Menu Planning Monday

Time again for the menu planning Monday.  Did you like the breakfast ideas last week?  Did you get any good ideas for breakfast?

This week’s focus is lunch.  Our lives vary so much.  Some of us eat most of our lunches out.  If you are one that eats lunch out alot I would suggest doing what I have suggested before and keeping a notebook with you of good menu items with point values at various restaurants that  you eat at so you will know the best decisions to make.

For those who can take a lunch to work good options would be to get the little frozen meals made by Weight Watchers, Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice, etc.  Most of those will have the point value on the box.  If they don’t then you can just use your calculator to figure out the points.

Here are some ideas for lunches you can put together at home or put together to take with you to work.

Here are some quick lunch recipes I got from Dotti’s Weight Loss Zone.

Cranberry-Chicken Salad, (Combine 1 tbsp each of dried cranberries, chopped celery, light mayonnaise, and plain fat-free yogurt with 2 oz drained,  canned chunk white chicken in water; spoon onto a bed of mixed greens.)  (4 points)

Tuna-Stuffed Tomato, (Combine 2 oz. drained canned tuna, 2 tbsp. chopped carrot, 2 tsp. fat-free mayonnaise, 1 tsp. Dijon mustard and a dash of celery seeds; stir well. Cut a tomato into 4 wedges, cutting to, but not through, bottom of tomato; stuff with tuna salad.) (3 points)

Egg Salad in Tomato, (Combine 1 hard-cooked egg, chopped, 1 tablespoon fat-free mayonnaise, and 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard; stir well. Cut a medium tomato into 4 wedges, cutting to, but not through, bottom. Spoon egg salad into tomato.) (2 Points)

Macaroni and Cheese, (Combine 1 cup hot cooked macaroni, 1/4 cup fat-free cottage cheese, 3 tbsp each of shredded cheddar cheese and skim milk, and a dash each of salt and pepper in a small baking dish; stir. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until bubbly.) (6 Points)

Egg & Cheese Sandwich, (Combine 1 large egg and 3 tbsp shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese; stir well. Cook in a nonstick skillet over medium heat until set, stirring occasionally. Spread between 2 slices high-fiber whole-wheat bread.) (4 Points)

Here are a couple more lunches that I have put together:

Baked Potato – 1 medium baked potato with 1 tbsp light butter spread, 2 tbsp fat free sour cream, and 1/4 cup fat free shredded cheddar cheese – 5 points

Turkey sandwich (2 slices fat free turkey breast, 1 slice fat free cheese, dijon mustard on Orowheat sandwich thins), 16 pringles, 100 calorie pack cookies – 9.5 points

So what lunches pave you put together?

(sorry this may seem a bit short today…it is a hectic week this week!)

Kellie

Menu Plan Monday

Thank you so very much for your responses today on your preferences on how to do the menu planning posts!  Suprisingly everyone that responded wanted the option of a very generic menu plan post…one post focusing on breakfast items, another one on lunch items, etc…since we all live such different lives!

So I am going to kick us off with a breakfast post for our first menu plan Monday!!  We got to get the day started off good, right?!?!

For those who are needing a quick breakfast to fix at home or grab as you are running out the door:

- Fiber One Breakfast bars – these are not only GOOD they are good for you!!!  I really feel like I am getting a good chocolate fix with one of these as well!!  I have tried several different brands and I personally like the Fiber One brand the best.  These babies are only 1 point each!!  (if you follow the 4 gram fiber cap – they are 2 points)

- Fiber One Yogurt – I haven’t tried this yogurt yet but I am sure it is really good – Hungry Girl has given it her seal of approval!!  You can have 1 container for 0 points!!  (this would also make a great snack!)  Pair it with a banana and you are still only at 1.5 points!!

- Dannon Light And Fit Yogurt – Now I did pick these up this week to try!  I am going to try them after my morning work out!  They are only 1 point per container!  Once again, pair it with a banana for a 2.5 point breakfast!

-1 Cup Honey Nut Cheerios with 1/2 cup skim milk is only 2.5 points – slice a banana and mix in it and you have a 4 point breakfast!  (If you are having to watch your carbs you may not want to choose this option).

- Quaker Simple Harvest All Natural Instant Multigrain Hot Cereal – I haven’t tried them yet but they look really good…and are only about 3 points per serving!

For those of you who may have a bit more time to fix your breakfast:

- Hungry Girl’s Choco Monkey Oatmeal – takes less than 5 minutes to prepare and is less than 3 points!

- Hungry Girl’s Egg Muffin Sandwich – can’t wait to try this one – and it is only 2 points!  All it takes is a few minutes to cook your egg white and then assemble your sandwich! (an egg mcMuffin from McDonald’s is 6.5 points!)

-Hungry Girl’s Bueno Breakfast Burrito – this looks AWESOME!!  And it is only 2 points – YUM!  Once again it only takes you about the time of scrambling an egg!

Good Fast Food Choices for Breakfast on the Go

Not easy to find good breakfast choices at restaurants…please share if you do find some good ones!!

Subway actually has some ok choices for breakfast…I have never had breakfast at Subway but I found this information online.

Cheese Sandwich on Deli Round (270 cal/9 g fat/3 g fiber/35 g carbs) 5.5 points

Cheese Breakfast Wrap (220 cal/10 g fat/8 g fiber/16 g carbs) 3.5 points

Honey Mustard Ham & Egg Breakfast Wrap (230 cal/7 g fat/8 g fiber/23 g carbs) 3.5 points

Western w/Cheese Breakfast Wrap (210 cal/16 g fat/8 g fiber/19 g carbs) 4 points

Please give feedback…was this helpful?

Kellie

Menu Plan Question

I am trying to figure out how to post the menu plans.  I am having trouble figuring out how to do it so I thought I would ask you guys.

Here are some of the different ways it could be done…let me know what would work best for you and the majority will win (so you have to speak up if you have a preference!)

1) I could post what we are planning on having for the week.  The only problem I see with this is that it will not have my total points for the day because I don’t have all my snacks and sides figured it all the times.  Also I won’t post a recipe on my recipe blog until I have tried it and it is good…so some of the recipes may not be available at the time of the menu plan post.

2) I could post what we did the previous week.  This would allow for all of the meals to have links to recipes.  It would also have listed all the snacks and sides to show my total point value for each day (even though everyone’s point values are different…you could tweak as needed)

3) I could do generic meal plan posts…maybe one post of a bunch of breakfast recipes and another of a bunch of lunch recipes, etc…  Everyone’s lives are so different that one person may be able to cook a good breakfast while another needs a breakfast on the go, for example.

So what do you think would be the best way to do it?  Do you have any other ideas?  Let me know!

Kellie

Menu Planning

For Christmas I got an awesome book entitled “Managers Of Their Homes” to help me in scheduling my life as a homeschooling mom!  In my reading of the book this morning I found something that I thought would be beneficial to pass along to this group!

The chapter I was reading was on Planning Time In The Kitchen (which is a passion of mine).  It talked about making master grocery lists (which I already do…if you would like for me to share my master wal-mart list with you let me know – I would be glad to do so).  And it talked of menu planning to plan your grocery trips – which is very beneficial…it not only helps you to plan what you will be fixing for meals but it also cuts down on the grocery bill when you stick to a list!

The thing that I thought was really beneficial to pass along was that it mentioned as a time saver in your menu planning is to plan on the same lunch every day of the week.  For example every Monday is sandwich day, every Tuesday is soup day, etc…  You could do the same thing for breakfasts as well.  That way when it comes time for planning your next week of meals that is a gimme!

If you want you could even take it a bit further to your dinners.  Now you might want to fix different meals every night…having the same 6 to 7 meals every week might get old…but you could say “Monday night is pork night” or Wednesday night is “ground turkey night”.

I think I am definitely going to try to do the breakfast and lunch list for the week.  In fact when I get mine figured out I will share with you.

On another note, I am hoping to really get this blog moving along next week once we get past all the holidays.  I will point out right now though that on the right column of the blog I will have a category list.  This post will be in the category of menu planning so that you will be able to access it if you need to refer to it later.

I am wanting to try to do theme posts each day (for example –Monday would be weigh-in).  Once I get that figured out I will probably make a column on the left hand side that will list what theme will be posted each day if you need to refer to that.

I am still very open to any ideas that you may have to make this better for you – this site is for you!  So I need to know what you want to see on this site to help you!

I hope everyone has a very fun and safe New Year’s!!  Let’s have 2010 be a FANTASTIC year as we are “losing weight together!”

Kellie