Mission Checklist

Wanting somewhere to start? Try the top 10 tips for making changes that make a difference (without tooooo much work).

Monday Mission Checklist (What is a Monday Mission?)

Handwashing and Antibacterial Soap : Wash hands well and rid the house of triclosan.
Reduce Food Waste: Salvage bread heels and leftover cooked veggies.
Reduce Energy Waste: Using your dishwasher wisely.
Meal Planning: Level up in your meal plan organization.
Safe(er) Plastics: Avoid BPA in drinking containers.
Traditional Bone Broths: How to make the most delicious, frugal, nutritious chicken stock in the world.
The next 15 weeks are a series of Super Food challenges. See this page for details.
Legume Recommend Beans: A challenge to include beans/legumes in your meal plan once a week, with how-to prepare and recipes.
Making Yogurt: Easy how-to steps to make homemade yogurt, plus alternative baby steps for those who aren’t ready to take the plunge to homemade.
Eat More Eggs: A simple challenge to include more of this super food in your week.
Can the Cans: Commit to never allowing canned vegetables in your cupboards.
No Nukes for Cruciferous Vegetables: Try steaming your vegetables instead of using the microwave.

Bonus: Mind the Microwave in May and its origins

Be Aware of the Dirty Dozen Produce Items: Memorize the list of 12 top pesticide-laden fruits and veggies.
Plastics, Part two: Rethink Plastic Food Storage
Fats, Part one: Search Out Trans Fats (and a look at monounsaturated fats)
Fats, Part two: Increase your Omega-3 Fats (salmon, flax)
Whole Grains: Find a New Oat Recipe
Eating Orange (veggies) and Revisiting Meal Planning
Learn About Complete Proteins: You can reduce meat consumption (budget help) if you know how to pair non-meal proteins for best nutrition.
Plastics, Part Three: Reduce Your Consumption of Plastic Bags
Use up ALL your Spinach: Ideas to make sure you don’t waste spinach when you buy a fresh bag or box.
Try Something New: Learn about Pomegranates, Green Tea, Cranberry Juice and Artichokes.
Condiment Awareness: Take a small step (or two or three!) to making more healthy condiment choices.
Analyzing Aluminum Foil: Some tips to help you Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle this non-renewable resource.
Analyzing Aluminum Cookware and Bakeware: What are you cooking on? Ideas to avoid aluminum pots, pans, and cookie sheets.
Conserve Energy with your Stovetop/Oven: 10 tips to cutting your energy and budget waste while cooking and baking.
Switch your Baking Powder to Aluminum-Free: You can buy it for just a teensy bit more than conventional baking powder or make your own.
No More Bleach in the Kitchen: It’s overkill and killing the environment. My easy, natural kitchen cleaning solutions.
Make Your Salads Count: Bring more to your mouth than just lettuce, including healthy fats.
Release Your Fear of Fats: Time to put your thinking caps on and learn a little about how necessary fat is to your body. This will challenge your “low-fat” mentality.
Switch to Butter: The real thing is where it’s at. Read my journey about what I put on my toast and consider yours.
Consider Full Fat Dairy: My family’s been eating dairy with all the healthy fats included since Christmas. See what happened to us!
Pare Down the Polys: To balance your omega-3s and omega-6s, you’ve got to take some steps to cut back on polyunsaturated fats such as soybean and corn oil.
Read up on Canola Oil: There is a lot of conflicting research on Canola, but it’s no longer a staple in my kitchen. Part two: Find a Healthy Fat Recipe at the Healthy Fats Carnival.
Try Coconut Oil or Ghee: Time to try a new healthy fat. Learn about a few that I’ve tried in the past year.
Beef Tallow and Lard: Animal fats got a bad rap last century. Let’s give them a chance for a comeback.
Figure out the Fats Vocabulary: How does the pressing of oils affect their nutrition, how to decipher all the labels on your packages.
Soak Your Oatmeal: Increase the nutrition of a frugal breakfast and make it more digestible.
Repurpose Kitchen Containers: Part of Decreasing Disposables in December, this first challenge saves money and resources while keeping your home organized.
Decrease Holiday Disposables: From wrapping paper to cards to big parties, December creates terrible waste. Some ideas to cut it down.
Switch to the Real Thing or Reuse: 7 Choices to decrease disposables on the table, from serving parties with real plates to using cloth napkins.
Cleaning Tips to Decrease Disposables: Throwing away lots of paper towel? You can stop now. Also see my posts on microfiber cloths and Skoy cloths.
How do you Meal Plan? Some tips for finding meal planning inspiration and keeping organized.
Level Up Your Yogurt Profile: Take the next step toward making homemade yogurt (mission no. 8), including my newest tips for success.
Green Resolutions: A comprehensive list of green cleaning substitutions and a challenge to pick one…and change it.
Healthy Upgrades: Real Food Recipe Renditions: Learn how to make your favorite recipes without the processed convenience food ingredients.

Most Monday Missions are connected to a Food for Thought, an information post to prepare your brain for the practical mission. Here are those posts:

Mind the Microwave in May

Analyzing Aluminum in August

A Fat Full Fall

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Keeper of the Home : How to Date your Kids (and why that’s so special) // Oct 20, 2009 at 6:44 pm

[...] balancing nutrition, the environment, time, and money through the eyes of faith. She gives weekly “Monday Missions” to challenge readers to make one positive change in their kitchen each week, with supporting recipes [...]

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