Meal Plan Monday Post

Patrick and I are enjoying our weekly food challenge. The focus of week 3 is meat consumption (details below). I really was "challenged" with this week and making sure that our meal plan was following the challenge.

Week 3: All meat consumed this week will be locally raised (within 100-miles of your hometown). Meat consumption will also be limited to 3 – 4 servings this week, and when it is eaten meat will not be presented as the “focal point” of the meal. Instead meat will be treated as a side item or simply used to help flavor a dish.

The weekend before we started this challenge we watched Forks Over Knives on Netflix which is a documentary that claims animal proteins can be linked to America's problem with obesity, diabetes, and degenerative diseases and then promotes a whole foods plant-based diet. From the official website: "Forks Over Knives examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting our present menu of animal-based and processed foods. The major storyline in the film traces the personal journeys of a pair of pioneering yet under-appreciated researchers, Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn."

It was a timely watch for us because it gave us a bit of a boost to cut back on meat for the week. We're not quite ready to be vegetarians or vegans since there are benefits to eating meat but we do feel that we can have more meatless meals and Week 3 provided us with the challenge to see how we could do!

We had two nights where we ate out of the house and then prepared 3 meatless meals and 2 with meat. We cooked with local meats from our freezer. We had sweet Italian sausage from our Brinkley Farms' CSA and stew beef from Lane Angus Beef.

Meal Plan for Monday January 26 - Sunday February 1

   Monday - Summer pasta puttanesca with spinach salad


   Tuesday - Butternut and sausage saute with quinoa
   Wednesday - Separate; Whitney - girls night, Patrick - sponsored dinner at work
   Thursday - Spinach & beet risotto


Thursday project - cracking pecans

This is about 1/5 of the pecans cracked - the rest were finished over the weekend!
   Friday - Triangle Restaurant Week | Parizade
   Saturday - brunch Eggs and toast, avocado
      dinner Chilaquiles casserole

All the veggies that went into the casserole -
Diced onion, shredded zucchini, black beans, corn, diced tomatoes
Casserole out of the oven
   Sunday - brunch Whole wheat waffles
      dinner Leftovers

Challenge Meal Plan Summary: Week 1 Fruits & Veggie | Week 2 Beverages | Week 3 Meat | Week 4 No Fried Foods | Week 5 New Whole Foods | Week 6 Labeling | Week 7 Grains | Week 8 Internal Cues | Week 9 No Refined / Artifical Sweeteners | Week 10 No Refined / Hydrogenated Oils | Week 11 Locally Grown | Week 12 No Added Sweeteners | Week 13 No Artificial Ingredients | Week 14 5 Ingredients or Less

1 comment:

  1. I like reading all this information. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete