food intolerance Archives

Menu Planning, Food, allergies, gluten-free, No gluten, Healthy Living

Mealplanning is one of those things where there is no right or wrong way – as long as you have a system that works for you. There are those who plan daily, weekly and monthly—and then there are those like myself that prefer to do it twice a year and never think about it again. Don’t get me wrong I love to cook and create in the kitchen but in this age of Pinterest and millions of cookbook publishers, all that information just makes my brain hurt.

5 Steps to Meal Planning Twice a Year
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Keep it simple – we tend to make everything these days too complicated, from the plethora of after school activities we have our kids in – to the fancy Pinterest like meals we try to mirror. I recently heard someone say (and if I could remember who…I’d give them credit); “Things were simpler back in the day – we knew who the “Joneses” were but it wasn’t thrown in our face 24/7″. We have all become the “Joneses” in a sense – we share what we eat, what we wear, where we have gone or where we are going. We are a share it all society. Well, I’m here to tell you – be you, be awesome – and the kitchen is one of those places it doesn’t need to be complicated, so don’t make it be. Keep it simple and ignore the noise that circles around you.

Color Matters – did you know that you are more likely to eat less of something if the contrast between your food and the plate it is served on is greater. For example; you will eat less pasta with red sauce if it is served on a white plate than if it were served on a red plate. Serve your food on a white plate and make it look like a rainbow. Your brain and waistline will thank you.

Choose a variety of foods – for a well-balanced diet. Not all foods are equally nutritious – ask yourself how many humans have interfered with the processing of “____” food before you are eating it? If it is heavily processed you should move on. There is a time and place for unhealthy foods in moderation (birthdays, holidays and special occasions) and there will always be exceptions to every rule, but overall your basic meal plan should contain mostly label free foods.

Lists just make sense to me – I am a list maker at heart and seriously make lists for everything. You will notice in the meal plan below there is no fancy calendar with foods all filled in – there is a reason for that – it doesn’t work for me and I venture to say it doesn’t work for you either. We all have busy lives and printing someone else’s food calendar just doesn’t even make sense to me. That fancy meal they have chosen to eat on Wednesday which very well might be my busiest day of the week simply will not work. I needed a different system and this is what I came up with….

Plan it once and repeat – there are 365 days in the year, right? This my friends, is the way that meal planning makes the most sense to me. Plan 300 days’ worth of meals leaving 65* “floater” days so to speak for left over days, birthdays, holidays and eating out (don’t feel overwhelmed – trust me!) divide 300 by 4 (see your number is getting smaller–you are now looking at 75 Spring/Summer meals and 75 Fall/Winter meals). Since 75 does not go into 7 days a week equally, I personally like to do a 70 Day/10 week plan. You will now proceed to “plan” 70 days’ worth of meals (or 10 Weeks) Or just let me do it for you... (*so yes, you now have 85 “floater” days but between vacations, holidays, birthdays, family gatherings, and special circumstances a majority of your meals will still be accounted for-that really only leaves approximately 1 meal a week unaccounted for)

Here is a free Spring/Summer 14 day meal plan to get you started–still hungry for more?

Let’s take the guess work out of “what are we eating” and put the entire meal planning menu system to work for you. (Coming Soon) You can use my prepared 10 weeks of meal plans and simply fill in your own week at a glance sheet, make allergy adjustments to fit your families’ needs, and fill in the grocery shopping list with the items your missing in the pantry. There is no more staring at grocery isles wasting time, no more pre-scheduled calendars that need to be completely altered, the entire meal planning system is based on you and your families’ specific, unique life situation.

Then… Sign up for our email list for more meal plans, recipes, tips, and tricks

Breakfast; Week 1

· Muffins and smoothie

· Yogurt and mixed fruit

· Pancakes

· French Toast

· Oatmeal

· Scrambles Eggs and Toast

· Waffles with Mixed Berry Sauce

Lunch; Week 1

· Chicken nuggets, fruit and nuts

· PB, honey, and banana sandwiches, apple and pretzels

· Chicken salad, crackers and melon

· Salmon salad on a cucumber, apples or pear sauce and popcorn

· Guacamole, carrots, cucumbers, mixed fruit and a muffin

· Egg salad, sweet potato chips and veggies

· Taco lettuce roll-ups, mango salsa and corn chips

Dinner; Week 1

· Crockpot chicken, veggie and salad

· Grilled Salmon, broccoli salad, sweet potatoes

· Turkeyor Beef Tacos, rice and beans

· Grilled pork tenderloin, zucchini, yellow, cherry tomato kabobs, quinoa

· Stuffed zucchini pizzas, mixed green salad

· Chicken/beef kabobs (peppers, tomato, zucchini/yellow squash), served over rice

· Spaghetti with meat balls (tomatoless sauce optional), mixed green salad

Snacks; Week 1

· Popcorn

· Apples and sunbutter/almond butter

· Baby carrots and dip

· Peanut butter brownie puppy chow

· Strawberry/mangosmoothie

· Mixed nuts and fruit

· Granola and (milk or Greek yogurt)

Breakfast; Week 2

· Eggs muffins and sausage

· Granola/cereal (with milk or Greek yogurt), and mixed fruit

· Mixed berry crepes and powder sugar

· French toast sticks and bacon

· Blueberrywhite chocolate chip muffins

· Overnight oatmeal

· Breakfast burrito and an apple

Lunch; Week 2

· Hummus, veggie sticks (peppers, carrots, celery, and radishes),melon and muffin

· Cucumber/tomato kabobs, apple or pear w/sun-butter dip, mixed nuts and craisins

· Hard-boiled egg, tomato/olive kabob, nut-thins and orange

· Almonds/Cashews, blueberries/strawberries, oven roasted turkey on a cucumber “bun”

· PBJ rice cakes, banana, carrot/celery sticks

· Chickpea lettuce roll up, grapes and pretzels (if you have never tried a gluten-free prezel you don’t know what your missing-they are awesome!)

· Zucchini bread, oven chicken and mixed berries

Dinner; Week 2

· Turkeymeatloaf, sweet potato casserole and oven baked broccoli

· Grilled chicken tender salad w/orange poppy seed dressing (kids; chicken, cut veggies and dressing for “dip”

· Beef fajitas, rice and beans (use the grain free tortillas or we love these too)

· Quinoa stuffed peppers

· Rosemary/lemon oven baked shrimp, summer squash fries, rice, and mixed green salad

· Pesto chicken pasta salad, cherry tomatoes, and lemon/garlic asparagus

Snacks; Week 2

· Grape kabobs and raw cheddar slice

· applesauceand granola (try the homestead applesauce in one of these fun reusable pouches-your kids will love it)

· Ice cube snack buffet (carrots, strawberry, raisins, blueberries, almonds, and sunflower seeds)

· Frozen yogurt squeezes

· No bake energy snack balls

· Hard boiled egg and kale chips

· Banana, marshmallows, and chocolate chips (great on the grill)

I sit here another night-another belly ache. What caused it this time? I replay the events of the day. What did he eat? What did she touch? What could possibly be the problem this time?

He lays quiet in my arms but simultaneously fidgets here and there. She lays next to me in bed scratching and ferociously kicking her feet. With an occasional arched back and an out cry of pain from him or a murmur from her. I want to give them comfort, but how? I bounce, pat, swaddle, and sing sweet nothings in their tiny ears.

This is the life of a mother with a child who has various food intolerance’s. You feed them and ‘think‘ your doing it right, but then one wrong move- bam, your back in that dark place. Just you and them. Hoping and praying for answers, cures, relief, and normalcy. What the heck is normal anyways? I seem to have forgotten what that is somewhere between baby one and four.

Life spins by and tomorrow will bring a new slate. The night will ‘cure‘ the problem-while, coffee and Jesus will sustain me through my day. Although, the nights events will continue to haunt me throughout the day-“what did I do?” “What could I have done differently?” The truth is-likely nothing.

Who would have thought-food, the vary thing that fuels our bodies could be such a headache. If we put the wrong gas in our vehicle we’re not going to get vary far-now, are we? Similarly, when we eat processed foods that were never ‘made’ to fuel our bodies in such a fashion we our limiting our capacity to fully live. Our ability to move, function, and process information clearly can all become severely altered as a direct result from our ‘fuel‘ intake.

However, what if your doing it right? You are choosing the ‘right‘ foods, eating a clean, well balanced diet?

Unfortunately, there are a lot of factors to take into account genetics, pollution, nationality, and living conditions just to name a few. We can choose to be healthy, raise healthy families, and hope for the best-but, at the end of the day we are left with just that; hope.

Sitting in a quiet house at night one can’t help but reflect and find hope in all that surrounds them. A chance to live fully, humbly, honestly, and purely. Despite, the cards not always being stacked up the way we might haven envisioned- it’s a ‘full house‘ –full of hope.

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