Weekly Menu with our CSA and Farmer's Market goodies!

This is the best time of year for the farmer's market. We're in the beginning of the summer vegetable season, tale end of spring, and get the best of both worlds: asparagus and basil, strawberries, peaches, cauliflower, fresh peas! Fantastic!

Our CSA box includes:

Asparagus (last week!)
Carrots
Shelling peas
Basil
Lettuce
Fresh onions
New potatoes

I also bought a pound of snapper, a block of feta cheese, 3 portabello mushrooms, 2 lb. peaches (hooray for tangy fresh peaches!!), cilantro and green onions. At tomorrow's market I'm hoping to see tomatoes and zucchini, but it still may be too early for them.

For our weekly menu, I'm planning:
Sunday - snapper with roasted new potatoes and asparagus
Monday - grilled mushrooms and Boca burgers, zucchini if they're at the market, green salad, jicama corn and bean salad, and grilled peaches (MMMM!!!)
Tuesday - meatloaf with fresh carrots and peas, new potatoes
Wednesday - something in the crockpot, maybe chicken
Thursday - whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce or fresh tomatoes, feta and basil
Friday - Spicy Tofu Bento Box

I have never bought or used fresh onions before and am excited to try this variation of my staple! Most everything I cook starts with onions and these are clean and crisp looking, with bright green tops. I'll report back if the flavor is different being fresh. Fresh garlic has a milder, sweeter flavor - that was another one that I'd never tried fresh before.

Daily Menu for October 15

I've been off track for the past few weeks, and as a result I've gained 2.8 lb. I need to nip this in the bud and get right back on track, because I'm not willing to let myself regain the weight I've worked so hard to lose. There is a sign in one of my classrooms that reads:

The chief cause of failure and unhappiness is trading what we want most for what we want in the moment.

It has resonated with me and I'm thinking about it again in relation to my weight loss efforts. Why do I let what I want in the moment defeat my long term goals? It's too easy to think, just this once... Just this once I'll have a cookie (or 5). Just this once I'll get French fries from the drive through on the way home. Just this once I'll skip exercising. The trouble is, just this once leads to more and more, and before I know it, I'm completely off track with French fries wrappers piling up in the car, feeling sick to my stomach and guilty to boot. Not worth it.

So I'm back to posting my weekly menu and daily menu, which has been a great tool for me to date. I've used my Weekly Points Allowance already on a pointy dinner out last night (not the best move!), so this will be a strict Core week. The only extra points will be activity points. This is also a busy week with school, babysitting, and other obligations, so I'll have to be really on my game to pack lunches and stay on track.

Weekly Menu:
Monday - Snapper Veracruz, brown rice, green salad
Tuesday - Chili, polenta corn cakes with fresh corn, carrots
Wednesday - Curried eggs, brown rice, kale
Thursday - Chicken cacciatore, barley, acorn squash
Friday - Lentil taco salad, green beans
Saturday - Home made egg drop soup and pot stickers (Points)

Daily Menu

Breakfast
2 eggs from Glaum
peach

Lunch
Snapper Veracruz with locally caught snapper
Brown rice from Lundberg
Green salad with lettuce and tomatoes from Full Belly Farm and olive oil and balsamic vinegar from Hare Hollow

Dinner
Leftover quinoa picadillo
2 c. milk
grapes

WPA (Weekly Points Allowance) points used today: 0
WPA points available: 0
Activity points today: 2 (Walk Away the Pounds)
Activity points this week: 2

Daily 8 - the 8 Healthy Guidelines
1. Fruits and veggies - 5+
2. Whole grains - brown rice, quinoa
3. Milk - yes
4. Healthy oil - 2
5. Protein - yes
6. Limit sugar and alcohol - yes
7. Water - 8+
8. Multivitamin - yes

Dinner was DEEElish

...but sadly didn't photograph well. I made beans and rice with the fresh cranberry beans from Full Belly Farm and brown rice from Lundberg Farm. To go with the beans and rice, I made a puree of roasted eggplant, onion, and acorn squash, all from Full Belly, and garlic from Gilroy. Those fantastic fresh Brussels sprouts from Green Oaks Creek Farm were a side dish, pan roasted with garlic, Hare Hollow olive oil, and a spritz of lemon from a neighbor's tree. Yum! A tomato-basil salad (both from Full Belly) rounded out the meal for a colorful, completely local, 100% Core Meatless Monday dinner. Jax is having a bit of watermelon for dessert, the last of the farmer's market watermelon from his birthday last weekend.

Here's the menu plan for the rest of the week:
Tuesday - Eggplant tamale pie (with leftover eggplant puree, tomatoes, and spices, and fresh corn in the tamale part), carrots
Wednesday - Chicken cacciatore (from the freezer) with wheat berries, zucchini
Thursday - Tofu stirfry with bok choy, bulgur
Friday - Grilled steak, mashed potatoes, kale

Crazy week without a plan leads to eating off plan

I've had a crazy week and haven't been as on-track as usual, and I've been embarassed to come post what I've eaten - too much junk, too many meals out, and just too much. We have eaten out the past four nights - a cousin was visiting, then my mom's birthday, celebrating starting school, all away from my kitchen. And I've not exercised. I just haven't been able to get back on track since our mini-vacation and I feel like I'm sabatoging myself with candy, cake, crackers and bread, all foods I've successfully avoided since starting CORE. It's been a recipe for weight gain, and I found again that not having a plan has been my downfall. I feel like I've gained but haven't weighed myself; I'm anxious about weighing in tomorrow.

So starting today I'm back on track, back to my daily menu, back with no meals out for the next week! And with a plan for meals and exercise tacked up on the fridge, I expect better from myself this week.

So here is the dinner and exercise plan for the week:

Saturday - Grilled kabobs (meat depends on availability at the farmer's market), grilled veggies, couscous, tzatziki, grilled peaches / 2 mile Walk Away the Pounds

Sunday - Monastery lentils, polenta corn cakes, tomato-basil salad (1.5 Points for cheese in lentils) / The Firm

Meatless Monday - Chickpeas, eggplant, spinach, and tahini, brown rice (1 Point for tahini) / 2 mile WATP

Tuesday - Egg curry, green beans, bulgur / gym for weight lifting

Wednesday - Crockpot black bean-barley soup / 2 mile WATP

Thursday - Beef picadillo, baked potato / gym for weight lifting

Friday - Leftovers / The Firm

As predicted, I gained a pound this week with all the celebration foods. Back on track with fewer distractions, this week will hopefully make up for last week!

My food budget last week hovered at $170 including party foods, so more than I anticipated spending but still not horrible. The budget this week is quite small, though, to make up for the overspending last week. This week, so far I've spent a whopping $2.25 (a bunch of kale and 3 artichokes) plus my pre-paid produce box. I'll need milk and eggs, but am mostly set with leftovers from last week and the freezer stock.

Here's what my CSA box included this week (we ate the corn last night)
Corn
Cucumbers
Edamame
Potatoes
Summer Squash
Peaches

This week's menu:
Sunday - Veggie burgers, whole wheat couscous, edamame-green bean salad, grilled peaches
Monday - Crockpot Pot roast with carrots and potatoes,
Tuesday - Bean and barley soup, steamed artichokes
Wednesday - Whole wheat pasta with white beans and zucchini
Thursday - Dhal (lentils), brown rice, Swiss Chard, cucumber salad
Friday - Tofu stirfry

Daily Menu
Breakfast
Shredded wheat
milk
peach

Lunch
Lentil soup
Carrots
milk

Dinner
Veggie burger
whole wheat couscous
edamame-green bean salad
grilled peaches (YUM!)

WPA (Weekly Points Allowance) points used today: 0
WPA points available: 35
Activity points today: 4
Activity points this week: 4

Daily 8 - the 8 Healthy Guidelines
1. Fruits and veggies - 5+
2. Whole grains - shredded wheat, couscous
3. Milk - yes
4. Healthy oil - yes
5. Protein - yes
6. Limit sugar and alcohol - yes
7. Water - 8+
8. Multivitamin - yes

Daily Menu for July 1

Welcome to July! This is the best time of year for fresh, local fruits and veggies, and if you haven't already, head over to your farmer's market and pick up some gorgeous peaches or plums or berries. This week will have quite a few tasty meals with wonderfully fresh local produce. We're also hosting a barbecue on Wednesday, and I'm going in with a plan so I continue to stay on program.

Here's my plan for the week. This is a week of favorite menus, so not much new, but all well received and tasty! Posting it here was convenient for me last week.

Sunday - at barbecue
Monday – Pasta with fresh pesto, white beans, and red peppers
Tuesday – Tofu stirfry, soy-sesame green beans (We have this every week)
Wednesday – Steak, corn on the cob, Mexican coleslaw, watermelon
Thursday – Lentil tacos, leftover corn, coleslaw, watermelon (so good last week that I'm repeating it!)
Friday – Arroz con pollo (I didn't end up making it last week)

***
Daily Menu

Breakfast
Peach

Lunch
about 1/4 of a Smoothie - 1/2 c. yogurt, 1/2 c. milk, 1/2 c. silken tofu from Hodo Soy, 1 1/2 c. frozen fruit (I have blackberries and blueberries in the freezer, frozen in plastic baggies from a few weeks ago), 1 t. flaxseed oil, Stevia sweetener

I didn't end up eating on CORE at the barbecue, but I didn't go way overboard either. I didn't have any cake or beer, so that helped keep the points in check.
Dinner
2 vegetable cheese tamales (8 Points)
about 15 chips with salsa (4 Points)
BIG plate of salad with 1 t. olive oil
corn on the cob, dry
ceviche
strawberries

WPA (Weekly Points Allowance) points used today: 8
WPA points available: 27
Activity points today: 4 (Walk Away the Pounds video)
Activity points this week: 7

Daily 8 - the 8 Healthy Guidelines
1. Fruits and veggies - 5+
2. Whole grains - bulgur
3. Milk - yes
4. Healthy oil - yes
5. Protein - yes
6. Limit sugar and alcohol - yes
7. Water - 8+
8. Multivitamin - yes