My husband and I are going sugar-free for Lent. Considering all the mexican wedding cookies, pints of Kopps and Girl-Scout cookies around our apartment, this will be quite the spiritual discipline. I think it will give our bodies a lovely rest from the work of processing dangerous, refined sugars.
We are keeping the "rules" very simple. No sugar, nothing with sugar in the first four ingredients. I was trying to figure out a meal plan, and I didn't come up with one. Since I have a history of PCOS (related to insulin resistance) I want to still keep my carbs in balance and nutrient dense.
I don't know how scientifically accurate my decisioin is, but here was my grocery plan. Use the "vegetarian food pyramid" to determine ideal quantities of food groups. Then I determined portion sizes for each person in our family to get a good guess at how much of everything we should buy. Thus, I have created daily eating goals for each of us. Here they are:
6 servings of whole-grain rice, cereals, breads and pastas. I compromise here by allowing white arborio rice (yum) and semolina penne. I can't make my husband go that extreme.
1 Serving of fresh fruits: we bought apples, oranges and bananas
1 serving of dried fruits: dried cherries and papaya
2 servings of fresh veggies:carrots,peppers, cucumber, avocado, green beans (beans were canned and on sale)
1-2 servings of leafy greens: kale, some lettuce (longer than boston, shorter than romaine)
2-3 servings of dairy, 2% milk, greek yogurt and farmer cheese.
1 serving of nuts or seeds: we have almonds and flax seeds on hand, so I didn't buy anything
2-3 servings of proteins: we aren't vegetarians so I bought turkey slices, ground chicken and chicken breast. We have lots of quinoa and lentils at home.
1 -3 tsp of oil: yeah, I forgot to buy EVOO, but we still have coconut on hand.
1 vitamin (we already have these and little baby take D3 every day)
Total Co-op cost $135 everything organic except: milk and possibly the cheese.
I am excited for this change and am curious to see how we do with our groceries, how long it lasts, if we have easy meals or end up with complicated ones. I am also looking forward to having some popcorn. Yum!
