2 weeks ago, Candice started her Healthy Family from Scratch series here at Just Precious where she pledged to help her family develop healthier habits. Today, she’s checking in with her progress.
The first week and a half of building my healthy family from scratch has been a lesson in timing and knowing when to let go off the plan. Sticking to the plan is a lot harder than I could ever imagine.
Week 1 was hard to begin. We were out of town the weekend of Labor Day and came home Monday afternoon. We had a BBQ that night with the entire family to celebrate the 1st day of school the very next day. As we were about to go for bath time I remembered that we had to get the menu done for the week.
Day 1 we didn’t even stick to the menu. What a great start! It was the 1st day of school and the craziness of the day should have been factored in. I quickly learned that just putting something on the menu without considering what kind of day we were having is not going to work.
Thursday was interesting for “R” because I was away and “J” doesn’t like pasta. However, that’s “E”s favorite dinner. We told him that he had to eat the ground turkey and the pasta. His whole thing is that he doesn’t like the sauce. He actually did eat it. He said he liked it and then quickly took it back.
Friday I called “R” on my way home from work and I told him to just give them whatever and not to worry about what is on the menu. When I got home he was sticking to the menu and I was so proud of his resolve. I was the one giving into exhaustion but he didn’t.
Week 2 began with me forgetting to change the board on Sunday night. This is so much harder then I thought. I mean how hard can it be to get out a menu board and spend 10 minutes doing a menu? On Monday we had leftovers from Sunday’s dinner. “R” decided that Monday would be leftover night and he would make a big dinner on Sunday to make sure he wouldn’t have to cook Monday nights.
Last night I wound up working until 7:15 PM which it makes it hard for “R” to cook because he has to handle the 3 kids and the kitchen. We didn’t plan a particularly easy dinner for him to prep while watching kids. I understand him having to just go with the flow when I work late.
Do those of you who menu plan have an alternative easy option at the ready? Do you have things that are healthy in your house that can be prepared very quickly in case the menu can’t work that night? If you do can you tell me what it is?
“E” wanted Chili tonight for dinner when we were creating the menu. Of course “J” threw a total fit. We have a great easy healthy recipe, so we were happy to have it on the menu. We made him try it and although I could tell he liked it he wouldn’t budge on that. As a true bonus “A” only ate her veggies tonight. For a dinner that wouldn’t fly 2 weeks ago, we got further than we expected.
When we we’re creating the menu it occurred to us that our children have a very, very limited list of fruits and vegetables. We need to expose them to more, but what are kid friendly fruits and vegetables? What do you feed your kids when it comes to your daily fruits and vegetable? How many different ones do your kids eat?
See you in 2 weeks…
Help Candice out and offer some guidance, please! What fruits and vegetables do your children enjoy? What are some of your go-to last minute staples for nights that the menu plan doesn’t work?
Those of you trying menu planning for the first time, how’s it going? Are you hitting bumps in the road? What early lessons have you learned?
© 2011, Candice. All rights reserved.
If you ever have a big chunk of time (maybe a rainy Sunday) cook things like casseroles, soups, veggie or breakfast burritos, etc and freeze them. Then you’ll always have something made in case of a chaotic day. I’ve always known kids to like dip-able veggies: cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower. Maybe let them pick something out at the store, or make a vegetable that is their favorite color
My kids don’t eat vegetables so we focus on fruits these days. I’ll get back to that fight at some point. We always have apples to slice. We used to do frozen peas a lot. For last minute quick meals we might do “snack dinner” which is any combination of turkey/ham slices with cheese slices and crackers and fruit. Kind of a homemade Lunchable. When I’m really organized I grill chicken Sunday night and can use it throughout the week in salad, pasta, tortillas, or sometimes just cut up on a plate with a side. When I make marinara or meat sauce I always freeze half for a later date. I never do it myself, but my neighbor does breakfast for dinner sometimes. Probably more information than you were looking for, but I agree that it’s hard to even make a plan, much less stick to it all week. There are many weeks I end up freezing the meat I bought and trashing my plans because of a last minute schedule change!