Week 3 of the Green Giant Challenge

Last week Dr. V gave me strict instructions to start meal planning, which was great advice.

Unfortunately, I crashed and burned in the meal planning department.

We are moving in 18 days and most of our stuff is in storage. Admittedly, this was probably not the best time to commit to something big like this 4 week challenge, but I just couldn’t say no to the opportunity to work with Green Giant AND a famous tv personality like Dr. V! 

I do now realize that it would have been super helpful if I had access to my slow cookers because they would have been perfect for meal planning weeks like this. I am kicking myself because it would be easy to throw recipes like my Chicken Corn Soup in the crock-pot, substituting with Green Giant frozen corn, and know that dinner is ready and waiting for us, no matter how crazy the rest of the schedule gets.

But I’m still chugging along and trying to make small changes. I have been drinking more water, per Dr. V’s advice and I am trying to cook more at home. Last night we had fish, brown rice, and a pack of the Great Giant Steamers mixed vegetables for dinner.

Here is what Dr. V had to say to me this week.

I like the idea of recreating restaurant meals at home. I’ve been meaning for a while to try recreating a Chipotle burrito bowl and this sounds like the perfect excuse.

This week’s challenge theme is Abundance.

It is true that, for the same amount of calories, you can eat much more in terms of quantity when you are making healthy choices. Check out this chart that shows the difference. It’s pretty crazy how much more you can put in your belly when you are making healthy decisions. These are just a few examples. Click here to see the full chart.

I am going to keep the abundance theme in mind and apply it when packing the kids’ lunches  this week.

Thank you to Green Giant for sponsoring this post. All opinions (and meal planning failures) are my own.