Day 1: Fridge dump
Day 2: Pork chops with apples and pears, Sweet potato and kale salad
Day 3: Slow cooker stuffed peppers
Day 4: Homemade pizza, Tossed salad
Day 5: Beef & butternut squash stew, Roasted brussels sprouts with miso
Day 6: Miso baked salmon, Steamed broccoli, Berry smoothie
Day 7: Carrot soup, Banana bran muffins
Notes: I need to use up some miso in my fridge, but you could substitute other sauces for the salmon and Brussels sprouts. A honey mustard or pesto are both simple sauces for salmon. Brussels sprouts are great roasted with just olive oil, salt, and pepper or with balsamic vinegar.
Green tips: I do my meal planning on Wednesdays, which happens to coincide with garbage day on Thursdays. Tonight we did a fridge dump. I cleared everything out of the fridge shelf by shelf and set out things that needed to be used up ASAP. Then it was a free for all and everyone had to come up with their own supper. My 9 year old son took a leftover tortilla from fajitas this week and paired with some leftover kale and Brussels sprout salad to make a veggie wrap. My 6 year old daughter copied that and added some melted cheddar. My 3 year old needed a little more guidance, but he came up with whipped cream over fruit all on his own to use up some leftover heavy whipping cream from making quiche last week. The fridge dump not only saves food from the landfill, but also helps me with my meal planning so I can see what we need to use soon and make my grocery list. I suggest doing this frequently. It gets easier when you stick to your grocery list and only buy things you know everyone is going to eat, then you won’t have a refrigerator that is stuffed full in the first place. That is why planning breakfast, lunch, and supper every week is super important. Of course, I’m not perfect and a few items like moldy sour cream occasionally make their way to the garbage which is why I like to do this just before garbage day. Today, I finally let go of a bag of about 15 limes from Costco from months ago – what was I thinking!! Refer to my original post about my Green Life Philosophy principles and why buying in bulk (not bulk buying) is not always good. I make mistakes too, but I’ve learned to let the guilt go and do better next time. Every week I get better.
