Weekly Family Meals
It’s the weekend yet again and time to think about what I am going to eat for the next week. Normally it is not a problem as I have a four week menu system that I designed. It is flexible enough to slip new recipes in and to take some recipes out depending on how I am feeling.
I get very easily bored by eating the same things all the time and need to regularly change our dinners. I have very wide tastes in food and like just about everything. During the last three years my tastes have changed too and I find that I now eat things I would never have considered eating three years ago. For example, I now eat sardines fairly often whereas before I would never have even thought of having them.
Anyway, I have been thinking this week that I would like to try some new recipes but the overall menu for the week must be healthy and follow the following healthy eating guidelines:
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At least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day. I love all kinds of vegetables so do not find this difficult. I have to be careful with fruit because they contain more natural sugars. However, if you do not have diabetes then this will not be a problem for you. I keep telling my family that they should eat a rainbow meaning they should eat a wide variety of colours as each colour provides different nutrients. They seem to like this idea and it helps to encourage them to eat up their fruit and veg.
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3 portions of whole grains a day such as wholewheat pitta bread, wholewheat bread, brown basmati rice, wholewheat pasta, oats, bran etc. I normally have oats for breakfast, pitta bread for lunch and then basmati rice or pasta for dinner.
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4 portions of fish per week. Two oily types of fish such as mackerel and salmon and two non-oily fish such as haddock and canned tuna. For lunch I will often have mackerel, salmon, sardines or tuna in pitta bread and then for dinner have cod, haddock, fresh tuna, fresh salmon etc.
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Lean meats with visible fat removed such as extra lean minced beef and poultry such as chicken breasts without the skin. I always have two dinners which include chicken, one dinner which includes extra lean minced beef or other lean meat such as pork steaks. On a Sunday we always have a roast but I try to choose the leanest meat I can and cook it without adding any extra fat.
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Skimmed milk, no fat/low fat yoghurt, low fat cheese. I do not eat much cheese although I love it as I have found that even low fat cheese is quite high in fat. I love fat free natural yoghurt (with no added sugar) and will often have it on strawberries in the summer. I always have skimmed milk on my cereal or in my cups of tea. I do not often drink coffee any more as I have totally gone off it even though three years ago I was a coffee addict.
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Beans, nuts, seeds, pulses. I almost always have butter beans on a Sunday and have red kidney beans once a week in a healthy chilli con carne or a totilla. I have a few walnuts and seeds with my breakfast cereal. I also like lentils but other family members are not very keen on them. I am always on the lookout for recipes with lentils that I think they might eat. Pine nuts are very nice sprinkled on fruit.
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A small treat – I like my two squares of 70% cocoa chocolate in the evening!
This picture from the Foods Standards Agency, the Eatwell Plate, is a very good visual guide to what we should be eating and in what proportions.
July 11, 2009 1:43 am 
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