A healthy eating plan - take 1
Ken is diabetic. Lately I’m having problems after eating fatty things. We’re both overweight. Neither of us get enough exercise. Time to straighten up!!
I like to organize on paper… but then rarely follow through with it. 
So I’m posting it here, to remind myself (and y’all can remind me) that we need to eat better.
I’d like to make a month-long eating plan here, and have people comment on it with suggestions. A few days - like Saturday breakfast - are deliberately big and not necessarily healthy.
Breakfasts
- Oatmeal with fruit, toast
- Yellow grits with fruit, english muffin
- Eggs scrambled with onion + pepper, callaloo
- poached eggs over toast, fresh fruit
- editing to add: pancakes, waffles, or french toast
- Saturday mornings - scrambled eggs, potatoes, cheese, callaloo, bammi, plantains, toast
Lunches
- Leftovers from any dinner
- tuna salad with onion, celery, tomato, olives + lettuce on whole wheat
- roast beef + horseradish
- big salad with celery, apple, walnuts
- tabbouleh
- steak sandwiches
Suppers (not necessarily in order, all made as low-fat as possible)
- pinto beans + cornbread
- lentil, veggie, and couscous
- rishta (lentils with noodles)
- beef and barley stew
- chicken and lots of veggies over pasta
- baked fish, spinach, baby potatoes
- beef and broccoli stir-fry w/rice
- tuna w/tomato, artichoke, olives, zucchini, and tomato paste over pasta
- jerk chicken, sweet potato, grilled zucchini, rice and peas
- steak with grilled veg
- curried chicken over rice
- tacos
- felafel
- split pea soup
- chili
- omelets
- grilled steak with summer veggies
- crock pot chicken with salsa
- Macaroni + cheese with loads of veggies
- pizza (home-made)
- jerk pork, rice and peas, steamed cabbage
- chicken and mushroom casserole
- fish with oven-baked rosemary sweet potatoes
- soup + sandwiches
- spinach and ricotta lasagna
- orange chicken with rice and steamed veg
- bean soup
- chicken (beef, lamb, etc.) saag (stewed in spinach and tomatoes and spices) over rice
- turkey burgers with big salad
- eat out
- eat out
Thoughts, anyone?
April 18th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Sounds delicious!
How does one do jerk? I make a passable curried goat, but I’ve never tried to make jerk anything. And what spices are in the saag dishes?
Ingredients that I am finding absolutely indispensable:
Kimchi: spicy cabbage, available in jars from Korean or pan-Asian grocery stores; yummy on its own, in omelets, and as a replacement for lettuce in sandwiches if you squeeze it dry.
Bhuna Masala: probably more complicated than I’m giving it credit for, but I make it with equal parts ginger, paprika, garlic, and turmeric; toss two tablespoons of this, a teaspoon of garam masala, a can of tomatoes, and a cup of nonfat yogurt into meat and cook it slow, and it turns into concentrated awesome.
Hot Italian Turkey Sausages: capital for spaghetti sauces, or for slicing onto pizzas.
Allegro Skim Milk Cheese: on the pricey side, but they make a yummy mozzarella, and a couple of great spiced soft cheeses; haven’t tried their cheddar yet.
Roasted Red Peppers: just wash a red pepper thoroughly, and bake it on 400 for 20-30 minutes; the skin should just slip off, and sliced, it’s great in pasta, pizzas, eggs, sandwiches, salads…
Roasted Garlic: cut the bottom off a head of garlic, put it in a ramekin, drizzle it with a LITTLE olive oil, and roast alongside the pepper; then squeeze out the cloves when it cools, and you can use it for all the same stuff.
Evaporated Skim Milk: with fresh parmesan, pepper, roasted garlic, crabmeat, and some patience (don’t let it boil!) this becomes a lovely low-fat alfredo sauce
TVP: add equal parts TVP and undrained diced tomatoes, half a teaspoon of oil, herbes provencale, and hot sauce for a portable spaghetti sauce that can stand a day unrefrigerated, though I wouldn’t leave it out in the sun.
April 19th, 2008 at 7:35 am
“Thoughts, anyone?”
I’m fat too…..
April 19th, 2008 at 7:36 am
PS Ugly as well.
April 20th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Me too! And I just got a haircut that I hate. I have little enough to be vain about, but I used to be proud of my masses of hair. And I agreed to be a hair model for a friend of a friend who’s going to hairdressing school, and he wasn’t going to take off more than an inch, which I figured I could spare, but his profs made him cut it all off. And now I look like an overstuffed scarecrow. But I can’t tell folks how I really feel, because we’re all on Facebook and I don’t want to hurt his feelings.
Ah, well. We’re beautiful inside. Well, you are, I’m sure. I might be just aesthetically fascinating, but it works for me.
April 21st, 2008 at 9:20 am
Kathi, this looks good to me. I’ve found cutting out processed white starches and sugars and meat (except I eat fish occasionally) have helped with disgestive problems that I used to have after eating greasy stuff and I’ve lost weight. Natural sugar that can be used in almost ANYTHING (including baking) - honey. Whole wheat/grain starches are the best - a little pricey sometimes but worth it!