In thinking about ways to get Smug-Baby eating a more rounded diet I am naturally drawn to reexamining by own eating habits and thinking about how, once this baby is born, I will need to be diary free once again since most babies are sensitive to dairy.
I guess that since I only have about 10 weeks left (YIKES!!) I need to started cleaning my fridge of the worst offenders and stocking up on good food items. Of course, after this discussion with myself, I am left feeling guilty that I have not been eating as wonderfully as I should have been during this whole pregnancy, but since those feelings are not productive and I just have to work on doing better going forward.
I have created a list of food items that are vegan and freeze well so I can stock my freezer with foods that are good for us and we may be less tempted to order out or eat something unhealthy when we are newly consumed with the baby and adjusting to everything. I plan on getting most of those in the freezer in the first part of May, so no rush there, but the list is created and the recipes are printed.
I have also started going through my cookbooks and coming up with fun ways to sneak more veggies and fruit into our meals as well as thinking about the cost savings if I say, make up batches of my own pancake mix, instead of purchasing something in a box.
I was raised this way. Everything from scratch and I am amazed by how far from these roots I have strayed. I am sickened really by how much money I spend at the grocery store and how little I come home with and how much of what I buy are convenience foods. Now, I do think that everyone has to find the balance between cost savings and the time involved in preparing everything from scratch and that has been a big motivator for my purchase of more boxed foods, but it is time to reevaluate what I am doing and how much money could be saved and time expended to save it and make some changes.
I read an article about eating vegan on $4.00 a day and the book with all the information is only $10.00 at Amazon, so I may purchase it, and I have ordered a few books from the library too. I just sometimes get overwhelmed and fall back on old, quick and easy favorites. So, I need to create a menu of say, 20 items that we all like and just rotate them around during the month. We don't want to get bored but yet I don't want to spend my Sunday looking through cookbooks to get ideas - I am not going to have that kind of time once Little-Smug arrives!!
I was cleaning the house today and thinking about how the weekends are going to change even more once he arrives. Not only will we have another human to care for, but we will be getting a weekly assortment of fruits and veggies that will need to be dealt with! My mom is giving us a share in the CSA and that will arrive on Saturday's and once we get it, we will need to decide what foods to incorporate into our meals that week and what items will need to be processed for storage (freezing, dehydrating, canning, etc.). It is really important to me that we don't let these food items spoil, this was a huge investment for my mother and it is important to me to honor that as well as honoring my commitment to be more cost conscious and more green.
I will probably be spending most of my Sunday's doing food prep for the week and preserving the items we will not be able to eat that week. In addition to the CSA, I want to get some of the daily meal work done so that the week days are less stressful. Since Smug-Hub will still be working until 7 and therefore not able to help me with the children (did you catch that? I will have two children - yeah, it's still not quite sinking in...) I will be working on an evening routine with them that may make it harder to put a complete dinner together quickly. So, I think that I should plan on spending time on Sunday's working on chopping veggies, making salads, soaking beans, and whatever else the weekly menu calls for that can be done ahead of time, so that actual dinner time during the week is faster and simpler without compromising on healthy.
I used to do that when I was single, working two jobs and taking 4 night classes. I would spend my whole Sunday (the only day I didn't work at least one job or have class) making meals for the whole week. I would have breakfast, lunch and dinner all made and in separate, grab-n-go containers so all week, I only needed to grab the containers I needed for the day and throw them into the microwave when I was ready to eat. It was actually exhausting, but that may have been the 4 classes and two jobs contributing :) I think that spending some time getting some of the prep work out of the way over the weekend will help make the week nights better, so that's the plan.
Now, I just need to not purchase anymore cheese and work on creating my 20 meal menu and grocery list so that by the time the baby arrives, I will be completely dairy free and have all my ducks lined up for this new life we are getting ready to begin!!
I guess that since I only have about 10 weeks left (YIKES!!) I need to started cleaning my fridge of the worst offenders and stocking up on good food items. Of course, after this discussion with myself, I am left feeling guilty that I have not been eating as wonderfully as I should have been during this whole pregnancy, but since those feelings are not productive and I just have to work on doing better going forward.
I have created a list of food items that are vegan and freeze well so I can stock my freezer with foods that are good for us and we may be less tempted to order out or eat something unhealthy when we are newly consumed with the baby and adjusting to everything. I plan on getting most of those in the freezer in the first part of May, so no rush there, but the list is created and the recipes are printed.
I have also started going through my cookbooks and coming up with fun ways to sneak more veggies and fruit into our meals as well as thinking about the cost savings if I say, make up batches of my own pancake mix, instead of purchasing something in a box.
I was raised this way. Everything from scratch and I am amazed by how far from these roots I have strayed. I am sickened really by how much money I spend at the grocery store and how little I come home with and how much of what I buy are convenience foods. Now, I do think that everyone has to find the balance between cost savings and the time involved in preparing everything from scratch and that has been a big motivator for my purchase of more boxed foods, but it is time to reevaluate what I am doing and how much money could be saved and time expended to save it and make some changes.
I read an article about eating vegan on $4.00 a day and the book with all the information is only $10.00 at Amazon, so I may purchase it, and I have ordered a few books from the library too. I just sometimes get overwhelmed and fall back on old, quick and easy favorites. So, I need to create a menu of say, 20 items that we all like and just rotate them around during the month. We don't want to get bored but yet I don't want to spend my Sunday looking through cookbooks to get ideas - I am not going to have that kind of time once Little-Smug arrives!!
I was cleaning the house today and thinking about how the weekends are going to change even more once he arrives. Not only will we have another human to care for, but we will be getting a weekly assortment of fruits and veggies that will need to be dealt with! My mom is giving us a share in the CSA and that will arrive on Saturday's and once we get it, we will need to decide what foods to incorporate into our meals that week and what items will need to be processed for storage (freezing, dehydrating, canning, etc.). It is really important to me that we don't let these food items spoil, this was a huge investment for my mother and it is important to me to honor that as well as honoring my commitment to be more cost conscious and more green.
I will probably be spending most of my Sunday's doing food prep for the week and preserving the items we will not be able to eat that week. In addition to the CSA, I want to get some of the daily meal work done so that the week days are less stressful. Since Smug-Hub will still be working until 7 and therefore not able to help me with the children (did you catch that? I will have two children - yeah, it's still not quite sinking in...) I will be working on an evening routine with them that may make it harder to put a complete dinner together quickly. So, I think that I should plan on spending time on Sunday's working on chopping veggies, making salads, soaking beans, and whatever else the weekly menu calls for that can be done ahead of time, so that actual dinner time during the week is faster and simpler without compromising on healthy.
I used to do that when I was single, working two jobs and taking 4 night classes. I would spend my whole Sunday (the only day I didn't work at least one job or have class) making meals for the whole week. I would have breakfast, lunch and dinner all made and in separate, grab-n-go containers so all week, I only needed to grab the containers I needed for the day and throw them into the microwave when I was ready to eat. It was actually exhausting, but that may have been the 4 classes and two jobs contributing :) I think that spending some time getting some of the prep work out of the way over the weekend will help make the week nights better, so that's the plan.
Now, I just need to not purchase anymore cheese and work on creating my 20 meal menu and grocery list so that by the time the baby arrives, I will be completely dairy free and have all my ducks lined up for this new life we are getting ready to begin!!
Whoa! I will take all that unwanted cheese off your hands. :) Congratulations on baby #2!!! It sounds like you have a good plan worked out. Just take it one day at a time. You can do it!!!!
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