You know how I do it...

In my constant quest to balance my love of cooking and my love of eating with my desire to be SMALLER, as you probably know from reading here, I'm kind of on a "whole foods" kick courtesy of famous people such as Jillian Michaels and Michael Pollan. Credit is also due to non-famous people (at least by my standards) like Paul Prichford, whose book Healing With Whole Foods, I must admit, is where this really all started for me. Not counting whatever life experiences led me to purchase that book in the first place.

Two mottos have stuck with me. Jillian's, "If it didn't come from the ground or have a mother, don't eat it," is one. Michael Pollan has inspired a new way for Tom and I to categorize food - food and nonfood. Where my fake powdered coffee creamer is "nonfood" and my creamer is food. Food? Spinach, oranges, beans, chicken, rice, oatmeal. Nonfood that has graced my pantry regularly? Meal-replacement bar of the moment, splenda, white bread/tortillas, Frosted Shredded Mini Wheats, Blue Bell ice cream, Diet DP, most salad dressings (including Miracle Whip). Just to name a few.

Tom and I have crossed into overweight BMI range in the last couple of months. This all happened very slowly. I went to New Orleans for a conference this week, and sort of like the week after Christmas, I feel like this week will go right as far as eating right. So, with all that build-up, I'd like to present our meal plan for the week. Not much emphasis on dieting, just eating real food.

BTW, this is my first week to link this to Menu Plan Monday at Org Junkie's blog, something I have wanted to do for quite a while!

For breakfast everyday, Oatmeal Breakfast bars and fruit (oranges or bananas).

For lunch, we have some ham leftover from last week (which probably falls closer to the nonfood category, but alas, it's lean and it's in the fridge), some tuna salad (with real mayo, onion, and celery), or some homemade peanut butter (and banana, optional) sandwiches, on whole wheat bread I'm making today.

Snacks: oranges, bananas, cashews, carrots and celery. Might make some hummus today (a can of drained, rinsed chickpeas, a tbsp of tahini paste, a clove of garlic, a splash of lemon juice, some salt and cumin, and a roasted red bell pepper, processed til smooth in the food processor.)

Dinners:
Sunday - a "scramble" with a roasted diced potato, a little onion, some diced ham, and some eggs. Really excited to have received some fresh eggs from my mother-in-law's chickens yesterday! We must have about 25 small eggs, equivalent to a dozen. Woo hoo!

Monday - Salsa roast from Kalyn's Kitchen (except I've started making it in the dutch oven on the stove and only cooking it for a few hours), with roasted brussels sprouts

Tuesday - leftover roast with salad.

Wednesday - Smoked ribs ala Tom (rubbed with this rub from Alton Brown) with roasted potato wedges and some kind of green, maybe broccoli

Thursday - whole roasted chicken and roasted cauliflower (I'm a little obsessed with roasting at the moment)

Friday - Vegetable soup

Saturday - leftover vegetable soup