I'm always interested in what meal ideas people come up and how they plan their menus. Is there any interest in posting your daily menu for each day. It could help people plan and stay honest and share ideas.

You could write what plan, what stage and any personal tweaks you're making to that program.

I'd be willing to start one each day. Anyone willing to post?

Hi, have you checked out Bootcamp...something very similar happens there daily.

Hi Sharon,

Actually that is where I got the idea. I was looking through journals and wishing there was just a food thread where people posted what they ate and you could just scroll through it. I like the journals but when I'm looking for ideas, I just wanted menus.
Is there a thread over there with just menus? I might have missed it. thanks.

sj

Hi essjay,

Sounds like you have a great idea, I think I see what you mean.

You mean each day we all post any interesting menus we had, other than boiled eggs. And people just jump in and add their creative menus. Next day start a new thread, and this way people can find out interesting ideas for food. If they like something, they can just ask the poster for the recipe.

Sounds good. Why not start the thread and others will hopefully jump in.

Wa'il

This sounds like a perfect thread to have in the Lowcarb Kitchen!!

That way, folks can easily find recipes too, to stimulate the menu ideas

Doreen

I've only been here a week-and-a-half, but I'll second the request, if I may. I cling to other people's meal plans -- they're a lifeline. It fascinates me how creative people are. I started on bacon-and-eggs/chicken salad/steak and salad -- to me, the basic low carb menu -- and I'm extremely grateful for every idea I get that's an alternative to that.

Essjay, if you start it, I'll sign up.

The Kitchen forum already handles recipes, and each one is in it's own thread. That makes it really easy to find one. Have you wandered over to that part of the site to check out the great recipies?

http://forum.lowcarber.org/f2/

Maybe I'm just not understanding what you meant essjay.

I was still on the board and saw your response, Angela, and thought I'd answer, even though I'm not essjay -- who may have intended something different. But what Tamarian posted was what I had in mind:

Tamarian wrote:
"You mean each day we all post any interesting menus we had, other than boiled eggs. And people just jump in and add their creative menus. Next day start a new thread, and this way people can find out interesting ideas for food. If they like something, they can just ask the poster for the recipe."

We'd have a Menus, Friday, November 9 and each poster would put up their menus, so they'd be there all in a row. I check the journals too, but there are many of them, and often there's a lot of material in them besides menus (and should be). The Recipes forum is great, very helpful, but it's individual dishes, not how someone puts everything together into an eating plan. We Newbies need all the help we can get

I like Wa'il's and Doreen's idea, too, of connecting it to the recipes forum. Just my 2 cents

I see what you are getting at...but I'm still worried about recipes getting burried way deep inside threads.

Maybe I should just stop thinking of them as recipes. If it is a whole day's menu, balanced with all the protein and carbs then it would make it easier for those of us who aren't great cooks and have trouble planning things when the protein or carb allotment for a meal isn't just from a single source. (ie going from meat, a veggie and salad at dinner to something more exotic with multiple ingredients)

BTW, I'm a newbie too. Nice to meet you!!

Okay, this is what I mean...I would start a thread in the morning and say this is what I ate yesterday. List my meal plan, any variations I'm making to it and any extra info on meals as well.

EXAMPLE

Daily Thread One:

I am on Atkins, post-Induction.
Variation: I try to eat 5-6 small meals a day every 2-3 hours (to keep insulin more stable)

MY MENU:

Meal One: Carbolite Pancake w/ carbolite syrup and butter
I make the pancake using half zero carb bake mix and half low carb bake mix

Meal Two: Egg salad on a fiber wasa

Meal Three: small chicken breast and green beans

Meal Four: Chicken ceasar salad

Meal Five: Pepperoni and cheese

Meal Six: Egg custard: use regular egg custard recipe, replace milk with cream and water and sugar with splenda.

The idea is to just list menu ideas and then if you have a question about your own menu or someone else has one, you can post it. The daily thread idea is so that it happens every day on the main board. If someone has questions (How do you make this, is this or that too many carbs?) they can respond to the post. People can post their own menus and ask questions about it (am I getting enough food? too many carbs? anyone see potential stallers?) thoughts?

essjay, I think it's a great idea. I've already gotten an idea from you -- thinking of them as six small meals rather than as three meals plus snacks. I'm going to try to space "feedings" throughout the day. I was trying to be "disciplined" and eating three meals a day, but I think the other will work better.

Since you have Wa'il and Doreen's blessing, why not start it tomorrow -- I'll bet a lot of people will sign up.

Suggestion: I've seen this on other forums become confused, because people don't know whether, on Saturday, they should be posting Friday menus -- that's one option -- or whether the Saturday thread should be for Saturday's menus. If it was a post-Saturday's-menus-on-the-Saturday-thread, then we could post breakfast and go back in and edit later meals OR wait until the end of the day.

Great idea -- and Angela, great to meet you, too

All of the above is why the Journal Forum was opened. If we get into this in a daily menu thread, it will be a duplicate of the Journals.

I think you may be finding the journals lengthy to read because you want to get to the "meat". I too am trying to figure out a way of doing this so we we won't be repeating what already exists.

In ASDLC, a member will frequently start a thread with "What's for Dinner?" and the members will post what they will be having for dinner. The thread becomes very long and lively and only the food is discussed in them. "What's for Lunch" or "Breakfast" can always be asked too.

Karen

Karen has a good point .. I routinely post my daily menus, with amounts, cooking directions, and nutritional breakdown in my Bootcamp journal (well ok, the last couple days I've been delinquent ) .. and no desire to post in two different places.

I guess I was just thinking of basic menu "ideas" and not a "what did you eat today", which, as Karen says, duplicates the role and purpose of the journals.

Just my 2¢

Doreen

Karen, I agree....my first thought was we are already do this, although I understand what people are looking for.

I personally find just by reading through others journals I get meal ideas. If we start with the menus, then we'll have to add the recipes, then with the recipes we have to add the nutritional counts...etc....and pretty soon the "meat" will be hard to find there as well.

But, the bottom line is....if doing this helps someone/people then it's worthwhile.

What about testing the ASDLC model and trying a "What's for Dinner?" thread. WOuld Daily Low Carber be an appropriate place to start it?

Karen