Menu Plan Monday May 31

Well, pregnancy exhaustion and food aversions have kept me from menu planning for most of my pregnancy to date, but I am finally back at it. Why? Well my midwife took one look at me the other day and said, "You look really pale. Are you getting enough iron?" A quick peek behind my lower eyelids confirmed her suspicion. "You need more iron."

It is not so hard to get more iron, is it? Well, I learned from my midwife that calcium binds with iron and pulls it out of your body, so that iron-fortified Ovaltine I've been chugging is absolutely useless. Putting calcium-fortified cheese on my burger, again, useless. So realizing that I need to plan more which foods go with which, I decided it was time to put an end to this pregnancy-induced laziness and get back on the meal planning track. Without further ado...

Except for today, I'll include Breakfast & Lunch, I have yogurts and such as snacks throughout the day as well; since I'm needing to keep calories up as well as needing a calcium boost.

Monday - Beef & Barley Burgers

Tuesday -
Breakfast: Soaked Oatmeal w/Bananas and Honey
Lunch: Ravioli
Dinner: "Ken's Scallops" & Non-Dairy Quinoa Risotto (The recipe is actually "Vegan," but we're using chicken stock instead of vegetable broth. My interest was not in something meat-free so much as in having iron-rich quinoa with no dairy to steal the iron)

Wednesday -
Breakfast: Soaked Oatmeal w/banana and honey
Lunch: Dinner Leftovers
Dinner: Tacos w/grass finished beef, homemade guacamole

Thursday -
Breakfast: Creamy Quinoa Porridge with Raisins and Honey
Lunch: Egg Salad Sandwich on homemade Whole Wheat Bread
Dinner: Out with friends

Friday -
Breakfast: Creamy Quinoa Porridge with Bananas & Honey
Lunch: Egg Salad Sandwich on homemade Whole Wheat Bread
Dinner: (My Late Night @ Work) Nitrate-free and MSG-Free hot dogs, Baked Sweet Potatoes

Saturday -
Breakfast: Pancakes, eggs, bacon
Lunch: Tuna Salad Sandwich on homemade Whole Wheat Bread
Dinner: Homemade Chinese Dumplings (fried in Lard) We are using a fermented soy sauce called Tamari that is MSG Free.

Sunday -
Breakfast: Banana Muffins
Lunch: Leftovers from Dinner
Dinner: Pork chops, Mashed Potatoes, and Vegetables.

This is part of Menu Plan Monday. Find more great menus at Org Junkie.

Edit (Tues Evening): Because the scallops and the risotto are brand new recipes for me, I wanted to let you all know how incredible it turned out to be. So filling, so delicious; I highly recommend making either or both recipes. The only "problem" is that the risotto recipe has a much higher yield than I realized. We're freezing some, and we still have copious leftovers. If you have a big family, this is a great dish!