Anyone want to set some TF meal planning goals with me?

[Smokering]

So we aren't really hard-core TFers (mostly due to laziness and lack of funds!), but I'm trying to be more diligent now, as I've noticed DD seems to have a few small holes in two top molars. (Yes, I've read the dental thread about TF and plan to do butter oil, HVCLO and so on.)

We've taken to eating fish once a week, they day I go grocery shopping, so it's fresh. We don't have a car so I can't get fresh fish more often, but I'd like to buy enough for two meals and cook the rest the next day for lunch (that should be safe, right?). I also want to start eating more organ meats (ulp! My first experience with liver was NOT a success!), and generally just being more conscious of how much of what we eat.

So. Anyone want to join me with a "I will aim to eat X, Y times a week" challenge?

I will aim to eat:

• Fish twice a week (or other seafood, but who are we kidding - I'm way too squeamish for fish roe or shellfish)
• Chicken stock in some form - probably soup, as the weather's getting colder - three times a week. Or beef stock, if I ever make it. Which I don't.
• Yoghurt 5 days a week. DD hasn't been a fan, but I mixed a little raw honey in with it today and she nommed it up. Does raw honey totally negate the cavity-fighting benefits of yoghurt? How else can I make her take it? Even I don't like it plain and unsweetened.
• A small amount of organ meat once a week. Even a wee bit of pureed liver in a mincey lasagna counts at this stage.

[Metasequoia]

We like our yogurt plain with berries - even if they're frozen berries. If you're used to sweetened yogurt, it could take a little bit of time to get used to it unsweetened. I generally try to avoid sweetening foods.

Can you get frozen fish? We buy A LOT of frozen wild salmon and eat it at least three times a week.

Liver: I chop it up into pill sized pieces, sprinkle on sea salt & kelp flakes & swallow it whole like pills with a chug of water. If you place it on the back of your tongue, you miss the taste buds. I eat about 1/4-1/2 cup at a time like this - usually in the morning for a good burst of long-lasting energy.
IMO, cooking it and mixing it into foods just prolongs the nastiness and ruins yummy food. But if you like it cooked into foods, more power to you.

Okay, I think this would be a cool idea & might help me out since my motivation is looow right now.

I had a thought as I was straining my beef stock into containers last night - what if, rather than having to measure it out every time and store it in containers in the freezer, I made 1 big pot a week and stored it in the fridge so I could just scoop it out as needed?
I *think* fresh stock would last a week, no? I know I've seen it mentioned, but I can't recall.
I want us to eat more stock. I don't mind making it, I just loathe measuring it & putting it into containers...
I prefer chicken stock, but I think beef has a lot of important minerals, too.
I could use more ideas of how to consume it too. I measure it into 3 cup measurements before freezing so when I make rice, it's all ready to go, bu I don't want us eating that much rice. I'm okay with once every week or two, but that's it. The kids are off and on with soups - but they do like pureed soups... But some other ideas besides soup would be awesome.

So that's mine, make a fresh pot of stock and consume within one week - no freezing, no waste!

Thanks for the thread, great idea.

[Koalamom]

Love this thread!

"I will aim to eat X, Y times a week"
-steamed greens or a salad everyday
-bone broth everyday
-some kind of bean (for the minerals particularly molybdenum)

Anyone know of a good way to get more b vit's? B-6?

[Metasequoia]

Originally Posted by bluebirdmama1

Anyone know of a good way to get more b vit's? B-6?

Liver.

[lakeruby]

[QUOTE=Metasequoia;15223298]
Liver: I chop it up into pill sized pieces, sprinkle on sea salt & kelp flakes & swallow it whole like pills with a chug of water. If you place it on the back of your tongue, you miss the taste buds. I eat about 1/4-1/2 cup at a time like this - usually in the morning for a good burst of long-lasting energy.
IMO, cooking it and mixing it into foods just prolongs the nastiness and ruins yummy food. But if you like it cooked into foods, more power to you.
QUOTE]

This is a great idea! I'm going to try it. How do you store your liver? Is this fresh liver that you buy frequently, or do you store some frozen?

Great thread idea!

[Metasequoia]

I keep it frozen, remove from freezer, let it sit on the counter for about 5 minutes, slice of a chunk and put the rest back in the freezer. It's actually easier to chop it up while it's still a bit frozen.

[Metasequoia]

Dd1 likes to eat it this way, too. She likes the freak-factor but she also enjoys the rush of energy and the feel-good factor.

[Smokering]

Metasequoia: I freeze my stock in muffin tins. I guess each holds about 1/3 of a cup? They're a handy size if I want to make a cheese sauce with stock or use it to cook rice (after soaking the rice with water and yoghurt and draining it). If you eat rice or beans or anything, that's a good way to use up a bunch of stock! I was educating my vegetarian friend on how to cook lentils the other day, and accidentally mentioned that they taste so much better cooked in chicken stock.... Oops.

Now winter's coming I'll be making soup a lot more, so I plan to freeze stock in bigger quantities as well. I don't particularly want to eat roast chicken more than once a week, so I'll probably resort to buying chicken frames from the supermarket and making mega-batches of stock.

Stock keeps better in the fridge if you leave the fat cap on the top.

I don't like the taste of beef stock nearly as much as chicken. But NZ beef is all grass-fed, whereas the chickens are grown in nastier environments (I think) - and I can't currently afford to buy organic free-range chickens, sadly. So their bones are probably a lot less minerally than the bones of NZ cows, right? So I should make beef stock. Hrmm. I guess I can put it in stews.

I'm not sure I could bring myself to do that liver pill thing... It isn't actually the taste I mind so much, it's the texture. So hopefully hiding it in mince would be non-traumatising. Or I could do pate. I loved liverwurst as a kid - I guess I should be glad I ate it when I was too naive to know what it was!

I always had the vague impression that frozen fish wasn't a good thing. Not sure why. Oh, that's right - DH got sick once after weate some frozen fish (frozen by me, not bought frozen). I don't think it was actually related, just one of those nasty associations. I'll get some next week, good idea!

Everyone feel free to post your meal plans, before or after the fact. It'd be cool to see how everyone incorporates their goals into actual daily food.

[tanyalynn]

Originally Posted by bluebirdmama1

Love this thread!

"I will aim to eat X, Y times a week"
-steamed greens or a salad everyday
-bone broth everyday
-some kind of bean (for the minerals particularly molybdenum)

Anyone know of a good way to get more b vit's? B-6?

Bananas actually have quite a bit of B6.

Lentils can be yummy (for the beans), have you tried French green lentils? Not lentil-y in flavor--which is a plus for me.

[Smokering]

OK, it's the start of a new week, so the challenge is on! I made a meal plan which meets all my goals:

3 instances of chicken stock - two chicken soups for lunch, one rice cooked in stock for dinner
5 instances of yoghurt - for breakfast every day, not terribly creative, but gets the job done!
2 instances of fish - Tuesday (I'll be running errands in town) and Thursday when I go grocery shopping
1 instance of organ meats - Wednesday night is a beef crockpot casserole, into which I'll mix a bit of liver.

I'll let you know if I succeed. What about you lot? Any concrete plans?

[Smokering]

Anyone still with me?

Last week was a success - in fact, we had chicken stock about six times instead of only three.

This week, the plan is all good except for the liver. We're not eating red meat this week, so I can't hide the liver in with beef or mince. Hrmm. Maybe I'll have to bite the bullet and have liver for breakfast. Euggh. DH and the toddler like it, so they can eat most of mine.

Question: I make Easiyo packet yoghurt with live cultures. If I leave a wee bit of yoghurt in the bottom of the jar, top it up with milk (not raw, sadly, just regular supermarket milk - grass-fed, though) and put it in the yoghurt maker, will it work? I'm out of Easiyo packets and would like to transition to real yoghurt anyway.

[greenmamapagan]

Great thread I've been making heaps of beef broth lately. DH has actually changed to eating a big lunch then just having a cup of broth for dinner (he gets home later than we eat). As for goals, I'll bbl when I have more time.

[velcromom]

Originally Posted by Metasequoia

I could use more ideas of how to consume it too. I measure it into 3 cup measurements before freezing so when I make rice, it's all ready to go, bu I don't want us eating that much rice. I'm okay with once every week or two, but that's it. The kids are off and on with soups - but they do like pureed soups... But some other ideas besides soup would be awesome.

So that's mine, make a fresh pot of stock and consume within one week - no freezing, no waste!

Thanks for the thread, great idea.

other ways we use broth - use it whenever you make a sauce: broth sauce instead of white sauce, then add diced meat, seasonings, serve over soaked pasta or (yum) biscuits. Add a little sour cream at the end for a stroganoff style dish.

broth is half of my enchilada sauce base along with tomato sauce (not authentic, but yummy) this also serves as the foundation for chile colorado, or bean chili, or tortilla soup, or nachos (soo not TF, unless I made my own chips fried in grassfed tallow, oh those are so good...)

cook sprouted beans in broth... add seasonings, a little sea salt, a pat of butter... really simple delicious dish.

I've had the thought that it might be good to use unseasoned broth as the liquid in bread, but I haven't been brave enough to try it & see how it would affect the taste... I've used whey though, for the extra minerals.

Back on topic, I have a whole menu planning binder I worked up and currently am not even using!! I really need to get back on track... will sub to this thread & see if I can get inspired.

[_ktg_]

subbing as I'm looking to get more TF and less processed!

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by Smokering

We don't have a car so I can't get fresh fish more often, but I'd like to buy enough for two meals and cook the rest the next day for lunch (that should be safe, right?).[*]Fish twice a week (or other seafood, but who are we kidding - I'm way too squeamish for fish roe or shellfish)

Fresh fish should still be good the next day. Or you can cook enough to have leftovers the next day. I buy shellfish frozen (already shelled), so I don't have to deal with it. Love shrimp and scallops that way.

Originally Posted by Metasequoia

I *think* fresh stock would last a week, no? I know I've seen it mentioned, but I can't recall.

I presume that just about anything fresh (other than fish) will last in my fridge at least a week. If you take it out and reboil it every other day, you could probably get a month out of it. But as is, I usually keep it 2 weeks before tossing it.

Originally Posted by bluebirdmama1

Anyone know of a good way to get more b vit's? B-6?

Eggs. Carrots, chicken, peas, spinach, sunflower seeds, walnuts, avocado, beans, molasses, broccoli, brown rice, cabbage, potatoes.

Originally Posted by Smokering

Question: I make Easiyo packet yoghurt with live cultures. If I leave a wee bit of yoghurt in the bottom of the jar, top it up with milk (not raw, sadly, just regular supermarket milk - grass-fed, though) and put it in the yoghurt maker, will it work? I'm out of Easiyo packets and would like to transition to real yoghurt anyway.

Yes, that should work just fine.

This week my plan is to be sure to get 3 meals in, instead of just snacking on garbage throughout the day and eating dinner when DH gets home like I've been doing ever since the babe was born.

ETA - oh, and the only way I can stomach liver is in a liver flan. I use duck liver, but chicken would also work. It's made with eggs and heavy cream, and is absolutely amazing. When I'm grain-free, I just eat scoops of it on a salad, and it's still beautiful.

[Smokering]

I've had the thought that it might be good to use unseasoned broth as the liquid in bread, but I haven't been brave enough to try it & see how it would affect the taste... I've used whey though, for the extra minerals.

I asked about this very thing in Nutrition and Good Eating recently. Nobody had tried it, but a few people said it sounded OK. I have grains soaking right now for multigrain/seed bread rolls, so maybe I'll try it today with chicken stock and let you know how it turns out.

Also, DH is about to start frying liver. I'm having eggs, but wish me luck... I'll try to eat one piece. Gahh. Next time I'll get chicken livers and try pate.

We suddenly had to start a very restricted food budget, so this week's shop was hard. I thought we could only afford one lot of fish, but ended up getting a small can of tuna as well. I know, not ideal, but... it's fish... We'll eat it on the above-mentioned bread rolls tomorrow for lunch.

I need to figure out one more way to eat yoghurt this week by the end of tomorrow. We had mango lassis the other day, which made a nice change from just yoghurt for breakfast. Joybells, though - toddler DD has developed a real taste for yoghurt, fish and soup! She was never a big eater, but recently she's started demanding "Dinner! Food!" (OK, and sometimes "Chippies!". And, indeed, "Cake!", which is odd as we very rarely eat cake and she's never been that impressed by it when we do...)

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by Smokering

Yoghurt 5 days a week. DD hasn't been a fan, but I mixed a little raw honey in with it today and she nommed it up. Does raw honey totally negate the cavity-fighting benefits of yoghurt? How else can I make her take it? Even I don't like it plain and unsweetened.

Something you might want to try making is tzatziki - it's yogurt, cucumber, garlic and fresh dill made into a dip for veggies, a dressing for salad or a sauce for meat. It's a fabulous way to get extra yogurt into your diet. I don't like it plain and unsweetened either, but I love it like this. Or you can stir it into sauteed mushrooms (or other veg) to make a sauce - take it off the heat first so you don't kill the probiotics.

[velcromom]

Yes on the tzatziki! Love that stuff. And, plain yogurt + fresh snipped dill, parsley & chives = ranch dressing. You could drain the yogurt for a while if you like it thicker as a dip.

[Smokering]

I'm not keen on cucumber or mint, sadly. But you reminded me of yoghurt mixed with sweet chilli sauce as a dip for carrots, which I LOVE! ...I'm guessing sweet chilli sauce is pretty non-TF, though...

[Smokering]

Velcromom: My bread rolls made with chicken stock turned out fine! I didn't notice a chickeny taste at all - they'd have been fine even with jam on (well, aside from being sprinkled with rock salt). DH thought it was a waste of chicken stock, though. He loves his chicken soup, that man. So if you have limited chicken stock I'd save it for recipes where you get to taste it, but if you're all about nutrient density, go for it!