Meal Planning / Brainstorming

No Snacks, no sweets, no seconds. Except on Days that start with S. Too simple for you? Simple is why it works. Look here for questions, introductions, support, success stories.

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Marcie
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Joined: Tue Jul 19, 2011 5:43 pm

Meal Planning / Brainstorming

Post by Marcie » Fri Jul 29, 2011 3:43 am

I searched around a bit, but couldn't find a thread for meal planning / brainstorming--either for questions, or just folks describing meals that work well for them.

I get stuck in dietary ruts really easily--I've got multiple, severe food allergies, which means that trying new things often feels like more trouble than it's worth--so it's always useful and helpful to see what other people are putting together!

I've also noticed that with No S, I'm paying much more attention to planning balanced meals, since the need to be the source of *all* the calories and nutrients I'm getting.

So, if you've got regular meals that you make, or stumble across meals or recipes that work well enough to be worth sharing, here's a place for it!

SkyKitty
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Joined: Fri May 06, 2011 2:28 pm
Location: Isle of Man

Post by SkyKitty » Fri Jul 29, 2011 7:09 am

If you head on over to the daily check-in board you should find that quite a few people describe their meals over there, which could help you with inspiration.

What I find though is one of the true joys of No S is that you don't need to change your meals from whatever you would normally have. A meal is a meal. You don't need any No S meals because any meal that fits on one plate is a No S meal, how healthy it is is entirely up to you. I often put down my meals over on my check-in thread so I won't repeat myself here, but I love cooking and the lack of restrictions over meals is one of the highlights of No S for me.

Having said that, this could still be a useful thread so I look forward to reading suggestions here.
When nothing goes right...go left.

milliem
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Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2011 2:30 pm

Post by milliem » Fri Jul 29, 2011 7:25 am

Ah I often struggle for meal inspiration :) I know you CAN eat anything on NoS, but I often like to have meals that are both relatively healthy and delicious....not that easy sometimes!

A good default for me is baked sweet potato + vegetable + meat or baked sweet potato with 'toppings' (spring onion and cheese, bacon and cream cheese etc.) + salad.

Another thing I often default to is omelette + salad. You can shove anything you have handy in an omelette, and it can be plenty filling enough :)

SunCat
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Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2011 5:42 pm

Post by SunCat » Fri Jul 29, 2011 9:28 pm

I also enjoy cooking and eating good food. I spend quite a lot of time and money on what I cook/eat, which is one of the things I like about No S.

On thing that might work is to write down what meals you eat every day for a month to get a realistic idea of what you eat, and then use that as a template for future meal planning.

I have been thinking about going into more detail about meals on my blog posts. I was actually going to start this week, but it turned out not to be a good week to start :) http://ladieswhonos.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... -week.html

sheepish
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Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2006 9:06 pm

Post by sheepish » Sat Jul 30, 2011 10:25 am

Food! My favourite topic..

I do almost all the cooking in my household (because I love cooking) and, after a bit of trial and error, I've become fairly systematic about it.

Essentially what I do is have a certain number of dinners in regular rotation - things that are fairly easy to prepare - and then a certain number of things that require a bit more effort that I make less frequently. Lunches are usually leftovers but we keep chutney (sometimes homemade, sometimes not, depending on how enthused I've been lately) and cheese on hand for sandwiches so that, if there aren't sufficient leftovers, we have something else.

Dinners in regular rotation in our house are:

stir-fry - vegetables, noodles, and a jar of prepared sauce.

roasted vegetables and pasta (sometimes filled, sometimes dried) with tomato sauce or pesto

curry either with Indian bread (sometimes prepared, sometimes made from scractch depending on inclination) or rice or kichri (gujarati dish with lentils and rice which I really like so make a lot)

Middle Eastern food - home made hummous, fried halloumi with vegetables and spices

Less frequently made things (usually we'll have one or two of these every week):

Macaroni and (blue) cheese (mmm)

Pizza (usually homemade)

Risotto (usually with mushrooms, peppers and onions, asparagus if in season)

More complicated Gujarati food of various descriptions

Paella - this recipe which is AMAZING. http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... ink.recipe

Ratatouille - I usually hate ratatouille but I love this recipe, http://healthyrecipes.wikia.com/wiki/Ta ... atatouille

Stuffed onions - another ottolenghi recipe http://helengraves.co.uk/2011/01/ottole ... ed-onions/

Spanish omlette - with onions, peppers and fresh herbs

Vegetarian cottage pie (I'm veggie, in case it's not already obvious) - soya mince, lentils, beans, onions, carrots topped with mashed sweet potato with mustard, butter and black pepper mised in

Lasagne - again vegetarian

But I love cookbooks and trying new things so there's always new stuff being added to this...

kccc
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Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2006 1:12 am

Post by kccc » Mon Aug 01, 2011 2:00 pm

Sheepish, what a GREAT list!

Marcie, the daily threads are a great resource. You can also check the "Intelligent Dietary Defaults" sticky for ideas.

milliem
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Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2011 2:30 pm

Post by milliem » Mon Aug 01, 2011 3:43 pm

Wow Sheepish there are loads of good ideas there!

I often struggle with breakfast meals, I'm thinking of trying out this recipe for baked oatmeal as it looks a) yummy and b) something I can make on a sunday and eat all week!

This weeks possible meal plan includes:

- Sausages with leeks/broccoli/mashed potatoes
- roasted vegetable tortellini with a little butter/pepper/parmesan
- macaroni cheese
- either home made burgers or spaghetti bolognese

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Blithe Morning
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Location: South Dakota

Post by Blithe Morning » Mon Aug 01, 2011 4:05 pm

This is freaky. Yesterday I went to a bridal shower and one of the gifts included a recipe for baked oatmeal. "Mmm," said I. "I've never heard of such a thing but it sounds good. I must find that recipe." And today, here it is.

Nice.

marygrace
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Location: austin, tx

Post by marygrace » Mon Aug 01, 2011 6:49 pm

Best baked oatmeal recipe ever!
http://www.lottieanddoof.com/2011/04/baked-oatmeal/

I made it earlier in the season with strawberries instead of blueberries, but I imagine pretty much any fruit would be delicious. Adding the melted butter on top really makes it.

SunCat
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Post by SunCat » Wed Aug 10, 2011 3:03 pm

I use this recipe for baked oatmeal http://sunandsalt.blogspot.com/2010/11/ ... tmeal.html

It includes an extra step to soak the oats overnight - which helps nutrition since oats are very high in anti-nutrients that soaking helps to neutralize.

I also use the meal planning suggestion on this site.

Thalia
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Joined: Tue Sep 11, 2007 8:15 pm
Location: Southern California

Post by Thalia » Thu Aug 11, 2011 3:45 pm

I love to cook (and eat!). Our meals have gotten more challenging since my daughter decided to go vegetarian. She LOVES meat, and it's hard to eat it in front of her mournful little puppy-dog eyes! Plus she's picky and doesn't like food with mixed ingredients, which makes dinnertime a positive joy.

Our go-to meals (this time of year):

Make-your-own burritos: flour tortllas, refried beans, chopped and shredded stuff, sauteed chicken or shrimp and vegetables.

Pasta with fresh tomato sauce

Turkey-mushroom burgers (but not in front of the vegetarian -- I've started making falafel burgers instead)

Beans 'n' greens pasta

Default weeknight dinner: Fish or chicken thighs plus vegetable plus rice or couscous or baked potato or roasted tiny potatoes -- vegetarian can have scrambled eggs.

I get more ambitious with cooking on the weekend. This weekend we had zucchini fritters and corn salad with black beans one night, then cucumber-rice salad with yogurt dressing, broiled fresh sardines, and mushroom/pea Asian soup the other. We had enough leftovers to get us through Wednesday without cooking again!

SunCat
Posts: 43
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2011 5:42 pm

Post by SunCat » Fri Aug 12, 2011 3:00 pm

This post gave me an idea for a way to share menus, meals, recipes and plates on our blog. It just started today, so come have a look and let us know what you think.

http://ladieswhonos.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... ation.html

SkyKitty
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Joined: Fri May 06, 2011 2:28 pm
Location: Isle of Man

Post by SkyKitty » Sun Aug 14, 2011 7:21 am

Ok so my meal plan for this week is:

Noodles with tofu and prawns (based on a meal in wagamamas, one of my favourite restaurants)

Tortilla with potato, cheese, onion and roast peppers from a jar.

Toad in the hole - more of a wintery dish reallty but one of hubby's favourites.

Fish pie.

Soup, always do soup on a friday. Roasted fennel and cider soup this week.

Also baking an apple tart.

Am happy to provide any recipes.

Also my other suggestion for new meal ideas is inspired by a film (Julie and Julia with the marvellous Meryl Streep). Take a cookbook and make a commitment to cook your way through it. Every single recipe. Obviously choose your book carefully. I am doing Nigella Lawson, Nigella Express. Hubby has joined in and is doing Hugh Fernly-Wittingstall, River Cottage Everyday.

You'll find you cook and enjoy dishes you wouldn't normally have tried. We each try to do one a week, but it doesn't always happen.
When nothing goes right...go left.

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Blithe Morning
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Location: South Dakota

Post by Blithe Morning » Sun Aug 14, 2011 10:39 am

Toad in the hole. Bangers and mash. Spotted dick.

The British have the BEST names for food.

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