Strategies
- We've decided to begin taking steps to cleaner foods. We believe food should be as natural and close to the source as possible. Thus far, we've lived this by focusing on making meals and snacks from scratch instead of consuming packaged and processed food products. We discussed focusing on one food group at a time to clean up over the course of several weeks. To take on more is just too overwhelming. Our first area will be the largest component of our grocery shopping which is produce. We're using the Dirty Dozen list by the EWG as a guide. These items we'll be buying organic either from the grocery, farmers market, or friend who is growing produce for us (kind of an unofficial csc arrangement). Since we're only switching these items and not all produce items, we're able to soften the adjustment needed in our budget. ALDI has also been fabulous in providing organic produce at lower costs.
- We're still working with meats that we already have stored in the freezer. By buying meats in larger quantities and/or on sale we're able to save in this pricey grocery category.
- We're having a couple of friends for dinner one night! We keep hospitality meals simple and often just something we'd ordinarily have anyways. We believe in incorporating hospitality into our daily lives, and so strive to make the effort more casual than fussy.
Breakfasts
- cottage cheese with mango
- oatmeal with diced apple and walnuts
- granola cereal, banana
- (repeat all to keep it simple!)
Lunches
- pizza leftovers (We splurged last week and got a pizza. Sometimes you need some junk food!)
- lemon garlic tilapia, broccoli
- B.L.A.T. sandwiches (bacon, lettuce, avocado, tomato) - one of our favorites!
- Pot roast turnovers (dice veggies and mix with gravy and then enclose with a whole wheat crust)
- repeat barley casserole
Dinners
- {hospitality meal} baked chicken, mashed potatoes, zipper cream peas, homemade applesauce
- Pot roast (yum!)
- breakfast for dinner: Italian Sausage Egg Bake
- repeat lentil quinoa casserole
- Barley casserole -my favorite casserole!
- Market salad (greens, mandarin oranges, apples, candied walnuts, almonds, raisins, cranberries with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing)
Snacks
- almonds
- yogurt with strawberries and walnuts
- homemade whole wheat crackers with peanut butter
- cottage cheese
- yogurt
- apples and cheese slices
*Note: Reviving Homemaking is not affiliated with any of the sites or companies included in the links, and was not asked to include or recommend them or their recipes in this post. (I simply like what they have to offer!)
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I like your idea for keeping a guests' meal simple.
ReplyDeleteWe do this every couple of months, but as a lunch. We invite about 20 people from our church to our house for a fellowship lunch right after church, usually people who are new or seem to have not met very many other in church, yet. I usually just serve a very large pot of soup (that I make the day before) with bread, tea, coffee and water, and a couple of pans of brownies. By keeping the menu simple I can spend my time enjoying the conversation and introducing people to each other.
Can I add a snack idea? One of my daughters loves carrot sticks with refried beans as a dip.
Please, what's in your barley casserole? I didn't see a link with it.
Lili,
DeleteI love your hospitality effort! That sounds wonderful! I'm sure that it is a blessing to all who join you in your home, especially those who are new or just need to find connections!
Thank you for the snack idea! I haven't thought of carrot sticks and refried beans. I'll have to give it a try sometime.
I only provide links to recipes that are available online. Some of the dishes I make come from cookbooks, and I can't give out the full recipe due to copyright issues. The barley casserole recipe comes from the book "15 Minute Meal Planner" by Emilie Barnes and Sue Gregg. It has a lot of great principles in the front of the book and then recipes in the back. You can probably find it pretty inexpensively online or at a used bookstore. :)