Meal Rhythm, themes

[mommabeehilly]

So I have been reading Shannon Honeybloom's book Making a Family Home and I love it BTW.

In the book she suggests themed meals (her example is Monday morning Oatmeal, Tuesday night Mexican theme). I love this idea. I guess I had always (wrongly) assumed that to make my meals in a rhythm I'd have to make the same *darn* thing every week...which just flat out does not jive with my palette. However, I love this idea of themes. So I am wondering...do you have themed meals and if so what are they?...'cause I need some ideas.

Here is what I have so far for dinner:
Monday- Mexican
Tuesday- Soup
Wednesday- ?
Thursday- ?
Friday- Pizza
Saturday- Family Date night
Sunday- ?

For breakfast:
Monday- oatmeal
Tuesday- baked something
Wednesday- ?
Thursday- ?
Friday- waffles
Saturday- ?
Sunday- pancakes

TIA!

[lyrebird]

Hi
I really love this idea, but it doesn't work for us as we try to make two meals that can be heated up as leftovers during the week (covering 3-4 nights depending on whether we make one of them on the weekend). Cheating, I know... We do at least try to give it a slightly different spin the second night and add fresh vegies. Maybe we should make it more regular and then the days we don't do this are themed. Hmm, you've got me thinking, thanks.

What about one of your evenings make it some sort of different grain that you don't normally eat - quinoa/buckwheat/barley/millet. "Grainy Thursday"?

Or another one is choosing something that's in season and that is a little different to what you'd normally have (or perhaps a little exotic) and making it the focus of your meal (and dessert!) - I don't know what you'd call that one... Seasonal Highlight? Nah, you'd have to come up with something better than that.

Pasta is another handy one - plenty of options there, including all sorts of interesesting lasagna recipes. Vegetarian and meat based.

Asian - could be Indian curry, Thai, Chinese stir-fry, rice noodles, etc.

Breakfasts - again during the week, it's almost always muesli but varying what's added (puffed amaranth, millet, etc.). Why don't you try something with eggs on one of the days - scrambled/poached or even just boiled? Add parsely to scrambled, do garlic and sage fried mushrooms (can't wait to add the sage back in when I stop breastfeeding) or dare I say it ... bacon...
Sundays is our brunch day - we have a little something just to deceive the tummy in the morning and I go off for a swim. When I come home we have brunch and then DH goes off to play soccer. Works a treat!
Saturdays we have toast and hot drinks (hot choc/hot vanilla/coffee etc.) - because Friday is bread delivery day
What fun, enjoy!

[LuxPerpetua]

We don't do themed meals per se except for Fridays we make homemade pizza. Also, like the poster above, we cook a large dish on Mondays, and eat that M-W with fresh veggies, and then eat at my mom's on Thurs., pizza on Fri, and hodge podge leftovers or take-out on Saturday and fish on Sundays. During the winter, Wed is soup and homemade bread night.



Fried rice with tofu/chicken and veggies is a good meal. Also, any kind of baked pasta dish. And don't forget fish.

Our breakfasts are a variety of yogurt with cereal mix-ins, fresh oatmeal and fruit, cream of wheat, toast, scrambled eggs.

Good luck!

[mamaUK]

Is that book a good read mommabeehilly? I haven't heard of the book before. What's sort of things does it discuss?

LuxPerpetua, the big dishes you talk about that you have over a couple of nights? Are they all meat based or are some vegetarian? I have never cooked like that before and I am interested to try. It is something fresh homecooked for us everynight and it gets tiring when I could be spending more time snuggling with the children! I love you idea of pizza on fridays. We have made from scratch pizza every week but not on fridays. I love the idea of having it every friday so i think I am going to do that this autumn. Thanks!

...and thanks to mommabeehilly for starting such an interesting post!

[mommariffic]

I have been toying with the idea of a general theme for the week too too! Summer right now is too crazy with spontaneous BBQ's and having a new baby, so this is my *fingers crossed* fall & winter rhythm.

I love the idea of a huge Sunday dinner, but we often visit family so they cook for us which is awesome and not something I'm willing to give up!

I was thinking:
Monday: bread & soup [I'm going to be baking every Monday so this works]
Tuesday: MEAT. Probably a good filet mignon or something - I wanna cut our beef eating down to once a week so this will be the day! I'm going to do lamb, some weeks too, yum!
Weds: Pasta & salad
Thurs: Paninis or sandwiches with soup from Monday
Fri: pizza night!
Saturday: Cook a huge meal - 3 courses & dessert
Sunday: Family dinners!

[LuxPerpetua]

Originally Posted by mamaUK

Is that book a good read mommabeehilly? I haven't heard of the book before. What's sort of things does it discuss?

LuxPerpetua, the big dishes you talk about that you have over a couple of nights? Are they all meat based or are some vegetarian? I have never cooked like that before and I am interested to try. It is something fresh homecooked for us everynight and it gets tiring when I could be spending more time snuggling with the children! I love you idea of pizza on fridays. We have made from scratch pizza every week but not on fridays. I love the idea of having it every friday so i think I am going to do that this autumn. Thanks!

...and thanks to mommabeehilly for starting such an interesting post!

Oh, I'm sure you could do vegetarian dishes. We actually rarely eat big hunks of meat but rather meat in casseroles. Right now we have a large pot of spaghetti that we're doing (I just reheat noodles and sauce as needed each night--it takes, maybe 15 mins.). We also do things like taco casserole, stir fries, fried rice with chicken and veggies, lasagna, quiche ... these are just off the top of my head.

I should say that we started doing this because dinner was taking up too much of our days. By the time I did housework and showered and such we were not getting outside at all and that just wasn't going to work. We've really loved it. We also host my parents each Monday night, so having a fresh cooked meal that night works really well. Sometimes I'll do something different on Wednesdays to break things up, especially in winter when we're inside so much, and then finish up the leftovers on Saturday.

[zoebird]

this is our meal plan (on average)

for breakfast, we alternate between yogurt with fruit and toast, eggs and steamed veggies, and bircher muesli (which is made like oatmeal here and is very yummy--you soak it over night in apple juice, the boil it up in a few minutes the next morning). on weekends, we have "big breakfast" of eggs, toast, bacon, veggies, fruit, tea. it's a long affair. (most weekends, we only eat two meals and snacks).

dinners are as follows:

Mon: "cheesy-grain day"-- grain of choice (or mixture) plus beans (if around), plus cheeses (whatever we have around), plus steamed veggies. one-pot meal and easy clean up.

Tues: "salad and potato day"--we have lots of kinds of potatoes here. we have all kinds of white potatoes (red bliss, yellow, golden, blah blah blah) and we also have many kinds of kumera (which are a "maori potato" and are sweet potatoes and come in about 15 different varieties), plus regular sweet potatoes and yams (which also have about 5-6 different varieties), and they are *cheap* as all get out. we season them in different ways, usually roast them, sometimes mash them, etc.

salads are diverse. whatever greens and veggies we have, sometimes nuts an seeds as well, and i also like to boil up some beans and let them cool throughout the day so that they are chilled for the salad in the evening. simple meal, but very diverse and very good.

wednesday: italian night. currently we do a polenta and home made pan sauce, a side salad of greens with parmesan strips and a bit of honey. sometimes we have italian sausages with this.

thursday: soup night--i have about 12 different soup recipes that i rotate through depending upon the seasons. i have three for each season, so that keeps it simple.

friday: mexican night--it's hard to do mexican in NZ, but we do quesadillas in corn tortillas with salsa. side salad or steamed veggies.

saturday: typically, we make "french bread pizzas" on this night. once DH decides to eat gluten again, we will do a home made pizza night.

sunday: usually steamed or stir fried veggies with rice or the night that we do take-aways.

lunches are typically sandwiches with steamed veggies and some fruit.

for snacks (which we don't have often) we have anzac biscuits or fruit.

[mamaUK]

Originally Posted by zoebird

this is our meal plan (on average)

for breakfast, we alternate between yogurt with fruit and toast, eggs and steamed veggies, and bircher muesli (which is made like oatmeal here and is very yummy--you soak it over night in apple juice, the boil it up in a few minutes the next morning). on weekends, we have "big breakfast" of eggs, toast, bacon, veggies, fruit, tea. it's a long affair. (most weekends, we only eat two meals and snacks).

dinners are as follows:

Mon: "cheesy-grain day"-- grain of choice (or mixture) plus beans (if around), plus cheeses (whatever we have around), plus steamed veggies. one-pot meal and easy clean up.

Tues: "salad and potato day"--we have lots of kinds of potatoes here. we have all kinds of white potatoes (red bliss, yellow, golden, blah blah blah) and we also have many kinds of kumera (which are a "maori potato" and are sweet potatoes and come in about 15 different varieties), plus regular sweet potatoes and yams (which also have about 5-6 different varieties), and they are *cheap* as all get out. we season them in different ways, usually roast them, sometimes mash them, etc.

salads are diverse. whatever greens and veggies we have, sometimes nuts an seeds as well, and i also like to boil up some beans and let them cool throughout the day so that they are chilled for the salad in the evening. simple meal, but very diverse and very good.

wednesday: italian night. currently we do a polenta and home made pan sauce, a side salad of greens with parmesan strips and a bit of honey. sometimes we have italian sausages with this.

thursday: soup night--i have about 12 different soup recipes that i rotate through depending upon the seasons. i have three for each season, so that keeps it simple.

friday: mexican night--it's hard to do mexican in NZ, but we do quesadillas in corn tortillas with salsa. side salad or steamed veggies.

saturday: typically, we make "french bread pizzas" on this night. once DH decides to eat gluten again, we will do a home made pizza night.

sunday: usually steamed or stir fried veggies with rice or the night that we do take-aways.

lunches are typically sandwiches with steamed veggies and some fruit.

for snacks (which we don't have often) we have anzac biscuits or fruit.

OMG Zoebird this was such an interesting reply to read! For me some things were really strange (not in a bad way of course, but in a way of how different food choices are from country to country)

here is what i found so different : for breakfast, the eggs with steamed vegetable. In the UK we obviously have eggs for breakfast sometimes but steamed veg isn't something on the breakfast menu! That sounds so healthy!!!!! In the UK people will generally have toast and a glass of juice or cup of tea, or a bowl of cereal, possibly with some yogurt on the top or on the weekends a full english breakfast (not for me b/c I'm vegetarian) Sometimes people might make pancakes or porridge (We have pancakes and porridge about once a week. I wouldn't say the UK have the healthiest breakfasts really!

Also I found the sandwiches with steamed veg really different, again not something we do in the uk!

I love your idea of cheesy grain day!

ON your salad and potato day, do you have a protein with that? I struggle with different proteins because i don't have all the variation of meat/fish to use.

what sort of beans do you use in your salad? Do you make dressings to go with that?

[mommabeehilly]

You guys...I am *loving* all of these replies. They are helping me so much.

And yes, the book is a good one .

[lyrebird]

Zoebird, how do you make your cheesy grains? Always looking for different ways to include grains. thanks.

My aim is to make up a healthy dip on a Sunday and then having it a couple of days during the week for lunch with cut vegies and grainy crackers or sourdough bread. I have to try to stay low GI. I've got hommus, lentil dip, bean dip so far (all low GI). I find if I don't have something planned like that I just go for the bread...and honey!

this is an inspiring thread! thanks, mommabeehilly for starting it and other posters, good to hear what works for people. I'll have a think and post my meal plan once I work out what's going to work for us.

[mommabeehilly]

Originally Posted by lyrebird

I'll have a think and post my meal plan once I work out what's going to work for us.

Yes, please do! I plan to post mine too.

[zoebird]

well, i wouldn't say that NZers or Americans eat like we do either. LOL we eat *a lot* of vegetables. like, *a lot*. so, we eat them throughout the day and personally, i eat steamed broccoli with olive oil, salt, and pepper like potato chips! LOL that's what they taste like to us.

for the cheesy grain, i try to mix up the grains or do a sort of pilaf of grains. they need to have similar boiling times, or it gets funny. but, i find that i can put in a bunch of kinds of grains, boil them up, and then about 10-15 minutes before they are done, i toss in veggies and they steam up as the rest is boiling off. then, i take grated cheese (literally, whatever i have), some butter and some milk (or sour cream or just leave it out), and i stir that in at the end.

sometimes, i might add spices to it, sometimes it's just nice with a mix of cheeses (eg, the other day, i had only mild cheddar, so i added a tiny hint of horseradish to it to give it a bit of zip, but the time before that, i had sour cream, parmesan, and cheddar, and so i kept the spices out, and the week before that, we had kidney beans and mexican seasoning in it). it's really tasty.

for protein for the salads, i'm not worried about it much. i was vegan for 6 years, and so i know that you can get protein from most everything. i tend to just rely on the beans and grains in the salad to do it, or the seeds and nuts, or both, and sometimes will add cheese.

for salad dressing, i have a few that i make:

basic: salt, pepper, olive oil
basic with zing: salt, pepper, olive oil, and vinegar (try different kinds like balsalmic, white wine, red wine, raspberry or other fruit, umboshi, rice wine, apple cider, etc).

honey mustard: olive oil, apple cider vinegar, mustard (the more natural the better, we get whole grain), honey.

yogurt dressing: bit of yogurt, fresh herbs and white onion or shallot, salt and pepper (literally, a table spoon is enough yogurt for a large salad. you just want a coating).

there are others, btu these are the few off the top of my head.

[Melaniee]

I absolutely loathe cooking, as hard as I try to impress upon myself to think of it as caring and nuturing my family, I loathe it. Therefore the "theme" nights really help me focus when I'm wandering aimlessly in the kitchen trying to avoid ordering take out.

Sometimes I do plan even more detailed prior to our grocery trip, for a specific meal. Some nights we have are:
-crock pot (my fav. cooking! LOL)
-something new night (this requires planning ahead)
-soup night
-Italian Night
-Grill Night
-Every other Friday or Saturday is my favorite: "Eat Out Night."

Sometimes, when we're planning ahead prior to the grocery trip, we have a Ds/Dd's choice night.

Breakfasts, depending upon the season, will often be the same each weekday, or most weekdays. In the cold Dh makes oatmeal in the rice cooker. Dc go to school so Breakfast isn't quite the 'sit down together time' that dinner is.

I love the ideas I am getting in this thread!

[mamaUK]

So since reading this thread, I realise I do in fact have theme nights but never actually realised! I am going to write this down and pin it up in my kitchen to make shopping lists easier now. We're vegetarian.

pizza night (Since this thread, that will be friday) made from scratch. I have a breadmaker which makes this very easy. So on the base goes a pizza sauce (Jamie Oliver recipe i have) with mozzerella and torn up fresh basil.
I make huge quanties of pizza sauce and freeze into ice cube portions ready so i always have pizza sauce in freezer. I need about 7 'ice cubes' for a 14 inch pizza. This will be served with home grown potatoes and , salad from the green house or our own runner beans. I boil the potatoes with lots of mint and they get served with a touch of butter.

Pasta Night:
This will either be fusilli with fresh tomato/courgette/garlic and basil with a heap of grated chedder on the top and garlic bread

or

home made mac cheese with a couple of different veg. Boiled. I have yet to get a steamer but zoebird has now made me want one

Soup night:

This will be a tomato and lentil soup with homemade bread from bread maker. I know bread made by hand is preferable in Waldorf homes but with the school run, cooking/baking everything from scratch i simply don't have the time.
The children have yet to try different soups. They refuse them! I need to work on this!

Mums night off night

This will sound very British. My husband goes to the fish and chip shop. I'm veggie though so I will have grated cheese on top of chips, with hard boiled egg, tomato ketchup. Unhealthy I know but yum LoL Reminds me of being by the sea.

The children will have sandwiches on this night.

Grain night

Homemade Cous Cous with garlic and courgette and cherry tomatoes with salad and hard boiled eggs.

I want to try some different grains like Zoebird suggested.

Lentil/dried peas/beans night

Home made Red or brown lentil roast or pease pudding, served with potatoes and variety of veg. Potatoes might be boiled/mashed/roasted.

Or

home made Ratatouille with canallini beans and baby sweetcorn and grated cheese.

-------------------------------------------------------------

So there are six days here, on the seventh day it will be using things up from the fridge so i will decide what's cooked on the day.

Apart from friday, I don't meal plan for certain days, I just pick from the list what will fit into any particular day.

Cooking fresh everyday takes a lot of time. This thread has given me ideas to try to change this a bit as i would like to spend a little less time in the kitchen. All our cakes and cookies are cooked from scratch too so it is a lot of work. The children like to help with the baking though

Thanks for the ideas mamas!

[mamaUK]

Originally Posted by zoebird

well, i wouldn't say that NZers or Americans eat like we do either. LOL we eat *a lot* of vegetables. like, *a lot*. so, we eat them throughout the day and personally, i eat steamed broccoli with olive oil, salt, and pepper like potato chips! LOL that's what they taste like to us.

for the cheesy grain, i try to mix up the grains or do a sort of pilaf of grains. they need to have similar boiling times, or it gets funny. but, i find that i can put in a bunch of kinds of grains, boil them up, and then about 10-15 minutes before they are done, i toss in veggies and they steam up as the rest is boiling off. then, i take grated cheese (literally, whatever i have), some butter and some milk (or sour cream or just leave it out), and i stir that in at the end.

sometimes, i might add spices to it, sometimes it's just nice with a mix of cheeses (eg, the other day, i had only mild cheddar, so i added a tiny hint of horseradish to it to give it a bit of zip, but the time before that, i had sour cream, parmesan, and cheddar, and so i kept the spices out, and the week before that, we had kidney beans and mexican seasoning in it). it's really tasty.

for protein for the salads, i'm not worried about it much. i was vegan for 6 years, and so i know that you can get protein from most everything. i tend to just rely on the beans and grains in the salad to do it, or the seeds and nuts, or both, and sometimes will add cheese.

for salad dressing, i have a few that i make:

basic: salt, pepper, olive oil
basic with zing: salt, pepper, olive oil, and vinegar (try different kinds like balsalmic, white wine, red wine, raspberry or other fruit, umboshi, rice wine, apple cider, etc).

honey mustard: olive oil, apple cider vinegar, mustard (the more natural the better, we get whole grain), honey.

yogurt dressing: bit of yogurt, fresh herbs and white onion or shallot, salt and pepper (literally, a table spoon is enough yogurt for a large salad. you just want a coating).

there are others, btu these are the few off the top of my head.

Thanks! Looking forward to trying some of this!

[honeybunmom]

Thanks so much for all the ideas on this thread! I WOH full time, so, meal planning is my friend. Not that I do it as much as I should, though. And my dh is at home. He's willing, but not always able. Having a good structure in place helps him a lot. We've got casseroles and chicken down, I need to focus on some grain options. I am pretty good with vegetable soups in the cold months, too - this thread has just impressed upon me the need to routinize our meals. Thanks again, everyone!

[mommabeehilly]

Originally Posted by zoebird

saturday: typically, we make "french bread pizzas" on this night. once DH decides to eat gluten again, we will do a home made pizza night.

zoebird...We are gluten-free and make homemade pizza. Actually DH makes the pizza. If you want the crust recipe, let me know. The texture is different, but it works.

[mommabeehilly]

OK I've had some shifting in my menu (DD started school so trying not to conflict with snack schedule)...but here goes...somehow I have also been inspired to have a weekly rhythm. This unfolded due to when we would bake and eat our baked treats.

Monday--cleaning day
breakfast- toast
dinner- Italian

Tuesday--handwork day
breakfast- eggs
dinner- Mexican

Wednesday--seasonal day*
breakfast- muslei (with extra grain)
dinner- Hodge podge

Thursday--painting day
breakfast- baked something
dinner- Big dish

Friday--family day
breakfast- oatmeal
dinner- pizza so many of us will be doing this

Saturday--outside day**
breakfast- Daddy cooks
dinner- Family Date Night (eat out, make something special)

Sunday--baking day
breakfast- pancakes
dinner- soup and bread

*seasonal day- seasonal craft, seasonal baking, etc.
**outside day- we go outside every day, but gardening, planting, nature walks, etc. can happen intentionally on this day.

Would love love love thoughts, ideas, suggestions. Etc.

[zoebird]

i'm not fond of the gluten free recipes! LOL so we use gluten free bread. i'm going to make sourdough pizza crust when the time comes. he knows he will go back to gluten soon.