Better Menus
The quick answer: In the food reformation, there will be back-sliding. The key is to gather yourself up and recommit to improving your diet.
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Food Reformation
Some day, looking back in history’s rearview mirror, upi’ll be able to mark the start of a new progressive movement—the food reformation. Perhaps the year 2000 will mark this new beginning. Whatever the year, if you’re a regular reader of Word of Wisdom Living, then you’re part of that reformation. Congratulations—you’re on the side of the angels.
We support the reformation with our 52 Healthy Changes—returning to each change year after year until healthy eating becomes so natural there’s nothing of substance left to change. I’m starting to appreciate that it will take a number of years of steady improvement, marked by occasional slips, to achieve a food reformation in our home.
Take menu writing, for example. Healthy Change #3 said: Write a weekly dinner menu and shopping list. For Healthy Change #29 we return to this topic, inviting you to improve your menu writing.
A Great Summer
We’ve had a wonderful summer with lots of visitors and happy times at the beach. We were busy—besides all the guests we managed to publish a book, and landscape the back yard. It was a memorable summer. But we just realized one thing: We probably only wrote a real menu about one week of each month this summer. That’s a definite “slip.” I could have seen the effect by just looking at our checkbook—when you’re not using a weekly menu and shopping list you run to the store oftener, and waste more money.
So we’re reminded that repentance is part of reforming behavior and we square our shoulders and resolve to do better.
Healthy Change #29: Improve your menu writing process.
This subject deserves more discussion, but we’re getting up early in the morning to drive to little Midway, Utah for Swiss Days and I have to get to bed. But I promise to come back to this topic if you’ll share some comments on how you have improved your menu writing. And if you’re in Midway for Swiss Days, stop by the house and say hello—we’re at the corner of 2nd North and 4th West, the Victorian farmhouse with the wooden statue of a man offering an apple. Our best to you.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013 at 9:09PM | by Skip Hellewell | 4 Comments | 1 Reference | Share Article | Email Article
Reader Comments (4)
With the kids back to school today, I have been thinking this same thought. With their activities, it is so important for me to plan, shop for, and have a written menu (posted on the fridge to keep me "honest"). We bought a little chest freezer this summer and would love some tips for cook-ahead meals that aren't cheese, canned soup filled casseroles. Thanks Skip have a great trip!
I make other people do it for me. Ha! I actually HATE planning out 21 meals plus snacks every week, then shopping for it all, then cooking it. UGH. I don't enjoy it and my family pays the price. But a few months ago, before my fifth baby was born, I knew I was going to be overwhelmed and need help in that department. So I enlisted my first four children and my husband. Let's be honest, I should have done that a whole lot sooner.
Each person in our family (6, not counting baby) gets a day of the week. Saturday morning, before anyone can leave the breakfast table, they have to give me a lunch, snack, and dinner menu for their day(sack lunch for school). Planning breakfast is optional; I don't mind doing that one. The meals have to consist of a bread product, protein, and at least two plants, and they are welcome to thumb through our cookbooks or our list of favorite meals for ideas. Also, dinner is their job to prepare.
At ages 13, 10, 7, and 3, my kids are at varying ages of helpfulness when it comes to actually making dinner. But they are learning skills, and it makes a huge difference for me to have an assigned helper at that crazy time of the day. I honestly would not even have thought of this if I had only one or two kids, but our larger family and the stress of a new little one forced me to come up with a system that didn't rely so much on me. I'm grateful for those hard things, though. I think my kids are going to be so much better off for this, not just now, but as they grow into adults themselves.
This is such a great reminder! We had a TON of company this summer, several of whom had dietary restrictions or allergies to deal with. I finally figured out that if I had a meal plan for the entire time each group was here, I didn't feel overwhelmed and stressed constantly. Yep, just taking care of what to eat in advance was a solution for me! Now I need to get into the habit of planning ahead all the time, not just when there's the added pressure of feeding 2-6 extra people!
Great reminder and Tiffany, you are inspired.
Here I print a calendar to pin inside a kitchen cabinet door and plan from my favorite vegetarian cookbooks and blog recipes I have bookmarked, shopping seasonally. Since we do not have a car, I walk to the local markets and purchase and carry everything back, mostly from outdoor stands. As I do carry it all (uphill coming home), I only shop for three days at a time (usually 30 pounds of produce a trip). It works for us and I love to get suggestions and recommendations from the family, especially when we are hosting guests.
Keeping the whole month at a glance helps me not repeat and also recall what we enjoyed.
Thanks, Skip, you are great.