Hello and Welcome to Lesson 8 of
Our Free "Meal Planning 101" eCourse

Hello, and welcome to your eighth lesson!  This week we focus on health.  Read over your past meal plans and see how well you are fulfilling the requirements of Canada's food guide.

Lesson Eight;  A Healthy Review  

Now that you have several meal plans and notes to refer to, have a look to see if everyone seems to be getting enough fruits and veggies.  According to the New Food Pyramid as suggested by Health Canada, you're aiming for 5-10 servings a day.

A good rule is to aim to have half your plate be vegetables.  In fact, try  making what you consider to be the "main course" of your meal a vegetable dish instead of meat;  think of the meat as the side dish.  That change in mindset can help reshape your plate (and your body and wellbeing) more healthfully.

This may sound like a simple thing to do but, it was very tough for me to get used to, and my guess is that for most of you, it'll be just as tough.  Frankly, even if you make the decision to eat more veggies, it may be tough to get your spouse and kids used to the idea.

What worked for us is new recipes.  Since I really had no idea how to cook like that (with the meal being at least half veggies, I browsed the recipe section at my favorite book store.  I also searched online for recipes and started asking my girlfriends for recipes.  Now we:

• eat more stir-fry meals - this way the veggies have lots of flavor so the kids and hubby like it

• have more meal-sized salads.  Not plain salads but salads like Cobb and Chef salads with lots of meat but also a variety of veggies so that it's filling too.

• have veggies as a starter to the meal.  Putting out a veggie tray isn't just for when company visits anymore ;)  While we wait for dinner we snack on veggies and dip

• eat more soup.  Vegetable soup is great but so is cream of broccoli or cauliflower (made with thickened skim milk).  Toss some cheese on top of each bowlful for more flavor.

Now please bear in mind that you’ll not fix everything all at once, so please don’t try.  Just focus on one change you can make for everyone’s health and feel good about it.  Next week, or whenever you're ready, focus on another change and so on.  Remember, three small steps can equal one big leap - take your time :)

Crystal

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Again, all the sheets are in PDF format which means you need to have Adobe Acrobat to see it.  If you don't have Adobe, click here to download it – it's fast and free.

The Blank Shopping list is available online here. 

The Blank Meal Plan comes in two sizes:
 

1. Letter paper size - you'll also find this version online here.
   
    
2. Legal paper size - you'll find this version online here.

 

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