Holiday Challenge Menu

[limberone]

Hello to all who wish to incorporate the MWL plan into your holidays:

Please see previous "Holiday Challenge -- MWL" post on this MWL forum to see why I am posting this menu here in the first place!

Here is the 2007 Holiday Challenge menu plan. The dates are Friday, 23 November through Monday, 24 December. Once you view the menu below, you will see that yes, there is repetition. This is the way it works best for my family. We make these dishes for the adults, and for the children, we do not hesitate to add in flour products and other higher calorie items to these menus, as the children are very young, full of energy, and they do not need to lose weight.

Remember that lunches are leftovers, so if you find that you have no leftovers after dinner, double that recipe the next time.

For snacks during the day, prepare a separate large container of cut up raw veggies each night for each person participating in the MWL Holiday Challenge.

Some of the veggies I like to include in my Rubbermaid 2-quart lidded box are:
a whole carrot, scrubbed & peeled (if it's organic, I leave the peel on)
radishes, whole
sugar snap peas
cauliflower florets
mushrooms, thickly sliced
cucumbers, peeled & thickly sliced
jicama, peeled & julienned
red bell pepper strips

Other snacks that are good if you want something besides raw veggies:

tiny red or gold boiled potatoes (these starches add interest and satiety!)
rice cakes (caramel corn, apple cinnamon, or plain-lightly-salted)
oven-baked sweet potato wedges
air-popped popcorn

REMEMBER that Dr. McDougall says, "DO NOT GO HUNGRY!"

When a recipe is not from the MWL book, I checked the MWL book's Addpenix (Additional Recipes That Fit Your Weight-Loss Program), or I made sure that all ingredients were MWL safe by comparing the list of ingredients in the recipe to the lists of ingredients in MWL safe recipes.


Friday (11/23, 11/30, 12/7, 12/14, 12/21)

Breakfast: Couscous and Orange Cereal (The McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss, p. 223) -- this is quick to make and it will travel well in a thermos if you need to take it to work with you.

Dinner: Middle Eastern Lentils (recipe from Neal Barnard's Food For Life -- to be posted here soon)


Saturday (11/24, 12/1, 12/8, 12/15, 12/22)

Breakfast: Sweet Potato Beginnings (The McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss, p. 224)

Dinner: Smashed Beans (New McDougall Cookbook, p. 284) & Mexican Rice (New McDougall Cookbook, p. 258-9)


Sunday (11/25, 12/2, 12/9, 12/16, 12/23)

Breakfast: Oatmeal with optional 1/2 tablespoon raisins and/or honey per serving

Dinner: Three Bean Chili (New McDougall Cookbook, p. 175) served over baked sweet potatoes


Monday (11/26, 12/3, 12/10, 12/17, 12/24)

Breakfast: Couscous and Orange Cereal (The McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss, p. 223) -- this is quick to make and it will travel well in a thermos if you need to take it to work with you.

Dinner: Potato Casserole (The McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss, p. 259) & Steamed Veggies


Tuesday (11/27, 12/4, 12/11, 12/18)

Breakfast: Oatmeal with optional 1/2 tablespoon raisins and/or honey per serving

Dinner: Lentil-Tomato Soup (New McDougall Cookbook, p. 160)


Wednesday (11/28, 12/5, 12/12, 12/19)

Breakfast: Sweet Potato Beginnings (The McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss, p. 224)

Dinner: Spicy Yam Stew (New McDougall Cookbook, p. 172)


Thursday (11/29, 12/6, 12/13, 12/20)

Breakfast: Oatmeal with optional 1/2 tablespoon raisins and/or honey per serving

Dinner: Chili Beans (recipe from Neal Barnard's Food For Life -- to be posted here soon)


That's it! Remember that much of the success achieved here is through being prepared.

After the end of the first week, I will post here again to let you know how the menu went for the first week.

Be sure to post here if you are following this menu and let us know how you are doing!

[VeggieSue]

After the book came out I remember a message from Dr. McDougall apologizing about the cous-cous, that it really isn't allowed on MWLP because it's not a grain, but a pasta product. He claimed it was an editing error, IIRC.

Yet, about a year or so ago on these forums he said that corn tortillas are allowed because they're very low in calories, and besides, how many can one person eat at a sitting? Well, he doesn't know a lot of us very well, because I know that *I* can eat about 6 or more at one sitting, especially if they're cut and slightly toasted and used as a conveyance for a MWLP-legal dip, like oil-free hummus.

It's little things like that why I wish Dr. McD would revise that book, especially now that many of programs at Santa Rosa are specifically for that program.

[pbjelly]

I've been looking forward to seeing what you came up with, as I've been toying with the idea of doing a similar thing, just because I really don't enjoy spending time on meal planning. My problem has been finding 7 different kinds of dinners (not all glops of various kinds....!) that we actually would look forward to eating. So I thank you for sharing the result of all your hard work with us, and I'm going now to check out the recipes....

[ReneeK]

This is a terrific menu. Thank you so much for posting it.

[Wendy]

Thank you for creating a masterpiece of yumming MWL foods to follow.

I like your menu! They are all dishes I haven't tried yet, but want to.

As I said before, "Count me in!"

I have the day off from work today, so I'm going to the store to stock up.

Thanks, again, for the work you've put into this MWL Holiday Challenge.

-- Wendy

[limberone]

Thank you to VeggieSue for pointing out what the good doctor said about couscous. I agree with you about the corn tortillas -- I could definitely eat more than two corn tortillas in one sitting! So I leave those out when I am following MWL. So, back to the couscous...I've been checking the books regarding good breakfast recipes. It just seems to me like the recipes available take a lot of time to prepare! I might just alternate the "sweet potato beginnings" with the oatmeal. Although, after my husband saw the list I prepared, he mentioned that he really liked the Potato Hash, or something like that, from the MWL book. I do not have the MWL book in front of me right now. But it has the potatoes, onions, bell peppers, and it is served with BBQ sauce or ketchup, I think? I am not remembering right now if these sauces are OK? This is what happens when I try to make things up without directly referencing the book!

Oh, I think it was Wendy who said she has not tried any of these recipes -- I wanted to point out that we love all of these recipes, so that's why I am starting with those! Even though I created a list of what to make each day, I will use that as a fall-back to make for those days when I am not feeling creative, but if I happen to be reading more of the MWL-legal recipes, and I have the time, it is my tendency to also try something new! So, after the first week, I will report whether I stuck to the menu as posted here, or if I cooked something else that was also delicious!

I'm so looking forward to Friday already! Thursday will be a lot of fun, to see the family and all, and then Friday will also be fun, as I find that even though MWL can be a challenge, it just feels so real. So much whole, unprocessed food just makes me feel wonderful!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, and I am sure we will be getting a lot of traffic on the MWL board as we get closer to January (as this is what happened last year, anyway!).