Menu Plan

Well, we've earned the badge of having a child in a school setting: our family had a little bout of something flu-ish over the weekend, though so far we've bounced back pretty well. I wonder to what extent our diets affected our recovery? Though I was being rather stupid and had too much dark chocolate, which I think may have set me up for immune weakness in the first place. Thankfully, my husband and I are merely stuffed up, but still operational.

Last winter, when my husband got sick, I had brought home lots of comfort junk foods to get us through the week - mini muffins, Gatorade, etc.

But now that I've gone down the MDA rabbit hole, my recovery objective when sick is the same as when healthy - lots of real food, minimal processed items. Fortunately for me, at the first sign my family was headed downhill this weekend, I was able to reconstitute a bag of frozen slow cooked pork and veggies, using some added chicken broth on the stovetop.

Today, I have a whole chicken in the crockpot to cook with water, chopped onions, crushed garlic cloves, diced ginger, carrots, and some salt, and in the oven I've roasted separate pans of cauliflower and butternut squash with butter and seasonings - truly nourishing comfort food. Not only will the chicken and carrots serve as a no-stress dinner tonight, but I'll be able to salvage lots of nourishing broth out of the deal. I'll also boil some eggs tonight to have at the ready in the fridge in case my bout with the illness isn't over and my family finds itself without the head chef on her feet.

Besides fresh fruit and veggies, I did pick up a few prepackaged items for us - mainly dried fruit and crystallized ginger (to aid with nausea).

Here's the menu plan for this week:

Monday:
Workout: Kettlebellin'
Breakfast - Boiled eggs, bananas for the girls
Lunch - Leftover chicken soup, romaine salad
Dinner - Crock pot pork ribs with tamari and seasoning, broccoli stir-fry

Tuesday:
Workout: Swimmin'
Breakfast - Strawberries with creme fraiche
Lunch - Pureed vegetable soup, using whatever's left from Sunday (broth + roasted veggies), plus a bit of Kerrygold
Dinner - Coconut lime salmon filets, brussels sprouts, romaine salad

Wednesday:
Workout: Rest/play day
Breakfast - Cottage cheese drizzled lightly with honey
Lunch - Romaine "big-ass" salad
Dinner - Bacon and eggs

Thursday:
Workout: My first attempt at Turkish getups with Veronica; going to take this VERY slowly (so it may not count as high intensity anything)
Breakfast - Baked apples topped with chopped nuts
Lunch - Quiche of some kind
Dinner - Eggplant lasagna with a meat sauce

Friday:
Workout: Need something very quick and intense, so may do kettlebell swings
Breakfast - Curried egg salad (may try D-I-Y mayo!)
Lunch - Leftover eggplant lasagna
Dinner - Leftovers

Ideas for preschool lunches:
Lunch #9 - Leftover roasted cauliflower with dip, cottage cheese, fresh pomegranate seeds (pomegranates are also coming into season!)
Lunch #10 - Egg salad, leftover brussels sprouts, dates, trail mix
Lunch #11 - Maybe some kind of finger sandwiches made with coconut/egg pancakes (?), strawberries, zucchini sticks