Discussion Board

Here is a topic near and dear to my heart. I thought I'd post a link!

http://www.drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4467&highlight=homeschooling

Thanks for posting that link! It was good to go read it. I don't homeschool my kids anymore (may eventually again with my oldest) but I am still always wondering what to feed everyone.

Hi Willow,
Thank you for starting this thread and for posting the link.
I'm going to be starting my 20th and final year of homeschooling in just a couple of more weeks. My oldest is a college graduate with a BS in Math. I started homeschooling him way back in 1989. Now my youngest will be a senior this year and I'm excited and sad all at the same time -

Our whole family has been McDougalling for about 5 years. We pretty much eat the same things week after week, so it's easy for me to share my menu with you all:

Breakfast is usually one of the following, in addition to fruit:
hashbrowns
oven baked fries
oatmeal or steel cut oats
whole grain cereal - kind of a mix of oats, raisens, dates, shredded wheat
whole wheat pancakes (usually on Sunday)

Lunch:
Humus sandwhiches
Peanut butter or almond butter with all fruit spread
Baked potatoes and a vegetable
Macaroni with nutritional yeast cheese sauce
Leftovers from dinner nite before
Soups and stews in the winter (a favorite)

Dinner:
Always a steamed vegetable or large salad with the works, and then either a potato, pasta or rice dish.
Some favorites are:
Black bean sloppy joes
Mexican lasagne
Pasta with marinara
Stir fry
Lentil loaf
Burritos
And again, I rely on soups and stews in the winter with a salad, and maybe some cornbread or brown bread to go along.

I shop once a week at Stater Bros. and once a week at Sprouts. I don't really write down a menu for the week, but I usually have in mind what I want to do and then go with the flow of the week. If I've had a real busy day or am tired, I always opt for the easiest for me to prepare which is a salad and potatoes.

I'll look forward to hearing from other homeschooling moms out there!

Hi, I am a homeschooling mom who follows the McDougall diet. I have a 6 year old and an 8 year old and just had a baby the end of April. I've never noticed this link before and hope to hear from other homeschooling moms. I will try to post menus of what my family eats soon. Thank goodness, my whole family, including my husband, eats this way. I can't imagine my husband not eating this way. That must be incredibly hard!

Hi blessedmomof3 -
I'm so glad you found us here and congratulations on your new baby - is it a boy or a girl?

I'll look forward to seeing what your family eats, and I agree, I am so thankful that my whole family eats this way!

God Bless,

luvoatmeal

luvoatmeal,

I had a baby girl. So two girls now and a boy.

Here's what we typically eat:

Breakfast: usually oatmeal with fruit during the week and on weekends we eat pancakes, hashbrowns, french toast or occassionally tofu scramble.

Lunch: Leftovers from the night before; hummus sandwiches with carrots sticks and fruit/ soup; sometimes the ever-popular pb & j sandwich.

Dinners: This is where I get more creative.

We Love bean burritoes and have them at least once a week.

We also just recently tried Susan's bbq Ribz from Fatfreevegan. They are awesome!

I have a McDougall recipe for chili.

Sometimes just beans and cornbread.

My family also love zucchini-corn fritters which are from Jennifer Raymond's fat free cookbook.

Spaghetti

Chinese food, which is asian frozen veggies, rice, and vegetarian sushi(premade from the store).

Mac and cheese (also from fatfreevegan)

lasagna

For desserts this summer, I've been taking two frozen bananas, with a little agave nectar and some other frozen fruit and putting them in the Vitamix with a little low fat silk. It makes wonderful "ice cream".

Thank you blessedmomof3!!

Congratulations again on your new baby GIRL

Your menu looks very nice with lots of variety. I think it's pretty similar to what we eat around here.

I'm going to try your dessert idea - that sounds really good on a hot day!

It's great to meet other parents who are homeschooling and following some variation of the McDougall plan. My son is four and a half and has been vegan all his life, but he still balks at eating certain food and lately asks for sugary foods.

As far a meal planning/cooking in advance, I often try to do this but then my hungry hubby eats everything up (I help as well) and in a day or two, everything I made for the week is gone. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

LM

While the weather is still warm here we drink a lot of green smoothies. When it gets colder there will be more chili, soup, pasta etc...
I have 6 children whom we homeschool. The boys all love beans. So that is easy. They get more fat than the rest of us. So they can have seeds and nuts- pbandj sandwiches..
they all love vegan pancakes filled with pureed zucchini and bananas- or sweet potatoes. oatmeal is another standard here. pasta and marinara.. roasted potatoes. yum!

Hey, I'm a homeschooling mom of six (currently) too!

I don't have a meal plan set, yet, though, we've waffled back and forth on the McDougalling for years, DH and I are back on the wagon now but I'm letting the kids eat up the rest of the stuff and not replacing it. So I'll be working on a "workable" simple menu plan in the next few weeks. It's a little daunting to be starting this again AND starting up the school year again AND growing another baby, all at once ...

Kim, congrats on the new baby. Someday I hope to have another growing in my womb.. right now due to the weight my cycles are so irregular.. but that is another story..
We didn't have much meat or dairy in the house before starting today.. No meat I think and just a couple of cubes of butter The fattiest thing in the house is tortilla chips and we have cases of those but the boys will eat them up soon enough.
I am surely looking forward to fall weather and more soups.. I just saw one that was a tomato and roasted garlic soup with brown rice that looks sooo good.
For us lunch has always been leftovers, breakfast is usually always smoothies. but when colder weather comes I am sure it will be smoothies and hot oatmeal for the kids. dinner time is where I need to come up with a good menu.
I may do it regionally.. monday mexican night, tuesday italian, wed chinese etc...
This would give me more leeway though still giving me some guidance- I have not in 19 years of marriage kept up a menu but I know it would help me and be a good thing for my only daughter to learn (she is the oldest).
how are you feeling by the way? I love being pregnant.. feeling that little one grow inside me..

Hi Library momma, joyfulmama, and slugmom!!

It's a blessing to see so many homeschool mom's posting. Yeah!!

library momma,
I've been thinking about what advice to give you for several days, but all I can say is to make really big batches, and get some in the freezer right away so that you have something you can pull out later. You've probably already got that one figured out! Wish I could think of something else.

Slugmom,
Congratulations on the new baby that's in the "oven"! You must be the queen of organization to homeschool that many, my hat is off to you!

Joyfulmama,
Your menu sounds really good. My boys love and eat alot of beans too, as well as my husband. Could you explain how you fill pancakes with the zucchini and bananas?? Do you mean they are mixed in the batter, or do you mean that you top them with it? Thanks!

Take Care All!

I puree bananas and peeled, cubed raw zucchini with a bit of water and this is the base for the pancakes, some flour, egg replacer, and other pancake ingredients- nix the oil and eggs. I also do spinach and bananas. Add lots of pumpkin pie spice- my kids all love their pancakes this way- more flavor and moister.
hope that helps. I don't really use a recipe. I just use every opportunity to sneak in veggies. I have been known to add pureed spinach into the spagetti sauce too!
I have even added zucchini to smoothies and no one has even noticed.

Thanks for answering joyfulmama!
I never would have thought that you could put zuccini in pancakes! I have added banana so that's familiar - but zuccini - wow!!

It might be interesting to add some pumpkin pie filling or sweet potato too.
You have given me some ideas!

God Bless,
luvoatmeal

Zucchini raw has no flavor.. that is where I got the idea of adding it to pancakes and smoothies. pumpkin pie filling is another good one to add. I added the sweet potatoes to the smoothies and no one even knew.
I got the Deceptively delicious book - not vegan but great ideas- check it out from the library as well as The Sneaky Chef. Like whole chick peas in chocolate chip cookies. so if you have a low fat vegan recipe for carob chip cookies you can add cooked chick peas.
My kids call me the mad scientist of the smoothie!