It took me several hours yesterday to come up with a menu plan that, I think, will suit everyone. My husband’s marathon is next weekend, so he needs to be sure he is eating well and A LOT to get him ready. His need to eat well actually WORKS with Lily’s eczema diet, so the meal planning was a little simpler than I anticipated. But, it still took quite some time to replace gluten items. I have been told that gluten-free will get easier, that it is difficult at the beginning only.
So, I am buying very little processed foods, a TON of fresh produce, and I have a lot of work ahead of me as far as prep! The eczema is a great motivating factor, though, as it is pretty much essential to do the prep work in order for Lily to eat well and get this skin thing under control. (And I apologize if it seems like that is all I talk about these days, but we are just at our wit’s end here with keeping it under control and helping it heal. So, there will probably be lots more eczema talk in the coming weeks! Just a heads up…)
Breakfast
Pumpkin Pancakes (eggs for Arthur…he isn’t a pumpkin fan), fruit
Chocolate Zucchini Muffins (again, eggs for Arthur)
blueberry Chia Muffins (and you guessed it…eggs for Arthur)
Braided GF Nutella Bread (although I may make my own chocolate spread instead of buying Nutella…they have soy ingredients, and I am trying to avoid soy for Lily)
Eggs for all! and bacon 🙂
Smoothies (chocolate PB banana), fruit / eggs for Arthur
Cereal (krispy rice or GF chex squares)
Lunch
Salad x 3 (for Lily and I ), PB&J or quesadillas for other kids
Brown rice and beans
Leftovers x 3
Dinner
White Chicken Chili, Tortilla Chips (they’re GF!)
Cornbread Taco Bake (may sub in my own cornbread mix instead of looking for boxed GF mix), Refried Beans
Bacon Ranch Chicken (doubling the recipe to feed us all), Wild Rice, Green Beans
Cauliflower Breadsticks (I will probably add a red sauce to make it more of a pizza bread), Salad
Chipotle Chicken (chicken breasts seasoned with garlic powder, onion powder, chipotle powder, S&P, and a little cumin then shredded), Brown Rice and Carrots
Sweet Potato Sloppy Joes (I will cube the cooked sweet potatoes and pour the Joes over, instead of doing individual baked potatoes), Salad
Honey Garlic Chicken and Veggies (doubling the veggies here, as we will eat a lot!)
Snacks
Homemade “lara bars” (dates, peanuts, chocolate chips, cocoa powder)
Granola bars
GF cookies – the chickpeas cookies. they are delicious! we double the recipe, though, because it doesn’t make very many…and we love cookies. 🙂
Homemade Items to Try
Almond Milk
I found an easy recipe (with pictures!) for making homemade sweetened almond milk. Almonds, water, dates and honey are the ingredients. Seems to take some time for the almond soaking but it looks fun, so I will try it. Lily’s been drinking rice or almond milk instead of cow’s milk, but the store-bought versions have extra crap in them to preserve. Homemade would be nice, but I realize it doesn’t make very much at a time. We will see how it goes!
Life As Mom Knows It 