Discussion Board

I'm reading "The Pleasure Trap" and the topic came up about being prepared for success. Ever since I switched over to vegan eating, I've been lost with meal planning. With SAD eating, I had an online program (allrecipes) to look up recipes and create shopping lists. I was even able to triple the servings in order to eat one dish and freeze the other two for some other night. Those were the days......

I've been procrastinating about making a firm weekly menu plan with a shopping list. My whole family is ok with eating the same 6 or 7 meals every week as long as it's something they like anyway. Spaghetti is always well accepted. Stir fry is not so I don't make it anymore.

I am having a real hard time making oil free dinners for the family and I think I don't have to watch the oils for little kids and skinny husband but then I have to make something else for myself. Therein lies the problem. With such a large family, I really don't want to make two dinners every night. So what I think I'm going to do is make some MWL starch things I like in large batches and put them in little single serving containers. Then I can heat them up and eat at the table with the family. The side dishes like salad and veg will be MWL legal so I don't have to make doubles of those.

So far I have:

Dinners for family (I have sides for my list but didn't include them here):
Spaghetti (oil, no meat)
tacos (refried beans, meat substitute,vegan cheese)
pot pie (oil in the crust, legal filling)
chili (mwl legal)

Batch dinners for me:

Diced potatoes with onion, garlic, peppers
chili
rice with onion, garlic, corn, peppers
split pea soup
black bean soup
plain baked potatoes can be done as needed.

All these items have to have the recipes organized and ingredients listed to make a shopping list. This is just dinners. Next I'll work on breakfast/lunch.


Anyway, anyone who doesn't already have a good menu system in place, please join me in this monumental but very worthwhile task. It can be our christmas gift to our families. I'm goaling for the end of January to have this finished to allow for holiday stuff.

Do you have Jeff's Fast Food DVD? If not, I recommend it. VERY tasty meals that EVERYONE will like, and they take 10 min to make. BINGO!

I don't have it, does it come with written recipes as well? My thing is the typing. I posted on requests last week asking for a recipe software program like big oven made especially with McDougall recipes.

Anyway I worked on my challenge all day and made lots of good progress. I went through the recipes on this board so all I had to do was cut and paste.

I'm really looking forward to putting my handy shopping list in my purse so I'll always know what to buy.

I'm looking to motivate those who haven't been planning ahead. Dr. Lisle said in his book that the best way to be successful is to have a menu plan in place. Anyone else, come on don't be shy.

are most of jeff's DVD meals based around brown rice and potatoes as the starch?are there any recipes with oatmeal as the starch?

circle city,

sounds like you've made great progress w/ your project!
what did you accomplish on it today?

it's always so interesting to hear how organized people work!

I am really pleased with my progress so far. I have the dinner recipes and shopping lists for 2 separate meal plans in a binder with sheet protectors. Like I said earlier, I wanted to have MWL items to fill in when the rest of the family is eating something that I can't eat. I was able to find a McDougall version of every family meal that we already love. When I'm at goal weight, I can easily switch over to what I'm serving the rest of the family. 3 of the family meals can be made in large batches and divided to freeze and eat another night.

I copied both shopping lists onto one sheet of paper and tucked that into my purse. I've been able to check off some items from the pantry that I already have and bought some things too. I like to go to the discount 99 cent store to find bargains before heading over to the more expensive grocery.

I cooked and froze some containers of squashy black beans and plain cubed butternut squash for future batches. I was in the kitchen almost all day with meals to cook for today and freezer meals.

If that wasn't enough, since I was in the kitchen anyway, I unloaded all my spices and wrote them down so I'd know what I have. There were so many bottles, they fill up two cabinets by the stove. I had 3 and 4 jars of the same spice because I'd keep buying more when I couldn't see it.

The only downside to this whole project the last couple of days is that the laundry didn't get done. Only one person, only so many daylight hours, oh well.

Alphabetizing the spices may help avoid this problem in the future. It may be compulsive, but it works for me.

I'm getting ready to do that after I'm here for a little bit.