My Plan

1. Try 2 recipes from Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat Japanese Country Power Breakfast

serves 4
1/2 cup hot cooked rice
4 large eggs
1/2 of a 3-x-5-inch block atsu-age tofu (hopefully I can find this at Central Market or Whole Foods)
12 grape tomatoes or 8 cherry tomatoes
2 scallions, roots and tops cut off
1 cup mixed cooked vegetables (carrots, string beans, corn)
4 cups dashi (recipe for this in book- let me know if you want it or you can google it)
2 1/2 tablespoons red or white miso (going to look for at Whole Foods or Central Market)

Boil the eggs. When cool enough to handle, peel and quarter each egg.
Bring water to a boil. Add tofu and gently boil over medium-heat, turning occasionally, for 1 minute. Drain. Cut tofu into small squares.
Lay out 4 small soup bowls. In each one, arrange a portion of egg wedges, tofu squares, the white part of the sliced scallions, tomatoes, cooked vegetables, and cooked rice.
Place the dashi in a saucepan; bring to a boil. Whisk in the miso and turn off the heat. Ladle the hot miso broth over the ingredients in the bowls.
Garnish each serving with the sliced green part of the scallion.

Iri Iri Pan Pan (or Super Scrambled Eggs and Ground Beef)

Super Scrambled Eggs
1 tablespoon canola oil
6 large eggs
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Pinch of salt

Super Scrambled Ground Beef
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 pound extra-lean ground beef (ask your butcher to grind 2 to 3 extra times, or give it those extra grinds at home in your food processor)
2 tablespoons sake (I think this is a Japanese wine~ found at Central market or Whole Foods or a Japanese grocery store)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon reduced- sodium soy sauce
Pinch of salt

8 snow pea pods, ends trimmed
4 cups of cooked brown or white rice

Heat 1 tablespoon canola oil in a saucepan. Add the eggs and sugar to the saucepan, bring heat to medium, and scramble the eggs with a wooden cooking fork, or whisk, for 2 minutes. When the eggs begin to harden, add the pinch of salt. Continue to scramble for 2 more minutes, or until the eggs are just cooked and in very small pieces. Remove the eggs from the pan and set aside.
Heat 1 tablespoon canola oil in a saucepan. Add the ground beef, sake, sugar, soy sauce, and salt to the saucepan, and bring heat to medium. Saute the beef, stirring constantly with a wooden cooking fork to keep the beef in constant motion so that it never clumps, for 6 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from pan and set aside.
Bring a small saucepan of water to a boil. Add the snow peas and cook over medium-high heat for 1 minute. Drain and refresh under cold water. Cut into julienne strips.
Lay out 4 medium bowls. Scoop 1 cup of cooked rice into each bowl with a wet wooden spatula or spoon, then gently smooth out the surface until the bed of rice is relatively smooth (not packed). Spoon one quarter of the super-scrambled eggs over one half of the rice in each bowl, one quarter of the beef over the right half, and spread eggs and beef evenly over their respective sides. Divide the snow peas into 4 equal portions, and place them in the middle of each bowl, where the eggs and beef meet.

Tokyo Kitchen Tips
The smaller the eggs and beef, the more elegant the texture and appearance of this dish.
Using small saucepans makes it easier to scramble without overcooking.
To maximize the beauty of this dish, keep scrambling even if your arm wants to quit.

2. Aim to eat fish 3x a week.
3. Replace some of our carbs at dinner with white or brown rice or whole wheat pasta.
4. Keep a pitcher of unsweetened green tea in the refrigerator. Drink it throughout the day instead of soda, Kool Aid, coffee, or sweetened tea.
5. Have fresh fruit for dessert after dinner.
6. Make veggies the main part of dinner instead of side dishes. Make meat/fish/chicken the side dish. I have heard that it works well to divide your plate into fourths. One fourth should be your protein, one fourth your carb, and the other half should be veggies. That sounds easy enough!
7. I am going to walk to get the boys from school whenever the weather is nice. It is exactly one mile to their school, so I would be walking 2 miles round trip. If I walk them to school in the morning I will also have to walk ds5 to school. His school is 2.5 miles away from home. I would walk 1 mile to take the big boys to their school, then (with Baby in my Ergo, and Baby Girl and ds5 in the jogging stroller) walk the remaining 1.5 miles to ds5's school. Round trip would be 5 miles if I decide to do that. So far, I am not that ambitious. Last week one day I walked to get the big boys after school. It was fun. Of course, the fact that we stopped by a friend's house and ate ice cream made it really fun! And the fact that we moseyed instead of power walked made it relaxing.

Here is my menu for the next 7 days:

Friday: Grilled chicken, potatoes, raw vegetable slices (cucumbers, tomatoes, bell pepper), corn

Saturday: chicken fajitas, avocados, corn tortillas, homemade salsa, refried beans, tortilla chips

Sunday: grilled salmon, salad, steamed green beans, brown rice, fresh fruit and green tea

Monday: Chicken noodle soup, homemade bread

Tuesday: grilled tilapia, fresh fruit, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, green beans, fresh fruit and green tea

Wednesday: Iri Iri Pan Pan, steamed mixed vegetables, baby carrots

Thursday: Teriyaki salmon, brown rice with peas, cooked carrots, sliced raw vegetables, fresh fruit and green tea

If I stick to that menu, I will have met my goal to have fish 3x a week, fresh fruit for dessert, and I am adding more vegetables than I normally serve. I still haven't made the veggies my main focus, but it is a start.

I am going to keep green tea in the fridge, and I am going to make the Japanese Power Breakfast one morning and see how it tastes. It sounds very good to me because I don't really like traditional breakfast food. Pancakes, eggs, and bacon are good once in a while, but cereal and oatmeal are not appealing to me. Pop Tarts are delicious, but very unhealthy so I don't keep those in the house. If I did, the kids wouldn't get any because I would eat them all the first night I brought them home from the store.

I need to get to bed. Tomorrow I am going to post a picture of the bento lunch box I made for my boys' lunch for tomorrow. I went ahead and made it tonight while I had time. I had a blast! It was so much fun t cut everything with those tiny little cookie cutters!

Goodnight! Have sweet dreams!