Menu Plan 9/15-9/21

I don't know about you, but I am tired of these hot, humid days. Of course, I understand that it may not be hot and humid where you are, but I am anxious for the cooler days and nights of fall. Spring is my favorite season because it is the rebirth after the long, cold winter. But autumn is not far behind. Now, while everyone gets all gushy over pumpkin spice, that's not me. I do enjoy a good pumpkin pie though!

Next week's menu plan again is gluten free, dairy free. Now I have to make a confession- we are NOT 100% gluten and dairy free around here. I'm trying to get there, but I am weak. I KNOW what gluten does to my body, and its not pretty. Dairy, too, to a lesser degree. So, I'm trying really hard over the next month or so to get as close to gluten free as possible.

I'm not sure if gluten affects you, but with me, it makes my joints all achy. Instead of 40 (mumbles) ish years old...I feel more like 80! At one point in my life, I hurt so bad it was difficult to get out of bed in the morning. The constant joint pain and aches was even taking a toil on my mental health. Finally, I couldn't stand it anymore. I went to the doctor and explained my situation. I told him at this point I wasn't sure if I was depressed BECAUSE I hurt, or if I hurt BECAUSE I was depressed. Of course, he wanted to take the pharma route because, well, that's just easier. Now, I love my doctor and I never want to say anything bad about him. But for me, here is where he got things wrong. He prescribed me a little yellow pill (or white, or whatever color it was) and told me to start looking on the bright side of life. I did *somewhat* feel happier...but not totally.

I kept saying I needed more vegetables in my diet, but I could never get enough.

What really helped was when I added concentrated fruit and veggie capsules to my diet every morning. Within a week or two I no longer needed the little yellow pills- and my life had totally turned around! I kept saying I needed more vegetables in my diet, but I could never get enough. Why? 9-12 servings of vegetables are hard to consume in a day- and that is what is currently recommended. Hard- yes. Necessary? YES!

Making that one simple change to my diet is what led me the next month to make a dietary change for the better- for 10 days I eliminated gluten, dairy, coffee (yikes!), processed foods and sugar (except for the natural sugars found in fruit and vegetables). I ate as clean as possible. And I felt better than I had in high school! That is until I took my kids to Chinese. And Chinese is made with soy, which invariably has gluten in it. Next thing I knew, the aches started again, first in my fingers.

Quite simply, I've learned through my research that gluten and dairy are very inflammatory, and not good for someone with an autoimmune disease. Not good for my kids (although to convince them otherwise after years and years of eating junk is not easy) and not for me. I am slowly finding that they are coming to realize that mom is right- and they are slowly not drinking as much milk as before. Their veggie intake is up (tonight we had gluten free pasta with cauliflower Alfredo sauce. In the sauce I snuck in artichoke hearts and mushrooms- no complaints!)

Okay, I've done enough blabbing. I told you I hate posts you have to quick scroll through in order to get to the good stuff, and here you are having to scroll. Let me tell you, if you are interested in finding out more about the changes I made to my diet that helped me feel oh-so-much better, let me know. My goal is to get back to that very soon! NOW- onto the menu!

Breakfast:

Banana Split Smoothie by Healthy Happy Mama. Add in some Dutch Chocolate Juice Plus+ Complete plant-based powder! It tastes like brownies!

Dinners:

Day 1: Vegetarian Bean and Rice Burrito (The Spruce Eats) with Corn, Avocado and Tomato Salad (The Girl Who Ate Everything). The flour tortilla can be eliminated and it turned into a burrito bowl to avoid the gluten.

Day 2: Cajun Shrimp and Sausage Vegetable Sheet Pan (The Recipe Critic). This one is such an easy dinner. The most time you'll spend chopping the vegetables! Easy clean up too since it's going from sheet pan to plate. This is a complete meal on in its own.

Day 3: Dinner then Desert's Ultimate Garlic Pork Loin Roast served with Crispy Pan Roasted Potatoes from the Picky Palate. Some fresh green beans sauteed with olive oil (can use the same pan from your potatoes) and a salad round out this meal.

Day 4: This is a fresh spin on an old English tradition of Fish and Chips. The fish sticks comes to us from Elana's Pantry and the chips are Parsnip Fries from The Doctor Oz Show. The fish stick use almond meal as a gluten free coating, but keep in mind that they used very little seasoning. If your child likes them that way, then that'll be good. If your family likes more seasoning, feel free to add to your liking. If you like it with a bit of kick, try adding some cumin and cayenne pepper. If you'd like to go more traditional then perhaps some garlic and onion powder.

As a little bonus with the parsnip fries, I also found some fry sauce. It of course is completely optional, but I thought I'd include it in case you had a bit of extra time to whip it together.

Day 5: Moroccan Lemon Chicken by Jessica Gavin. Be prepared as this one has some extra spices that may be missing from your kitchen cabinet. I've included it because I've always been a sucker for lemon chicken. This would taste good over rice or quinoa, and these zucchini spears with lemon salt from The Pioneer Woman.

Day 6: Storytime- when out with friends in Sacramento (I never get to travel so this was a momentous occasion for me!) we visited this pizza place. I can't even remember the name, although I could look it up. They did this fire grilled pizza that was simply divine! I got cauliflower crust, my first time other than that one other time when I tried to make it myself. You know, where it was a complete disaster? Yeah, that time. I DREAM of that pizza! I can't even remember necessarily the rest of the ingredients.

So, I came across this recipe for cauliflower pizza crust from Just Jessie B that reviewers are saying is easy and delicious- so I'm willing to be adventurous and try again. She shows a topped pizza sans cheese. If you absolutely have to have cheese on your pizza, I would try Daiya dairy-free cheese. If you are in a hurry, you can find Daiya gluten-free, dairy-free pizzas at Walmart. In my area, they cost around $6 and serve 3. I'm seriously thinking of trying it on Friday night. Comment in the comments below what your favorite pizza is, or how you would top your cauliflower crust!

Desert:

I've been thinking ice cream lately, so Chocolate Covered Katie (one of my favorite bloggers!) had this 4-ingredient Keto Ice Cream Recipe I thought I might try.

EDIT: I WAS ABLE TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO DO THE SHOPPING LIST!!! (She shoots, she scores, and the crowd cheers!) It is downloadable in .pdf form, and I've listed the pantry items that you may not necessarily need at the top. Just check your pantry before you go to save yourself some money. The largest category (as it should be in a plant based diet) is the Produce section, but the largest majority are seasonal currently (zucchini, yellow squash). Asparagus is not currently in season so it may cost a bit extra. Feel free to substitute a different vegetable because I believe it is simply used in the sheet pan recipe.

Happy eating!