How I Meal Plan and Grocery Shop

Today, as I was jotting down my meal plan and shopping list for the week, Lisa and Ambers recent blog posts regarding meal planning popped into my head and I thought I'd share my own process.

The Meal Plan

I usually meal plan weekly on a Friday or on Saturday morning.  A quick check in the pantry and freezer and then I try to plan some meals around what I find.

I also check in the calendar to see if we have any events that may affect our choices like, lunch dates, movie nights, sports clubs, etc.  This week we have:

• A holiday weekend that will allow me more time to try out a new recipe, or cook something that usually takes more time.
• Kane's indoor football that he'll want something quick and lighter
• Figure skating lesson that will need to be ready quickly
• My ballet that will require something quick and light
• Ice hockey games to catch up at the weekend that would be enhanced with beer and finger food

I start with breakfasts.  During the week we usually eat cereal for breakfast and then on the weekend I like to make an egg dish, waffles or pancakes.

Lunches follow the same process.  We eat the same thing during the week and it's usually some sort of sandwich.  Kane goes for a lunchtime walk every work day and likes his lunch to be portable.  For weekend lunches I like to plan something different but we don't bind ourselves to the plan, so that if we find ourselves on a road trip or are presented with something tasty looking at the farmers market we can be flexible.  2-3 pieces of fruit are always included.

For dinners there are usually things like skating practise that needs to be planned around.  Kane and I also share the cooking and we have different strengths and cooking preferences so that gets taken into account too. 

Generally there will be something during the week will inspire an idea or I'll get reminded of something I haven't made in a while and that will get added to the meal plan.  Sometimes it's a recipe that I will follow, sometimes its a picture and I will make something that I think its like it, and sometimes its a flavour or texture that I'm craving and so I'll create something to satisfy that.  Meal plans can come together quickly, but sometimes they can take a while especially if I get side tracked looking at yummy recipes on Pinterest!

Instead of assigning meals to certain days, I usually just list 7 meals and then we can decide on the day what we feel like eating from the list.

The Shopping List

Grocery shopping usually takes place on Saturday morning, although I am thinking about trialling out going after work on Friday and it usually takes about 30 minutes.

Once I have a meal plan, I then go down the list of meals and note down what I need that I don't already have.

Next I'll write down any pantry items that needs topping up - things like tea, coffee, flour, herbs and spices, tinned tomatoes, soy milk, oil, sugar etc.  I check on the cat food supply and then the non-food items like toothpaste, shampoo & conditioner, shower gel, toilet paper, washing powder, fabric softener, household cleaners etc.

At The Supermarket

 We go grocery shopping together and pick all the things on the list.  I used to be better at arranging my list in order of how stuff is laid out in the supermarket but I found I don't save any time by rearranging it.  I used to also have my meal plan on the back in case I got stuck with why I needed a particular item or how many to pick but I don't do this any more either.

Sometimes we will see special offers for things that we would normally buy (but might not be on the list) and if it's a good deal then we will stock up, but I'm less likely to do this if its for perishable things.

A few treats usually find their way into the shopping trolley too.

Special Shops

A couple of times a year we will go to specialist food shops, like the Chinese vegetarian supermarket, and stock up on packaged and frozen fake meat products.  When we do these types of shop we just pick up things that we like the look of and we don't worry about how we will use the items until we do the weekly meal planning.

And this is how I meal plan and grocery shop!

January: Meals, Miles, Books and Looks

// January Meals //

Meals:

I made some super simple but healthy summer meals over January.  It always seems that little bit easier to eat well when so many tasty vegetables are in season!

1. Tomato and Courgette bake: It's basically layers of sliced tomato and courgette covered with breadcrumbs and a sprinkling of cheese and popped in the oven.

2.  Bruschetta: Any tasty bread toasted (I've been really into Freyas low carb 5 seed loaf) topped with a mix of diced tomato, garlic, basil and olive oil.

3. Vegetable Fajita with Guacamole: Capsicum, onion, portobello mushroom, courgette and carrot all sautéd with a fajita or taco spice mix.  The guacamole is avocado, onion, tomato and garlic mashed with a little lemon juice.  Served with heated tortilla.

4.  Chickpea Curry with Rice: After soaking the chickpeas overnight, I put them in the pressure cooker with a tin of tomatoes, chopped onion, garlic and garam masala power for 20 minutes.  I stirred in some baby spinach just before serving.

Miles: 6.92km

I failed at my only goal not to get injured :(  I had just finished warming up and was taking my first few strides on the treadmill when my calf muscle gave out on me.  So I have been using the rowing machine at the gym and dutifully stretching my legs and glutes and slowly building up some strength in my glutes and calves.  I've now managed two little jogs on the treadmill and it felt so good to be running and pain free!  So my plan is to keep going with the stretch, strength and cross training with some easy running over February.

// Trying to make friends with the "erg" //

Books:

Reading got off to a good start this year and I read 3 books this month.  Ok, one was a short poem and another a book of poems but thy still count towards my annual reading goal!

1. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams.  I love Douglas Adams' style of writing, it's fun!  The book is fun and quirky and just what I hoped for.

2. Kubla Khan - Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  This poem and its author was mentioned in the Dirk Gently book so I wanted to read it to get more insight.

3. The Transient - Josephine M Woods.  This was suggested to me and I thought I'd give it a read.  Some parts felt too religious for me, but overall I liked the imagery of the nature around that part of England.

Looks:

I bought a new necklace that is a round lapis lazuli.  Lazuli IT is the name of my contracting business (named after my cat, who came with his name) and this necklace matched my logo perfectly!

In other slices of life, we are stripping off all the wall paper in preparation for decorating.

I'm making a big effort in decluttering ALL THE THINGS! I am a bit of a hoarder of jars and I reduced two packed full shelves down to this:

// I can't go cold turkey //

My new power tool, these alligator loppers, are just awesome and make cutting small trees and branches so easy.  The garden is finally getting a much needed tidy up!

If you've got any good tips or exercises for strengthening glutes and legs to stop me getting injured while running then I'd love to hear them in the comments!

Home-made Mayonnaise and Coleslaw Recipes

Last week while I was sick and home alone, I went to make a sandwich only to discover that we were out of salad cream and mayonnaise so I set about making my own.  I'm pretty sure the last time I made mayonnaise from scratch was when I was 11 and in the Brownies, but this is a very easy recipe and came out really well.

* * * *

Whole-Egg Mayonnaise Recipe

Ingredients:
* 2 Eggs
* 2 tbsp White Vinegar
* 1 tbsp Dijon Mustard
* 1/4 tsp Salt
* 500 ml Vegetable Oil

Method:
1. Using a food processor, crack in eggs, add mustard, salt and vinegar and turn to a medium speed.
2. Very slowly drizzle in the oil in a small steady stream.

You can then put in a container and store for 2 weeks in the fridge.

 * * * *

Yesterday evening I decided that I would use up the leftover quarter cabbage and mayonnaise by making a coleslaw.  Again, another easy recipe with all the hard work taken out if you have a food processor!

* * * *

Coleslaw Recipe



Ingredients:
* 1/4 Cabbage
* 4 Carrots
* 6 tbsp Mayonnaise (more or less as desired)
* 1 tbsp Dijon Mustard
* Pepper to taste

Method:
1. Shred the cabbage and then shred the carrots.
2. Stir in the mayonnaise and mustard and mix well.  Adjust amounts to taste and add pepper.

* * * *

// Home made coleslaw 

However, as I began to shred the cabbage my food processor made a horrible clacking noise and I checked to find that the shredding attachment hadn't seated itself properly and was catching on the lid.  I adjusted it and continued on shredding the cabbage and the carrots.  I then proceeded on with my recipe and then decided to experiment a bit more adding in chipotle tabasco sauce and cayenne pepper when suddenly I bit down on something hard and spat out a small shard of plastic.  I looked at the lid I had put in the sink and yes, it was quite broken.

There was just too much broken away that there was no way we could have eaten the coleslaw safely.  I wasn't very happy - the coleslaw was really tasty!

// Broken Food Processor Lid

Thankfully, I found a replacement lid on a website called NeedAPart.co.nz and I have bought from them before so hopefully that will arrive soon and I can use my food processor again!

Pi Day

//Image from forbes.com

Happy Pi day math fans!  Whilst I do like maths, I love pies more and I'm happy to have any excuse to make pies.

I love both savoury and sweet pies.  Back in Scotland they do macaroni cheese pies and rhubarb pies both are in pastry shells made of hot water pastry and they are so good.  You don't get those here so if I want them I'll have to try and make my own hot water pastry and I'm just not that brave yet.

Frozen pastry is what I tend to use in my pie making and I normally use puff pastry but sometimes I use short pastry.

For dinner I made a simple vegetable pie.  My aunt used to make vegetable hand pies that were the best and I've been trying to recreate them but I've still not got it quite right.  Since I've been really in to using my pressure cooker lately, I was able to cook the pie filling quickly, actually it took longer to peel and chop than in did to cook!  I diced up potatoes, onions, carrots and sautéed them in some butter then added frozen peas and corn and a chicken flavour stock cube in boiling water.  I lined a pie tin with thawed puff pastry, added the filling and sealed some pastry on top.  I gave it an egg wash and popped it in the oven.


Next time I'll need to remember to spray or grease the pie tin though because it was a little tricky trying to get it out!

Vegetable Pie

For dessert I made a blueberry pie using most of a bag of frozen blueberries heated in a pot with a cup of caster sugar and then added this filling to some more of thawed pastry sheets.  We served this with lemon ice cream and it was too delicious to stop and take a photo, oops!

I have some vegetable pie filling left over which I'm thinking about making into a chowder, not sure if that'll work but I feel like experimenting :)

Do you have a preference of savoury or sweet pies? 

Kane's Citizenship Day

On Monday 15th February Kane became a New Zealand Citizen!

He applied for citizenship at the end of last year and was accepted, the last step is the citizenship ceremony where we would take an oath or affirmation and he just needed to wait for a letter informing him where and when it was.

Along with other important details, the letter contained some dress code instructions and encouraged the wearing of traditional dress from your country of origin - so for Kane that meant the kilt. Every man looks good in a kilt but, and perhaps I'm bias, Kane looks especially handsome!

A quick selfie and then we were out the door and on our way to the Fickling Convention Centre which is where our local ceremony was taking place.

// Quick photo before leaving the house

There was a little bit of a queue when we arrived and in front of us was one large family who were all going through the ceremony together - how special for them!

 

 

// Kane outside the Fickling Convention Centre entrance

// Signage

Once inside we were separated as Kane had an assigned seat and I had to sit in the area allocated to guests.  I'm already a citizen by birth, but my parents who had emigrated to NZ years before decided to return home shortly after my birth so until Kane and I moved here, I had never actually lived here.

// Kane in his seat waiting for the ceremony to begin

The ceremony began with welcomes in Maori and English, introductions of the ceremony officials, and blessings in Maori and English.

// Officials

This was followed by a cultural display of music and dance.  It was really lovely, inspiring and uplifting.

// Cultural performances

// Poi

After this the oaths and affirmations were recited en masse and then everyone went across the stage individually to receive their certificate and to greet the officials with a hongi and/or a handshake.

// Kane on stage receiving his certificate

// Kane and his official certificate

Once everyone had their certificates, we watched a video presentation that made everyone super proud to be New Zealanders.  One of the things mentioned in the video is that NZ gives permanent residents the same rights as citizens, so by making the choice to become a citizen you are showing your commitment to New Zealand.

Then we sang the National Anthem and before closing, the compere called all the countries of origin represented that day and the people stood up and gave a wave - it was so awesome!

Then we had some morning tea refreshments and finished up about 11 am.



// Morning tea in a room full of new New Zealanders

// Feeling patriotic

We took some photos in and around the convention centre and then headed out to Soljans wine estate for a celebratory lunch.

// Kane and his lunch

Lunch was delicious!  I've been to this winery a few times for wine tasting at the cellar door and have always fancied checking out their restaurant and today was the perfect time to try it.

We had 3 courses and they were all delicious I would certainly recommend it.  Of course the star of the show at a vineyard is the wine and we both went for the chardonnay which did not disappoint.

// Soljans Chardonnay

After a lovely and very filling lunch we headed home to get changed, rest up and then head out to the Air New Zealand exhibit at the museum.  Kane loves all things flight related and this seemed like an on topic thing to do.

// Old flight adverts

There was a mock cabin from the 60's which may well have been like the plane my parents flew out on.



// Me in an 1960's cabin

I recognised the wall design instantly as my parents had quite a few of these swizzle sticks in our kitchen when I was a kid.  I wonder if they still have any?..


// Swizzle stick design

To finish the day off celebrating being New Zealanders we got some fish and chips for dinner and opened the bottle of champagne we bought at Soljans.  A very good day.




How to Eat Cake Every Day and Lose Weight!

// Image taken by me on an evening walk this week

 

In November I read Rosemary Conley's Amazing Inch Loss Plan.  It states that you can lose 14lbs in a month on this plan and gives real world accounts of men and women of varying ages with varying amounts to lose who have all lost between 10 and 14 lbs in 4 weeks.

 

Back in the UK Rosemary Conley had a number of slimming club franchises and each followed a calorie controlled diet and after weigh-in there was a 45 minutes aerobics class.  Rosemary Conley's slimming empire went into receivership a few years ago, but the dieting principles remains.

 

The foundation of the diet is that you follow a calorie controlled diet and keep to under 5% fat with the exception of one high fat snack per day.  You're also expected to undertake 30 minutes of activity per day like walking and the book has daily body weight exercises that you should do for muscle toning.

 

In the first 2 weeks you stick with 1200 calories per day broken down like this:

 

200 cals - Dairy allowance

200 cals - Breakfast

50 cals - Morning snack

300 cals - Lunch

50 cals - Afternoon snack

400 cals - Dinner

 

Then in the following 2 weeks you go up to 1400 calories which gives you the following in addition to the above:

 

100 cals - low fat snack (less that 5%)

100 cals - high fat snack or alcohol

 

After the 4 weeks there are sex/age charts in the back of the book with the corresponding calorie intakes for continuing to lose weight at 1lb per week and for maintaining weight.

 

I chose this plan because heart health is important to me and this fits with the heart foundation guidelines.  It's calorie counting so it's easy to workout since most foods have those labels and especially easy using an app like MyFitnessPal.  I use the meal plans as inspiration rather than following then exactly so that way I can still make our favourites and try out some new things too.

 

For the first 2 weeks I stuck with the 1200 calories and tried out some of the suggested meals, but I don't eat yoghurt or have much soya milk so on some days my calories would fall closer to 1000 but on other days my meals would be slightly more or I'd have extra fruit and that would bring me to 1200.  One of the downsides of using MyFitnessPal is that calorie balance doesn't roll over to the next day so you need to keep a track of it yourself.

 

Over Christmas and New Year my calorie intake increased, exercise took a little break and my weight wobbled a little up and down but I wasn't depriving myself, and at no point did I feel like I was undoing my good work nor did I feel like giving up.  It was a positive experience where I could eat and drink what I wanted, enjoy it and then pick up the diet again the next day.

 

Last week Kane wanted to try making one of those boxed cake mixes.  The result was a beautiful strawberry cake with strawberry flavoured frosting - 400 calories per slice!  We just make sure that we get good filling meals that fit with the calorie allowance and I save all my snack calories for a delicious slice of cake in the evening.  So cake every evening AND I lost 5lbs!

 

Last night I had mushroom stroganoff with rice for dinner which came to 320 calories and I certainly felt full and satisfied with it.  I would not have felt that way if I'd had the 400 calorie cake slice for dinner - I would certainly have been hungry again soon after.  So whilst losing weight is definitely a numbers game, the type of food you spend your calories on influences how satisfied you feel and can either make you eat more or less.  

 

I have a lot more weight to lose and this journey is going to take a while so I'm glad to know that I can have celebratory treats and indulgences without stalling progress.

 

What is your favourite treat food or drink?  Do you have any hints or tips for weight loss?

June: Meals, Miles, Books and Looks

Wow, June has felt like quite a short month.

Meals

Lots of hearty winter meals in June and because I've been making more of an effort with my cooking, I've been finding ways to make the most of leftovers too.

1) I finally found a jar of sauce for pasta bake where you don't need to cook the pasta first, you just add dry pasta, the jar of sauce, a jar of water and then bake.  After a while you add the cheese, bake a little more and it's done - really delicious too!

2) And because I was clearly in a cheese mood and had a cauliflower to use up I made some cauliflower cheese with some roast veg.

3) Vegetarian Quorn mince with mashed potatoes and veg.

4) Vegan roast beef with vegetarian Yorkshire pudding and lots of veges before I covered it all in gravy!

I don't want to waste any veges so now I just roast them all up in one batch and save them in the fridge to heat up for the next meal.

1) Homemade vegetarian steak pie using leftover stew

2) Vegan stew made with TVP chunks

3) Grilled heirloom tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, rocket, cajun salmon, garlic and basil ciabatta and some potato wedges - I was worried it wasn't going to be a substantial meal and I ended up making too much food!

4) A giant Yorkshire pudding filled with mushrooms in a vegan pepper sauce with mashed potatoes and veges.

1) Our midwinter Christmas meal of vegan turkey, roast veges, mixed veges, brussel srpouts and roast and boiled potatoes.  This picture was taken before I went crazy with the cranberry sauce and gravy.

2) After Eights mint chocolates I had been saving for months for this occasion!

3) The steak pie I made using the leftover stew.  It looks great but it was difficult to get out of the pie tin and then I had to divide it between us.  I think I might purchase some individual pie dishes for the future.

4) Leftover mince on toast for lunch - this is a common kiwi lunch.

1) Sherry and cranberry nut medley - a perfect accompaniment to any TV show!

2) Kanes homemade egg muffin - better than a McDonalds one :)

3) Starbucks Christmas blend coffee - again something I've had in the cupboard for about two months just waiting for the right time!  Its everything I hoped it would be :)

4) Something new I found in the supermarket - its a tea concentrate that you just add hot water to.  I got the lemon, ginger and honey one to try and its a perfect winter blend.  I'm tempted to add some whisky to it :)

One thing I like about doing this monthly recap of meals is that by taking photos of my plate I get to see just how much food I eat at one sitting.  Portion control is a challenge.  I'm starting to learn to put a more reasonable amount of food on plate with the option of going back for more if I'm still hungry and usually this means I have more leftovers to make into other meals.

Miles: 26.5km

Despite not having a very high mileage month, my running has been going very well.  I did two trail races this month (one was a mud bath the other was dry and had the best long downhill stretch) and in my training I can now run for 20 minutes non stop.  I am so happy to have achieved this as I see it as a real milestone.  I have the first race of series I did last year on the 12th July.  It's 2.5km and last year I had to take walk breaks - this year I want to run it all and hopefully improve on my time too.

Books

I haven't been much of reader for several years now so I set myself a Goodreads challenge to read 12 books this year (aiming for one book a month) and I'm so surprised that I've completed this challenge in only 6 months.

I finished reading Double Knit Murders by Maggie Sefton which are two murder mysteries in one volume.  I love the silly puns in the titles - the first book is Knit One Kill Two, and the second one is Needled to Death.  They are light entertaining reads akin to an episode of Murder, She Wrote.

I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of all the yarn in the shop and the creations that main character and her knitting friends very making.  The main character is new to knitting and at the end of the books there are knitting patterns for what the main character was making and also a recipe for something that was eaten in the book.  Such a fun genre of book!

//from Goodreads

The other book I read this month was A Viking Moon by TM Rowe.  I read this because I know the author and saw it was available at the library.  It's the authors first book, a self published childrens book and as such it reads a lot like a first draft.  There were spelling and grammar mistakes but it was also the use of language that was just a little off, a little amateurish.  Having read Lois Lowrys books last month, the difference in the quality of writing was quite marked.  The story is a time travel historical adventure and I think it could be really good with a little reworking and an Editor.

//from Goodreads

Looks

I've looked through my phone photos and its all of food, sports games and our mini vacation.  I didn't even buy anything new this month.  I have however started on a new skin care regime. 

I'm finally getting a good bedtime routine in place where I thoroughly cleanse my face with Simple moisturising foaming face wash, I brush with Colgate optic white, then twice a week I apply Skinfood mud mask and then after that's washed off I follow up with Neutrogena night moisturiser.  I'm not sure if there is any difference in my skin but I certainly feel like I'm taking better care of myself.

What was your favourite Meal, Workout, Book or Look for June?

Swiss Market

 

I got to celebrate passing my PRINCE2 exam by attending the Swiss market and indulging in a few delicious treats.

It was well attended and there were baked goods, chocolates, sauerkraut, grocery items, crafts, toys and fun band playing some tunes.

I was a bit disappointed there was no raclette, there was a kiwi sausage sizzle with swiss sausages though and we bought some emmental cheese.  I got some swiss chocolate and Kane got a Berliner doughnut and we also bought some birnwegge.  (All of which were eaten the next day before I thought to take pictures of them!)
 

 

After we had wandered around the stalls inside and outside, we bought some crepes and rivella to enjoy in the sun whilst being entertained by a lively band who appeared to be dressed as wizards.

I am looking forward to one day visiting my good friend Craig who lives in Switzerland :)

Cinco de Mayo

So due to living in the Southern Hemisphere the 30th April is seasonally equivalent to Hallowe'en (although we still celebrate Hallowe'en on 31st October) this makes it a good time to watch horror movies.  Now I'm a total wuss when it comes to actually scary movies so I tend to stick to the safer franchises like Scream, Final Destination, and such like.  After watching Scream 4 and finding it enjoyable we watched I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer. OMG this is a terrible movie! This prompted us to find other low rated movies which lead to Kane finding Pinata Survival Island.  He read the synopsis and it sounded hilarious! Since it is set on Cinco de Mayo and, surprisingly, Fatso.co.nz had the movie I ordered straight away so we could make a night of it.




The movie stars Nicholas Brendon (Xander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Jaime Pressly (Joy from My Name is Earl and also Tina in DOA), Nate Richert (Harvey from Sabrina the Teenage Witch) and Garret Wang (Harry Kim from Star Trek: Voyager) - with a cast list like this, how can we go wrong!  The plot of the movie is fairly simple - a group of college kids go to the island for a scavenger hunt, two of them find an ancient pinata filled with demons and evil souls and crack it open, the pinata then starts to hunt and kill them off.

It is not very scary but there is a tiny bit of gore, there are also some really funny parts - most of them I'm not so sure are intentional - like half way through the movie the pinata develops the ability to change into a flying worm like thing, I don't know how .. or why.

To accompany such fine viewing I cooked up a big batch of chilli which we had with refried beans and rice.  I have become paranoid about calling this chilli after that episode of the big bang theory where Sheldon calls Priya's chilli a casserole!


My chilli recipe is:

* a little oil
* 2 x brown onions, sliced
* 1 x clove garlic, crushed and sliced
* 1 x thai chilli, sliced
* diced capsicum (mixed colours)
* frozen mixed veg
* tin of kidney beans
* tin of brown lentils
* large tin of diced tomatoes
* tbsp tomato paste
* few drops of liquid smoke

 Heat the oil in the pan then soften up the onions and garlic
Add the sliced up chilli and capsicum and cook for a few minutes
Add the kidney beans, lentils, tomatoes and frozen mixed veg and give it a stir up
Add the tomato paste and liquid smoke stir it up and leave to cook until everything is soft and hot.  I usually let this simmer away for 20 minutes while the rice is cooking.