Weekly food plan (Η καθημερινή μας διατροφή)

It's really important to keep kids off bad food for as long as is possible for us as mothers to do. We do try to eat a healthy diet in our house. Without a weekly food plan, I would be lost; my carnivorous husband was the reason I started to follow a weekly plan. That, and the fact that i am a working mother, and without a weekly plan, I would doing a fry-up or buying pre-cooked, mass-manufactured frozen convenience meals (or worse still, resorting to tinned beans) whenever I simply don't have time to cook, which is very often these days in most people's lives. This is why I am a fanatic of preserving our garden crops if we can't consume them as quickly as we harvest them. I feel good about myself when I follow a plan, or serve up food that I have cooked myself. I know I am doing my bit towards less environmental pollution, fewer carbon footprint and a sustainable lifestyle. Above all, I am serving a balanced weekly diet. This is the weekly plan I follow to ensure that I am providing a healthy meal for my family. Here are some tips for rushed mothers (let's face it; the burden of running the whole house rests on them). Remember, you can swap around the days for each meal plan to suit your household's schedule.

Monday: use beans as the basic dish - we eat fakes, fasolada or some other bean dish every week alternately. This can be accompanied by leftover roast from Sunday OR cheese and a boiled egg.
Tuesday: use rice as the main meal, accompanied by vegetables - we eat rice cooked with spinach, stuffed vegetables with rice, or pilafi. All these can be accompanied by yoghurt, or maybe some cheese or a boiled egg.
Wednesday: because this is my busiest work day, I take out some deep-frozen ready-to-cook meal that I have made myself (pastitsio, moussaka, aubergine shoes), and re-heat it in the oven or the microwave, depending on who's serving it. This also constitutes the midday meat dish.
Thursday: there will be LEFTOVERS from the last three days, so this is another good no-fuss day to use them up; in this way I can get some outdoor jobs done without worrying about what's for lunch. A salad can accompany these meals if there are only small servings left.
Friday: the basis of the meal is egg and cheese - an omelette with some boiled greens or a fresh salad OR a courgette pie or quiche are easy to prepare and very healthy.
Saturday: the basis of this meal should be fresh fish (accompanied by vegetables or a salad) if it is easily obtainable and reasonably priced. I find most kinds of fresh fish in Hania are too expensive, so if I can't afford fish on this day, I might make a simple filling dish like spaghetti bolognaise, puttanesca, carbonara, stir-fry noodles and vegetables, boiled greens or a hot potato salad.
Sunday: the traditional Sunday roast consists of oven-roasted meat with potatoes, or BBQ pork, lamb, chicken and sausages. Any leftover meat is used to make kebabs or to accompany Monday's bean dish.

You might be wondering if I ever fry chips, or eat takeaways. We eat fried chips in an omelette, which is usually a frittata, in our house. Fries also go well with boiled greens or a simple salad. I simply avoid frying as much as I can, because it is so unhealthy. As for takeaways, I don't even like the smell (there's always a rancid greasy odour to it), so I always have supermarket pizzas in the deep freeze if I'm running out of time to cook. Takeaway food usually consists of a souvlaki once every two months. We are never out of dackos ingredients in our house, I make a huge home-made pizza once a week, and there's always the weekly loaf of sourdough bread for making a quick sandwich to go with a glass of milk. And we never tire of tiropitakia, kalitsounia or spanakopita.

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SEE ALSO:
School meals
In search of food
Taste sensationalism
The restaurants in the Agora
The rape of the countryside
Bulgarian pasta
Snacks
The open-air market
GAIA
To eat or not to eat?
A day in the field
Losing weight
Freezer clearout
Weekly food plan
Fridge contents
Eating locally
Low income and diet