CHAPTER Two: THE MENU: An overview
The two weeks worth of dishes included in this course can be approached in a variety of ways. You can certainly follow them to the letter, if you wish. Or you can pick out a recipe to try here and there as you move towards including more plants in your diet.
The menu is not meant to overwhelm you. The goal is to give you a very good illustration of the kinds of food that are good for a heart healthy diet.
Depending on your current diet and cooking habits, stocking your pantry to cook this menu may take some time. Don’t feel the pressure to go out and spends hundreds of dollars the first week stocking every single ingredient. (Unless you are super inspired to do so!)
Here is a list of basic pantry and refrigerator items that can make getting started a little easier. Then add to your inventory as you go along.
A successful home kitchen doesn’t succeed on lots of completely distinct recipes. It succeeds when one meal flows into and builds on the other. So a little of this leftover from dinner becomes lunch or dinner the next day with the addition of another thing. This menu is built upon that idea, with some common elements throughout the week. The secret to variety is changing up the components from week to week, not necessarily day to day.
So if you have read the menu, you will know that there are a lot of ingredients that end up getting duplicated throughout the week.
This is intentional because cooking in larger quanities and repurposing those ingredients more than once, saves time and money.
So the variety will come week to week, not necessarily day to day
So for example, the first week, we lean a lot on sweet potatoes. We use them in a couple of salads, a side dish and as a part of the black bean chili.
But the next week, you wont’ see even a hint of a sweet potato.
We have to move away from the idea that every meal has to be this perfectly composed meal….meat, vegetables, starch. It is ok to have two or three kinds of vegetables on the plate,, maybe no starch at all, maybe no meat at all. Or maybe just meat as a smaller part of the meal.
So really rethinking what a meal looks like.
And we want to prepare dinner with the idea of having leftovers for lunch
Breakfast should be three or four “go – to” choices that you switch up daily, per your whim. Below are some healthy and simple Choices:
Steel Cut Oatmeal, ½ cup, with berries or ½ banana, see recipe for oatmeal
Use thawed out frozen berries; choose ones without added sugar
Granola, ½ cup with berries or ½ banana + ½ cup low fat or dairy free milk of your choice
Make sure to choose low sugar and low sodium granola varieties
Green Smoothie, see recipe
Fruit Smoothie, see recipe
Lunch “bowls” are the rage all over the country. The idea is that a cooked grain, bean or vegetable forms the bottom layer of the salad “bowl” and then fresh raw or cooked veggies + some kind of protein or nuts + raw lettuces are piled on top. These are dishes that don’t need to be perfectly coordinated. The goal is to make it your own and get as many nutrients as you can in one dish. Buy more than one variety of lettuce each week and switch it up. Prewashed, packaged lettuces keep well.
Dinner is more focused on recipes and coordinated meals. Make sure to prepare extra with lunch tomorrow in mind. The green leafy garnish will be a generous handful of lettuce and a variety of other crunchy raw thinly sliced vegetables of your choice with a squeeze of lemon or a drizzle of your favorite vinegar.
THE BASIC HEART HEALTHY PANTRY, PDF
The Heart Healthy Pantry
BREAKFAST: DON’T THINK TOO MUCH
Breakfast can be the most creative meal of the day when time is of no consequence. I love those weekend days when I have time to play in the kitchen, let go of the typical breakfast structure and whip up a fancy breakfast.
But on most days, breakfast should be the least fussy meal of the day. Having three or four “go-to” breakfast options as part of your routine will assure that you are not skipping this arguably most important meal of the day. The menu gives you four options to rotate around, per your whim.
Add to this the four choices…a synopsis of them….
CONSOLIDATING INGREDIENTS FOR EFFICIENCY….
The menu is created with the idea of efficiency. You will find that the variety of ingredients comes week to week, not necessarily day to day. Some ingredients end up getting duplicated throughout the week. So for example, the first week, we lean a lot on sweet potatoes. We use them in a couple of salads, a side dish and as a part of the black bean chili. But the next week, you won’t see even a hint of a sweet potato.
This is intentional because cooking in larger quantities and repurposing those ingredients more than once, saves time and money.
To save time and money when cooking, we have to move away from the idea that every meal must be perfectly composed. The old model of meat + vegetable + starch is outdated and doesn’t serve us well when our goal is to consume as many nutrients as possible with each meal.
It is ok to have two or three kinds of vegetables on the plate,, maybe no starch at all, maybe no meat at all. Or maybe just meat as a smaller part of the meal.
We really must reinvision what the perfect meal looks like.
This menu is also designed with the goal of cooking in larger quantities with the idea of repurposing leftovers.
The Lunch Bowl….
Lunch bowls are all the rage across the country. Just check your Instagram or Pinterest feeds for endless beautiful photographs of them. The genius of the “bowl” approach to a meal is that is a humble way of reaching our goal of efficiently using leftovers while packing in as many nutrients as possible.
The menu was designed with the idea that lunch each day will be built on last night’s dinner, with a few additions.
The perfect lunch bowl could include:
The two weeks worth of dishes included in this course can be approached in a variety of ways. You can certainly follow them to the letter, if you wish. Or you can pick out a recipe to try here and there as you move towards including more plants in your diet.
The menu is not meant to overwhelm you. The goal is to give you a very good illustration of the kinds of food that are good for a heart healthy diet.
Depending on your current diet and cooking habits, stocking your pantry to cook this menu may take some time. Don’t feel the pressure to go out and spends hundreds of dollars the first week stocking every single ingredient. (Unless you are super inspired to do so!)
Here is a list of basic pantry and refrigerator items that can make getting started a little easier. Then add to your inventory as you go along.
A successful home kitchen doesn’t succeed on lots of completely distinct recipes. It succeeds when one meal flows into and builds on the other. So a little of this leftover from dinner becomes lunch or dinner the next day with the addition of another thing. This menu is built upon that idea, with some common elements throughout the week. The secret to variety is changing up the components from week to week, not necessarily day to day.
So if you have read the menu, you will know that there are a lot of ingredients that end up getting duplicated throughout the week.
This is intentional because cooking in larger quanities and repurposing those ingredients more than once, saves time and money.
So the variety will come week to week, not necessarily day to day
So for example, the first week, we lean a lot on sweet potatoes. We use them in a couple of salads, a side dish and as a part of the black bean chili.
But the next week, you wont’ see even a hint of a sweet potato.
We have to move away from the idea that every meal has to be this perfectly composed meal….meat, vegetables, starch. It is ok to have two or three kinds of vegetables on the plate,, maybe no starch at all, maybe no meat at all. Or maybe just meat as a smaller part of the meal.
So really rethinking what a meal looks like.
And we want to prepare dinner with the idea of having leftovers for lunch
Breakfast should be three or four “go – to” choices that you switch up daily, per your whim. Below are some healthy and simple Choices:
Steel Cut Oatmeal, ½ cup, with berries or ½ banana, see recipe for oatmeal
Use thawed out frozen berries; choose ones without added sugar
Granola, ½ cup with berries or ½ banana + ½ cup low fat or dairy free milk of your choice
Make sure to choose low sugar and low sodium granola varieties
Green Smoothie, see recipe
Fruit Smoothie, see recipe
Lunch “bowls” are the rage all over the country. The idea is that a cooked grain, bean or vegetable forms the bottom layer of the salad “bowl” and then fresh raw or cooked veggies + some kind of protein or nuts + raw lettuces are piled on top. These are dishes that don’t need to be perfectly coordinated. The goal is to make it your own and get as many nutrients as you can in one dish. Buy more than one variety of lettuce each week and switch it up. Prewashed, packaged lettuces keep well.
Dinner is more focused on recipes and coordinated meals. Make sure to prepare extra with lunch tomorrow in mind. The green leafy garnish will be a generous handful of lettuce and a variety of other crunchy raw thinly sliced vegetables of your choice with a squeeze of lemon or a drizzle of your favorite vinegar.
THE BASIC HEART HEALTHY PANTRY, PDF
The Heart Healthy Pantry
- Canned beans
- Canned tuna or wild salmon
- Frozen vegetables
- Pre washed lettuces
- Root vegetables: sweet potatoes, carrots, etc.
- Add to your spice collection over time
- Onions, garlic, celery
- Citrus fruits: lemons/limes/oranges
- Frozen fishes/chicken
- Grains: oatmeal, rice, pasta
BREAKFAST: DON’T THINK TOO MUCH
Breakfast can be the most creative meal of the day when time is of no consequence. I love those weekend days when I have time to play in the kitchen, let go of the typical breakfast structure and whip up a fancy breakfast.
But on most days, breakfast should be the least fussy meal of the day. Having three or four “go-to” breakfast options as part of your routine will assure that you are not skipping this arguably most important meal of the day. The menu gives you four options to rotate around, per your whim.
Add to this the four choices…a synopsis of them….
CONSOLIDATING INGREDIENTS FOR EFFICIENCY….
- The variety comes week to week, not necessarily day to day
- One meal builds on the last
- Cooking in larger quantities with the idea of repurposing leftovers
- We have to move away from the idea that every meal has to be perfectly composed.
- The focus should be on getting in as many nutrients as possible with each meal.
The menu is created with the idea of efficiency. You will find that the variety of ingredients comes week to week, not necessarily day to day. Some ingredients end up getting duplicated throughout the week. So for example, the first week, we lean a lot on sweet potatoes. We use them in a couple of salads, a side dish and as a part of the black bean chili. But the next week, you won’t see even a hint of a sweet potato.
This is intentional because cooking in larger quantities and repurposing those ingredients more than once, saves time and money.
To save time and money when cooking, we have to move away from the idea that every meal must be perfectly composed. The old model of meat + vegetable + starch is outdated and doesn’t serve us well when our goal is to consume as many nutrients as possible with each meal.
It is ok to have two or three kinds of vegetables on the plate,, maybe no starch at all, maybe no meat at all. Or maybe just meat as a smaller part of the meal.
We really must reinvision what the perfect meal looks like.
This menu is also designed with the goal of cooking in larger quantities with the idea of repurposing leftovers.
The Lunch Bowl….
Lunch bowls are all the rage across the country. Just check your Instagram or Pinterest feeds for endless beautiful photographs of them. The genius of the “bowl” approach to a meal is that is a humble way of reaching our goal of efficiently using leftovers while packing in as many nutrients as possible.
The menu was designed with the idea that lunch each day will be built on last night’s dinner, with a few additions.
The perfect lunch bowl could include:
- Leftover cooked vegetables + grains
- Leftover protein: fish, chicken, hard-boiled egg white
- Leafy greens tossed in vinaigrette or dressing
- Raw vegetables
- Miscellaneous ingredients: capers, raisins, etc.
