Menu Plan Monday
January 21, 2008

I have been reading an excellent book entitled Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. This book is similar to the Canadian literary phenomenon The 100-Mile Diet. Kingsolver's book has taught me a great deal about agriculture, gardening, commercial meat production, economics, nutrition and even cheese making!

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is changing my preconceptions regarding food and cooking. I think our family needs to make some big changes, but we're caught in limbo for the time being. (It is challenging to find locally-grown produce in the middle of an Alberta winter!)

At the same time, I believe in taking small steps toward a larger goal. In particular, Kingsolver's book has caused me to re-think our family's source of meat. I no longer feel comfortable buying regular meat from the grocery store. (That is, meat produced in commercial feeding facilities.) I do know of a couple sources for organic, local, farm-raised beef and chicken though. I plan to use up the meat we have in our freezer, and from then on, to buy meat from local farmers. I realize this could mean our family may not eat meat every day. Good thing our kids love beans, eggs and other vegetarian goodies!

Here's my proposed menu for the upcoming week. I have lots of frozen ground beef and chicken squirrelled away, so our menus will reflect that for the next while.

Monday: No cooking (supper at my parents')
Tuesday: Homemade soup (from the freezer), fresh multigrain bread
Wednesday: Whole wheat spaghetti with meat sauce, green salad
Thursday: Foil-pack taco chicken dinner, steamed carrots, green salad
Friday: Leftovers
Saturday: No cooking (supper with Ben's family)
Sunday: Orange-molasses glazed chicken, brown rice, steamed broccoli with almonds

Don't forget to take a look at the Menu Plan Monday Mr. Linky hosted by Org Junkie.