Here is a system for eating more salads. Create a salad bar in your fridge. It’s simple, easy and I guarantee you will eat more vegetables. Seriously.

You pick the salad components that you like, the more choices the better. Through out the week you will have a system in place to quickly and easily make a salad that will suite your taste, mood and hunger level, with little to no mess.

Follow the 5 easy steps to eating more salads below. Create the salad bar to your own taste and organize it your way. What’s great about this system is its flexibility. Challenge yourself to boost the variety of vegetables you add in each week. 

5 Easy Steps to Creating a Salad Bar in Your Fridge:

1. Make a list of your favorite vegetables, proteins and salad bar items. Add a variety of lettuces and dark leafy greens to the list. I like to have romaine, spinach, a farm fresh mesclun salad mix, leaf lettuce, and beet greens on hand as a base. Consider 5 add-ins for your salad to start. Such as carrots, cucumbers, olives, crisp green peas, snap peas, snow peas, red cabbage, raw beets, chick peas, a variety of radishes, sprouts, sliced hard boiled egg, goat feta, lentils, walnuts, salmon, chicken, shrimp…to name just a few potential additions to your salad. You don’t have to add all of them at one time. It’s so you have a variety to choose from.

2. Purchase these items with your weekly grocery or farmer’s market trip. Buy local, fresh vegetables and organic when you can. You will eat more veggies with this system, so plan accordingly. Shop for one to two weeks.

3. Prepare the items for storage and use. This only takes about 15-20 minutes a week to prepare. And you’ll have a variety of fresh salads to suit your hunger level and taste buds all week. Start with all the add-ins. Wash, chop/cut as needed. I put each item into its own glass Pyrex storage container. I prefer the glass containers and they stack nicely in the fridge. Being able to see each item is key to the salad bar system. I wash and spin-dry the greens. A salad spinner makes this easy, and I recommend you get one if you don’t already have it. I place the greens in either a large storage container or plastic bag with a few paper towels to absorb moisture. Change the paper towels when needed.

4. Clear a space in your fridge. I keep one side of a shelf in the fridge for my salad bar. You can stack the smaller containers in a larger container or on a tray, pulling it out of the fridge when you need it. Remember to keep it easily accessible. A random collection of storage containers hidden through out the fridge will not get used!

5. Prepare your salad. When it is time to make your salad, everything is ready to go. You can add in all your toppings or just a few. It takes only a few minutes and the salad is done, with no additional clean up.

This system isn’t just for summer. Use it year round, changing some of the vegetables with the seasons. In the fall you’ll love it for the ease of packing school snacks, a quick lunch, or a convenient dinner addition.

Follow the 5 easy steps and you’ll be on your way to feeling lighter, cooler and full of energy.

Let me know if you give it a try. Share your ideas and results with the Mompreneur Wellness Community on Facebook. I’ve selected a few of my favorite salad bar tools, like the salad spinner and Pyrex containers, at the Mompreneur Wellness Store. Stop by and take a look.

Here’s to staying cool with fresh veggies this summer, cheers!

* Cydney Smith, is the Mompreneur Health Coach and founder of MompreneurWellness.com. She educates and coaches entrepreneur women, who are also moms, on how to use healthy, real food and lifestyle changes to fuel their success. To receive weekly tips to fuel your success with healthy foods sign-up for “The Edge” the Mompreneur Wellness Newsletter. Cydney, her husband and 2 daughters live in the southwestern New Hampshire.

if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart,

it is not success at all. - Anna Quindlen

It’s spring. It’s a time for renewal, rebirth, starting fresh. And if you’ve been to the grocery checkout line and read the woman’s magazine headlines you’ll know it is also time “For a New You,” “To lose 10 lbs Fast,” and time “To Get the Beach Body You Have Always Wanted!”

How do you feel when reading these headlines? Are you excited to grab the latest on losing 10 pounds fast? Sure that if you follow the “5 Easy Steps to a More Fit You,” that your abs will look like the celebrity fitness trainer pictured?

I used to feel rotten after looking at certain magazines. Instead of seeing helpful or inspiring articles and tips, I saw examples of all I wasn’t doing. I’d think, “Here I am again, not where I wanted to be”. Not thin enough, organized enough, successful enough. I was essentially comparing myself to some ideal and it would put me in a funk that affected all aspects of my life.

I’m not against tips and strategies from a professional or passionate person who has the ability to synthesize and simplify a lot of information and create some actionable steps. That’s awesome. Why reinvent the wheel? But if your mindset doesn’t change, the actions won’t stick. The change won’t stick.

Here’s the deal – you probably already know what to do to improve your health or to be more thin, get more clients, sell more products, interact more patiently with your kids, have a cleaner house, find more time for friends, or to be more available for your relationship. You’ve read the articles, so why don’t you do it?

Based on my own experience as a multi-passionate entrepreneur, and from what I have observed with my clients, here’s my guess of what gets in the way of taking action:

All the seemingly competing interests – like parenting, owning a business, taking care of a house and self-care. Add in confusion about what to eat, sleep deprivation, and a general lack of clarity about our own sense of success and it becomes easier to just stay where we are. Taking “3 Steps To Be Healthy,” loses as a priority when there is a blog to write, emails to reply to, products to ship, calls to make, accounts to reconcile, laundry to do, and kids to carpool. Adding one more thing may seem impossible.

But what if there is a new way? A way to create a lifestyle that was uniquely your own? One in which being healthy and successful were the same thing? Where running a business and raising a family went hand-in-hand?

As a mompreneur that was your intention wasn’t it? To make money, follow your passions, be available for your kids – to have it all.

That was my intention, and when I began to see food and nutrition as tools to achieve the life I want I began to see real results. I began to eat for energy, clarity, and well-being – instead of just calories, fat grams, and fad diets with big promises.

A shift happened and I began thinking in terms of Total Wellness – a wellness that integrates all the aspects of my life, that embraces my imperfections, that allows a fresh vitality to run through me.  I began to let go off  a definition of success created by others and to create my own.

This is where Mompreneur Wellness came from, this desire for Total Wellness.

Below are the 7 components to the Mompreneur Wellness Program. I encourage you to create your own definition of success. Create a food, nutrition and lifestyle plan that is uniquely your own. Actually, make it less of a plan and more of a manifesto for living that evolves and strengthens over time. A way of living that gives you the energy and time to create your vision for a successful and healthy life.

The 7 components below are the backbone to Mompreneur Wellness. With these components, you can explore what Total Wellness means to you and begin to integrate that into all aspects of your life. Use the components as a guide for creating wellness and success in your life.

The 7 Components of Mompreneur Wellness:

• Personalize Everything – As a mompreneur, you dare to live your way. This approach will make a huge difference in your health.
• Real Life Application – Though I enjoy cooking, a 20-minute quick-n-healthy meal made with a few real food ingredients and eaten together as a family is far healthier for me than an intensely prepared gourmet meal that stressed me out (and created a ton of dishes). I keep it simple, elegant and applicable to real life.
• Eat Less Junk – Period. Understanding the transformational power of food, and how to use it, is like having a secret weapon.
• Upgrade Your Mindset – Underneath all of our food choices is a pattern of thinking that is driving you. Upgrade how you think and say goodbye to guilt- laden eating for a breakthrough in your wellness.
• Small Changes Create Big Results – You don’t have to turn your life upside down to become more energized, focused and on purpose. What’s actually much more sustainable is to make small changes that easily integrate into your life.
• Make it Pleasurable – Enjoy what you eat and the choices you make.
• It’s More Than the Food – As an ambitious, conscientious entrepreneur mom, you understand that health, energy, and vitality are assets to your success.  Focusing on wellbeing, and getting support when you need it is not a luxury; it’s a marker of successful living.

I’d love to support you in trying out any of the 7 components of Mompreneur Wellness. I’ll reply to any comments, or at http://twitter.com/cydneysmith or on facebook @ http://tinyurl.com/mompreneurwellness.

Mompreneur Wellness leads clients to create a total wellness plan through learn and implementing new health and nutrition strategies that make getting real food on the table a snap. Get support with creating total wellness with the Mompreneur Wellness e-zine at http://mompreneurwellness.com. There you will find more information about the 8 Weeks to Mompreneur Wellness Program, which begins in May.

Cydney Smith is a certified health coach and owner of Mompreneur Wellness. Her programs and coaching lead participants to discover, learn, and create a lifestyle of wellness and success. She lives in southwestern NH with her 2 daughters and husband.

Check. Healthy school week lunches – done. I know what my girls are being served, that they like it, and that it’s nutritious. My girls are 8 and 9, and they can be picky. They want some of the flashy packaged foods. I give in occasionally, providing the organic, non- high fructose corn syrup, preservative-free version. We call it upgraded junk food. I don’t want my girls to ever think these food products are healthy. I also am really clear that life doesn’t end with the ingestion of junk food, or cake. It’s a delicate balance with girls.

Anyway, I try to make lunches the night before, or quickly put it together in the morning, by not thinking (thinking in the morning can add on another 15 minutes to getting out the door) and following my menu plan. The use of leftovers is key.

I see lunch as a very important part of my kids day. It effects their blood sugar, their learning and focusing ability and their energy levels. Perhaps a more important meal then dinner.

I’d love to know what you do for lunch. Please post any tips, comments below. And feel free to contact me  via email cydney@mompreneurwellness.com, twitter or facebook.

Once a week, after school, I stop by a local farm with my girls. We pick up a basket of local organic produce. It’s our CSA share.  It is this weekly endeavor that I believe has fostered an openness to eating vegetables within my daughters.  It certainly has increased the amount of vegetables found in our house.

A CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture, is a relationship between a farmer (the producer) and the consumer. CSA’s are a pre-buy program, where the consumer pays for their “share” of the farmers produced goods for the season, or designated length of time. The consumer is given a rough idea of what they will receive based on what the farmer planted. What is not guaranteed is what will actually be available, the quantity and timing. Temperature, weather, and planting methods all have a influence the  harvest. There is no middle person. The relationship is direct producer to consumer. The pre-buy allows the farmer to cover costs up front. They also do not have to sell and price buy market value. A bad tomato year? Maybe a boon for cucumbers. The consumer and farmer share the burden and surplus.

Participating in a CSA does take some time. I go to the farm. I wash the dirt off the produce. I need to find ways to use what we bring home. Is it worth it? Because really, who needs more work?

Ever have cauliflower – fresh? Or ground cherries? Green beans that snap with succulence? Ever see your kids dig through a basket of produce as if it was a corporate holiday thank you gift basket filled with ‘goodies’? A CSA brings value to my life  and health. The ROI is excellent.

In this photo, my two girls are assisting Farmer Amanda Hopkins with packing our share for the week. We received potatoes, carrots and onions from the root cellar, put over from the fall harvest. We also received fresh spinach, some succulent greens (not even sure what they were, but we ate them like lettuce), beets and a jar of local honey. As we move through spring, we expect more greens from the greenhouse and an early harvest of hardy greens. As the season moves on, the CSA will include a wide range of fresh veggies, fruits, flowers and herbs each week. We also have the option of getting raw milk and local beef with each share. Farmer Amanda sends an email each week alerting members to what we will be taking home so we can plan meals. When the harvest is abundant, as in mid-summer, we have to get real creative on how to use it up. When we are on vacation, we donate our week basket to a local soup kitchen.

Joining a CSA is an adventure. It’s an opportunity to try new veggies and meet some great people in your community. It is a boost to your vegetable intake. The variety and quantity surpasses most peoples weekly grocery store purchases. Visiting the farm, and the educational value for my kids is a bonus. To find a CSA, or a Farmer’s Market in your area check out http://www.localharvest.org.

Cydney Smith, founder of Mompreneur Wellness, is a certified Holistic Health Coach offering private and group coaching to entrepreneur moms who want to leverage the power of healthy eating to fuel their success. She is the mother of 2 daughters and lives in southwestern New Hampshire. Connect with Cydney and her work through social media. Stop by the Mompreneur Wellness Community on Facebook and share your thoughts. Say hello on  twittter @Cydneysmith.

No more. I keep it simple. And I make yummy, soul enriching food. I share a peaceful(ish) dinner with my family. I only say F*** it once or twice a month. In essence, I don’t think about my dinners that much anymore. I definitely don’t fill myself with a bunch of negative thoughts about the hassle of dinner, with the “what am I going to cook” energy drainer, or the “why-can’t-I-be-like-all-the-other-moms-who-are-perfect”crap. Nope, been there, done that, owned it, moved on.

Here are the top 4 reasons my menu plans failed (and sometimes still do).

1) Ambitious, unrealistic and idealized meal selections – To many ingredients, to much time, to many components = to many dishes! The thought of making the “amazing” dinner and cleaning up was enough to yell “Uncle” before the kids could even moan, “I’m hungry! What’s for dinner?”.

2) I took my “perfect mom” syndrome to the table when writing the menu. I imagined a fantasy life of cooking gourmet meals every night - Speaks for its self. Now my mantra is: Simple. Simple. Simple. Cook once, eat twice. Everything needs to take 20 minutes or less for prep. Save the big cooking to one or two days a week, and only if you enjoy cooking!

3) I did not match up the reality of my schedule with my meal plan - This seems so obvious to me now. I used to forget to budget my time (and energy) for the meal preparation/eating/dishes. I was more interested in  what I thought, or wanted, dinner to look like. Total recipe for failure.

4) I’d make a plan, buy the groceries, and forget to look at it – I wouldn’t think about what I was cooking until it was time to cook. And often I’d realize, at that moment, the recipe was going to take to long. Or to much prep. Then I’d cry (JK, kinda).

Here is this weeks dinner menu, based on my afternoon/evening schedule. I post it on the fridge. I glance at it while I’m cooking or cleaning up the kitchen the night before, and plan ahead. Everything on it is prepared in 20 minutes or less (cooking time may be longer, but I plan for other things during those times). And the crock pot meals are ready when we get home and on the table in 10 minutes.

I’d love to know if you plan your meals. What works for you? What hasn’t worked? Share a strategy or comment below.

Cydney Smith, founder of Mompreneur Wellness, is a certified Holistic Health Coach offering private and group coaching to entrepreneur moms who want to leverage the power of healthy eating to fuel their success. She is the mother of 2 daughters and lives in southwestern New Hampshire. Connect with Cydney and her work through social media. Stop by the Mompreneur Wellness Community on Facebook and share your thoughts. Say hello on  twittter @Cydneysmith.

But right now, for the next 2 months, it’s a compromise. I need some exercise. I’ve been busy. Which is AWESOME. I’m launching a new group, writing more, coaching private clients and planning some big travel this spring. I need my child-free hours (and evenings) to work. So I exercise while they are in a class at the YMCA. The weather has been really wet for the northeast, and I worry that there will be many afternoons of indoor time. And frankly, I’m not in the space for it right now. Activities sound good.

The schedule may get crazy.  I hate the feeling that comes from rushing everyone around. I value dinnertime as a chance to eat nourishing meals, but also as a time for the kids to stop from the day’s activities and transition to a relaxed evening. I am busy. I will have things to work on later. Yet, it’s still important that I stop, connect with them at dinner and that I slow down. Eating in a relaxed environment is important for healthy digestion. And I want my kids to learn basic social skills and manners for the dinner table. And I know that comes from habit, from practice – not from me nagging. Not from us slopping some food onto a plate, swallowing it and moving on.

Dinner time is a chance, even with kids, even when its busy, to cultivate being present. To pause. I’m not saying it’s all quite and proper-like over here. We talk, we giggle, and kids get out of their seat. I remind, OK, I may nag. But I think we also create a protective bubble around ourselves, a place apart from school, work, dishes and laundry, from money and obligations. We are sharing a meal. We are pausing to nourish our core existence and our time as a family. Simple and profound for a Monday morning, I know.

Which brings me to the menu part of this post. Meal planning is KEY. It takes the dinner hour from causing me stress and occupying valuable (and at times unavailable) brain space to getting done. Without much thought. I post the meal plan on the fridge. I glance at it the night before or in the morning and see if there are any steps that can be done ahead of time. I keep it super simple. A few ingredients, quick and easy steps. I enjoy cooking when I have a chance to savor and be creative, when the outcome is a lovely meal and a glass of wine. Weeknights, it’s all about getting it done.

I won’t, and don’t grab fast food – ever. It’s a bottom line for me. I will grab take out some times from restaurants I know have some quality food. But that still takes time, and costs more, and you don’t always know what’s in the food (how much salt? What kind of oils? Where is the meat from?). I save that for days when it ‘has’ to happen, or I crave a favorite dish.

Satisfying my intention to nourish myself, and my family, with healthy food and the ritual of a family dinner takes some time, some planning, and some organization. But it doesn’t take complicated recipes, ingredients or a June Cleaver inspired domesticity.

What does dinner look like at your home this week? Share in the comments section below.

Monday: Slow Cooker Turkey Meatloaf w/Roasted Potatoes and Broccoli

(4:30-5:30 Gymnastics (girls)/Treadmill (me); home @ 6)

Dinner by 6:30. Prep in morning, roast potatoes while writing this blog.

Recipe for “More Please” Meatloaf from Living Without Magazine, Winter 2007.

Tuesday: Slow Cooker Rice Pasta Marinara with Sausage; Salad.

(5-6:00 swimming; home w/Dad @ 6:45; I have yoga 5:15-6:45; home 7)

The kid’s favorite. I’ll join them, but will eat just as a salad, as this dish feels a little heavy to me. Prep after school– pre-cook pasta, and dump ingredients into slow cooker. Recipe from Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker.

Wednesday: Homemade Nori Rolls w/avocado, cucumber, carrot or smoked salmon; Miso soup. (Home after school, 3:30)

Girls will help make these. Very easy, yummy (made w/sweetened brown rice). I make extra rolls for lunch. Slice in the morning so the avocado doesn’t brown, and rolls stay moist.

Thursday: Slow Cooker Curried Chicken w/Butternut Squash and Peas. Brown Rice.

(5-6:00 swimming/treadmill for me; home by 6:45)

I usually adjust the curry for the girls when cooking. The Brown Rice is from the night before. Reheat on stove top. Dinner by 7:00.

Recipe from Living Without Magazine, Winter 2007.

Friday: Homemade Oven Fried Gluten Free Chicken Fingers w/dip. Kale Chips. Dessert.

Friday’s dinner is often leftovers, or something that I can make another day. I leave it open in case an event comes up, or we decide to hang out in town and eat out. Recipes from Living Without Magazine, Fall 2006.

** If you have any question about this menu or the recipes leave a comment here or connect with me though the social media links below or to the right.

Cydney Smith is the founder of Mompreneur Wellness, and a certified holistic health and wellness coach. She works with entrepreneur moms to leverage the power of healthy eating to fuel their success in life and in business. Sign-up for her weekly newsletter or connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, or email. When not writing, traveling or coaching clients, Cydney can be found with her 2 girls and husband in southwestern NH.

Happy Valentine’s Day! Seriously, this holiday is a blessing in the middle of the winter. It floods our stark winter world with hearts, color and chocolate. Yum!

I love any reason to eat rich, dark chocolate or get roses (Husband – you reading this?). This mid-winter celebration offers much more than a reflection on the romantic loves, or lack of them, in our lives though. The core of all health begins with the love we have for ourselves. Honestly, it sounds cliché, but its true.

Relationships can drastically affect our health. They are a primary food that can nourish our health or bring it out of balance. Relationships with partners, co-workers, friends and family can influence how we feel, our stress, happiness, and motivation. They can effect our eating patterns and the choices we make in regards to our personal vision.

The most primary relationship is, of course, the one we have with ourselves. And nothing effects how we eat more than our mindset.  Do you prioritize your day for someone you don’t value, respect or love? Didn’t think so.

Do you prioritize the time to shop, cook, plan and eat? Do you choose foods that support your love for yourself, and not just your love for that food?  Does your relationship with food leave you satisfied and happy?  Or guilty and shameful? Are you energized and vibrant, or do you cycle through feast and famine? How functional is your relationship with food?

Lot’s of people think that eating healthy and consciously is hard and full of deprivation and bleak, yucky foods. Who wants that? I’m all for eating what we love (see chocolate comments above). I’m all for being healthy and fit. And I’ve come to love the clean, flavorful, real food that energizes and connects me to my vibrant self. I want that for you too. The biggest shift I have had in my own health was when I realized that I could eat without guilt, fear or shame. Honestly, the thought had never occurred to me until I saw speaker David Wolfe during my training at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

What are you thinking about after you eat?

This Valentine’s Day make a vow to nourish yourself, care for yourself and share the gift of a healthy and vibrant you with the world. Share the love and reap the happiness in the coming year.

Start today. Buy yourself some flowers. Give a gift to a teacher, friend or lover. Enjoy the chocolate. Celebrate your wonderful self.

Cydney Smith, founder of www.MompreneurWellness.com, helps entrepreneur women, who are also moms, to leverage the power of healthy eating to fuel their success in life and business. When not writing about healthy eating and living, or coaching successful women, Cydney is usually off adventuring with her 2 daughters (8 and 9). She lives with her husband, girls and pets in southwestern NH. Follow on twitter: @cydneysmith

Lara Bars are my go to travel snack. I always have them in my bag and car to eat in a pinch. Unlike other bars that can be loaded with sugar, poor quality oils or hard to digest proteins, Lara Bars are made from real ingredients that you will recognize. This is the ingredient list from my favorite, Cherry Pie: Dates, Almonds, Unsweetened Cherries. That’s it.

Often a whole bar is too much for me to eat at one sitting. I usually take a few bites and save the rest for later, as do my kids. A little goes a long way. I was really excited (honestly, this is the kind of thing that can make my day) when I found a box of bite size Lara Bars at the Brattleboro Coop yesterday. I hadn’t seen them in this size before. Perfect!

Let me know if you’ve tried them and which flavor is your favorite.

Here’s the link to their site if you want more info: http://www.larabar.com/food/about-larabar

The main reason I love coffee? To use Dolly’s words from the song Working 9 to 5, ” Wake up in the morning, stumble to the kitchen, pour myself a cup of ambition, yawn and stretch and try to come alive…” That’s it; I love the sense of ambition, the feeling of coming alive. In my mommy, kid, homemaker, entrepreneur, family cook, community member life what the heck is wrong with that?? I live a healthy life; it’s a priority for me. It’s an awesome full life, and I am very purposeful about the activities I choose, foods I eat and systems I use to maintain it. I often ‘ring the towel dry’ and squeeze a little bit more out of my day.

I don’t always need coffee to feel ambitious; in fact sometimes it starts to cloud my motivation. For the next 2 weeks I am on a food cleanse, and I’ve switched to mostly caffeine free teas, with an occasional green tea or black tea infusion if I feel like it. What I appreciate about this time away from coffee is that I become more aware of how it can become a crutch for me, a way to plow through my daily living, instead of connecting with my true intentions for the life I’m living. It lets me get more done, but I sense I start to ignore the quiet voice inside that may need to rest, or read, or connect with my ‘real’ self. The self that isn’t a clean house, a business minded health counselor building a successful business. It’s the self that isn’t always sure, that likes to read, go for walks, and really live. The self that is open to the muse, the angelic forces, and the coincidences in life.

Without coffee, and while eating a cleansing diet, I shed weight, toxins, and layers of ‘shoulds’ and tasks. I tend to be the do more, ADHD, Pitta, lover of all things new and exciting type. And at times I use coffee to keep that going. I also use coffee to lift myself out of a long day and into a long night of responsibilities. It serves me. Sure there are many other strategies. I’m a health counselor, I know this! Just like all the rest of life, it’s a choice that I enjoy making. I’ve found peace with it. I’ve chosen moderation, and ownership of my choice. I choose it, and I let go of the guilt. Really, it’s just a cup of coffee.

Stepping away, reminds me to build up some other muscles of self-care, because I often see having a coffee as self-care. During the next 2 weeks I let myself sleep, I might not get ‘it’ all done, but I do get just one thing at a time done. Awesome. And I am doing this while launching Mompreneur Wellness, my business, into a bigger field. I want to be connected to myself and the choices I am making. And I found that I was letting coffee induced ‘ambition’ get in the way.

During this time, I wonder, as you might be, will I stay off of coffee forever? It is a positive experience being off coffee. But I won’t give it up. I will drink a cup or 2 here and there; I’ll try to control its hold on me. And when I feel that slipping, when I get to the place where I can feel it depleting me, aggravating me, I’ll step away again. I’m Ok with a vice; in this crazy world of momness I’ll take a cup of ambition when I can get it.

Cydney Smith, MompreneurWellness.com. Holiday special “Total Wellness Breakthrough for Entrepreneur Moms” free (reg. $87) now through Dec. 15, 2009. Email cydney@mompreneurwellness.com for more info. Twitter.com/cydneysmith, FB fan page: www.tinyurl.com/mompreneuerwellness

This week my menu plan includes 2 dinner menus. One is the plan for the foods I will be eating while on a food-based cleanse. The italics are the foods I’ll prepare for my family. Most nights a portion of each plan overlaps. Leftovers will become my lunch the next day.

Monday Root Vegetable Soup (I made a large pot on Sunday afternoon), small piece of salmon. Kale.
Quinoa with Salmon and Kale

Tuesday Roasted Beets and Sweet Potato Fries, potassium broth
Spinach Frittata, Roasted Beets, Sweet Potato Fries

Wednesday Pumpkin Soup and baked squash with a touch of maple
Brown Rice, Baked Tofu and squash or soup if they want.

Thursday Kale and Sweet Potato Soup, fermented daikon and carrots, broccoli
Venison Steak, Baked Potato, Broccoli

Friday Leftover salads from lunches, leftover soup
Rice Pasta with olive oil, garlic broccoli and parmesan

2 menus? Double cooking? I rarely cook a separate meal for the kids. I prefer that we eat family style, sharing the meal on the table. A few times a year though, I do a cleanse. During this time I prepare separate dishes for myself. Sometime the family eats them; sometimes the meals are take-out, or pasta-quick-type meals. I find that by creating a menu, going to the grocery store once, and preparing extra to use at other meals, makes the entire process manageable. All the meals here require less than 30 minutes of my time to prepare.

During the 2 week food cleanse, and I don’t worry much about the family meals. If a day gets to busy or ‘the plan’ doesn’t work out, they will get Annie’s Gluten Free boxed mac n’ cheese. I do not go off my cleanse.

I cleanse to let go of toxins, weight and stuck emotions. I try to be patient with my self this week. I also cleanse to revitalize my body’s life force, and promote cell rejuvenation. I cut out/back on caffeine, and no refined sugars, processed foods, gluten, or dairy.

If you would like to know more, the details can be found in my newsletter. As a busy mom of 2, I tell you how and why I do a food based cleanse so that you can give it a try. If you haven’t signed up for the Mompreneur Wellness newsletter and would like to, the opt-in is to the right of this post.

In addition to the information I share in the newsletter, I will be offering a supported mini-cleanse in late January and a longer spring cleanse in March or April. Stay connected to find out more.

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