Quest for Healthier Menus

A couple of weeks ago I decided that to get past this almost 3 month plateau I am on I needed to plan healthier menus. So I searched the wonderful resources of the web and the local library, and my dear cousin gets me a subscription to Healthy Cooking for my birthday (it changed this last year from Light and Tasty to Healthy Cooking). I was determined to find meals that my family would like and that our waist lines would like also. You know... that's not so easy. We like what we like. There is a reason I am on this particular weight loss plan. So, on my quest to healthier menus, I got sidetracked. The healthy cookbooks from the library and the magazines are all earmarked and ready to be copied, but to get to the lighter fare on websites (at least most of the ones I looked at) you have to pass by the good stuff... or is that, the not-so-good for you stuff. So, I am thinking that tossing in a lighter fare menu or recipe here and there is definitely a good thing, but moderation is probably where we should live. Afterall, God gave us those different tastebuds for our enjoyment, not to torture us.

In the last 4 days I have tried 4 new recipes! I get tired of the same ol' things to eat. I remember a childhood friend's family had spaghetti every Friday night. At the time, it sounded wonderful to me and I remember thinking that is what I am going to do when I grow up... Monday night is chicken night, Tuesday is hamburger night, Wednesday is.... well, you get the picture. There's no way I could do that! The only thing we may have 2 weeks in a row is pizza!

When I started the "Quest" I also opened another Delicious account just for recipes. I love this!! I have one account for business and personal. It has all the blogs I follow and they are listed under various tags such as decorating, crafts, Sunday School, weddings, etc. Then the one for recipes has tags for resources (recipe blogs or sites like Taste of Home), appetizers, breakfast, fruit, pork, etc. So when I go to plan my menus I go to that Delicious account and can pull up those recipes or I can search for more ideas. It is so handy. It probably won't be long before I open another account for A Mari Celebration. If you haven't checked Delicious out, you ought to. A free organization tool! Fun!

Here's the 2 week menu for this round. I am going to go back to Friday so I can include the recipes I tried this weekend, since there are keepers and I want to share them with you!

Friday- Homemade pizza with copy-cat "Papa John's" sauce (mmm, so good! I made a double batch and the rest froze it in 1/2
cup containers)
Saturday- Cowboy Sandwiches (the recipe has a different name... these were ok, don't know that we will have them again..)
Sunday- dinner- homemade lasagna, cauliflower, green beans, salad, rolls and lemon crumb cake (this cake was in the Healthy
Cooking magazine and I couldn't get a link to it. It is a dense cake. I liked it, but my family isn't real hip on
lemon.)
Sunday- after church- slow cooker pulled pork with homemade coleslaw and perogies. (oh, my! the recipe said the pork tastes
better the second day and boy was he right! Last night, I was thinking it was an awful lot of steps to go
through to get that result.Not hard steps, just time consuming, but today I am thinking it was definitely
worth it. I will double the sauce recipe next time, though. It's a keeper for sure!
Monday- Butter Roast Chicken, crash hot potatoes, and peas (The chicken recipe is one I have hadfor years and my
family loves it.)
Tuesday- beef tips and homemade noodles, mashed potatoes and carrots
Wednesday- leftovers
Thursday- enchiladas and corn casserole
Friday- Lexington Style chicken, baked potatoes and broccoli (another favorite chicken recipe)
Saturday- taco roll (taco meat and cheese rolled up in a pizza crust)
Easter Sunday- Cheese stuffed Pork Roast, cheesy mashed potatoes, broccoli casserole, carrots, cauliflower salad, homemade
yeast rolls, deviled eggs and I am sure dessert will be served but I don't know what it will be yet!
Sunday night- chili dogs
Monday- chicken paremsan, linguine and green beans
Tuesday- cube steaks and gravy, mashed potatoes, and peas
Wednesday- pizza roll
Thursday- bbq ribs, mac and cheese and baked beans

So there's a peek into our culinary world... as you can see we will be relying on moderation! If it is between food that we don't enjoy and adding more exercise to my schedule it will have to be exercise!