Do you want to learn an easy way to prepare a one week menu for your family?
Dr. K’s Prescription for Happy Healthy Children:
One Week Menu for a Family of Four
Note: This menu plan starts for Sunday dinner as I have found this to be the most successful way for families to make the transition. This allows you time to go shopping for this weekly plan on Sunday. Therefore we end the week-long plan with Sunday lunch a week later and begin shopping for the new week. If you start in the middle of the week, you may need to refer back to another day’s preparation as some previously prepared or cooked items are used.
We are going to start our Menu on Sunday afternoon/evening.
Sunday is usually a relaxing day for most families; most of us go in and out of the house as we share time with one another. For some families it is also the day when they go out to it. You will be able to fit my planned schedule into your day, regardless of what your family preferences are, just by including some easy steps you may be already doing, anyway.
For working parents, Sunday is the day when they have more time to spend strolling around the grocery store gathering ingredients for their meals. I prepared a grocery list for Sunday for this very reason. With time, once you start enjoying the whole experience, you may find out you need to visit a couple of different grocery stores where they may have better produce or prices.
Whether you decide to go out for breakfast with your family, or you prefer to sleep-in and skip breakfast and start you day with a lunch, you are always going to have the time to gather the ingredients for the week.
Sunday is a good day to clean out the refrigerator and create meals that uses the left-overs from the previous weeks meals, before preparing the grocery list for another week.
Breakfast includes natural yogurt with frozen berries. The other meal of the day includes a leftover salad where you can use you imagination and play with different textures. Mixing fruits with raw vegetables is palatable, even when the dressing to use is simple olive oil and vinegar. Skip ingredients that are not your favorites and add others, as you prefer.
This salad is a good resource for the busy family. It can be prepared in a short moment if necessary. If you have a particularly busy day, where you can’t even get the time to enjoy preparing a full meal, this salad is a full meal. It combines all the ingredients your body needs without adding empty calories. You have protein ingredients in the salmon and eggs, all the fiber for the day in the form of fruits and vegetables, and small amounts of carbohydrates with lots of vitamins and minerals.
Sunday’s dinner menu includes an ingredient little known to traditional American families, but loaded with nutritious and health benefits. Lentils are legumes; they are rich in fiber and iron and they are ideal for people who need to watch their cholesterol levels or their blood sugar. Lentils allow for a slower abortion of all other ingredients in the menu, creating satiety and preventing over-eating. Lentils are 25% protein; in itself, a bowl of lentils constitute a meal. In this recipe we add Spanish Chorizo or Italian Sausage, increasing the protein content of the dish.
The Spanish Chorizo or the Italian Sausage is, in reality, an optional ingredient. Although this menu is intended for healthy people, it can be prepared without the chorizo or sausage, for those who need to decrease the fat content of their meals.
Lentils are also well tolerated by all age groups. If you have toddlers in your family, a bowl of lentil soup is a complete meal. If your child doesn’t tolerate the texture of the soup, you can use a strainer to create a more delicate puree out of the soup.
The amount of lentils recommended in this recipe is more than enough for a family of four. It is difficult to generalize when it comes to the amount of the ingredients; for example, if a family of four includes two teenagers, the amounts indicated may be just what you need. If, on the other hand, it includes two small toddlers, you may need to cut down the amount of meat prepared on Sunday, since toddlers may have enough with a bowl of lentils for dinner. For sure you are going to have leftover lentils; you can place the soup in a freezer-safe bag and freeze it for further use.
Our meat with vegetables dish is easy to prepare, although it may seem complicated at first. Just think about the amount of vegetables you are able to “camouflage” into this meal, away for the judging eyes or your picky guests. Because of the amount of meat and the generous quantity of vegetables added, you have enough for next day dinner.
Dinner: Lentil Soup & Meat with Vegetables
Ingredients for Lentil Soup:
1 lb of dried lentils
2 leeks
2 medium carrots
3 garlic cloves
½ onion
olive oil
Spanish Pimenton
smoked Paprika available at http://www.tienda.com/food/smoked_paprika.html
2 Spanish chorizo or 2 Italian sausages.
Ingredients for Meat with Vegetables:
2 lbs. of beef rump roast
1 medium onion
½ green bell pepper.
½ sweet red pepper
2 garlic cloves
2 carrots
olive oil
Spanish Pimenton
¼ cup of white wine
1 bag of frozen peas and carrots
Preparation:
Soak the lentils in warm water for 3-4 hours, or through the night.
Cut the carrots, ½ onion, leeks and garlic in small pieces and place them in a pot. Add 6 tablespoons of olive oil and cook on medium heat, covered, until the onions start to look transparent.
Uncover and add the lentils, draining the water first. Stir for a few seconds and add enough cold water to cover the lentils slightly. Cook slowly, partially covered, for about 1 hour. As the lentils cook and absorb water, you may need to add more water periodically; check them every 15 minutes and add cold water if needed.
While the lentils are cooking, start preparing the meat.
Cut the onion, carrots, garlic, red pepper and green pepper in small pieces and add 6 tablespoons of olive oil. As you turn on the stove place the roast on top of the vegetables and cover for a few minutes. When the vegetables start cooking and you start hearing a sizzling sound, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Turn the roast over and cook for 5 more minutes.
Once the whole roast is slightly brown all around, add enough water to cover the vegetables. Add the white wine and cover. Allow cooking slowly for 45 minutes. Turn the roast over every 15-20 minutes to allow cooking evenly.
We prepare these two dishes on a Sunday afternoon because they require more time to cook and a higher level of supervision.
After about 45 minutes take the roast out of the pot and allow it to cool before cutting. The vegetables are still inside the pot. Now, using a hand-held mixer, you are going to blend together all the vegetables until they are completely pureed. Add salt and 2 teaspoons of Spanish Pimenton and turn on the heat to low.
By hand or using an electrical meat cutter, cut the meat in slices about ¼ ” thick. Depending on how thick your roast is, you may see some pink or bleeding meat at the center. It does not matter, as you are still going to continue cooking it some more.
Add the cut meat to the vegetable mixture; add the frozen peas and carrots and cover. Cook for another 30-40 minutes.
Your meat is now ready to serve. Keep it inside the pot until ready to serve.
Your lentil soup starts to thicken as the cooking progresses. Remember to add water when needed. You don’t want the soup to be too liquid, but you don’t want it too dry either. Stir frequently to get an idea of the consistency it acquires.
When the lentils are cooked, it is time to prepare the Spanish Chorizo or Italian Sausage to add to the soup.
Cut the Spanish Chorizo or Italian Sausage in very small pieces. Place 5 tablespoons of olive oil in a saucepan and add the Chorizo/sausage to it when it starts to warm up. After 3 minutes and while stirring, add 2 teaspoons of Spanish Pimenton and cook together for 1 more minute. Add the mixture to the lentil soup, stirring constantly. Cover and allow to sit for 30 minutes before serving.
You now have a nutritious dinner. You are going to serve a bowl of lentil soup first, followed by the beef with vegetables.
Leftover lentil soup can go in the freezer for further use. If you come across a particularly busy day when you know you are not going to have time to cook, defrost the lentils in the refrigerator in the morning and the soup will be ready at dinnertime.
You must also spoon out about 1 cupful of the sauce from the meat, place it in a freezer bag and put it in the freezer to be used on Tuesday.
I always recommend serving milk to children with their meals, which adds calcium to the diet. Water is another option for adults.
