Because none of us in my family are focused on losing weight, I don't watch portions very carefully. I include a variety of beneficials from all categories in a day's meals. I avoid avoids myself, and minimize them for the rest of the family. We finish out our meals with neutrals - often O beneficials being A neutrals and visa versa.

Mike did an interesting blog once where he went through the portion list and evaluated how he was doing. At the time I made a quick survey and realized that I was eating less grain and eggs/dairy than recommended, but quite a bit more oil and nuts. One of these days I intend to do a thorough evaluation.

I give my As quite a bit more grain than the portions recommend. I aim for meat (poultry or fish) once a day and legumes once a day. But grain goes with the meat, grain goes with the legumes, and they like grain for breakfast. Since both of them are content to maintain their weight I'm not going to start worrying about the number of grain portions.

I am however stepping up my efforts to replace wheat and corn. Both are listed as neutral for As on the food lists, but the more I read the text of the books, the more disparaging remarks I read about wheat and corn for As. I've stopped buying or making wheat bread. Ezekiel bread is reasonably priced, and I make beneficial rolls and biscuits. Spelt tortillas are too pricey for my budget, so I still buy wheat tortillas. They love corn, hominy and couscous. I'm serving them less often, but haven't banned them from the house. All the while, I'm increasing beneficial grains.

That is where this blog got its start. My daughter has never liked oatmeal. It was more the look and the texture than the taste, but nonetheless she refused to eat it. A few months ago when she got her braces tightened, I fixed her some oatmeal with soy milk, olive oil, and maple syrup. I said just try it - it will feel good on your teeth. Since then she has eaten oatmeal half-heartedly after orthodontist visits.

A friend of hers spent the night Friday night, so Saturday morning I wanted to fix a good breakfast. I made some of the crumble mix from Cranberry Crisp, but instead of cranberries I used canned pineapple, frozen blueberries, and frozen cherries. The girls liked it, but my husband really, really liked it. He snacked on it all weekend.

Last night there was just a spoonful left. My daughter moaned that she only had one serving, and that there wasn't enough left for Monday breakfast. This morning she got the last of the "berry good breakfast" and a small bowl of oatmeal. She stopped me half way through my apology for the oatmeal, saying, "You know, after you get used to it, oatmeal is good." Yes, I thought silently, and it's also beneficial."