4. Plan differently.
People often eat out because of exhaustion or overwhelmed schedules.
Think ahead about your menu for the week and have the ingredients on hand. Build a revolving menu based on what your family likes. If you have fifteen meals that are hits with your family, you can rotate them and only duplicate items twice a month.
Some ideas. And these will be really different for every family. So will the ingredients. Ours will be meatless and without dairy products.
Pasta and sauce
Stir Fry
Breakfast for dinner (omelets or tofu scramble or hash brown casserole, pancakes or waffles)
Indian spiced food
Burger or hot sandwich night
Build your own taco or burrito night
Lasagna
Pizza
Rice or Potato casserole
Soup and/or Salad
Side Salad/Appetizer night
Gravy over rice or potatoes
Calzones or Pockets
Comfort Food - roast, mac and cheese, meatloaf
Eggplant or Chicken Parm
Can you take 20 minutes in the morning to throw something together that you can pop in the oven when you get home? Not only will it save time when you rush into the house during the tensest time of the day, but if you put the ingredients together the dish will taste better as the flavors marry. (If you have raw meat, don't put it with the other ingredients except the marinade ingredients that then will need to be tossed.) Think double time and while you put one dish together, go ahead and make two and put one in the freezer for another time. This works great for lasagna, casseroles and soups -- even all veggie versions). Or put the crock pot to use.
Have healthy versions of spaghetti sauces and salsa on hand. (Plan ahead even more and make and can your own from your summer garden bounty or the farmer's market.) And always have a pasta you like on hand. Then you always have a quick, easy meal with the addition of a salad or bread.
If you plan ahead and have prepped bags of cooked brown rice, quinoa and black beans in the freezer you have the makings of a quick tortilla meal with the addition of quick sauteed pepper and onion strips (frozen in bags which is often cheaper than fresh, usually frozen quickly to retain nutrients, and sliced so you don't have to...win, win. If you really want to plan ahead you can do your own bags in the summer months from your own garden or the farmer's market.)
Potatoes are a good staple, too. And one that can be used in casseroles, soups etc. Allrecipes.com is a terrific resource. Type in the main ingredients you have on hand and you will find recipes.
Every meal you eat at home saves you money, and should likely be better for you (unless your home meal is exclusively boxes, bags and cans).
3. Cook differently.
Look at your family’s favorite recipes.
What ingredients can you change? What ingredients can you decrease?
Once you start, it's not that intimidating to tweak favorites and end up with the same feeling, similar flavor. And knowing that you made it yourself and made it healthier for your family can be a slam-dunk, fabulous feeling.
Look at each ingredient individually. I can't promise that if you switch one type of flour for another that you'll end up with exact results, or that if you cut the amount of cheese in half that you will still get the flying trapeze of cheese upside your chin. But. If you are willing to make a change at a time, or two if you are brave, you can end up with some really tasty results.
Note: You might want to make a photocopy of your recipe and write the changes right on it. That way you can recreate what you did. There is nothing more frustrating than creating a tasty dish and not remembering what you did to get there. Grrr. Another note. If the recipe is already billed as "healthified" be cautious on tweaking too much. The second worst thing is investing the time into something that is inedible. I'm talking about classic recipes or full octane ingredients for the major tweaking.
Basics.
Most items don’t need all the sugar and all the salt called for. You can reduce up to a third or even half the amount of sugar. Salt can be decreased by half.You will likely not notice the difference. Start with a third less and move up to half if you feel like you can go a bit more. Some fats can also be decreased.
Change out all purpose flour for a whole grain flour.Or make your own blends of regular (go unbleached for less processing), spelt, oat for a more traditional like flour with nutritional benefits.
Use whole grain pasta. Or a mix of half regular, half multi or whole grain.
Use a different milk like oatmilk, unsweetened coconut milk or unsweetened almond milk to sneak in different nutrition when milk is called for. Oatmilk is the most milk like in texture for creamy soups or casseroles. Coconut can leave a bit of coconut flavor but is nice in asian dishes calling for milk.My least favorite is soy because of the flavor.
Blend up vegetables and mix them into old stand-bys. If you have a meat loaf recipe that everyone loves, try adding a half or full cup of blended sweet potatoes and spinach. Replace part of the ground meat with lentils, beans, brown rice, quinoa or nuts If it's a "busy" recipe (got a lot going on) or If there’s sauce on it your family may not notice.
I haven't played around with a lot of recipes that call for applesauce for fats etc with results I love. But. If you have a recipe that feels pretty greasy, by all means, decrease the fat by a quarter the next time you make it. You might want to "grease" any pans in case it really messes with your end result. Or try half applesauce or bananas or pureed veggies or beans and half the fat.
By replacing, tweaking or decreasing ingredients, you change the nutritional dynamics of the meal. I have discovered that real food with nutritional heft is often more filling and satisfying and requires less.
No, not the one on Facebook.
I've spent a few hours at our CSA farm this past week. Saturday saw us heading out at 9:00 a.m. to put in a few hours. My parents, son, aunt and one of her friends came along for the fun.
Some of the pictures I snapped. I also dropped my phone multiple times in the dirt.
My son, also known as Toad-Boy and daughter, 24, held onto a cart of horse poop as it was driven up the hill.
You might wonder what horse poop has to do with garden work. Okay. That shouldn't be a str
etch for your imagination. We all know what poop is for. This particular pile was mixed into the furrows that would become holes for asparagus plants.
How many plants? 400. Planting asparagus takes a little doing. First the furrow, then the horse poo, the mixing of the two together, a hole dug approx 18 inches apart to allow for asparagus growth.
Asparagus plants live for 15 years. The best producing years are seven and eight. Pretty amazing for something that looks so delicate. After the tiny plant is placed in the ground and tucked in, bags of autumn leaves were pulled out of the shed and leaf mulch was placed around the plants.
What you might not know about horse poop and the organic gardener. Organically certified horse poop is a rare bird indeed. Too many hoops to jump through. However, the poop can be used if the horse is fed a proper diet. And if the bedding is approved bedding. Cool that this poop came from a nearby farmer who feeds his animals grass and other natural foods and buys the wood chip horse bedding from another local guy who doesn't treat his wood with any chemicals. Win. Win. Win. And a minimal carbon footprint (or streak).
We picked the first snap peas of the season and took the newbies on a guided tour. Lots o
f fun. Except for the residual sunburn. The weather was perfect. And dinner of snap pea stir fry. Yummo!
Tuesday was a beastly hot day. I went a little later than usual so expected all the harvesting to be done for the day and that we'd get out of there a little earlier than usual. Uhhh. What's that saying about best laid plans? We harvested the final cutting of lettuces from the greenhouse and finished up at about 3:30. Then we had the washing, the weighing, the bagging, boxing and tagging. I finally had to leave at 5:00 and 24 had to leave at 5:30.
Amazingly, the majority of work was almost finished when she left.
We brought home two kinds of peas, more lettuce, more swiss chard, dill, kale and beets. 24 had a chance to prune tomatoes, too. We are getting quite the education. And finding that anything we pick and eat is extra tasty knowing the work involved in getting it to our table.
Yum.
Last night we had Tempeh (fermented tofu)...so so. I marinated and served it in chunks. Not very appetizing picture, word or otherwise, I know. You'd think it would be overpowering tastewise with the whole fermented part of the process...but it's not. Very, very bland. Next time I will stick to it as a ground hamburger or crumbled meat substitute, especially with plenty of seasoning, because it worked pretty fabulously for both of those uses.
But. We had the best avocado dressing. 24 found a recipe for a kale salad that had sliced beets and walnuts. An...interesting texture-rich taste sensation...but the modified dressing was amazing.
Avocado Dressing.
1 avocado spooned into a bowl.
2 tsps of spicy brown mustard
2 TBSP apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice)
3 TBSP walnut or olive oil
Mash and blend. We left chunks. It's thick and would make a delicious dressing for a taco salad....especially if you changed the lemon juice to lime and chopped up some cilantro and tossed in peppers/onions. Oh, that's guacamole. Never mind.
Today will be a farm visit. Report to follow.
DO less…so you can BE more.
John Busacker encourages readers to trade in their overcommitted and
underwhelming lives for the pursuit of something vital and lasting
Ever been lost in a car on the way to an important event? If so, then you know that people are the only animals that speed up when they’re lost or confused. It’s only as a last resort that we’ll finally hit the brakes, put the car in park, and set about the humbling task of asking for directions. The sad truth is that many of us live our lives the same way: lost, directionless, and never slowing down enough to find the real answers we need. Unfortunately, slowing down and doing less are foreign solutions for today’s problems. Envision a student notifying her parents that her goal is to slow down because she’s stressed out in school. Picture a husband suggesting that he wants to do less in his marriage. The very concept of doing less seems like sheer laziness, but it can actually be a very productive strategy for living.
For readers who are finally ready to stop speeding along and start slowing down enough to find some answers, John Busacker’s new book, Fully Engaged: How to Do Less and Be More, offers practical advice on how to do just that. In a world full of countless options and disorienting decisions, we have to allow our internal GPS to stop and recalculate the direction of our life. As we do so, we’ll find greater abundance, contentment, and peace of mind. Fully Engaged encourages and equips us to move beyond what Busacker calls an “air guitar life”—a life of furious motion and considerable energy, but in the end one with no sound and little lasting impact. In a culture of random noise and fury, Busacker offers a measured and wise strategy for living that is marked by three key components: 1) Awareness, 2) Alignment, and 3) Action.
· Living with Awareness means that, instead of piecing together random moments, you begin to live intentionally. By doing so, you no longer measure your life worth by your pay check, but by effectively blending all aspects of your life. It is understanding that the moments that make up your life contribute to the overarching story of your existence, and in order for that story to stay fresh, you must add to it regularly. A life of awareness is a life defined by the values that you hold dear rather than by the habits and routines that only lead to more monotony. In the end, awareness means that you stop sleepwalking through life and become fully engaged with the world around you.
· Living with Alignment ensures that what you have and what you do match what you really want out of life. It means that your job is not simply a means to make money, but a calling to be pursued with vigor. It is the realization that your dreams are meant to be lived out, and that your life is more than just showing up. When your life is marked by alignment, you don’t live one life at work, another life at church, and yet another life at home. Alignment patterns all aspects of your life around what you really want so that everything you value and do is interconnected with your dreams.
· Living with Action compels you to move in directions that propel you toward an exhilarating future. This means that you’re not afraid to fail and that setbacks are to be celebrated as progressive steps on the journey of success. It’s the understanding that you must pursue connection with others because community is a necessary component of fulfilled living. A life of action is a life of generosity, because giving back is the natural response to engagement. It is impossible to be fully engaged and be passive.
“You have gifts to give, family to love, and dreams to live,” writes Busacker. “You were created to learn and grow, not to replicate and repeat. What if you could not only live each day, but really live it—and love it?” Everyone desires to be this engaged—to feel connected, joyful, and alive. You’ll begin to thrive instead of survive, to act instead of react. If you’re burned out or rusted out, Fully Engaged can help you find a whole new layout for living!
About the Author: John Busacker is president of The Inventure Group, a global leadership-consulting firm, and founder of Life-Worth, LLC, a life planning creative resource. He is a member of the Duke Corporate Education Global Learning Resource Network and is on the faculty of the University of Minnesota Carlson School’s Executive Development Center.
In 2009, Busacker released his first book, 8 Questions God Can’t Answer, which unlocks the profound power of Jesus’ timeless questions. He annually teaches in a variety of emerging faith communities and supports the development needs of leaders in Africa through PLI-International.
John is an avid explorer, occasional marathoner, and novice cyclist. He and his wife, Carol, live in Minneapolis and have two adult sons, Brett and Joshua.
Fully Engaged: How to Do Less and Be More
by John Busacker
Summerside Press ~ May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-609361150/Paperback/144 pages/$14.99
My Thoughts:
Can you see why I wanted a look at this book? Sounds like it has some wisdom for some of the struggles we all face on a daily basis. How do you plug along successfully when life offers so many squeaky wheels that need a drop of oil? This book is a quick read and it contains some introspective and helpful thoughts. However, this is a book that is not NEW thinking just a new way to look at complacency and ruts. If you are missing the life in your Christian living, or know you are deep in a rut and want to get out. Fully engaged is a resource that could really help. It would make a terrific study for small groups or individuals. There are sections in each chapter for personalization and introspection to help clarify what needs to be done to make some changes.
Here is the link to the Amazon reviews . I can't believe non of my bookie friends have read this one. Guess I better get it read soon. You can go here and scroll down to read the first chapter on-line..
ut the free product coupon. (Me too, and we just used the last one we got...nice.)
And since creativity and fun is on the docket. Here are a few things recently made by yours truly and a few friends. 
ree. Not quite what I pictured in my mind. But I think it turned out nice. 24 made a wowser cool birdie in a cage, Mom a fabulous fish, Dad another Monet-type work-of-art rendition of their house, and my daughter-in-law a modern dot and str
ipe beauty. (Thanks for posing, taking and sending the pics, Dad. ) : )
