Menu Plan, and Tweaks on Food Journalling

I am loving FatSecret.com as a food journalling tool! Tracking my intake was a huge eye opener, and after a week at very low carb I can tell how I need to tweak my portions to achieve realistic deficits while keeping fat and protein at a premium, to maintain some level of ketosis and also satiation. My next goal for this week is to preplan and document the intake the evening before (Last week I was documenting after the fact). Hopefully this way I can better stagger my calories throughout the day and achieve more accurate fat/protein/carb ratios.

If you are on FatSecret or decide to give it a go, you can check out the Primal / Paleo 3 Months Til Summer Challenge! It starts in a couple of weeks and will be a gathering place for those striving for cleaner grain-free sugar-free eating and better workouts as the warm weather approaches. If you see me on there be sure to say hi! :)

I am enjoying my husband doing the grocery shopping, I must say. Our fridge is now full of tons of full fat dairy, animal protein, and produce. *Does the happy dance.*

So - here's what's planned for the menu and workouts this week:

Monday:
Breakfast - Bacon gorgonzola omelette, whole milk yoghurt with raspberry extract
Lunch - Bacon, steamed brocolli with butter
Dinner - Garlic roast chicken with carrots
Workout - Kettlebell swings

Tuesday:
Breakfast - Bacon, smoothie
Lunch - Leftover chicken and carrots, remade as a creamy soup
Dinner - Trader Joe's vodka sauce with seasoned TJ's grass fed ground beef, over spaghetti squash
Workout - Lap swim at the community pool

Wednesday:
Breakfast - Fried eggs, iced coffee
Lunch - TJ's wild turbot filets with asparagus and a cream and butter sauce
Dinner - Roast beef with veggies
Workout - Kettlebell swings

Thursday:
Breakfast - Bacon and asparagus quiche
Lunch - Lamb chops
Dinner - Coconut crusted shrimp, minus the unsweetened coconut, which I'm out of at the moment
Workout - Rest day

Friday:
Breakfast - Quartered strawberries topped with mascarpone and cacao nibs
Lunch - Leftovers, whatever they might be
Dinner - Porterhouses, on the stove if weather doesn't permit, but hoping for grilling weather! ;-D Salads on the side
Workout - Turkish getups with the kettlebell

Preschool Lunch Ideas:
Lunchbox #59 - Leftover broccoli, chicken, and carrots
Lunchbox #60 - Leftover spaghetti squash bolognese, apple slices
Lunchbox #61 - Leftover roast beef, whole milk yoghurt with honey

Menu Plan

We're trying something new this month: my husband is doing all of the grocery shopping. I'm curious to see how it works out; the main determination is to see whether he can lower our grocery spending without my non-core impulse purchases (read: raw honey, almond butter, etc.) piling on extra costs.

Which, you know what? Is not a bad thing. I need less of the impulse purchases and more "core foods" low-carb meals that keep me from craving carby snacks. More beef. More butter and cream. More eggs and bacon. More nonstarchy veggies.

I've also decided today to start food journaling in earnest. Even if I'm 100% primal / lacto-paleo compliant in terms of what I'm eating, calories are indeed still a part of the equation, and after being inspired by one paleo friend who is a fantastic weight loss success story (and who lost 111+ lb. over six years with the help of strict food journalling) - and AndreAnna, who is courageously redoubling her efforts this month after a winter plateau - I want to scrutinize my own numbers more closely. I think that my satiation switch is somehow broken, so relying on my subjective feeling of "full" seems to be futile, at least at this point. The fact that I'm still nursing my 14-month old certainly doesn't abet my appetite at this point either. Therefore, to make things as objective and clear-cut as possible, journalling food intake and charting weigh-ins over time is a great way for me to geek out data-wise on my intake and draw some useful conclusions from there.

Wednesday:

Breakfast - Smoothies for my girls; I may fast

Lunch - Eggs fried in butter

Dinner - Miso salmon with broccoli

Workout - Supposed to be gorgeous, so taking my littlest out in the jogging stroller for some sunshine and fresh air

Thursday:

Breakfast - Mashed boiled eggs

Lunch - Leftover salmon with butter-sauteed wasabi asparagus

Dinner - Beef pot roast; sweet potatoes for my girls

Workout - Kettlebell swings

Friday:

Breakfast - Leftover sweet potatoes for the girls, warmed with butter and cinnamon, fasting for me

Lunch - Omelettes

Dinner - Butterflied pan-sauteed shrimp (with garlic and coconut oil) and veggie

Workout - Rest day

Preschool Lunch Ideas:

Lunchbox #56: Honeydew melon, blueberries, broccoli, sugar snap peas, sliced leftover beef

Lunchbox #57: Sweet potatoes, Clementine, apple slices with peanut butter

Lunchbox #58: Leftover salmon, almonds, apple blueberry sauce

Menu Plan, and Some Primal / Paleo - Friendly Pasta Sauces

A bit late this week to my usual menu plan. I didn't make it to Giant until today after yet another preschool snow delay -- until that point we were limping along with leftovers here and there, letting eggs and omelettes bridge the gap.

Now that my daughters are in bed tonight, I'll be making a batch of eggplant lasagna. It's one of those recipes that I always do a little bit differently, depending on my mood and what ingredients I have on hand. The core of recipe requires a bit of time - you slice the eggplant thinly, salt it and let it "weep" bitter juices for about half an hour, then pan-fry both sides of the slices in butter, and layer them with cheese and your favorite tomato sauce and bake. While it's a terrific recipe fresh out of the oven, not much is lost in eating it reheated, and it's so much less intense for me to tackle it without little ones also demanding my attention. So, we'll all enjoy it tomorrow for dinner!

By the way, now that Italian is on the brain, I thought that I'd describe the three pasta sauces that I currently have in rotation:

• Gia Russa vodka sauce, which I found at the Super Wal-Mart about 15 minutes away from our house (6 g. carbs per half cup, see link for my pics of the ingredient list).
  
  
• Trader Joe's Organic Vodka pasta sauce. 12 g. total carbs per 1/2 c. serving. Ingredients:
  
  Organic tomatoes, organic tomato puree, organic heavy cream (milk), organic sweet whey, organic onions, salt, organic parmesan cheese (milk, salt, cheese cultures, enzymes [microbial]), organic extra virgin olive oil, organic garlic puree, organic lemon juice concentrate, organic basil, organic vodka (potato), organic oregano.
  
  A word of advice: Not all Trader Joe's pasta sauces are this compatible with primal and paleo-style eating; in fact many have soybean oil and other less desirable ingredients. If you're shopping TJ's for pasta sauce, just be sure to read every label's ingredient section!
  
  
• Victoria pasta sauces. These are my go-to. They're available at Giant, they're low carb, they have the simplest ingredient lists of any pasta sauces I've ever seen, and right now all Victoria varieties are on sale for $3.99 for a HUGE 24 oz. jar - through March 3. If you're near Giant or its sister store Stop & Shop, check out your pasta sauce section and see if there are any available.
  
  

  

  Hrm, suspiciously similar
  label compared with
  theTomato Basil Sauce! ;)

  

  
  

  Maybe there's just more basil...?

  Most Victoria sauces have exceedingly short and pure ingredient lists, but always check your labels; for example, their vodka sauce ingredient lists are surprisingly complicated. But here are two of my favorites - the basic marinara, and the tomato basil sauce, both just 4 g. carbs per half cup, the lowest carb count of any commercially produced pasta sauces I've ever seen!
  
  Victoria is what I'll be using tonight.

I can't be the only one out there waiting until "after hours" to do up some of my favorite recipes undistracted.

***
ETA 7/17/2011: I've also blogged about having fallen in love with Giant's in-house Simply Enjoy pasta sauce. It's nearly identical to Victoria, down to the ingredients, and about half the cost at $4 for a 28 oz. (very large) jar.
***

What recipes do you like waiting to cook until you can devote full attention to them?

Feel free to link to those recipes in the comments.

Meanwhile, here's my menu and workout plan for the rest of the week:

Wednesday:

Breakfast - Omelettes, Clementines for the girls

Lunch - Leftover stewed beef, baby carrots

Dinner - Eggplant lasagna, rewarmed in the oven. Yum!

Workout - Kettlebell swinging

Thursday:

Breakfast - Bacon, fried eggs

Lunch - Leftover eggplant lasagna, if there is any. :) Otherwise: Lamb.

Dinner - Crock pot whole chicken with cabbage in a garlic ginger broth

Workout - "Rest" day, though I may be cleaning and doing laundry like a maniac

Friday:

Breakfast - Smoothies! Mine will be high fat, high protein, lowish carb

Lunch - Leftover chicken and cabbage, served up in its broth as a soup

Dinner - Since we'll have company the next day and I'd like to keep the kitchen relatively clean, might grab a bunless cheeseburger from our local burger joint

Workout - Kettlebell swinging

Menu Plan

I made a dynamite super slow roasted beef loin in the oven today - a very large one! The long cooking time left the meat very tender, and the flavor very concentrated. Fortunately (because it's so huge), I'm really looking foward to leftovers tomorrow!

Here's what's on the menu this week:

Monday:
Breakfast - Steak, plus fruit for the girls
Lunch - Leftover blueberries, leftover sweet potatoes and pot roast from Sunday
Dinner - More steak! Plus a veggie stir fry of squash, carrots, and asparagus

Tuesday:
Breakfast - Leftover veggie stir fry, whole milk yoghurt
Lunch - Kerrygold Ballyshannon cheese, warm banana pudding
Dinner - Beef loin roast

Wednesday:
Breakfast - Leftover beef roast and apple slices for the girls
Lunch - Fried eggs
Dinner - Roasted butternut squash with cinnamon, romaine salad topped with shredded cheese and shredded leftover beef roast
Workout - Walking, and lots of it

Thursday:
Breakfast - Mashed boiled eggs with Kerrygold
Lunch - Creamy tarragon asparagus soup
Dinner - Sausage, bacon, and cheese quiche
Workout - Kettlebell swings

Friday:
Breakfast - Garlic, onion, and cheese omelette
Lunch - Leftovers, whatever they may be
Dinner - Roast whole chicken, baked potatoes on the side
Workout - Lap swim

Preschool lunch ideas:
Lunchbox #50: Apple blueberry whole milk yoghurt, leftover stir fried veggies, sliced cucumbers, cherry tomatoes
Lunchbox #51: Chilled banana pudding topped with walnuts, leftover beef roast, whole milk yoghurt
Lunchbox #52: Boiled egg, leftover butternut squash, salad

Menu/Workout Plan, A Day Late, and Planning Ahead for Super Bowl Snacks

Don't be fooled by the absence of a week's beginning menu plan; we are in fact eating food. I was just sort of winging things the last couple of days, which is a bad sign, so I'm buckling down tonight to plan the rest of the week. Also? Though evenings can be unpredictable around here, I'm going to try and start again with planning my workouts, because workouts are so much likelier to happen when I write them down.

That said, we are in the middle of the tundra zone weather-wise (though not in Iowa where it's -18 F) where working out outside is purt near impossible most days. That means for the next few weeks, my primary option is working out with Veronica and at my community pool. Really hoping that groundhog doesn't see his shadow next week - so that we can get it going with the spring weather! I could really use the sunshine.

One last note: Are you planning ahead for what's on the menu for the Super Bowl?  I am definitely thinking lots. and. lots. of. WINGS.

Monday (yes, what we had yesterday):
Breakfast - Boiled eggs
Lunch - Butternut squash soup
Dinner - Spaghetti squash with meaty marinara

Tuesday (what we had today):
Breakfast - Fried eggs for the girls; preworkout fast for me
Lunch - Post-workout: oven-roasted potatoes and leftover roast chicken
Dinner - Slow-cooked beef, baked sweet potatoes
Workout - Tabata kettlebell swings

Wednesday:
Breakfast - Bacon, eggs scrambled with Boursin
Lunch - Haddock fillets fried in coconut oil
Dinner - Steak cobb salads, strawberries
Workout - Lap swim

Thursday:
Breakfast - Whole milk yoghurt with one honey straw (these are great for portion control on honey! Each of the Stix has 4.3 g carbs) and halved strawberries
Lunch - I will probably workout fasted, thus postponing the above breakfast to lunch, add leftover steak
Dinner - Sausage bacon cheese quiche, sliced nectarines
Workout - Tabata kettlebell swings

Friday:
Breakfast - Banana yoghurt smoothies for the girls; maybe boiled eggs for me
Lunch - Leftover quiche, sliced mango
Dinner - Beef pot roast in the crock pot, carrots, potatoes
Workout - Lap swim

Preschool lunchbox ideas: 
Today (#43): Almonds, cheese, broccoli, leftover spaghetti squash, leftover roast chicken, applesauce
Lunchbox #44: Mashed sweet potato, fruit salad, cheese slices
Lunchbox #45: Sliced nectarines, trail mix, steak slices with mustard to dip

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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

Menu Plan

Consider yourself warned: if you're ever at my place watching a movie alongside myself and Mr. Grok, you should be prepared for irreverent running commentary fit for the likes of Mystery Science Theater 3000. We love time loop series (Back to the Future, the Terminator series, Crichton's Timeline, etc.) or historical epics, wherein we continuously critique the timeline inconsistencies.

As it turns out, last night my husband and I watched the movie 10,000 B.C. on TNT. Definitely not an Oscar contender, and more to the point: I was suspicious of Camilla Belle's immaculately plucked eyebrows - pretty anachronistic for the era, if you ask me. (*Ahem*) Anywhoo, you know you've been eating primally for a while when you watch the final scene of this movie, when the following transpires (*SPOILER ALERT*):

{...the strapping hero and his blushing bride - who belong to a tribe that subsists entirely on mastadon hunting - receive from another tribe's leader a few small bags of corn and beans to put to seed - the hailed and very romanticized beginning of agriculture...}

"No!" I said, "Don't do it!" My husband may have been snickering at me.

Here's the lineup for this week's menu:

Monday:
Working out - Kettlebellin'
Breakfast - Spinach mushroom omelettes
Lunch - Asparagus taragon soup (didn't get to make this last week, hopefully this time!)
Dinner - Crock pot pineapple/tamari-marinated pork chops, spinach salads

Tuesday:
Working out - May check out the community pool for the first time
Breakfast - Bruschetta cheese, pluots
Lunch - Banamandeln smoothie
Dinner - Spaghetti squash with a tomato and grass fed ground beef sauce - my first time making spaghetti squash as a pasta stand-in! Tips, anyone? See the spaghetti squash post - had to make it Sunday because the squash was going south! Likely will do some kind of eggs and veggies for dinner.


Wednesday:
Workout - rest/play day
Breakfast - Scrambled eggs
Lunch - Cocoa blueberry smoothie
Dinner - Baked chicken thighs, spinach salad

Thursday:
Workout  - Wii Fit Plus arms rotation - pushups, planks, and side planks
Breakfast - Custards
Lunch - Loaded "big-ass" salad with leftover chicken
Dinner - Grilled skewered shrimp, baby carrots, salads

Friday:
Workout - Kettlebellin'
Breakfast - Yoghurt with a bit of honey
Lunch - Picnic-ing! Probably hard boiled eggs, berries, nuts, cheese, etc. Easy finger foods. :)
Dinner - Leftovers

Ideas for preschool lunches:
Lunch #6: Banana pudding (chilled), trail mix, aged cheddar, baby carrots
Lunch #7: Bruschetta cheese tossed with tomatoes, sliced pluot, sliced green pepper with dip
Lunch #8: Custard, chicken salad from leftover chicken, broccoli with dip, peppermint patties

Workout of the Week - 'Not'

This morning, in the excitement and rush to get out the door for my daughter's first day of preschool, I managed to royally twist my ankle on our front step - one of those seeing-stars kind of pain. Great. So now my ankle is swollen and tender. Guess no Workout of the Week this week. :-\ I will do some arm work and watch my carbs in the meantime until the pain and swelling are gone. Phooey!

Menu Plan - Labor Day Edition

Like many on the Twittersphere under hash tag #SPC2010 (as in: September Primal Challenge!), I experimented with some intermittent fasting last week a couple of times by skipping breakfast. (Just me; the rest of my family ate breakfast!) It is shocking to realize how steady your tummy can be if you're not OD'ing on sugar or carbs all the time - both fasts, I was able to keep myself busy without that distracting, violent urge to locate a Fiber One bar stat - the urge that enslaved my days in my life before Grok. When your body is used to burning ingested fat for fuel, making the switch to burning stored body fat while fasting is hardly a blip on the radar.

I have read on many blogs that folks experience the best metabolic boost when they work out just at the end of a fast - and then fasting an hour or two more. So if I have an early dinner and wait until midday the next day to eat - while getting in a morning workout - I'm supposedly maxing the effects of the fast. Hope to test this out a bit more in the future.

ALSO - this week marks the start of packing lunches for preschool! More coverage to come.

Tuesday:
Workout - Workout of the Week - though I may switch this with Wednesday's workout if needed
Breakfast - Eggs scrambled with butter, add honeydew melon (on sale this week at Giant) for the girls
Lunch - Leftover crock pot ribs from Monday, baby carrots
Dinner - Leftover browned ground beef with salsa and organic sour cream over salad

Wednesday:
Workout - Tabata sprints
Breakfast - Whole milk yoghurt / blueberry smoothies, add bananas for the girls
Lunch - Veggie omelettes
Dinner - Masala chicken thighs, salads

Thursday:
Workout - Rest/play day
Breakfast - Mashed boiled eggs, add bananas for the girls
Lunch - Guacamole curried chicken salad on greens (recipe to come, hopefully)
Dinner - Snow crab clusters, with butter for dipping, and a salad

Friday:
Workout - Kettlebellin'
Breakfast - Apple slices with almond butter, cottage cheese
Lunch - Out with relatives
Dinner - Crock pot ribs with family, salads

Planned preschool lunch ideas:
Lunch #1: Guacamole curried chicken salad, baby carrots, apple, nuts (if permitted by the preschool), and maybe a little piece of dark chocolate. :)
Lunch #2: Hard boiled eggs, cubed honeydew melon and strawberries, cottage cheese, summer squash sticks with yoghurt dip.

Menu/Workout Plan

Oh, boy, am I excited about doing the September Primal Challenge! I am still such a novice at a lot of this, but I get stoked thinking about pushing myself to do the workouts, to cook and eat faithfully primal meals, and of course, to see what everybody else out there is doing in their challenge mode at the same time! :) I feel like Grok (or was it Fred Flintstone?) about to sink his teeth into a huge bronto steak. ;-p

I'd like to do VLC for myself as much as possible throughout the month - my single planned hiccup may be a weekend trip that we are planning with my inlaws, but hopefully I can plan ahead to minimize the extent of that hiccup. Wherever I have VLC meals planned, I will also sometimes supplement with high-nutrient starchy tubers or fruit for my girls - after all, they don't have the baby weight to lose.

I may also experiment with some intermittent fasting in September on days where I'm not as hungry or just too busy - my meal likeliest to skip would be breakfast, in which case I'd move the breakfast planned to lunchtime, thereby forgoing a smoothie meal.

So (now) Tuesday September 07 officially kicks off the festivities. Did you see that Mark will be giving away an entire COW?! (!!) Think I'll start jotting down my workout plans, too, for the sake of committing to the challenge in advance. Yabba dabba do!!!


Monday:
Workout: Wii Fit Plus arms routine: 3 sessions each of pushups, planks, and side planks
Breakfast - Fried eggs, warm banana pudding for my girls
Lunch - Blueberry coconut smoothies (I add the whey protein powder after dosing out shares for my girls), loaded ("big-ass") salads
Dinner - Steaks, salsa guacamole (steaks and avocados are on sale at Giant, woo!)

Tuesday:
Workout: Workout of the Week, or however much of it I can muster! ;-)
Breakfast - Sauteed kale with bacon and mushrooms,
Lunch - Peach coconut smoothies, apple slices with almond butter, cheese slices
Dinner - Shrimp, Sausage, and Summer Squash casserole - a new recipe from Mark's Daily Apple

Wednesday:
Workout: Kettlebellin', working whatever the Tuesday WOW didn't
Breakfast - Mashed boiled eggs with melted Kerrygold and pepper
Lunch - Lime cilantro coconut smoothies, baked sweet potatoes
Dinner - Crock pot pork ribs, salads

Thursday:
Workout: Rest/play day
Breakfast - Eggs scrambled with butter
Lunch - Nectarine coconut smoothies, nuts
Dinner - Whole roasted chicken, baked Brussels sprouts, baked parsnips

Friday:
Workout: Wii arms (see Monday), kettlebellin'
Breakfast - Fat guacamole devils
Lunch - Coconut curry chicken spinach soup using leftover chicken (recipe to come)
Dinner - Leftovers