Lifestyle

How to Meal Plan With a Cookbook.

My kids used to take swimming lessons at a pool that was attached to a library. We made a point every week of checking out the library (mostly because I love going to the library… but you know it’s important for the kids too).

The cool thing about the library is that there are books of all kinds there. Yes I know it’s a library but many people don’t realize you can find books that aren’t novels.

Like cookbooks!

One particularly rainy day, we decided to linger a bit longer in the library. The kids were off looking for their books and I found the cookbook section like I do every time I go to the library, and thought:

“Wouldn’t it be cool if I could meal plan right here?”

Many people I speak to on a regular basis find it difficult to find time to meal plan, but there are various ways to do it and it doesn’t always have to be at home it turns out.

One way to meal plan is by using one cookbook.

It can be done with a book you find at the library or one you have in that stack on your kitchen counter you never open or on your shelf collecting dust.

Cookbooks are more than just pretty pictures!

Every once in a while, I like to plan my meals for the week using only one cookbook.

Here’s how to do it:

Choose a cookbook that has simple recipes.

If you’re a busy family that needs to get a quick and nourishing meal on the table, don’t choose Mastering the Art of French Cooking, By Julia Child.

A book like this is not going to help you save time. Pick a book that looks simple with simple ingredients.

I found one that day at the library called Dinner Tonight: Done!, by Real Simple Magazine. I also like Mark Bittman’s Kitchen Express cookbook or my 20-Minute Meals Recipe Book.

Flip through the book to find recipes that you find interesting or that look delicious.

If you’re in the library with your kids (and they’re a bit older like mine… this might be tough if you still have young kids), it’s likely that you have a bit of time to really look at each recipe (wait doesn’t everyone like reading recipes like I do??).

If you’re at home, grab your coffee on Saturday morning, sit down (yes you’re allowed to sit down!) and pick some recipes while listing to some fun music.

I promise this helps the process.

Pick five or six recipes you would consider making.

Take photos of the recipes you like so that you remember them (unless of course, you have a packet of post-its deep down in your purse, in which case you can tag each recipe page).

Then, whether it’s on a calendar, in the notes section of your phone, or on a sheet of paper, write down the days of the week and assign each recipe to a day of the week.

Be sure to add the page number so you can easily find the recipes when it’s time to cook.

Monday
Minestrone soup, p.145

Tuesday
Fish tacos, p. 95

Wednesday
Chili, p.25

Thursday
Salmon, Brussels sprouts and salad, p. 34

Friday
Pesto pizza with salad, p. 56

The hard part is done! You now have recipes for dinner for next week! And you did this from a chair in the library!

Nice.

Now onto the next part:

If you found your book from the library, don’t forget to bring it home!

You’re going to need those recipes unless, of course, you took photos of them but a book is nice to keep handy in the kitchen.

When you get home, go through each recipe one by one and then scour your fridge and cupboards for any ingredients you have on hand.

I cannot stress enough that It’s so important to use up what you have!

Why?

It saves money and food waste!

Also, don’t be afraid to make substitutions if you don’t have a particular ingredient. The other night I made minestrone soup which called for kale, but I had swiss chard so I used that instead.

If you’re not sure what to use as a substitution, Google is your friend. Search for “what to use instead of kale” or “kale substitutions in cooking”. This works for spices as well.

Next, make a list of the items you need that you didn’t find at home. Put them on a list according to how the grocery store works to make it easier on yourself when you’re shopping. I have a post about that here.

Go shopping!

Get what you need and nothing more!

Ok, sometimes I realize I need a few extra things I forgot to put on the list, but be mindful of just aimlessly walking through the store.

This is a really good way to spend extra money.

Bring your food home and prep as much as you can.

Chop the ends off celery, cut them in half and store in a container covered with water
Put carrots in water (even those baby carrots!)
Wash greens like kale and spinach, roll them in a tea towel and either store them in a container or in a plastic bag.
Freeze bread so it doesn’t go moldy (slice it first!).
Rinse berries and keep them in a container lined with a paper towel or a napkin

If you have any extra energy you can start to make a few parts of a meal.

For example,

Make the soup on Sunday so it’s ready to eat on Monday.
Make the pesto for the pizza and throw it in the freezer for Friday.
Chop the Brussels sprouts so they’re ready to roast with the salmon.

The more you do on the weekend, the less you have to do when you get home from work.

Make time for this and you’ll feel better about it!

That’s it!

The same process works for using multiple cookbooks, but I like the simplicity of using one cookbook.

Try it next week to see how you like it!

P.S.: Follow me on Instagram to get weekly tips and tricks!

P.P.S.: Get other cooking tips here!

How To Keep Up Your Water Drinking Habit.

by Stephanie

Do you have a hard time keeping up a solid water drinking habit like I do? It’s a struggle I know!

Some people don’t like the taste. Some like it but forget to drink it.

I personally really like drinking water but I always seem to forget until the end of the day and you don’t want to be drinking it all at the end of the day or you’ll be getting up at night! Believe me, I’ve been there.

I have a few tips I’ve found helpful to keep up my water drinking habit:

💦Drink a full jar/glass before coffee

I always have one full 1 litre jar of water first thing in the morning. If this seems like too much, just start with a small glass of water to get you going.

💦Get a fun glass

I’m all for stainless water bottles, but they don’t inspire me to drink water all day.

Find a fun glass or jar that makes you want to drink water. I love this mason jar (pictured) that my sister gave me (it was full of apple sauce originally). Pasta jars and pickle jars also work well. I like having a bigger jar over a smaller one because it helps me to keep track of the water I’m drinking. My personal goal is to have 3 litres a day so I drink 3 jars that hits my goal.

💦Flavour water with natural ingredients

Forget those weird squeezy pouch things. They’re full of fake ingredients that our bodies don’t particularly love. Try lemon, lime, raspberries, or strawberries. Try adding a bit of real juice (not from concentrate!) to amp up the flavour.

💦Add a timer to your phone

It might be annoying if it dings, but it’ll remind you to drink up!

💦Keep a full glass with you at your desk

I tend to drink more when I’m at my desk working so make sure your glass is always full ready to sip!

P.S.: Follow me on Instagram to get weekly tips and tricks!

P.P.S.: Get other lifestyle tips here!

How to Eat Healthfully Every Week.

by Stephanie

I’m not sure about you, but I get a weird vibe from many people about eating healthfully.

Like it’s not a normal thing to do. Or it’s not a cool thing to do.

But why can’t eating healthfully be cool?

Some people just don’t know how to do it, and I get that.

That’s why I’m here!

I want to teach as many people as I can that it’s ok to want to eat healthfully every week. Day in and day out.

Guess what? It doesn’t have to be a three-day torturous cleanse or eating boring salads for every meal (although I do like the idea of eating greens with most meals!), or super expensive.

Eating healthfully also doesn’t have to be bland or tasteless.

There are two major things we have to do first though to get the ball rolling.

First, We need to change our mindset.

Don’t think of eating healthfully as “I have to eat well every week, day in and day out or else!!”

I don’t know about you, but every time I tell myself I have to do something I run the other way (work expenses anyone?).

Instead keep saying this to yourself: “I eat well every week, day in and day out.”

You can also try thinking of your body as a machine that needs proper fuel so that it can keep running smoothly.

A car needs the right fuel to run or it will break down.
Olympians need to fuel their bodies properly or they won’t be able to perform properly.
Regular ‘ol people like us need the proper fuel to keep our energy up, our blood sugar balanced and hormones even on a daily basis.

Media messages are so confusing these days which makes us more confused about what type of fuel is best for our bodies.

Every day there’s a new study, or stat, or cousin telling you something that you should or shouldn’t be eating (yes I’ve been guilty of that!).

But every body is different.

This is where mindfulness comes in. Take a step (or 10 steps) away from Facebook and Instagram chatter to listen to your body and what it’s trying to tell you.

I bet you know what kind of “fuel” makes you feel great and what doesn’t. But sometimes we aren’t listening very closely. Or we ignore it.

For me beer makes me feel bloated and caffeinated coffee makes me anxious. I feel those things almost instantly.

Next time you eat, breathe, stop and listen. What is my body saying to me right now? Does what I’m eating make me feel great inside or gross?

‘But what about the food?’ you ask. ‘How do I maintain momentum every week?’

I’m getting to that part!

You have to make meal planning a weekly habit.

Read that again.

Make meal planning a weekly habit.

Planning our meals every week will help us to stick to our goals of eating well every week. So many people have told me that if they don’t plan their meals, they won’t eat well that week.

Of course! If you don’t have anything planned you’re more likely to order a pizza, which is fine once in a while of course, but we want to get into the regular habit of planning healthful meals that will fuel our bodies for the entire day, every day and every week.

That is where real change happens. When we make it a regular habit.

We do that by meal planning with real food:

vegetables
fruits
lentils, legumes, whole grains
A tiny bit of fish, meat, and poultry if you eat it

Start with those foods and see how that works for you.

Now there’s a trap that many people fall into when it comes to eating healthfully (it’s a sneaky trap!).

The trap is that little voice in your head that says: “Oh I was so ‘good’ today I deserve to have crappy food for the rest of the week! Then I’ll start again next Monday.”

Don’t fall for it!

Do you know what you deserve? You deserve to treat your body with respect by eating nutritious food day in and day out. That’s what you deserve.

Once you make meal planning a priority and habit for a while that dumb voice in your head will disappear. Believe me! I used to fall into that trap too all. the. time.

Now I’m not saying that you can’t treat yourself to dinner at a restaurant, and wine, and ‘junk’ food.

There’s a place for it all.

I just want you to get into the habit of planning healthful meals regularly every day so that those treats are valued in a different way and they won’t make you fall into a trap that makes you want to give up and ‘start again on Monday.’

Once we change our mindset, create a habit of meal planning, and stick to it you’ll start to feel the change I promise you.

You’ll start to view eating healthfully on a regular basis as a normal (and cool — I hope!) thing to do.

—-

If you need extra help, that’s where my meal plans come in. They’re done-for-you plans full of nutritious recipes, a calendar, and a full grocery list. These plans will help you kick-start your habit so you can eat healthfully every day for the long term.

Just start with one week and see what happens. Then you can get another week and keep moving on from there.

Follow me on Instagram to get more inspiration!

How to Eat Less Meat Without Becoming Vegan.

by Stephanie

You’d have to be living under a rock to notice the upswing in plant-based eating. There’s no doubt that the farming of conventional meat (beef especially) is ruining the environment.

I choose to use the word ‘conventional’ when speaking of meat because I believe there’s a place in the world for high-quality, grass-fed, and pasture-raised meats and animal proteins like eggs (just follow the likes of Dan Barber and Polyface Farms to get more info on the movement behind this).

But what if you’re not ready to go fully vegan?

Not everyone is ready and that’s ok. I’m not vegan mostly because my body didn’t like it when I tried it for two years. No, not everyone can thrive on being vegan no matter what anyone tells you.

No diet is the perfect diet as everyone is different and has different nutritional requirements.

That being said just because you don’t want to ‘go vegan’ doesn’t mean that most of your meals can’t (and shouldn’t) be plant-based. In fact, eating a diet of mostly plant-based whole foods with just a bit of sustainable animal protein can do wonders for the environment and your health.

Here are a few tips on how to do it:

Add More Vegetables to Your Plate.

The old meat and potatoes mindset leaves little room for fresh veggies, but if we shift our focus a bit to add more plants to our plate we’ll start to edge out the space that was allotted for all that meat.

Fill up at a quarter of your plate with roasted veggies, a quarter to a half with a handful or two of fresh or sautéed greens, a quarter to a half a cup of whole grains, and then meat (not much room left is there?)

The thing is that we don’t need a lot of meat or animal protein. Just a bit. Think of the palm of your hand or four ounces.

But won’t I be hungry?

I bet you won’t be! There’s only one way to try it and that’s the try it!

If you’re worried about hunger, choose to eat vegetables with a high protein content:

Spinach — 5.35 grams of protein per cup
Asparagus — 4.35 grams of protein per cup
Beet greens — 3.70 grams of protein per cup
Mustard greens — 3.58 grams of protein per cup
Swiss Chard — 3.29 grams of protein per cup
Bok Choy — 2.65 grams of protein per cup
Collard greens — 5.15 grams of protein per cup
Brussels Sprouts — 3.98 grams of protein per cup
Broccoli — 3.98 grams of protein per cup
Kale — 2.47 grams of protein per cup

Did you notice that most of the high-protein veggies are also greens? You’ll get the best bang for your buck by adding them to your plate, as well as a whole whack of nutrients that will do amazing things for your health.

When you start to eat this way you’ll notice quickly that you don’t have to buy as much meat for your family.

Buy Higher-Quality Meat.

What? I thought we were supposed to eat less meat here??

I am!

I want you to buy higher-quality meat and less of it! Unfortunately, higher-quality meat is more expensive which is a really good reason to buy less of it.

You see, the reason the environment is in such shambles is partly because of factory and conventional meat. It’s pretty gross stuff.

I won’t go into much detail about it here (because I have limited space, and you have limited time) but this article tells such a great story about why eating high-quality, grass-fed beef and chicken is important for the earth and why focusing solely on mono-crop plants is not ideal.

What it really comes down to is that cows that live in factory farm environments are not healthy. This means when we eat that meat, we’re not eating healthy, high-quality meat. In the end, it’s not doing much for our health in a positive way. You can read all about factory farming in Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

What we do want to focus on eating instead are higher-quality grass-fed and pasture-raised meats.

The thing is that not enough farmers are raising cattle and other animals this way so we have to eat less of it to make sure there’s enough to go around.

If we make it a priority to buy only grass-fed, organic, pasture-raised meats, we will have to buy less of it because it’s more expensive.

I buy mine at Blossom Pure and Farm Boy in Toronto, but if you research your local area you’ll likely find farms offering the same thing (just look for those cows eating grass out in the pasture!).

Add at Least Three Vegan Meals to Your Regular Meal Rotation Every Week.

Think beyond the Meatless Monday to add a few more plant-based meals to your rotations.

This always trips up people a bit when they’re trying to eat less meat. Eating vegan meals can be intimidating.

Again, people seem to be afraid that they won’t be satiated from eating a plant-based meal, but it’s a matter of putting together a meal that has enough fat, fibre and protein. Most legumes and lentils have the added benefit of having fibre and protein.

An added bonus to adding vegan meals is that you can do it very inexpensively. Bags of lentils and beans don’t cost a lot especially when you buy them dried and cook them at home.

Here are some vegan dinner ideas:

**Combine Meat and Veggies for a Plant-Packed Meal**

I like to add greens to my beef burgers to give them some added nutrition, but also to add a bit of heft. I’ve seen some people adding mushrooms as well for both flavour and nutrition.

Start with a pound of ground beef (or chicken or turkey) and add a handful of minced greens like spinach, kale, cilantro, or parsley. Add in a cup of minced mushrooms, an egg, and some spices and you’ve got a delicious veggie-packed burger while still enjoying a little meat.

Eat the burger on a lettuce ‘bun’ and you’ve just added more veggies, yahoo!

Replace Meat with Sustainable Fish a Couple Times a Week.

Wild and sustainably farmed fish is considered a superfood and can be added to your meals more than beef or poultry. Again it’s imperative to look for sustainable fish because our waters are becoming contaminated with fish farms that don’t treat their fish properly.

Consider eating fish like wild salmon and small fish like mackerel and sardines. They have higher amounts of Omega-3 which our bodies require. Again you don’t need much. Add small amounts to your plate of vegetables and grains.

That’s it for now! I hope you got a few ideas on how to eat less meat without fully becoming vegan. Start next week with my Flexitarian Plan and you may start to notice a difference in how you feel!

P.S: Follow me on Instagram to get weekly tips and tricks!

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