for another month.

I finally decided to get weight-loss surgery 3 years ago after reaching 170+ kilos. I had put it off for years because I stupidly thought that it wouldn’t count, it was cheating, I just had to learn control. I was an idiot. I had seen family and friends go through with surgeries and manage amazing results, but instead of just being happy for their success and hard work, the whispers in the back of my head said I don’t need that, I can do it without help. It was a lie. Regardless of how much I worked out and watched what I ate, I was constantly starving. Like haven’t eaten in days, feeling shaky, would kill for a chocolate bar hungry.

I went in for a gastric sleeve and ended up losing roughly 74 kilos. An entire person! But in the three years since surgery, I have gained a little back. I started eating more. I wasn’t hungry, I don’t feel hungry most of the time. I hadn’t changed my relationship with food. I eat when I’m bored, stressed, and well, really any emotion. I’m working on this side of myself in conjunction with everything else.

Seeing the light and hoping it’s not a train.

I don’t believe in diets anymore. Studies have shown that dieting doesn’t work in the long run and that it has negative psychological effects. If you can do it and it works for you, more power to you. But it doesn’t work for me. I dislike the whole idea that foods should be categorised into ‘good’ and ‘bad’, I’ve stopped saying things like I’m being ‘naughty’ for having a scone or a lolly. Food shouldn’t be vilified or earned. Putting restrictions on foods just makes us feel like we are missing out. Like going low-carb and spending hours daydreaming of warm toast smothered in butter. Unless there is an allergy in play or ethical reasons, what’s the point? Saying that, I am a vegetarian, though my husband and sister are not so I cook meat for them with vegetarian sides for me.

What i am actually going to be doing:

Coming back to the main point, my new habit: healthy meal planning. I chose this area as I want to cook more at home, and to have quick, easy, healthy meals at home instead of having take away would be better, both health wise and financially. I am hoping it will cut down on the shopping bill as well, because now we are going to the shop every day and don’t walk out without spending $100+ because of the clever marketing people at the local Woolworths. I want to limit the trips to the shops to 2-3 times a week. Given that we live in a remote town in the middle of a desert, our shops can be very limited on variety, but they try to service the community the best they can.

Everyone who lives at my house works different shifts, so it can be a challenge figuring out what to make. But my husband and my sister have given me control of the meals so I can go a little mad with power. Side bar: I don’t like frozen meals. I have tried meal prepping before and froze them for eating at work and for the times where you don’t feel like cooking after 12-hour shift. To me, it doesn’t taste right. I’m a snob I know, but I’m yet to find a frozen meal that taste better than a freshly prepared one.

So, parameters of experiment:

One meal a day is communal, normally dinner. Leftovers are fair game. Every other meal is up to the individual. If its not on the shopping list, it does not get brought. No food is off-limits but no takeaway for a month. If we get invited out by friends for a meal, of course we can make merry. Depending now the mood of the day we can swap meals around, because you can never tell what you will be craving day to day. Keeping a well-stocked kitchen with the staples for making the standards is always a great start.

That’s all I have for now. Join me in a couple days for an update.

Farewell for now,

Kaysia

Tag: Meal Planning

February Final Week