The Plan:
Day 1: Spaghetti with homemade pasta sauce, Greenhouse spinach salad
Day 2: Grilled steak, Baked butternut squash
Day 3: Homemade pizza
Day 4: Vegan Shepherd’s pie
Day 5: Spanakopita (from freezer)
Day 6: Baked potato bar
Day 7: Sheet pan squash pancakes with maple butter, Frozen fruit smoothie with super greens powder
This meal plan was curated using local foods that are in season now or preserved during the peak growing season in the U.S. Midwest. The plan is an exact replica of what our family is eating this week unless we are out of town. Meal plans are developed using whole foods and my meal planning system (click here!) and are meant to be healthy and easy to prepare. Most recipes will take no more than 30 minutes of active cooking time. Occasionally meals may require all day slow cooking, advanced prep, or some oven time. Recipes are provided when available. I sincerely hope this will help with your own meal planning!
Pantry Shuffle:
Out of Storage: (preserved when in season and coming out of my root cellar, freezer, canned, or dehydrated stash)
- Homemade pasta sauce (canned)
- Steak (from Mastodon Valley Farm meat share)
- Butternut squash, onions, potatoes (from root cellar)
- Carrots, celeriac root (refrigerator “root cellar”)
- Spanakopita, strawberries, peaches, pumpkin puree (freezer)
- Super greens powder (dehydrated)
Into Storage: nothing this week
Notes: The Benefits of Cooking from Scratch
For the last 4 weeks I’ve been writing about the dietary principles that guide my meal planning for healthy eating. This isn’t so much a “diet”, but a lifestyle that is realistic to maintain and more in line with what our ancestors ate. I’m not concerned about the ratio of carbs to protein to fat or about counting calories. This is about looking at the science and what it tells us is truly unhealthy and what we know that our bodies need.
Dietary Principle #5
My final dietary principle is to cook at home as much as possible. This is above all the most important of the 5 principles. If you are cooking at home, you will be using real, clean, whole foods that have not been processed (dietary principle #1 – eat whole foods). When you cook from scratch, you get to choose which oil you use (dietary principle #2 – avoid vegetable and seed oils) and how much sugar you add (dietary principle #3 – avoid sugar). You are likely to eat more fruits and vegetables to nourish your cells and help heal damage from oxidation and inflammation (dietary principle #4 – eat as many vegetables and fruits as possible).
Cooking from scratch is the main key to healthy eating. And in my opinion, fresh, homecooked meals just taste better. After years of preparing my own food, I now have a hard time eating out. Many times after eating at restaurants, I feel ill. I get a headache, brain fog, low energy, I’m really thirsty, and my stomach hurts. My body is rejecting this food! It is also difficult to find restaurant food that follows my dietary principles, without spending a lot of money. In fact, eating healthy food at home saves me a LOT of money.
If home cooking is so good for us, why don’t more people eat this way?
Only about 33% of Americans cook at home most of the time. 37% cook at home 3-5 times per week, 21% cook 1-2 times per week, and 8% cook less than once per week. That means that 2/3 of us are eating out most days of the week!
Time and lack of cooking skills are the biggest barriers to cooking at home, but there are also many ways to overcome these barriers. And once you break through, this lifestyle gets easier and easier over time.
Tips to follow my dietary principles
1 – Set up your pantry with healthy basics. Read this article on how I set up my own pantry. The main thing is going to be replacing inflammatory vegetable and seed oils with healthy oils like olive and coconut oil. You also want to clear your cupboards of processed foods.
2 – Take the time to learn basic cooking skills. I am a self-taught cook. I didn’t get this way overnight. I watched a lot of You Tube videos, took a class now and again, and did a lot of experimenting.
3 – Plan meals ahead of time. Use my meal plans, or put your own favorite recipes on repeat.
4 – Make it simple. For breakfast I eat 2 scrambled eggs every morning with a slice of sourdough toast and it takes me about 5 minutes to make. Snacks are straight up whole foods like olives, a piece of fruit, sliced cucumbers w/ a sprinkle of salt, mashed avocado with carrots, a slice of cheese, or some nuts. Almost zero prep required. Lunch is usually leftovers from previous suppers, so it is very grab and go. I aim for supper recipes that come together in under 30-45 minutes.
5 – Meal prep to save you time. Analyze your schedule and find a few minute here and there to plan out meals for the week and prepare some foods in advance like cutting up produce.
6 – Use technology to save you time. Dust off your Slow Cooker, Instant Pot, and Air Fryer.
7 – Try out a meal kit service like Hello Fresh. They are easy recipes and the ingredients will be portioned out and often pre-prepped for you. Just be sure to check over the ingredient list thoroughly before ordering to make sure you are making healthy choices. I don’t personally use meal kits because of all the packaging waste, but I can see how this can be a helpful option for some.
8 – Start small. You don’t have to make these changes all at once. Start by increasing the number of times you cook at home by just 1-2 per week and increase from there as you get used to it. You could also start by committing yourself to eating every breakfast at home.
What do you think about my dietary principles? Do you follow a similar diet plan? Do you disagree? Did you learn anything new or set new goals?
Remember, this is based on my own research and I am giving you information about what I believe is healthy. Food is tricky and it isn’t usually something we are taught about when we are young. It is up to you to research and make changes. Food is medicine. It fuels your body and is so important for an enjoyable life. Eating well is worth your time and money.
