I’ve accepted a personal challenge to refine my meal planning process, and share what I have with others. From the number of hits I get when looking for meal ideas, or menus for the week, I know I’m not the only one battling this same process every day, and every week.
How do I feed my family nutritious meals that are within my budget, and that everyone will eat?
Like most families, everyone has their likes and dislikes. I have a teenager that has never liked potatoes, and has recently declared herself a vegetarian. I have another child who likes anything that you would find on the kiddie menu at the majority of fine and not-so-fine dining establishments. And then I have another teenager who is excited to try new things because he’s discovering there’s a lot of great stuff out there.
I make no promises. My meal plans may not suit your family. I may not post as much as I like or as often as I like. Although I value the principles of clean eating, paleo diets, and the real food challenge, in actual practice, I don’t follow any of them exactly. The reality is I live in a very busy world in which I don’t always have time to prep all the vegetables I would like to eat, or to get to the store to replace the vegetables that I bought last week and never used, and let’s face it, every now and then, I really like a Snickers bar. Or an entire box of See’s Candies Nuts and Chews.
Okay, that last sentence doesn’t fit well with my big picture goals of maintaining a healthy weight, fueling my body with the best quality foods, or teaching my children good food habits. But by trying, I get closer to my goals than I would if I never even started.
