Food Glorious Food!

If you grew up the way I did you were allowed to watch very little TV and mostly survived on Saturday morning cartoons, Little House on the Prarie, Jaques Cousteaux and the Sunday night Disney movie.  That being said...if there is a musical out there that I haven't seen I'd be surprised.

Our house thrived on Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Oklahoma, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Hello Dolly and, of course, Oliver.

Poor little hungry Oliver.

And its often that I get that song stuck in my head...Food, Glorious Food!

Food, Glorious food!
We're anxious to try it.
Three banquets a day --
Our favourite diet!

Just picture a great big steak --
Fried, roasted or stewed.
Oh, food,
Wonderful food,
Marvellous food,
Glorious food.
So, I hate to admit it, but I've been a little complacent in my eating and exercise lately.  That combined with a call from my doctor that my folic acid levels are low meant I needed to get back on track with both...but seriously...doing it all at once is pretty near impossible for me.  This learning curve of staying on track is not my thing. 

But...I did start with meal plans.  I've found that if I don't preplan my meals we end up eating fast food or crappy food that I can barely eat any of.  I'm still quite restricted.  Very little breads, zero pasta, only a cracker or two.  I stay away from rice and potatoes other than a spoonful or two.

Its pretty pitiful when I throw together a fast food meal (either from takeout or from the freezer) and I cook up things that I simply can't eat.

The bad part is that my body doesn't really get hungry much anymore...so instead of making a healthy contribution I just end up skipping food altogether or getting sick off of trying to force myself to eat something that I shouldn't.

**sigh**

Again...here is that lifestyle eating learning curve I still struggle with even after a year of being banded.

But for the last 2 weeks I had a meal plan.  Every night I knew exactly what we'd be making for dinner.  I LOVED IT.  So easy.  I shopped for what I needed in advance and each meal was planned around things that were thumbs up additions to my diet as well as food my kids will eat and healthy portions for my hubby.

Plus one of the biggest benefits I've found is my non-veggie liking kids are getting WAY more veggies that ever before.  I hide it in EVERYTHING...meatballs, meatloaf, hamburger, sauces, etc.

Never going back to the days of fast food frenzy. 

Plus, I found that my recipes almost always had leftovers which I froze for this nights when everyone is busy.  Yay!

So tonight I'm making shrimp and tortellini with onions and zucchini.  YUM. 

 Please sir, may I have some more?