Menu planning

I'm planning out my menu for the week (and wishing now that I maybe hadn't bought so much rice). I realized that I do tend to think of most of my food in terms of portions. I've been a little fanatical about portion control for a while now because most people know that it's the best way to a healthy weight and it's also the best way to a healthy budget.

When I say that I care about portion control, I mean that I do things like count out 22 almonds (1 oz) into a container or bowl, I measure out my grains with a measuring cup, I portion out things like green as soon as I bring them home so I know how many meals they will be. I never, ever just grab a handful of pasta or pour it out of the box into the water.

There is still always the surprise of finding out that you had more or less than you thought but I like to keep that to a minimum if I can.

I was thinking that I'm almost out of caffeinated tea but I actually have 5 bags left so that will get me through the week without a problem. I've decided not to buy any this week because I also have some coffee still in the freezer so I'll drink that over the weekend. My housemate bought a large block of cheese for about $5 so my plan is to buy half of that from him to round out my dairy consumption some.

My early menu planning is going something like this:

breakfast- oatmeal with milk and dried fruits

toast in the mid morning

Lunch will be veggies and rice (yeah all week, kind of dull but I can use different spice combinations to perk it up)

Dinner will include a frittata one night, tacos for probably two nights, beans and rice for a night or two, probably some kind of sandwich and some kind of pizza other nights.

I didn't get lettuce this week because I was so tired of it after having so much the last couple of weeks but I'm already looking forward to getting some next week!

But I don't feel like eating that!

I was preparing my lunch for today and feeling uninspired. "This is crazy," I thought "I wanted all this food when I bought it so there is no reason not to want it now." Eh, but I just didn't.
I dug around some more and took the dog for a walk and while I was out, I came up with a few options for things to make. Once I got thinking about it, my mind was on a roll and I thought of all sorts of ways to combine what I have into something I felt like eating.

I ended up with:

oatmeal with milk and raisins for breakfast
large salad with sunflower seeds and dried cranberries and farfalle pasta with roasted asparagus and spring onions for lunch
Miso soup and almonds for snacks

Now I'm pretty excited about the menu. But I was thinking about the whole "I don't feel like eating that today" habit." How many of us have thought about going somewhere for lunch and someone in the group said "Oh, I had Chinese yesterday." or "I'm having pizza tonight" ? In my group of friends, the former would be greeted with "What do you think the Chinese do every day?"

Really, there is no reason (apart maybe from the high sodium content) not to eat Chinese food two days in a row. Even the smallest hole in the wall place has a wide variety of dishes to suit almost any taste.

The thing is that most of us have gotten into the habit of a lot of variation and eating what we want when we want to. Some of my friends never cook more than they can eat in a single meal because they hate to have leftovers even for one extra meal.

For me, making lunch today was hard because the food has been around in my kitchen and isn't new and exciting. I feel forced into eating it and I'd rather eat something else just because.

It made me think about all the people who never get to choose what they eat: refugees, the poor who rely on soup kitchens and other charities for every meal, prisoners, many children, many of the elderly, people in nursing homes, hospitals, hospice, etc. Most of these people have lost many other freedoms in addition to the freedom to choose food which makes the vast quantity of choice I have here in the US seem like a huge luxury.

Part of eating to live and not living to eat is choosing a diet that meets the daily nutritional requirements. If you are strict about it, your freedom of choice in your food selections will be limited. Yes, you can structure a basic menu for the day but at some point, you are probably going to have to eat something you don't feel like eating. I'm not sure why we are so insistent on this variety. It's easier and more economical to cook one large batch of food and portion it out into several meals and sticking to a diet with less variation makes it much easier to control portions and nutritional intake.

Once I started playing with the options for my menu, I got excited because I started to see all the possibilities. I need to concentrate on that as a luxury and enjoy what I have rather than wishing I had something better.