In case folks were bored with my blog posts devoted to each day of our challenge, I have decided to summarize the challenge in just two more blog posts.
It has been a while since my last post regarding the 10-day pledge. Yes, we did finish the challenge. It was an excellent experience, and we learned a lot that we have decided to incorporate into our lifestyle ongoing. Actually, that is the topic of the next real food challenge blog post. I will also include in the next post how much the challenge cost us. But, for this blog post, I will just include the remaining menu (days 6-10).
On Saturday, we went to a farmer's market and to whole foods to pick up groceries for the rest of our pledge days. We were low on granola, so I had to add some of those recipe ingredients to the list with the rest of the recipes' ingredients.
One other note: last week was extremely busy for us, so I didn't get around to taking photos of the meals with our nice camera. I took some with my phone, but the color is off, and the meals do not look nearly as appetizing as they tasted.
Day 6, Saturday (June 8):
Breakfast: Granola and fruit
Lunch: Sandwiches (using one of Lisa's sandwich ideas, Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches, or Peanut Butter, Banana and Honey Paninis) and fruit (along with salad)
Dinner: coconut chicken satay with peanut thai pasta
Thoughts: Of course, the satay was delicious, but the peanut thai pasta was amazing. Yummy!
Day 7, Sunday (June 9)
Breakfast: Granola and fruit
Lunch: Sandwiches (using one of Lisa's sandwich ideas, Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches, or Peanut Butter, Banana and Honey Paninis) (or leftovers from previous evening's dinner) and fruit (along with salad)
Dinner: Chicken Enchiladas using whole grain corn tortillas and steamed veggies
Thoughts: This was a delicious and simple recipe. Another plus was that it made two 8x8 dishes. So, we froze the other dish (and actually ate it this past Saturday for a quick and easy dinner).
Day 8, Monday (June 10)
Breakfast: Granola and fruit
Lunch: Sandwiches (using one of Lisa's sandwich ideas, Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches, or Peanut Butter, Banana and Honey Paninis) (or leftovers from previous evening's dinner) and fruit (along with salad)
Dinner: Simple Spaghetti with salad on side
Thoughts:. This recipe was adapted from a Williams-Sonoma Italian cookbook, so I knew it would be tasty. Making my own tomato sauce didn't take that long, but it was a bit of work. My hands got a little pruney from squeezing the tomato seeds out of the 20 tomato halves. The recipe called for prosciutto or pancetta, but we substituted a little local grass-fed ground beef to make a meat sauce. I think it would be delicious with the pancetta though.
Day 9, Tuesday (June 11)
Breakfast: Granola and fruit
Lunch: Sandwiches (using one of Lisa's sandwich ideas, Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches, or Peanut Butter, Banana and Honey Paninis) (or leftovers from previous evening's dinner) and fruit (along with salad)
Dinner: Lemon Butter Chicken & Lemon Butter fish (black sole from the farmer's market) with herbed quinoa and veggie pancakes
Thoughts: I modified the chicken recipe to use whole wheat flour, but didn't have to do much else to it. The quinoa was delicious. A lot of the recipe reviews said it was way too "lemony" as written, so I chose to modify it slightly by reducing the amount of lemon juice in the dressing. I also really enjoyed the veggie pancakes. Abbey absolutely loved them. It turned out to be a great kids dish!
Day 10, Wednesday (June 12)
Breakfast: Granola and fruit
Lunch: Sandwiches (using one of Lisa's sandwich ideas, Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches, or Peanut Butter, Banana and Honey Paninis) (or leftovers from previous evening's dinner) and fruit (along with salad)
Dinner: Grilled meat and veggie foil packets with potato skins
Thoughts: Make sure to line the foil with parchment paper so that the aluminum doesn't leach into the food. It also works best if cooked at lower temperatures (if on the grill, less than 400 degrees). I used yukon gold potatoes and sweet potatoes for the potato skins. I ended up scooping a bit of the potato out and mixing it with the toppings, and then put it back into the table before putting it onto the saute pan. It made it like a twice-baked potato. For the sweet potatoes, I mixed them with cinnamon, butter and honey. That made them like dessert. I should have made more of those because they were a huge hit!
I didn't find any of the recipes difficult or too time consuming. Making the tomato sauce on Monday was a bit annoying, but it wasn't difficult. It was also fun to try a lot of new meals. Stay tuned for a summary post later this week, where I will explain what we learned form this challenge, what aspects we are going to incorporate ongoing into our normal lifestyle, and how much this whole pledge cost us.
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