Food Challenge (with a side of my input)

My Friend Jenny (Click here to visit her rockin’ Blog) has always been an inspiration. She was a stay at home mom raising 2 great kids.  She has the best craft ideas, besides being darn good in the garden.  Her, along with her hubby and kids, even raise bees!  Not too long ago she went back to college and is almost done with her degree!  Now she is finishing up school before starting “her dream Job”.  Jenny has been like family to me for years!  I love to collaborate with her but usually I am stealing ideas from her because she is that cool! 
Today she posted that she is taking a food challenge:



Jenny has a crazy drive to and from college each day and with just being a mom, wife, student, employee and more she doesn’t have time too cook.  She is using this challenge to change that.
So I have to be like Jenny.  I, like many of us, have crazy days.  But I have found planning out my dinners 2 weeks in advance (more on this later) have helped me to put good food on the table.  However, I have one area that I am not good at….Breakfast.


My breakfasts are fine, Whole wheat waffles, egg white omelets, Oatmeal, but the kids are not.  Sugar filled cereal (like choc cheerios) , or I heat up frozen french toast sticks from a box.  Then of course there’s the pop tarts and mini muffins from a bag.
So I am challenging myself!  I am starting off small for March. At least 2 times a week I will make my kids a good breakfast.  Nothing processed, preserved or packaged.

Now quickly about my dinners.  I have every payday off, so that is the day I do my grocery shopping for 2 weeks.  Thursday night, while watching Grey’s, I write out my menu:

Sunday	Mac N Cheese, salad green beans
Monday	leftovers
Tuesday	Chicken with goat cheese, brown rice and veg
Wednesday	Steak, sweet potatoes
Thursday	Fish, broccoli and cottage cheese
Friday	Mex. Chicken
Saturday	Shrimp Pasta
Sunday	Kabobs and salad
Monday	Tacos
Tuesday	Meatloaf wax beans
Wednesday	Fish and Broccoli
Thursday	Chicken tenderloins, brown rice and corn

This saves me so much time.  I can write my shopping list from the menu.  that way I am not standing at the butcher counter trying to pick out things for the week, or standing in front of the freezer each night saying “what should we eat? what do you want with that?”. 

I keep the list on the freezer door.  tonight I looked at Monday and Tuesdays items.  Leftovers for tomorrow – yes that is easy. Tuesday is chicken so I took the chicken out of the freezer.  Monday night I will prep it,  I will get as much done as possible so that David only needs to bake it on Tuesday afternoon.  Basically I cook tonight for tomorrow.  IT WORKS FOR US!
One benefit we also have is our garden, we collected so much food this summer we are still enjoying our bounty. but I am going to be out of beans and broccoli after this week.  Still I have canned sauce from our tomatoes to put on  pasta if we run into a jam and don’t have time to cook.

Since I am still losing weight, knowing what I am eating for dinner helps me to plan out the rest of the days food!  Its all about being organized.
More to come later this week. I want to talk about my success at running from over the weekend.  And we have updates from the kids…darn things are growing like weeds!
Have a great week!!