Planning

I LOVE to cook! Every time we have company from out of town, or friends over for dinner, I go to great lengths in making sure that they eat well. I want them to feel special, like kings and queens. So, this is what I do.  I sit down and PLAN.  I plan a menu. A full blown menu down to what we are going to drink, which is always water but you can never be too prepared. ;)  I usually don't plan a menu for just us because I go by a day to day inventory of what needs to be eaten. When people are here, I typically make things that I normally wouldn't unless it was a really special occasion.  And let's face it, having company over is a very special occasion in the Schumann home.

My brother and sister-in-law are coming tonight to surprise our kids.  They will be staying until Sunday and I have a menu.  My sister-in-law is from the Philippines. She is this tiny cute little Filipino that LOVES and MISSES her Filipino food.  I wanted to do something awesome for her so I have planned a Filipino feast. Not really a feast by her standards because I can't roast a whole pig in my backyard, but it is a feast by my standards.  This will be the "splurging" meal of the week. The other meals will continue to be the whole foods way of eating. This is my menu:

Thursday:

• Breakfast- Veggie breakfast burritos (cheese, eggs, avocados, sour cream, whole wheat tortillas, salsa, and tomatoes)
• Lunch- Garbanzo bean salad sandwiches. (I will post recipe later if it is any good.)
• Dinner- Cabbage and potatoes with Kielbasa (Oh, how I love to say that word.  "Kielbasaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh" and OH my is it tasty.)

Friday:

• Breakfast- Fresh fruit, yogurt, and homemade granola
• Lunch and dinner- We are going to go to Elich Gardens, the local theme and water park so we will be getting our own food.  BUT I plan on having a veggie wrap with fruit for one of my meals.

Saturday:

• Breakfast- Wheat berry cereal (I usually have this warmed with milk, honey, cinnamon, and then fresh fruit)
• Lunch- Garden salad with Mediterranean bruschetta
• Dinner- Filipino feast!  Lumpia (little spring rolls that I'm planning on attempting to bake instead of fry, wish me luck), Pancit (rice noodles with veggies), and Fried rice
• Dessert- Sago (Tapioca pearls cooked in coconut milk with mango puree)

Sunday:

• Breakfast- Crock pot oatmeal with peaches.

The point of this post is this, I'm not going to throw the rules out the window while people I love are eating in my home.  It is because I love them, that I will no longer do that. The benefits of eating, LIVING this way FAR out number the "convenience" of not.  Besides, what part of packing up your family and going to a fast food place only to wait in a long line of cars to just get your "food" and it being completely wrong AND cold is convenient? If you cook big batches of wheat berries and freeze them, NOTHING can be more convenient than pulling them out and putting them in the microwave for 1 minute, to take the chill off, and adding veggies and dressing.  NOTHING could be more healthy, filling, AND sustaining either.