Ah yes, menu planning. We've missed you! Over the last month, we've survived way too much on rotisserie chicken and take out from the deli. Or rather, everyone else has. For me, I came out of my stay in the hospital finding out it was time to modify my diet more. We were already careful on some things - I've cut out many processed foods, preferring to make it myself in things such as soup and breads. I was on the lookout to make sure there was no high fructose corn syrup in our foods, and making sure junk such as "propylene glycol" wasn't on the ingredients list, either. (You'd be shocked at how many things use that chemical!)
Now, I'm watching my gluten, because on top of everything, I either have a gluten intolerance, or a dairy one. Yeah, cringe with me - I'd live on bread and cheese if I could, so trust me when I say that's TORTURE. So I'm working different gluten free pastas in, for instance. I tried a corn one that was found at Trader Joe's into one of our favorite dishes (Mexican Bake) and you couldn't tell the difference. Well, you can tell the difference at the checkout line - but it's still cheaper than ending up back in the hospital! I'm actually shocked at how many products have gluten in them - when they don't need them. (Tomato soup, anyone? Yeah, that's a no-no too. Good thing I've learned to make my own!)
Even though I already bought organic on many things, I'm trying to make sure that most of the food we consume is organic. I'm also trying to watch out better for GMO's, which is a lot harder than it should be in this country. It's sickening - we can label our food with whether or not an item is healthy for you (see Walmart's house brand label), but they don't want us to know if our food is frankenfood or not.
Yesterday I made my first trip to Costco (I got out of the house!!), and it was like banging my head against the wall. A shopping trip now takes 2-3 times as long. I can't even imagine how hard it must be for those of you who have family members with life threatening food allergies.
So anyways, you'll notice when it comes to my menu planning, much of it looks the same as before. I'm just swapping out ingredients here and there, like gluten free pasta (corn or rice) in place of regular ol' wheat pasta most of the time. Obviously, we're on an incredibly tight budget now, so I have to work around that as best as I can. On one hand, thank goodness for food storage, on the other hand - oh boy, really reading labels on some of the things is scary! The bright side is making things myself from scratch cuts out a lot of those icky chemicals/preservatives.
Monday: Chicken tenders salad
Tuesday: Slow cooker kickin' chili
Wednesday: Orange chicken & rice with broccoli & carrots
Thursday: Flatbread Pizza
Friday: out to dinner (early anniversary treat)
Saturday: Cheesy Rice 'N Tomatoes
Sunday: Slow Cooker Roast chicken, steamed veggies
Check out Organizing Junkie for other great Menu Plans!
1 comment:
Sound like you have a yummy week planned. We're trying to get rid of processed foods in our house too. HFCS is in everything! It drives me nuts when I start reading labels. I hope you find loads of yummy alternatives - food allergies stink! Stopping by from Organizing Junkie.
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