Weekly Menu- September 8-14

Since making this major change to a completely organic diet, I have had so many people, ask how in the world we afford it. To encourage others who may desire to eat this way and who also need to be frugal, I am going to start posting my menu by the week, although I plan by the month and shop for the complete month. (My husband gets paid once a month, so this works out VERY well for me. Plus I have realized that it is easier for me to sit down once a month for a couple of hours-even if is from 10pm to midnight- to plan my menu and write my grocery list versus trying to find that time once a week. It just seems WAY less overwhelming and incredibly more manageable to do it this way! I still buy raw milk from the dairy weekly and produce almost weekly.) In the future, I hopefully will post this on Sundays.

Monday:
prep: soak black beans, (for Tuesday dinner) (I'll write more about the benefits of soaking later, I promise; this is BABY steps, girls!)

dinner: Baked Tilapia, whole grain brown rice, salad, and fruit (I buy this frozen at Sam's. I do the quick-thaw method of placing individually wrapped fish in water for 30 minutes. Make sure with fish, you buy "wild" caught fish, NOT farm-raised. You can read why here. Mike actually cooked this for us since I was grocery shopping. He just buttered the pan, brushed melted butter on the filets, and sprinkled garlic salt on top...it was YUMMY!! I soaked a whole bunch of rice a few days ago and then cooked it all. Now I have some in the fridge that I can just heat up in a sauce pan with a tablespoon or 2 of water as needed. Whole grain brown rice takes 30-45 minutes to cook. My salad is simply an organic spring mix (from Sam's) and organic dressing that we pretty much have EVERY night. My boys are even starting to try salad, and LIKE IT!! The fruit is just whatever I have on hand, which was just some organic bananas last night!)

Tuesday:
prep: thaw soup, cook beans (for Thursday dinner, won't have time Wed.)

dinner: Italian Pinto Beans, salad, fruit (Last month I made this recipe for the first time, leaving out the "optional" sausage. Since this is all new to us, Mike and I have been making notes about every new recipe. On this one, we wrote that it definitely needed the sausage, it needed more kick, and needed more onion. So, it made a HUGE amount last month and I froze it. On top of the container on masking tape I wrote "Italian Beans, add sausage and onion." So today, I just thawed it and added sauted sausage--from Whole Food, nitrate-free-- and onion, which made it WAY better! )

Wednesday:
prep: none

dinner: either at church, leftovers, or sandwiches (Our church has meals on Wednesday, but we decided to limit it to 2 Weds. per month, as it costs money! When we eat sandwiches, the kids eat organic peanut butter and all fruit jelly on organic whole wheat bread. We just recently made the switch to the organic whole wheat bread (no high fructose corn syrup) that I buy at Sam's 2 loaves for $3.85. Eventually I would like to start buying grain, milling it, then making my own bread...but it's baby steps!)

Thursday:
prep: none

dinner: Black Bean Burrito Casserole, corn, salad, fruit (I made this for the first time last month and we LOVED it. I did the two 9 inch square pans...one for my family and one for another who had just had a baby. I make my own cream cheese and use it in this recipe. The whole wheat tortillas I use are from Whole Foods in Tulsa because I could not find ONE brand at Walmart that didn't have partially hydrogenated fat in them, even it said "0 trans fat" on the front. The corn is frozen organic from Whole Foods. I buy all my dried beans, lentils, rice, sugar, and spices in bulk at Whole Foods...I just scoop out the approximate amount I will need for the month! You can even just buy a couple of teaspoons of a spice...way fresher than a whole jar, especially if it's not used very often!)

Friday:
prep: start crock-pot for dinner

dinner: Crock-Pot Hawaiian Chicken, mashed potatoes, peas (We've had this for dinner twice now and it is AWESOME! The chicken is so moist and the kids even like it! I cooked last time for 9ish hours, and the meat was just falling off the bone. I save the bones to make my own chicken stock for future recipes. Oh, and Sucanet is just an ALL natural, unrefined sugar that I buy in bulk at Whole Foods! I love buying in bulk and just scooping out however much I need...it's sweet! I bought the potatoes and frozen peas at Whole Foods, also.)

Saturday:
prep: soak lentils and rice for Sunday dinner and for next weeks' meals

lunch: Mac and cheese, hot dogs, fruit (Mac and cheese is Annie's brand from Walmart, which sells it WAY cheaper than Whole Foods or Reasor's. The hot dogs are organic, 100% beef, nitrate-free from Whole Foods. They are VERY good and only have 6 grams of fat.)

dinner: Chimi's with Holly and Trey...Yippee!! (My best friend and her hubby and daughter, who live in Texas, are coming to Tulsa for the American Idol concert!)

Sunday:
prep: none

dinner: SMALL GROUP--Soft Tacos 2 ways-- ground beef & Lentils and Brown Rice (We made the lentil and brown rice taco filling last month without the optional ground beef. We all LOVED it, well except Nate. It was really good.)

Okay, so that is the menu for this week! I'll write more about the benefits of soaking and what that means later. You can actually read a little about it NOW if you are interested...click here!

Let me know what you think and if you have any thoughts, comments, or questions. Of, if you think I am totally crazy, you can tell me that, also!! :)