The Art of Menu Planning

Are you a grab and go kind of eater? Do you come home from a long day, look in the fridge and wonder what to feed yourself? Then, when you don't see anything, you snack on crackers, cereal or nuts? Do you prepare and bring your lunch to work or school or do you find yourself eating junky office food? Are you confused about how to prepare yummy meals for you and your family? Are you insecure in the kitchen?

To be totally honest, I could answer yes to all of these questions during some parts of my life. Now that I'm beginning a family, I know that I want a PLAN and I want to be a confident super woman in the kitchen.

Meat Loaf

You have to have a plan. Have you ever heard the saying "if you fail to have a plan then plan to fail?" I tell my clients that going into a potentially unhealthy situation like a business trip, family vacation or extended holiday without a plan, is like going into battle without ammunition. You have to arm yourself with tools, ideas and a solid plan to be your very best self!

This week's article is full of new tools, ideas and tips so that you can unleash your inner super chef!

1. Start by listing all of your favorite meals that you've made or want to learn to make. (To be honest, I have yet to make half of these meals) I suggest using a special notebook or binder that you love. This notebook/binder will soon become your very own recipe book. Find recipes that you want to make in magazines, past Radiant Health eZine's, on the Internet and in books.

Here's my example from my own recipe book:

Beef Vegetable Stir Fry with sweet brown rice

Soup Night- carrot ginger soup, squash soup or gazpacho

Broiled or grilled fish night with steamed green vegetables

Crock Pot meals

Meat loaf- healthy version from Vonnie

Pot roast- look at Joy of Cooking

Quinoa Salad

Lasagna- Joy of Cooking

Home made pizza

Thai noodles with vegetables and tofu

Burrito night

Organic grass fed hamburger night

Chili

2. Start slowly but steadily.
In your new recipe book/binder devote a page to each meal you want to make. Write down the ingredients list (so you can easily take your list shopping.) Next write down the preparation instructions or copy and paste it in your book. You can print out meal photos off the Internet or clip photos out of a magazine. Be sure to leave space to write your chef comments about ingredients, taste and other observations you made in the process (too salty, or not enough this or that.)

3. Schedule in your planner a time when you can shop at your grocery store or local farmer's market and stock up on your ingredients. Remember to take your own recyclable bags. Stock up on basic/common ingredients like ginger, tamari (wheat free soy sauce), garlic, olive oil, butter, spices,whole grains, canned beans, Ezekial sprouted whole wheat bread and tortillas, fruit and vegetables.

4. Schedule a time in your calendar when you can enjoy a few hours playing in your kitchen.

5. Get down to business! Play some fun music on your Ipod (Jazz or blues always helps me get in the mood to cook.) Throw on a cute apron and dive into the creative process of making your own meal.

6. Work on becoming familiar with one recipe at a time, gaining confidence to prepare the dish without having to follow the instructions. Once you master a recipe, your confidence will soar and your inner chef will be on her way to stardom.

7. Rotate your special meals throughout your month. For example develop a lasagna night, burrito night, vegetable stir fry night, quinoa salad night, meat night etc. Your family and friends will love you!

8. Keep it simple. Cook once, eat it three times! Enjoy leftovers from your yummy dinner tomorrow at work. You can also freeze your food up to three months. I intend to make a bunch of marinara sauce, pesto, and roasted winter squash soup from fresh local ingredients before the farmer's market ends. You can do it too! Think about how tasty it will be and how much money you'll save if you act like a squirrel and stock up for the winter.

9. If you skip a week of trying new recipes, don't give up! You have to keep at this in order to unleash your inner super chef. I'm here to support you. I'm on the same path. I'll be blogging about my journey. If you're looking for inspiration and want to share your inner chef journey with me check out my blog.

The Art of Menu Planning

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Why I Believe in Holistic Financial Planning and You Should Too

When you engage the services of an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA) you may receive two different types of service, transactional or holistic, in years gone by you probably wouldn't even be given the choice odds were that the adviser you were dealing with probably only offered one kind of service and that's what you received. If you have seen an IFA in the past, do you know what type of service you received?

Transactional or Holistic Advice?

Meat Loaf

Traditionally Independent Financial Advisers, in the UK at least, have offered primarily a transaction based service. "Transaction" doesn't sound like a nice word, it sounds like the kind of service you get from Tesco, and I bet you are thinking that's not what I get from my adviser, "we have a good relationship, we exchange Christmas cards and stay in touch, I know I can turn to him/her when I need help."

Odds are however that you are receiving a transactional service, let me tell you what a transactional service is so we can see if that is what you currently receive. In a transactional relationship, you have a problem, concern or issue and your adviser pops a long and helps you work out or resolve the matter usually by finding the best financial product available to take care of it. Then you will go back to exchanging Christmas cards etc. until you need help again, or the adviser makes a note to get back in touch when your policy comes up for renewal or some other key event like the end of a deal he arranged for you. Does this sound like your adviser relationship?

Now don't get me wrong, I have no problem with offering transactional based financial advice the majority of my clients, many of whom I now consider friends, come to me on a transactional basis they have a problem and I solve it everybody is happy.

But there is another way, holistic financial planning, the key word here being planning. When you get holistic advice your adviser takes a big picture view of your finances and your personal goals and aspirations, he or she deals with the issues a transactional adviser would but in the context of the "bigger picture". When it's over the adviser and you will agree a schedule for him or her to return so that you can carry out financial reviews that are not based around solving a problem or selling you a new plan or policy, at these reviews the adviser will give you advice on issues that will often be ignored by a transactional advice process, for example which funds your company pension plan should be in, a transactional adviser will rarely give you advice on something like that as they wont receive a commission from your employer, and there is no possibility of a product sale, so they would have to charge you a fee just for that.

If holistic advice is so good, then why do people still opt for a transactional service ?

I have pondered this one for quite some time, firstly I think that there are a large proportion of people who either don't realise that holistic advice exists as an alternative, or they think that they are already receiving it.

I also think that engaging an IFA to come and see you at regular intervals is perceived as something that only the very rich can afford to do, when in reality it is not the case at all. Added to this of course many people don't actually want to deal with their personal finances but prefer to wait until an actual problem appears before they do anything!

What are the big advantages of going down a holistic planning route?

There are a number of common sayings that cut straight to the core of why I believe in the long term everyone would be better off taking a holistic approach to the their financial planning, "Failing to plan is planning to fail", "It pays to plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark." and my personal favourite "If you don't have a plan for yourself, you'll be part of someone else's" There is a reason that saying's like this fall in to common day to day language, it's because we all know they have truth in them whether we want to admit it or not. Think about it does a General ever go in to battle without a plan? Does any business big or small ever succeed without a business plan? Why should the long term financial security and well-being of you and your family be any different? As Thomas Edison said "Good Fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning."

I know what you are probably thinking, I don't really have enough money or income to need holistic planning this sort of thing is for rich celebrities and not for little old me. Well think about this, income is not the be all and end all of financial planning, if you doubt me on this just think for a moment about people you know in your own life maybe they're a little older than you are now, but they've worked in similar kinds of pay brackets as you do, and they are comfortable financially maybe more comfortably off than you are, maybe they're thinking about retiring early or they have a couple of holidays a year. Do you think they got in to that position by accident, or do you think they arrived at this position because they have taken care of their finances over the years?

If income were everything we wouldn't have an endless list of celebrities with mega incomes going bankrupt, go on Google "bankrupt celebs" and see what you come up with. I found this little list, Kerry Katona, Stephen Baldwin, Gary Coleman, George Best, Larry King, Marvin Gaye, MC Hammer, Toni Braxton, Don Johnson, Henry Ford, Meat Loaf, Michael Barrymore, Mike Tyson, Bill Roache, Burt Reynolds...... the list goes on and on. All of these people have or had mega incomes but things still went wrong for them many of them learned hard lessons and went on to make it all back. Donald trump for example who had to put his Casino business in to bankruptcy in 2004 has said "I plan for the future by focusing exclusively on the present." that quote more than any other I have come across sums up holistic financial planning, plan for what you want in the future based on what you have now!

In the end if you want your financial adviser to come and see you to make the best of your available resources to help you achieve your long term goals and work with you to regularly review the situation and help smooth any bumps in the road, without needing to sell you something to cover the time they spend doing, then holistic financial planning is certainly the way you should go.

If you would like to discuss anything in this article then please feel free to get in touch.

Why I Believe in Holistic Financial Planning and You Should Too

John Bloomfield is an Independent Financial Adviser, who works with individuals, families and business's that wish to organise their finances now to achieve their goals in the future.
http://www.pwfs.co.uk

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Planning Help: Meal One

It's nice when I find a meal where the foods compliment each other because it simplifies my life by knowing what to serve with what. Of course I don't have to stick to any one meal plan; I can mix and match the main dishes and sides, but a lot of the time I'm in a hurry and don't have a lot of time to think about it. I already have quite a few meals like this up my sleeve, but when I find a NEW one to add to my collection I get happy because it adds a little more variety to our meal choices.

I'd like to share some of my new and old meal plans with you in hopes of helping you with the question `what do I make for dinner'. Here's a meal that we have tried lately where the foods complimented each other really well. The food items aren't necessarily new for us, but the flavors are and that makes a big difference.

The Meal:

Honey Barbecue Meatloaf

Ranch Mashed Potatoes

Your choice of vegetable (I just heat up a can of green beans or corn)

Apple Cinnamon Muffins with Honey Cinnamon Butter

Make Ahead Tips: You can make the Honey Cinnamon Butter ahead of time and refrigerate until serving. You can also prepare the meat loaf and refrigerate it before baking.

The Recipes:

Honey Barbecue Meat Loaf

I'm not usually a meat loaf eater but I love this one and the family does too.

1 envelope dry onion soup mix

1 egg

1/2 cup oats -- quick cooking

1/3 cup barbecue sauce -- honey flavored

1/4 cup chopped onion

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon mustard -- prepared

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon chili powder

1 pound ground beef

ketchup

In a large bowl, stir together soup mix, egg, oats, barbecue sauce, onion, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, garlic powder, salt, pepper and chili powder. Add beef and mix well. Press into an ungreased 8-in. x 4-in. x 2-in. loaf pan. Bake at 350* for 1 hour. Top with ketchup. Bake 5-10 minutes longer or until meat is no longer pink and a meat thermometer reads 160*. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Ranch Mashed Potatoes

Make mashed potatoes as you usually do but omit the butter and add ranch dressing and cream cheese to taste along with less milk than usual. Top with grated cheddar cheese.

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

My kids love these (so do I) and there's never any leftovers because of this. We also make them for breakfast. Be sure to try them with `Honey Cinnamon Butter' (recipe follows).

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 tablespoons applesauce

1 medium tart apple -- peeled & grated

topping:

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons butter or margarine -- cold

1/2-cup oatmeal -- old fashioned

In a bowl, combine the first six ingredients. Add the egg, milk, oil and applesauce and stir until just moistened. Fold in apple. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. For topping, combine brown sugar and flour. Cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in oats. Sprinkle over muffins. Bake at 400* for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm with Honey Cinnamon Butter (recipe follows). Yield: 1 dozen.

Honey Cinnamon Butter

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1/2 cup honey

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in a small mixing bowl; beat until smooth. Serve with muffins, toast, bagels, French toast or pancakes. Refrigerate any leftovers. Yield: 1 1/3 cups.

In the meantime, keep your eyes open for Meal Two.

For more mouth-watering beef recipes, check out The Beef Recipe E-book: http://homemakersjournal.com/beef.htm For more delicious muffin recipes, check out The Breads, Muffins and More Recipe E-book: http://homemakersjournal.com/breads.htm Get Monica's FREE weekly e-zine for homemakers! To subscribe, just send a blank e-mail to: HomemakersJournal-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

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