Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Way more than anyone ever wanted to know about what I eat

Since my last recipe post, I have changed quite a bit about what I eat. I'm following the guidelines from Marilyn Shannon's Fertility, Cycles and Nutirition. I eat at least: 3 servings of whole grains, 3 servings dairy/eggs, 1 serving complete protein, 1 serving yellow fruits/vegetables, 3 serving leafy greens, 1 serving vitamin C source, and 1 serving unsaturated fat. I have also significantly reduced the amount of sugar/white flour I eat.

I plan out dinners for the week and go grocery shopping on Saturday. I'll be starting to post the meal plan for the week. We have leftovers at least one meal after every time I cook, so I'm planning 3-4 meals a week.

Breakfast: I work early in the morning and my husband is the breakfast cooker so I don't eat a hot breakfast in the morning. I have a smoothie and dry whole grain cereal (I like Food for Life's Ezekiel 4:9 cereal, there's no added sugar and it's available in my local grocery store in my moderately sized city) almost daily. I make a couple batches of the smoothie at a time and freeze them. I use yogurt (I've started making homemade in my crockpot), avocado (as a base since I don't like bananas), berries (I change up the berries), spinach (to get in those leafy greens), flax oil (for the omega-3s) and often a peach/nectarine for a bit of sweetness.

Lunch: Most days, I don't eat leftovers for lunch (since we have them for dinner) so I bring lunch components to work (I work at a house so I have access to a full kitchen). Lunch has probably been the hardest meal for me to plan for. One of the things I often eat is cheese sandwiches. I use the Food for Life bread, what ever cheese I want that week, tomato, and spinach (leafy greens). I recently found Summer Express: 101 Simple Meals Ready in 10 Minutes or Less by Mark Bittman. It has some very simple ideas for meals that I find perfect for lunch (some I save for weekends). My focus for lunch is eating a leafy green and usually a serving of dairy.

Snack: I keep whole carrots, raw pumpkin seed, almonds, and other healthy snack around for if I get hungry.

Dinner: I'll be posting my weekly dinner plans and recipes coming soon.