Meg's Favorite Recipes: Updates

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Updates

I realized that I've tried several things lately and you might want to know how it went...

1. Kombucha -- Yay! It worked wonderfully! My hubby's still not a huge fan, but Karis and I are loving it! I tried making it apple, cranberry-apple, and grape flavored, and we still like the grape the best. It came in handy because Karis and I were congested last week and didn't want to drink milk products, so it was nice to have a drink that felt good on our throats and didn't have sugar in it. Plus, all that healthy bacteria probably helped us to get better more quickly! And I can use it instead of juice in themornings to get Karis to take her cod-liver oil :) We drank a ton of it! Pretty easy to make. I was a little worried at first because I couldn't get the mushroom to stay on top for anything, but it turns out it didn't matter. It was quite happy floating around the bottom of my jar and still worked great!

2. Sourdough bread -- this worked as well! The first time I tried, however, I didn't double my cheesecloth and a fruit fly got inside so I had to throw away my starter on day 7 :( So frustrating! I did it again, though, and the bread turned out well! I'm getting ready to try using the starter to make pancakes!!

Like Lara Bars -- My new favorite snack! Of course, I didn't follow the recipe very well... I just kinda took the idea and threw in whatever I had that sounded good. And I didn't measure anything (I hardly ever do - it just makes too many dishes :) So I threw in a bunch of dates, almond butter, coconut oil, shredded unsweetened coconut, home-made granola, and yes, even a few organic chocolate chips :) YUMMY! I thought they were good enough without any sweetener. And they really do give me a boost when I need it. I call them my Power Balls because I actually shaped them into balls and froze them so I could grab one whenever I needed it. I eat them straight from the freezer! (I think they are actually better frozen because the coconut oil melts and gets greasy if I leave them at room temperature too long.) Oh, and the best part? My husband loves them as well! He takes them with him for some extra energy when he plays tennis.

My Top Five Tips

Here are some tips that I have learned in order to save money and get a healthy dinner on the table:

Make a menu each week: If I haven’t made a complete meal plan for the week, dinner just won’t happen! Instead, we end up wasting money and eating unhealthy food by going out to eat or buying frozen dinners. But as long as I plan ahead, I know what I need to do ahead of time and it is always possible to give my family a healthy, yummy, home-cooked meal!
Double and Freeze: Home-made freezer meals are just as easy as store bought ones, but so much more healthy and frugal! Any time a recipe freezes well, I double it and save it for a day when I just don’t have the time to cook. Most casserole, meatball, soup, and cookie dough recipes freeze really well!
C.O.R.N: Clean Out the Refrigerator Night! This is my most important time-saver and money-saver yet! One night a week I don’t have to cook and my family gets to eat their favorites. No need to waste those yummy leftovers – just spread them out on the counter and everyone picks what they like they best!
Meat Day: I only buy meat on sale and when I find it, I buy it in bulk. The next day, I have a meat day. If I bought fresh chicken, then I put most of it in the crock pot with some water and cook it so I can freeze shredded chicken ready for my casseroles. I will usually also make some freezer bags full of "dump" chicken -- uncooked but trimmed chicken ready to go in the crock pot, oven, or grill with marinade, barbq sauce, etc. If I bought ground beef, I go ahead and brown most of it and make the rest into meatballs. Some of the browned ground beef I'll leave unseasoned just to have on hand, but most of it I'll go ahead and make into home-made sloppy joes, taco meat, lasagna meat, etc. I freeze it in tupperware or freezer bags so it’s ready when I need it.

5. Make a Price Book: Use a notebook to write down how much you pay for items you buy often. Over time, you'll be able to identify the best regular price, recognize special sales, and track sale cycles for that product. Then develop an “I won’t buy unless it costs this much” list. For instance, I’ve figured out that I can get natural chicken breasts for $1.99/lb when on sale. So I stock up when they are on sale and refuse to buy them when they cost $4.99/lb. It really saves a lot!

How I plan my meals

For breakfast, Karis and I always have some kind of eggs and fruit and often some kind of grain (pancakes, waffles, toast, muffins, quinoa, oatmeal, etc.) I know you might think breakfast takes forever if I'm always cooking eggs, but it really only takes a minute to fry or scramble some eggs. And they are just so good for us! Eggs contain every nutrient your body needs except Vitamin C! Needless to say, my little family goes through 2 dozen eggs a week :) We have recently started grinding our own grain so I've been trying to make it all from scratch since its so much healthier. But I always make extra pancakes, waffles, muffins, etc, and freeze them so I really only cook such things once or twice a week. Karis usually does not eat store-bought cereal for breakfast because its processed and not really that good for her. Instead, I make my own cereal and granola to have on hand for quick breakfasts.

I don't plan lunches because we usually just eat leftovers or a simple sandwich. We LOVE coconut oil and it is sooooo incredibly good for us! We use it instead of mayonnaise or Ranch or other spreads on our sandwiches. It is sweet, so I've found that we no longer even need jam with our peanut butter sandwiches or syrup on our pancakes. And it makes the best greasy, healthy grilled cheese sandwich ever :)

Snacks for Karis are pretty consistent. She usually has plain yogurt or unsweetened applesauce with homemade granola, or she eats some fruit and cheese. And I make healthy homemade butter crackers and graham crackers that she asks for throughout the day when she wants to munch. She also loves almonds. I usually eat a peanut butter apple or some plain yogurt with granola for a snack. I'm still working on getting my husband to give up his chips and Kudos bars for snacks, but he's slowly giving in to more healthy snacks :)

I plan my weekly dinners from an excel spreadsheet that I've made of all our favorite meals. We have over 50 options so that I'm not making the same thing in the same month. However, I usually double the recipe whenever possible and freeze a meal for a busy day, so my family definitely receives some repetition. I also LOVE to try new recipes, so I deviate from my list every so often. But its worth it, because I'm constantly finding new favorites. My goal is to have the following each week: two dinners from the freezer that I made previously, two simple, healthy meals with fresh ingredients, try out one new recipe, CORN night (clean out the refrigerator night) and cook at least one recipe that doubles and freezes well to keep my freezer stocked. Some weeks I manage this and some weeks are crazy :) I have an ongoing list on my fridge that shows what meals I have already made in the freezer so that I don't forget about them. I also have an ongoing word document on my laptop filled with recipes that I want to try. When I am planning my menu for the week, I have all three of my lists before me so its quite simple to make a plan.

Some of these meals are more expensive than others, so we definitely don't have them as often as the others. Not all of these meals are super healthy, but I am trying to gradually change them to use more whole foods and natural ingredients. This has been a gradual process for me due to lack of funds and time and most of these recipes haven't been converted to the healthy version yet :) We do try to have fruit with every meal and veggies at least at dinner.

Meg's Favorite Recipes

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Updates

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