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Meal Plans Week of 11-20-11

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Happy Thanksgiving! (a few days early:). The holidays are here…and I’m not ready. I have barely even started thinking about Christmas (makes me nervous when I hear about others that almost have their shopping done!). My focus is on Thanksgiving first. Especially since I’m hosting. So that’s what this week is all about…cooking, cleaning, baking…prep for Thursday.

Last week had its share of challenges. I had some flops in the kitchen. I tried making butter…did not work. No idea what happened. I’ll try again soon. At least I was able to salvage my cream and used it (along with my too thick hot fudge) to make fudge ripple ice cream that turned out quite well. I made root beer bread. It worked. But Justin and Rebecca weren’t crazy about it. I cooked some pumpkins. Took much longer than I had expected because I had issues cutting the pumpkin. The end product was fine at least. I made a spaghetti and meatballs meal with spaghetti squash, pesto and pork meatballs. I thought it was awesome! But Rebecca would hardly touch it. I did at least manage to make a new batch of lard, yogurt, sour cream, graham crackers, mayo, nut butter, stock, broth and whole wheat bagels (my best batch of bagels to date!). I also made a small batch of cream cheese with my homemade yogurt. I wanted to see how it would turn out before using it in recipes. I was very pleasantly surprised with how thick it is. I should definitely be able to use homemade cream cheese for my dessert this week. I was going to make cheesecake with it. But now I’m not sure…that would take a lot of cream cheese…which would take a LOT of yogurt…which would take a lot of our milk. So I’m thinking I might make pumpkin cheese pie instead. It only needs 8 oz. of cream cheese instead of 24. If I do I’ll still make a graham cracker crust with our homemade grahams. And make some homemade whipped cream to go with it. I did try making Russian custard again…turned out great!! I updated my blog post. What a great, healthy snack. I made more last night for myself. Such a treat. Aside from the kitchen chaos Rebecca has been quite a handful this week with meltdowns, tantrums, crying fits, disobedience. Not sure what is going on. But we’re running out of toys to take away. She doesn’t seem to care. Last night instead of taking a bath and having her usual snack she opted to go right to bed. She was so beyond tired and just losing it. I think that was a good decision for all of us 😛  She’s trying to get attention…and she’s refusing to nap lately. Not a good combo.

On top of that I have not been feeling very good the last week. Not sure if I bumped up dairy too quickly or if it’s hormones or stress from a chaotic week or something I ate or die off or what. Probably a combo of all of it that leads to a totally whammy for my gut. I’m trying my best to eat right and be patient. But it’s tough. Still struggling today. I hope I’m on the upswing soon. For now I’ll hold off on yogurt (I had been eating a little in my smoothies). I had been adding whey to my soup every  morning. Realized that is another high protein dairy…not good for constipation. Oops. Won’t be doing that anymore. I had also been eating a lot of squash, which is healthy but also a high starch/sugar veggie. The GAPS sight says to avoid squash for a bit if constipation is an issue. Again, oops. I had also been using a lot of honey in my food and drinks. Probably too much. So the last couple of days I have cut back a lot. I’m learning each day. I really wish I had a juicer so I could make fresh juices. I think that would be a huge help. I’m learning that the real issue with constipation is not so much what you are eating (i.e. dairy does NOT cause constipation). It’s with the balance of the intestinal nervous system. I need to calm the sympathetic system and activate the parasympathetic system. How do I do that? With plenty of good gut flora (probiotic foods), raw juices rich in magnesium and potasium, more animal fats, gelatinous meats and veggies and less muscle meat (think I may have been eating too much ground meat lately). Another trick that I already do is to drink warm water with lemon first thing in the morning. I’ve been trying to eat beets regularly again…a veggie high in magnesium. I’m hoping a few days of avoiding my mistakes and doing the right things will help resolve issues. In the mean time I just have to wait it out. Not fun. I started my morning today with chicken broth, butter, avocado, 1 egg, fermented veggies and raw sour cream. I hope that helps. I did buy some ginger last week so I can try making ginger tea. I haven’t been a fan of ginger in the past, so we’ll see how it goes. If none of this seems to help I may have to start supplementing magnesium. I hear lots of good things about that. I think overall I do well with the probiotic and calming foods. I just need to add more of the stimulating foods…like more veggies! That will be my goal this week. Maybe I’ll make a big batch of split pea soup just for me to snack on and have for breakfast/lunch. I always seem to feel better when I eat that…now I know why. Maybe I’ll try some softer raw veggies too (lettuce, cucumber). Here’s hoping!

One other thing that happened last week is that we started a few solids for Abram. He had some squash with chicken broth and some banana. Just a few little bites. He seemed to do fine with them. Not sure what’s on the menu for him this week…peas, avocado, egg yolk. Guess I’ll start doing a little baby food making here and there. Basically just blend cooked veggies with homemade broth.

Finally on to this week. Of course it will be busy with Thanksgiving. At least I don’t have to go anywhere tomorrow. We are starting to share our milk pick up…and I don’t have to do it this week. Today is church. Monday I have nursery cmt. Tuesday is Kindermusik and co-op pick up (turkey!!). Wednesday is Meijer. Thursday is Thanksgiving. Either Friday or Saturday we might go to the Holland Aquatic Center. It’s our PERKS activity this month. Rebecca and Justin would swim. Abram and I would probably be observers 🙂  I’m not buying him a new swimming suit for one trip to the pool.

In the kitchen I’ll be trying to stay on top of healthy, healing foods for myself and my family (sour cream, yogurt) plus getting everything ready for Thanksgiving. I’m providing the hot food and one dessert. My family is bringing the rest. I’m trying to do simple meals so that I can have plenty of time for other stuff. Here’s what’s on the menu.
———————
S (prep lunch, church, soak beans)
  L – cp pork chops w/ potatoes and carrots and onions
  D – hot dogs, corn (Justin), veggies w/ fried egg (me)

M (cook beans, prep dinner, make smoothies, dry apples, nursery cmt)
  D – chili, tortilla chips (Justin), salmon avocado salad, mixed veggies (me)

T (make cream cheese, skim cream, make sour cream, make yogurt, KM, co-op, put away laundry)
  D – leftover chili, grilled cheese (Justin), salmon avocado salad, mixed veggies (me)

W (bake pumpkin, bake squash, make potatoes, make pie, make whipped cream, chop veggies, Meijer)
  D – everything salmon, baked sweet potatoes, peas

Th (clean, prep stuffing, Thanksgiving, make broth)
  D – turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes w/ gravy, peas, fruit w/ dip, applesauce, layer salad, cranberry sauce, rolls, pumpkin cheese pie w/ whipped cream, pumpkin pie, apple pie

F (HAC, deal with leftovers, make baby food)
  D – turkey in broth, peas, mashed potato cakes

S (laundry, clean, make kefir, strain/freeze turkey broth)
  D – squash and turkey soup, stuffing cakes

2 comments

  1. Sara says:

    Good luck with everything this week! We really wish we could get to your house on Thursday. We probably won’t see my cousins for very long, if at all. They are going to be there from 11:30-12:30… and I’ll be lucky if we make it over there by then. Wish I could tolerate the long car ride to GR… but I think it’d push me over the edge… motion sickness big time. :-/

    Do you want to borrow one of Carson’s bathing suits? Then you and Abram could swim, as well. Or any of his clothes, actually? I’ve been meaning to ask you for quite awhile now. Since Abram is wearing bigger sizes, they actually might coincide seasons now. Let me know. I can send some stuff w/ your parents this week.

  2. Mary Voogt says:

    If you want to pass along some clothes that would be great! I just cleared out Abram’s drawers last night actually…he has nothing left to wear 😛 It’s a good thing I have to do laundry every couple days for diapers else he really would have no clothes. I was just saying to Justin last night that I need to buy some stuff b/c every day I wonder if I’ll be able to find something clean that fits. I have a huge pile to give back to Julie. He’s mostly wearing 12-18m right now. I put away almost all 6-12m stuff. Just a few tops still barely fit. Found some 18m summer clothes that people bought as gifts. Gotta learn…you can’t buy ahead for my kids 😛 I always wish I could but it doesn’t work.

    If you have a swimming suit you think would fit you can send it with my parents. Then we’d have it just in case. I think we have one cloth swim diaper that fits him yet.

    That would be nice to have you guys here. Rebecca keeps asking if Carson is coming. But I totally understand. Enjoy your day as a family and take it easy…away from the turkey 😉

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