Fridge tetris

It's official. I now have enough yogert in my fridge to bathe in. I also now remember one of the biggest reasons I started buying the containers of Yo Plus instead of other options. It is a matter of a serious space consideration for one thing, compounded by a sudden increase in the price of powdered milk. About 3 years ago I was making yogert on my own in our crock pot, but then we started on our weight loss journey and points became the big focus and this commercially made yogert with added fiber and splenda was very desirable. And then it won out because of space. Ours is not simply one person losing weight and the rest in the house doing their own thing. There are three of us, and we each require a certain number of servings of specific food groups for good health. In the case of dairy, hubby and I because of age require 3 a day , and son the same number as well because of his age. That is 21 servings in a week per person. A serving of dairy has to be a minimum of 20 grams calcium- a cup serving of milkor yogert, an ounce of hard cheese, two ounces of soft and so forth. So fitting 63 dairy servings into a home fridge ( along with all the other stuff) is a bit of a tricky buisness. We eat 62 out of 63 meals per week made in this kitchen, and there are only so many hours in my day. For this reason , advanced prep for many things becomes a matter of survival. In the case of a simple matter like a healthy lunch and healthy snacks, we opt for home made soups, fresh fruit and veggies. Now add dietary considerations like yeast free, minimal additives, and AFFORDABLE. You will not see Greek Yogert on our plates, but you will find lings like Dannon Nonfat plain yogert with home made fruit salad ( vat of this also stuffed into the fridge with the surreal vat of yogert). Saturdays seem to be spent shopping, chopping and playing tetris with my fridge. I am not complaining- I actually enjoy doing this.

Breakfast was pumpkin oats with goji berries, ground flax, coconut, crasins, wheat bran and olive oil. It is something that keeps me going, and one of the few times during the week when hubby gets to have oatmeal. He brown bags breakfast and lunch, and often eats those meals while at his desk, buried in work. Weekends are a chance for him to eat a real breakfast, and oats are the weapon of choice.

One of the changes we are making is to use cleaner yogert- Dannon plain nonfat and add your won toppings. Because of time and volume of food, yogert and fruit is now moved to snack time. Here is the morning snack- plain yogert with an apple and stevia

Lunchtime hit while we were shopping, so we hit the deli at our favorite grocery store , that has a ton of healthy options that are tasty and affordable. I got a bowl of potato leek soup and somn chose brown rice sushi, daddy got a stromboli. Sadly strombolis are one of my sons favorite foods, but because the dough is made with yeast, it is a no no.He adores sushi and it is a treat for him because mommy cannot have it due to allergies. I was really happy to be able to suggest a bigger favorite for him. Nornally, Saturday lunch is the only meal we eat that I do not prepare at home, and I am really glad that our store has so many ready made food options !

Back at the ranch, and the chopping and fridge tetris begun. I decided that the most efficiant thing I could do with the snacks would be to cut up my own fruit salad with whatever was on sale and then simply portion it out at snacks. This week the choices were strawberries, cantalope, baby watermellons and mangos. Makes for a mix that is tasty to eat but really sloppy to prepare. So afternoon snack was plain yogert topped with this mix and stevia.


Dinner happened after all this chop and prep stuff, and it was fast. Grilled beef burgers on swiss cheese with Kashi Tomato Bushetta crackers ( crackers are yeast free enough for son's tolerance) and raw carrots, celery and brociflower with laCroix water. I did not get a chance to cut up lemomns for water) I really like easy and fast Saturday dinners, as by that time I really don't want to deal intensively with food anymore.

Today we are planing a walk in the woods, a trip to Trader Joes and a stop at Borders- my three favorite places on earth ! Have a good one !