The Fresh 20 - Week 1

So, like I said.  All of a sudden, meal plans started sounding like a great idea.  However, I have all these "rules" about food and how would I know which meal plan would be best.  Turns out, most meal plans, although fairly inexpensive, really wanted me to to make a commitment, and I wasn't ready to do that.  Finally, I found on The Fresh 20 a couple of sample plans and I am going to report on the vegetarian (not vegan) one.  I was able to get a shopping list and was in and out of the grocery store in 30 minutes.  I spent $100 which included normal weekly needs like milk, etc.  Here was my menu for the week:

Day 1 - Lemon Thyme Potato Pancakes, Brussel Sprouts, Apple Sauce, Greek Yogurt.



This was a lot of food, but it did come together pretty quickly.  Per the instructions, I made the mashed potatoes ahead of time, and went ahead and did the apple sauce as well.  Mark and I liked it pretty well, James did ok, Andy picked per usual. 

Audible:  Roasted the Brussel Sprouts, added cinnamon and a bit of honey to the apple sauce, I had some flavored greek yogurt so I used that instead.  Turns out my kids hate greek yogurt...

Day 2 - Braised Parsnips with Golden Raisen Walnut Couscous.



So, here is one of the good things about this meal plan:  You try foods you normally would not make!  I have never made parsnips and I usually don't use walnuts.  However, this was a meal where you realize, oh, this is why I don't use these foods...nobody likes them!  I knew that they were parsnips, but I guess everyone else though they were potaotes and were horrified when they ate one.  They are pretty spicy.  The walnuts were ok., but eh.  No one really liked this.

Audible:  I followed the directions on the recipe for the couscous and should have followed the one on the package.

Day 3 - Mushroom Pasta with Side Salad.



I was really looking forward to this because not only does it use mushrooms, it also made a creamy white bean sauce to coat the pasta.  Just sounded cool.  Not so much.  With the mushrooms, it wasn't so bad, but alone, it just taste bland...and beany.  I thought it was ok.  Mark did not like it.  James and Andy had plain pasta.

Audible:  I used cremini's instead of portabellos.

Day 4 - Vegetarian Chili and Fuji Apples



This one was nice because I made the whole thing the night before.  I also made cornbread muffins as a bonus.  It was definitely a vegetarian chili in the fact that it had lots of veggies in it!  Pretty good.  Mark and I liked it, the kids picked at it.

Audible:  Doubled all spices and I still felt it was a little bland.

Day 5 - Portobello Pizza Blanco



This recipe used a portobello mushroom in place of the crust of a pizza.  Then you made a spinach/white bean puree and put it on top, then ricotta mixed with oregano, then tomatoes.  I liked it, but Mark did not.  I made the kids regular pizza.

Audible:  I added basil and garlic to my puree AFTER dinner.  I ate it on crackers.  Wish I had done that before.

All in all, I was happy with this week.  There were definitely more misses than hits, and I felt most of the meals were pretty bland.  But it was an opportunity to try some new things and it did take some stress off.  I hope to do this again this week with another free plan.