Bring on the Week

Between working out 15 hours a week and simply loving food — all kinds of food, I am methodical when it comes to planning our menu so I can fuel my body and make healthy food choices. Without planning and prepping on the weekends, I leave myself in the position of becoming hangry during the week.

Every weekend, I sit down with my laptop and a program called Plan to Eat (PTE) to design our weekly menu. I generally have several goals each week: • a variety of proteins throughout the week

• include as many greens as I humanly can into as many meals as I can • try a new recipe at least once/week to keep things fresh

The picture is a glimpse into some of the foods included in this week's recipes, and foods that I eat for snacks and add to other dishes. The butternut squash is for a new recipe, Butternut Squash Pasta. The squash will be spiralized and then baked in the oven. This particular recipe didn't include a protein and so I'll be sautéing shrimp to throw in with the spiralizaed squash. The coleslaw mix is for one of my favorite recipes, Egg Roll in a Bowl and includes ground pork. The ginger root is used in several recipes, including Bulgogi Beef BBQ. Ginger is an awesome ingredient as it's flavorful and perhaps more importantly, it offers antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.

My love affair with kale began about 2 years ago. I experimented with different kinds and found that Lacinto kale was my favorite. Kale has many nutritional benefits including: it's loaded with powerful antioxidants, is an excellent source of vitamin C, and can help lower cholesterol. I aim to eat kale and/or spinach at least once a day. I tried an awesome kale/mushroom recipe tonight and it's a keeper: Healthy Garlic Kale & Mushroom Stir Fry.

In addition to having a deep love for greens, I love mushrooms. I cook with a variety of mushrooms, including: crimini, shitake, portobello, and button. Mushrooms are low in calories, have virtually no fat and no cholesterol, are very low in sodium, and are a good source of selenium and potassium. The green onions will be used in several of this week's recipes. In addition to adding flavor to dishes, green onions are rich in vitamins including Vitamin C, Vitamin B2 and thiamine. They are also a good source of magnesium, potassium, manganese and fiber.

The celery, apples, and grapes are my go-to snacking foods, in addition to pistacios. I like to snack throughout the day and so I keep healthy snacks around instead of reaching for things like crackers, cheetos, and cookies. The blueberries and strawberries are used to top my Siggi's 4% plain yogurt, which I eat for breakfast.

In addition to the recipes above, I'll also be making a new recipe, Slow Cooker Chinese Three Cup Chicken this week.

So, bring on the week... I've got it covered. Do you? Let me know if I can help!

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