Real Food Pledge, Week 5

Whoops, almost forgot to tell y'all what our weekly challenge is, via The Real Food Pledge!

This week is the easiest one so far:

Try at least 2 new whole foods.

Now before you scoff at this "challenge" for being so simple (because really, I am MORE than delighted to try new whole foods!), we'll also be retaining the previous weeks' challenges with only slightly more leeway - cut back on heavily sugared drinks, cut back on meat consumption (more on this very soon), eliminate all fast food and most fried food, try to eat 2 fruits and/or veggies per meal.

This week (yesterday and today) we have already tried absolutely delicious purple hulled peas and pink shelled beans. The beans and peas both tasted so fresh. I will definitely be saving some of the seeds to plant next year. The only issue with them is they had already started to go bad (they were sprouting!) even though we bought them Saturday. A food that must be cooked promptly!


The second new whole food we will be trying this week is pearled barley, a whole grain I've never cooked with before. I found a fabulous recipe for Goat Cheese & Spinach Barley Risotto, which I'll be making with our wild lambsquarter instead of spinach.

To cap things off, our dinner menu for the week (including tonight's dinner, excluding the leftovers dinner we have weekly):

Barbecue ham steak + fresh corn + purple hull peas + cornbread

Vegetarian pot pie + whole wheat rolls

Bacon, lambsquarter, brie quiche + salt & vinegar smashed potatoes + salad

Goat cheese & lambsquarter barley risotto + salad

Sweet potato corn chowder

What is a new whole food you want to try this week? 
I strongly advise hitting the farmers market for inspiration!

Meal Plan: June 18th

Real talk now - I adore meal planning. So here goes with this week's (almost complete) plan.



Monday

Breakfast: Pineapple, blueberries, and cottage cheese
Lunch: Smoked mozzarella grilled cheese with lambsquarter, snow pea risotto (leftover)
Dinner: Taco soup (leftover) with zucchini quesadilla, watermelon for dessert

Tuesday


Breakfast: Blueberry raspberry smoothie
Lunch: Sandwich on Ezekiel bread w/ hummus, avocado, red onion, sprouts, pretzels, apple
Dinner: Roast chicken (use leftovers for dinner) with carrots and parsnips, green beans (garden fresh), mashed potatoes, watermelon for dessert

Wednesday


Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with avocado, toast and strawberry jam (homemade), watermelon
Lunch: Curried chicken salad sandwich (roast chicken leftovers), with avocado, carrots with dressing, pretzels
Dinner: (work at Earth Fare) 1/2 PBJ sandwich on Ezekiel bread, Red Delicious apple, broccoli & ranch, pretzels

Thursday

Breakfast: Blueberry raspberry smoothie
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinner: Chicken and Kale Casserole, green beans, watermelon dessert

Friday

Breakfast: Red Delicious apple, brie, Ezekiel bread toast
Lunch: Leftovers, watermelon
Dinner: Homemade Spaghetti Sauce with Sausage (local) & mushrooms and Ezekiel pasta with green beans (garden fresh), garlic bread


Snack options for the week:

Broccoli or carrots & ranch
Apple & peanut butter
Cheese & crackers
Cottage cheese & pineapple
Watermelon
Hummus & pretzels