Meal Planning

I wanted to talk a little today about what I believe the foundation is of successful Clean Eating. Yes, that's right - it's the meal plan. With one of the main components of eating clean being munching on 5-6 meals a day, I realized early on that I needed a more organized way to keep up with all that food intake. I know a lot of people at least plan their dinners for a week, but I'm here to say that planning all 5 meals makes this girl one successful clean eater. I have snacks at work, my kid just looks on the fridge and has a plethora of lunch and snack ideas from which to choose, and I come home and already know... "what's for dinner?"

As soon as took the Clean Eating plunge, I knew I was going to need guidance, so I immediately subscribed to Clean Eating Magazine (which coincidentally is published by Robert Kennedy publishing which hmmm, also happens to be the name of Tosca Reno's husband... but that's a story for another day isn't it). I also went to the bookstore and picked up an earlier issue of the magazine knowing that my subscription would be lagging and I wanted to soak up all the information I could. So, here is where I discovered the meal plans. If you check out the website you'll see the link to my very first meal plan. In each issue, they include 2 weeks worth of meal plans and coordinating shopping lists. So, I've adapted those plans and shopping lists based on: 1. my personal food choice tastes

2. my budget

3. what I might have in the house, or in particular leftover from the week prior.

And for all of you who say, I hate grocery shopping... this does work best if you shop 1/week, but I can see making a plan that you could stretch into two weeks - just means using more frozen fruits and veggies.

Tips for adapting meal plans:

1. Start with dinner - this allows you to more easily plan lunches, especially if you are a small family like ours. There are sure to be leftovers and you can use them elsewhere.

2. Vary the menu - I mean, introduce yourself to one or two new recipes or foods each week. You might surprise yourself in what you or your family are willing to eat.

3. Stick to the plan at the grocery store - this helps you manage your budget and be less impulsive when shopping (for me it means fewer frozen dinners and other sugar/preservative laden convenience foods thrown in the cart).

4. Commit to the time for planning - use your own cookbooks, search online (I particularly like cookinglight.com for easy to adapt recipes).

5. Add notations to your plan for easy and fast cooking such as where to find a recipe you've included.

6. Planning at least one slow cooker recipe with a larger serving amount works great for freezing foods and having them available for future planning.

Here are 3 examples of my meal plans - the first two are fairly close to the ones from the Nov/Dec issue of Clean Eating magazine, but the third is my own. I used several recipes from the magazine, but also from two of my cookbooks (CrockPot and an all-time favorite The Complete Cooking Light Cookbook)

Ok - so now that I set you up for the grand finale of the post, I've spent the last 30 minutes trying to figure out how to post my Meal Plan files, and it just. won't. work. So, instead... I will link you to my personal blog... where I KNOW how to post my meal plans and will do so now.

Happy Eating everyone!