September '20 WISH Challenge - New Beginnings

[MickeyMom76]

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Today’s topic is meal planning and preparation. I find it really helps me stay focused on eating healthy throughout the week. So let’s share our meal planning tips or favorite recipes today.

 

[MickeyMom76]

This is a new recipe I tried (but really I cheated and used a jar of Classico spaghetti sauce). It was also my first time having spaghetti squash and I love it. It’s super easy. The kids and husband make pasta instead. But I am very happy with this as I’m not a huge pasta person.

https://www.skinnytaste.com/one-pot-spaghetti-squash-and-meat-sauce-pressure-cooker-and-slow-cooker/

 

[dsnyfn1022]

Busy weekend for me! We tooks bubs over to my parents house on Sunday to celebrate my dad's birthday. Otherwise the weekend was spent trying to catch up on chores that go to the wayside during the week and also trying to sleep a little bit

I've closed my activity ring 3 times this month (~30 min of cardio to close it) and I only get 3 more days of not hitting it otherwise I won't meet my goal. We'll see what happens! It's supposed to be rainy and crappy here for the next 3-4 days so I'll have to do something in my basement.

Meal planning...I've struggled with that the past few months. I do a weekly menu for dinners and then buy a few soups from the store and eat that or leftovers for lunch. When I was working in the office I had a much stronger motivation to actually prep meals beforehand. Now that I'm at home and can literally do whatever I normally just wing it the day of. Everything goes into MFP. But I'm asking for an Instant Pot for my birthday as I've heard so many wonderful things about it.

 

[dsnyfn1022]

My daughter had physical therapy due to low muscle tone and my son ended up in speech therapy.

Do you mind sharing how your daughter is doing now? My son has low muscle tone and that's the primary reason for the referral (that and dystonia in his arms). I think he'll respond quite well to PT as he can hold his head up during tummy time and everything. He's a wee bit bobbly and his head lags significantly.

After two days of supportive care Whitehall did not rally.

I'm sorry for your loss. You don't ever realize how much kitties become your little shadow until they're gone.

. I have to teach live & virtual kindergarten at the same time.

virtual kindergarten?! Good luck! You'll have to update us on how the first day of school goes! My mom works for the school district here and I know everyone is a little on edge and anxious.

My DD is all about Manifestation right now

I love manifestation! I don't know if you journal but I used to do a visualization in my journal once a week of something that I wanted. Like very specific images and when you do it you're supposed to do it in present tense. I very much credit getting to my current spot in life with manifestation. I started right after I got a divorce.

 

[MickeyMom76]

Do you mind sharing how your daughter is doing now? My son has low muscle tone and that's the primary reason for the referral (that and dystonia in his arms). I think he'll respond quite well to PT as he can hold his head up during tummy time and everything. He's a wee bit bobbly and his head lags significantly.

No worries. The early intervention helped her tremendously! She’s always been tiny...I think she’s max high now at 5’. But she did jump around in activities when she was younger and tried gymnastics, swimming, soccer, & softball. Now she’s the high school JV goalie both freshman and now sophomore years.

 

[MickeyMom76]

Meal planning...I've struggled with that the past few months. I do a weekly menu for dinners and then buy a few soups from the store and eat that or leftovers for lunch. When I was working in the office I had a much stronger motivation to actually prep meals beforehand. Now that I'm at home and can literally do whatever I normally just wing it the day of. Everything goes into MFP. But I'm asking for an Instant Pot for my birthday as I've heard so many wonderful things about it.

When we first started online learning in the spring, I was eating terribly. But a few weeks in I realized I needed to start treating it as if I was going into work. So I started to prep my weeks worth of salads for lunch in my Pyrex bowls that I would use for school. And cut up and bagged carrots and celery. (It felt a little wasteful at first to be using the bags, then I realized I could reuse them a few times. Plus it was worth it to help get me eating normally again.) For a week, I wrote down exactly what I would have for breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, and dinner. And I only ate what was on the list. After one week, I was pretty good because I was back into a routine I already had been following prior to the shutdown. If it’s a new habit, it might take a little longer.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I don’t do a lot of prep as far as cutting things up (unless it’s leftover meat to be put in a sauce later or something) but I do find things go a lot better if I plan dinner menus a few days ahead than if I just wing it. Tonight will be chicken thighs on the grill (will just throw them in some marinade this afternoon) and tomorrow will be boneless pork ribs in the crock pot.

 

[MickeyMom76]

I don’t do a lot of prep as far as cutting things up (unless it’s leftover meat to be put in a sauce layer or something) but I do find things go a lot better if I plan dinner menus for the week than if I just wing it. Tonight will be chicken thighs on the grill (will just throw them in some marinade this afternoon) and tomorrow will be boneless pork ribs in the crock pot.

I love to throw a meat in the crockpot (or plan on hubby grilling it). Then I try to add a healthy carb (sweet potatoes, brown rice or quinoa) and a veggie side. But you’ve sparked my interest...I’m not a big ribs person mostly because I don’t like to eat off bones. But I’ve never trued boneless pork ribs. Might have to give that a try because I love trying new things. Makes meal time more exciting

 

[ski_mom]

Meal planning is something I need to get better at. With DS leaving for school, our biggest eater has left since DH and I are both trying to lose weight right now. DD2 is also home, but she's a grazer, so never eats big meals.

Right now I eat the same thing every day for lunch - an apple, a tomato and some cottage cheese. It is low in calories and I'm enjoying it. I figure at some point, I will get sick of eating the same thing every day, but for now it works. I usually have a snack at work around 3:30 or so to get me through to supper. Lately, that snack has been a pack of Buddig meat. Probably not the best, but it gets some protein and is easy.

Since our family dynamic started changing (about 6 years or so ago now), I've struggled with dinner plans. When all the kids were home, I had to be pretty organized with it, but I guess I had a hard time adjusting. I'd love to get a good rotation of meals again, but right now, I just make whatever we have on hand to cook. Since the quarantine, I've actually gotten better at a general idea for the week, because I don't want to be running to the store each night for find something to eat. I try to roughly think of what we might eat for the week and do a grocery pickup order.

 

[ShannyMcB]

Meal planning is tough as the kiddos pallets are limited. So I am going the healthy snack route. I am planning on making these later today or tomorrow. I use crunchy pb to mimic the traditional buckeyes a bit more. If the batter is not firm enough to roll I will toss in a little protein powder as well to make it a little less liquidy. Replace nut products with whatever you normally use as a replacement, lots of flexibility here.


https://happyhealthymama.com/skinny-buckeyes.html

 

[Oneanne]

It is pretty well documented that I do not have the meal planning gene. But, I've been having digestive issues for a couple weeks and plan on making this week a very controlled/bland food week, so that is going to require planning. Also in going thru the spending category analysis on my VISA, I can see that I spent over $500 on groceries last month - for one person. And I'm still buying too much and throwing stuff away, so I'm going to be very specific about what I buy this month, so that it gets eaten. Today I'll go thru the 'fridge and plan out what I'm going to buy/eat the remainder of the week.

Over the holiday weekend I made so much progress in clearing stuff out of the house, but still feels like I've barely scratched the surface. I did realize that there's a lot of recyclable cardboard and boxes with styrofoam in them in the basement, so I've hauled most of the styrofoam out to the curb for garbage pickup today and next week I'll get most of the recycle out. More stuff can go into the car for Saturday, and I'm working on the next load to go to GW. After that, I should feel like I've turned the corner. I hope.

It was quite windy yesterday, and I do love a good breeze so I was enjoying it. But in the evening the wind blew in forest fire smoke, and the fans were sucking it into the house, smelled like a campfire. This morning there's a thick smoky haze and the sun coming up over the city was an otherworldly blood orange, really eerie. And wow, work people are crazy this morning. I know partly I'm a little frantic getting caught up and back in the swing of things, but come on folks...

 

[piglet1979]

I am not much of a prep type of person. We do plan out what meat we will eat each night or if it is left overs. We just kind of pick what is in the house. We are hooked on Yellow Squash and Zucchini right now. Jeff cuts it up and puts it either on the grill or the charcoal grill. it is so good. We do eat a lot of rice and potatoes. This weekend we had chicken breast (with fajita seasoning), white rice, quinoa and the veggies above. it was such a good meal.

Things here are getting back to normal. Thankfully. School starts tomorrow for the kids. We did get more information about going face to face or staying virtual at some time in the next 9 weeks. We had planned to continue to keep the kids home but with this new plan we will send them. it makes me really nervous but we need to send them. My kids will not have face time with a teacher and will be on their own. Plus there will be no honor classes and no specials. This would mean Nick would loose his 4 year Biomed class that he gets college credit for, His German 2 class and the rest of his classes that are all honor classes. We just can't do that to him. he has worked hard to get to where he is. We are not going to send him backwards. He would so bored too. Elizabeth would be ok but we are not ok with her working on her own all year.

Good Luck to all the teachers here going back this week. My mom is a teacher here and I know it is stressful. I hope your week goes good.

 

[4Mickeys]

But right now we are watching the Australia football/soccer/rugby game. Now sure what it is called. It is fun to watch though.

Does it look something like this?


If yes, it is referred to as Aussie Rules Football or AFL (Australian Football League). I personally am not a huge fan of this one - When I was young it was not typically played in my state - it used to be mostly played in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australian states. I don't understand the rules and to me it just ends up looking like a giant mess of people chasing the ball lol Interestingly the grand final for AFL has always been held in Melbourne, Victoria - but due to their high rates of COVID at the moment and lockdowns - Queensland my state created a sport bubble so that many of the professional sports could continue and for the 1st time in like 150 years the Grand Final is taking place here in Brisbane. It apparently originated as a hybrid of Rugby and an Australian Indigenous ball game.

 

[4Mickeys]

Ahhhh meal planning .... when I am on the ball and do it - I eat better. When I don't do it I am all over the place! And I have been a little all of the place for the past month. This month I am making a new beginning and getting the plan back on track!

Had salmon last night - the kids like when I drizzle sweet chilli sauce over it wrap it in foil and throw it in the oven - simple easy and done - I have some grilled asparagus with mine and the kids have other veggies or sometimes will have it with a salad.

I really want to do some more pre-prep of meals - it makes it quicker and easier on the nights when cooking feels like a challenge! Even just pre-cutting chicken into either stir-fry strips or chunks before it goes in the freezer can amazingly add to the ease of cooking taking out that part of the prep phase on weeknights - I pulled some of that out of the freezer last week to make something and DS was amazed at how much quicker we threw the meal together with out having to chop the chicken - we just did the veggies needed added the sauce and done

 

[sjrec]

I do plan out a week of dinners-I like having the ingredients to several different recipes and cook depending on how the day is going. Some meals take more time to prepare but I like having some quick options as well. Right now we’re grilling meat and just adding vegetables. Corn and tomatoes are still good and summer squash.
My husband loves rice, so I tried a new recipe to prepare it in the oven.

Baked Rice

Heat oven to 425 degrees
In a 9x9 dish mix:
1 cup long grain rice (not instant)
1 14 oz can low sodium beef broth
1 can French onion soup
Chopped sweet onion
1 T Worcester
Top with 1/2 stick sliced unsalted butter
Cover tightly with foil and bake 30 minutes. Uncover and bake additional 20-30 minutes (until liquids are absorbed)

I know the 1/2 stick of butter doesn’t sound very healthy, but the recipe makes 6 large servings, so it’s spread out a little. I also added a chopped green pepper and leftover chopped chicken.

 

[glss1/2fll]

Ages ago I used to plan the meal based on what starch I had just eaten: pasta, rice, potato. Now we rarely eat any of those things! For the very brief time we were an actual empty nest, I just planned a couple dinners ahead. Since the twins joined us I plan a week at a time.

We have major fires in our county/state. We're experiencing very strong winds and they are not helping! It was always pale orange to deep red skies the entire day. At ten in the morning it felt like bedtime! And so smoky. Ugh. My eyes are really watering and I have a headache--probably from not having any fresh air to breathe! People were joking we were living on Mars!

 

[4Mickeys]

We have major fires in our county/state. We're experiencing very strong winds and they are not helping! It was always pale orange to deep red skies the entire day. At ten in the morning it felt like bedtime! And so smoky. Ugh. My eyes are really watering and I have a headache--probably from not having any fresh air to breathe! People were joking we were living on Mars!

Hope you are in a safe area and the smoke doesn't get too bad for you all

 

[MickeyMom76]

What’s everyone woohooing this week?

 

[MickeyMom76]

Baked Rice

Heat oven to 425 degrees
In a 9x9 dish mix:
1 cup long grain rice (not instant)
1 14 oz can low sodium beef broth
1 can French onion soup
Chopped sweet onion
1 T Worcester
Top with 1/2 stick sliced unsalted butter
Cover tightly with foil and bake 30 minutes. Uncover and bake additional 20-30 minutes (until liquids are absorbed)

I know the 1/2 stick of butter doesn’t sound very healthy, but the recipe makes 6 large servings, so it’s spread out a little. I also added a chopped green pepper and leftover chopped chicken.

This sounds like something my family would love, especially with the chicken added!

 

[MickeyMom76]

Woohoo - I’m down another pound fromnlast week!

Woohoo - I’m up early to exercise before going into school today.

Woohoo - We can finally get into our classrooms this afternoon to start unpacking. (kids start Monday)

Woohoo - I have my first week of live & virtual plans done, made copies from home, and have my picture books for each day ready to go. Its been overwhelming to not be in our classrooms yet. But I’m acfually pretty proud if myself for trying ti stay focused on my circle of control and, therefore, was able to get things done. (I mean, I definitely had my breakdown moments, but overall held it togrtger pretty good!)