Meal Plans Week of 7-15-12

Good morning.  As I'm writing I'm listening to my friend and local blogger and creator of Grand Rapids Natural Living Donielle Baker talk about natural fertility at the Real Food Summit.  I've been listening to great presentations all week.  I hope I have time to listen to all three presentations today.  Matt Stone is also going to talk.  I really want to hear him.  I'm also enjoying one of my frozen cheesecake cups.  So good!  And it's mostly homemade yogurt and sour cream...lots of great probiotics.

Last week was pretty busy with lots of fun activities like Michigan's Adventure.  But Abram made it even "busier" for me...by which I mean he didn't give me time to get much done.  So if I did have a few free minutes I had to cram in as much as I could.  He is teething so badly right now.  I've hardly slept in my bed all week.  I sleep half of the night in the rocking chair with him.  But on top of that he is so clingy to me because he is in pain.  He has gotten to the point where he won't even let Justin watch him or hold him most of the time.  If Justin is around Abram just clings to my legs and cries to be held.  So I basically have no way of getting a break since nobody else can take care of him.  It's tiring.

There aren't too many things going on this week.  Hopefully we'll have lots of time to relax and just enjoy the summer.  Today is church.  Monday is milk pick up and dance.  Tuesday is farmer's market.  Wednesday is grocery shopping.  There is a chance I will go to yoga on Friday.  My teacher is offering a free class!  But considering that Abram cried for 45 minutes and wouldn't eat dinner when I went to yoga last week I'm not really counting on it.

I managed to get a few things done in the kitchen last week, including freezing some corn and beans and making mayo, soaked grahams, sd muffins, cheesecake popsicles, yogurt, sour cream, s'mores ice cream and kefir.  This week I hope I can get lots of blueberries frozen (they still didn't have many at the market last week).  I want to freeze more corn, beans and zucchini as well.  I didn't get around to doing any ferments last week.  We'll see if I do this week or not.  I would like to work on some vacation breakfast and snack foods.  In addition to work in the kitchen I've been working on Rebecca's dress any chance I get.  I have quite a bit of it done.  But I still have a bit to go.  I hope I can finish it this week.

For meals this week I think I'm going to do mostly breakfast foods.  We had to get a bunch of our eggs early since our farmer is on vacation.  So I have about 7 dozen eggs to work through right now :)

I don't have too many updates on myself.  I did not get around to calling my doctor yet.  I hope to this week so I can get some testing done.  I think vitamin/mineral deficiency is a big problem for me.  I don't think my body is absorbing much of the nutrients I eat.  I feel like I eat the "right" way most of the time.  I eat so many nourishing foods.  And yet I have hormonal problems, adrenal fatigue, anxiety, mood swings, etc.  I'm trying so hard to take care of my body, but something in the process is not working...something internal.  So I want to get to the bottom of it.  I'd like to get back to cutting out the miralax (which is likely causing my body to not absorb nutrients) and find a more natural way to help my digestion.  A reader suggested Natural Calm magnesium supplement.  I've heard of that before.  So I'm looking into it.  And I have taken some magnesium supplements the last few days again.

I am also realizing that I need to work on strengthening my core.  I only make it to yoga about once every two weeks.  But we always focus on core strength in class.  And I'm realizing how weak my core is...and how much that impacts my whole body, including digestion.

One other thing I've had in the back of my head for a while is the olive oil we use.  Sadly the majority of the olive oil in stores is not really as good as you'd think.  Some are refined.  Some even add other vegetable oils to them.  I do buy first cold pressed organic EVOO.  But I still don't think it's the best.  I consume a lot of it in my pesto that I eat daily and in our homemade mayo.  I'm wondering if it's contributing to my inflammation/pufa intake.  I need to look into better sources for olive oil.  And in the mean time not eat so much of it.  I have over the past week brought my evoo consumption down and my butter consumption back up again.  I think that is helping.  I'm trying to focus mostly on coconut oil and butter for added fat sources/cooking fats right now.

On to the menu.
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S (prep lunch, sewing, church, prep smoothies, grind flour)
  B - ww bagels, fresh fruit
  L - cp honey mustard chicken and vegetables over rice
  D - avocado cheddar sausage omelet, broccoli, blueberry milkshakes

M (sewing, milk, dance)
  B - smoothie, TBD
  D - (prep ahead) - avocado chicken salad sandwiches, fresh beans, fresh fruit

T (skim cream, sewing, fm)
  B - smoothie, TBD
  D - zucchini cheese quiche w/ soaked crust, peas, fresh fruit

W (make zucchini bread, freeze corn, freeze blueberries, Meijer, make ic, strain kefir)
  B - quiche, zucchini bread
  D - zucchini bread french toast, fresh blueberries, broccoli, peach yogurt

Th (roast beets, freeze zucchini, make blueberry muffins)
  B - french toast
  D - scrambled eggs, blueberry bread pudding, sauteed corn, beets

F (make pesto, freeze beans)
  B - bread pudding, fruit
  D - Cinnamon quinoa (using white rice), custard, bananas and blueberries in milk, fresh beans
S (clean, make yogurt, make cheesecake cups)
  B - pancake and sausage muffins, fruit
  D - fried eggs, cheesecake cups, corn on the cob