Meal Plan - Week 1

Since Thursday is our shopping day I thought I'd do my meal plan to start on Thursday and finish on Wednesday. So here is next weeks starting tomorrow. I am going to use my Bellini for all my dinner meals and also for all the "treats" for the kids. This weekend I also have a birthday party for the boys happening so have listed a rough list of what I am making for that too - which isn't too much since it's an outdoor venue and the kids will be flat out playing!

Thursday 13 Feb

Breakfast - Bircher Muesli
Lunch - Chili Con Carne (leftovers from tonight)
Dinner - Beef Stroganoff

Friday 14 Feb

Breakfast - Bircher Muesli
Lunch - Beef Stroganoff (leftovers from Thurs night)
Dinner - Pumpkin Soup

Saturday 15 Feb

Breakfast - Bircher Muesli
Lunch - Cheese Souffles
Dinner - Apricot Chicken Risotto

Sunday 16 Feb

Breakfast - Bircher Muesli
Lunch - At Boys Birthday party - menu TBA
Dinner - Butter Chicken

Monday 17 Feb

Breakfast - Bircher Muesli
Lunch - Butter Chicken (leftovers from Sunday night)
Dinner - Sweet & Sour Meatballs with veg

Tuesday 18 Feb

Breakfast - Bircher Muesli
Lunch - Sweet & Sour Meatballs with veg (leftovers from Monday night)
Dinner - Meatloaf with red sauce

Wednesday 19 Feb

Breakfast - Bircher Muesli
Lunch - Meatloaf with red sauce (leftovers from Tuesday night)
Dinner - Quiche Lorraine


Birthday Party baking

Too easy chocolate cake - I am planning on make a three tier cake with chocolate buttercream icing, and then just having some "Minecraft" Figurines on top.
Little sandwiches - egg and lettuce, ham, cheese and tomato etc
Home made Biscuits - as per baking list below
Cheese & Bacon Balls & various Chips
Fruit platter with fruit kebabs
Grown up platter with cheese / dip / crackers / cabanossi etc.
Zooper coopers which will be frozen and in the esky
10L water cooler for drinks

Since we are in Darwin and the party is at an outdoor venue it is a bit hard to cater with cooked food - so i think finger food will suffice. The kids will be too busy playing anyhow as there is a big waterside they just love, and also a wadding pool for the little ones.


Baking/treats
40 second biscuits
ANZAC biscuits
Choc Chic biscuits
Apple Pie and custard
Banana Bread
Soft butter rolls
Easy bread

Hopefully I will have time to bake all the above as I really want to get more treats in there for the kids. I will freeze some of the biscuits in zip lock bags ready for school lunch boxes, and the rest will be at the boys party ready for the kids to snack on. The kids absolutely adore apple pie so I promised them i'd make that for them when I got the chance.

Running in the middle of the day... bad idea!

Yesterday I decided to run to the kids school after work... and it was such a bad idea! It was only 32 degrees but OMG it was so humid and the sun was hot. I struggled big time. I still managed to do it under my 7 min/km pace which included lots of stops at traffic lights as there was lots of traffic.. so pretty happy with that. I think I seriously had sunstroke when I got home because I was so exhausted. I was also super grumpy so not a happy afternoon. Looking back I'm glad I did it but I won't be doing that again until the dry season comes around... and even then might run TO work and not from work. Running at 6am is definitely better than 2pm. :)

Here's the details of my run:

Wholelife Challenge - Menu Plan - Monday 10 February

Well I admit I have been slack in my menu planning and recording what I have been eating with the WLC. So I am going to *try* to document everything I eat until the end of the challenge - so almost 4 weeks... be kind to me if I miss a day here or there... I do have a lot on with life in general and also organising the final touches for our big holiday! :)

So saying all that here was today's menu plan...

Breakfast

Green Smoothie with Peach, Banana, Mango, Baby Spinach and Coconut Water with a banana. I had this post run.

Lunch

Last night dinner leftovers - Marinated Chicken Drumsticks with baked sweet potato. (kinda boring but delicious!)

Dinner

Chicken Fingers (chicken tenders in a almond flour crumb) with baked sweet potato

As you can tell my home delivery for shopping is arriving on Wednesday so we are down to bare bones!!

I am about to put a chilli con carne into the slow cooker ready to cook tomorrow for dinner. Lunch I think tomorrow will be a nice big garden salad, and breakfast probably another smoothie! :) I have to make sure lunch is quite filling since I will be doing a big run early afternoon to get the kids from school. I will be on tomorrow night to post about what I eat! :)

I haven't shared recipes for the above as it is all quite boring but if you want to know how I crumbed the chicken tenders, or the drumsticks marinade let me know and I will post it. :)

Quick morning run

Well this morning I was supposed to do 8km but I just didn't have the time or the inclination, so instead I did a quick 4km. I was pretty happy as when I normally run outside I find it hard to stay under 6min/km. Today it felt quite easy. Let's hope I'm turning a corner. :) Tomorrow I am going to do a walk with a girlfriend in the morning, and then in the afternoon i am going to run 8km from work to the kids school, then run the last 1km with the kids while they ride their bikes. It will be hot (as school pick up is 2.45 so I will leave work around 1.45 to ensure i'm there with a few minutes to spare - hopefully at least 10 mins if I run a good time!), but it's something I definitely need to start doing. :)

Here's the stats from today:

My favourite Breakfast

My absolute favourite breakfast is poached eggs, ham and avocado with peach tea! So delicious. I just had to share this picture to show how delicious it is. I also love smoked salmon in place of ham. I have this several times a week and never get sick of it.

Paleo Pizza

One thing I really miss on the WLC is Pizza! We used to do Friday night home made pizzas and it has been strange not doing it. Last night we had friends come to visit and decided to do homemade pizza. So then of course I had to find a home made pizza recipe that was WLC compliant. A blog I regularly read is Everyday Paleo. I also have a few of their cookbooks too. Anyhow I was searching for a pizza dough and found an almond dough on that site. So decided to test it out. Here is the link to it on Everyday Paleo and I will list below what I did. Everyday Paleo Pizza.

Ingredients for base:

2 cups almond meal
2 eggs
3 tbsp olive oil
¼ tsp baking soda
1 tsp garlic powder
1 ½ tbsp fresh rosemary chopped

Method for Pizza base:

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.

I placed all this in the Bellini on speed 4 for 10 seconds.

Lightly grease a pizza tray with olive oil. Place the ball of dough in the center of your pizza tray and using your hands, push and pat the dough down into the shape of a circle. You want to make the dough as thin as possible. Bake JUST the base in your pre-heated oven for 20 minutes.

Toppings:

Capsicum
Pizza sauce (see how I made this below)
Mushrooms
Baby Spinach
Diced bacon
Red Onions

For the Pizza sauce - combine:

Small can of tomato paste,
1/2 cup diced tomatoes
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp garlic powder

While your base is cooking, prepare your toppings. After the base is done, remove from the oven and evenly spread the pizza sauce over the base. Add the diced bacon and all remaining toppings evenly over the sauce and bake again for an additional 25-30 minutes. Use whatever toppings you like.

Next time I think I might try a pizza with avocado and salmon - to try something different! I only used what I had in the fridge and while it was delicious it definitely will be better next time. Enjoy!

Saturday Run

I was a bit nervous this morning testing out my new runners, so instead of my usual big run (20km was planned today), I decided to do a short run to ease my shoes in. I am very impressed - my feet do not hurt at all! So comfortable!! I ran a little loop near my house - down a hill, and down some stairs and along the beach, so probably lost a bit of time on this route, but it was a nice change. I am looking forward to my runs next week with these shoes. :)