Plan B. Improving what I eat

So, it seems I'd best try planning out all three recipes a day to try and reduce all the extras.

Last weekend's grocery receipt (compared against a few older ones) shows a few things I regularly get.

• Baguettes.
• Hot cereal mixes.
• Snack bars.
• Instant meals.
• Flavored yogurt.
• Drinks (chocolate milk, juices, sodas, etc).
• Taco mix, or sauce.
• Junk food.

Most of these things I can either make at home or just do without. Breaking the soda habit is a hard one. We're going to try to wean ourselves off both soda and junk food. This is not going to be easy; and to help I have to come up with interesting snacks for daily consumption that are portable.

Step 1. Sauces
I have a great recipe for taco mix. I need to make that up this weekend. Fortunately I have most of the ingredients.

I'll have to make more chicken broth next week (as this Friday's meal will probably take all I have). And I should make up some Diabetic vegetable stock as I'm all out.

Step 2. Snacks
I read somewhere that you should always reward yourself. When trying to stay healthy - that does limit my choices.

Snacks for this week:

• 100mL sugar-free fruit yogurt + ground flax seed
• 1/4 cup frozen berries + 1/3 cup cottage cheese - just me
• 1 oz Cheese + small fruit
• 2 sticks Celery + 1 tbsp natural peanut butter
• 4 Carrot sticks
• 1/2 cup Fruit salad (apples, pears, bananas, grapefruit, melon)

Menu plan
Check out Meal Outlaw for my menu plan.

Breakfasts
I barely know which way to go to get to the kitchen in the morning; so instead of setting a specific meal for a specific day, I'll just list the options here in three categories: Planned (must prepare the night before or get up early), backup (used most often when I sleep in), Quick (for when we're running late).

• Planned: Eggs and chicken bacon
• Planned: Cream of wheat & cinnamon sugar & fruit salad
• Backup: Oatmeal & fruit salad
• Quick: Cold cereal, milk & bananas
• Quick: Toast, natural peanut butter & bananas

Lunches
Same categories as for breakfast. Most lunches are planned, but we don't always have leftovers (even if I plan for them), so sometimes I need to use a backup and sometimes there's not even time for the backup.

• Planned: Leftovers, small salad, 15ml dressing, fruit, 257mL diet soda
• Backup: 1/2 Chicken sandwich (on whole wheat with light mayo, pepper & lettuce), carrots & celery, soup
• Quick: PB&J, carrots & celery, 257mL diet soda

Grocery list
Grocer

• Celery (snacks)
• Pears (snacks)
• Bananas (snacks)
• Melon (snacks
• 2 green bell peppers or red bell peppers (Mexican pie)
• 1 jalapeño pepper (Mexican pie)
• 1 Parsnips (Vegetable stock)
• 2 Leeks (Vegetable stock)
• 1 Celery root (Vegetable stock)
• 1 (10 ounce) package red pearl onions or white pearl onions (Vegetarian stew)
• 5 large sweet potatoes (Vegetarian stew)
• 1 head cauliflower (Vegetarian stew)
• 0.67 lbs (0.30 kg) ground chicken (Mexican pie)
• Sugar-free fruit yogurt (snacks)
• Cottage cheese (snacks)
• Eggs (breakfast, Mexican pie)
• Buttermilk (Mexican pie)
• 1 can low-salt tomato sauce (Mexican pie)

Butcher's

• Chicken bacon
• 1 pk chicken thighs (Chicken stew)
• 1 roasting chicken (Sunday)
• 1 pk chicken breasts (Chicken Provencal)

Deli

• Cheese (snacks)
• Dried minced onion (Taco mix)
• Chili powder (Taco mix)
• 1/3 cup (80 mL) black olives (Chicken Provencal)