Sorry for the long absence, everyone! I’m learning very quickly about both giving myself grace and also allowing my plans to change and be flexible. I had planned on blogging a couple of times a week, but life with a 4-month-old Little Man and a husband and friends and family got in the way of that one. Our routine is finally starting to become more regular, so I finally have a few blog posts coming up that I’m excited about sharing with you!
Today, I’m sharing a sample weekly meal plan. Meal planning is the most important way for us to make sure hubby has food available that he can eat. Sure, we keep a few “safe” frozen meals in the freezer for hubby to have available if needed, but they are more expensive than cooking, don’t really taste as good, and frozen meals are not a sustainable (or healthy) way of feeding a person long-term. So, we meal plan.
Each week, I sit down and make a list of what I want to cook the next week. I try to cook meals that are primarily naturally allergen-free (or can be made allergen-free by simple substitutions). These options usually fit into the budget better and taste better. Often, we do meals that get tweaked for each individual person (like taco night), so I still add my cheese and such while Steven covers his in the hot sauce that I don’t like. 😉 Some weeks, I will try a crazier substitution meal which requires a total overhaul to make it allergen-free. (These meals are fun, but if they were all we made, I’d totally lose my mind.)
I have learned that with how our family’s schedule works, grocery shopping on Thursdays works best for us. We try to have leftovers or go out that night, also, because grocery shopping and major cooking in the same day (with a little one in tow) is just a little too much for me in this stage of life. I used to try and go shopping and start our meal plan on Mondays, but then by the weekends we were out of cooked food and were going out to eat way too much. This way, the heavier cooking occurs on the weekend and we have time to eat the leftovers during the week. And I don’t have to go face the store on the weekends or on Monday (which I have found tends to be almost as busy as the weekends).
So, here’s an example of what our meal plan would look like for a week. (Actually, this is our exact meal plan from last week. 😉 )
Sunday: Chicken Burgers and “Mac & Cheese”
This was my “major overhaul” recipe for the week. Rarely does the hubs get things with a “cheesy” taste to them. I started with this recipe from The Earth Diet. It was only my second time cooking with nutritional yeast. Steven really enjoyed it, but I thought it could use some tweaking. Once I get it perfected, I’ll pass it along! (Unfortunately, the nutritional yeast seemed to trigger a migraine for me, so Steven will have to do all the future taste-testing by himself on this one.) Chicken burgers is one of our favorite things to make. It’s so easy, and we can both customize to our preferences.
Our first attempt at allergen-free mac & cheese
Monday: Baked chicken, roasted acorn squash, and brussels sprouts
This was a partial success meal. The baked chicken and roasted acorn squash were delicious, and both ended up a regular part of my lunches the rest of the week as leftovers. Both Steven and I discovered, though, that we don’t really love brussels sprouts. Oh well. One of my goals lately has been for us to include some more diverse veggies in our diet, so I’m proud of us for at least trying them.
Baked chicken, roasted acorn squash, and roasted brussels sprouts
Tuesday: Crock-Pot Orange Chicken
This was the most successful recipe of the week. You know it’s good when the hubs asks if you’ll make it again the next week. I found myself wishing I had doubled the recipe because we only had 1.5 servings leftover for the next day. I sauteed up some peppers and onion and added them in towards the end of the recipe (since they were already cooked, just long enough to get the saucy flavor). We served ours over rice, but I might try quinoa or rice noodles next time. Typically, I stay away from crock pot recipes that require dirtying dishes before the crock pot step, but we’ll make an exception for this one since it’s so delicious.
Crock-pot Orange Chicken
Wednesday: Out (Chick-fil-a)
We always go ahead and plan to eat out or have leftovers once a week. We had special church service on Wednesday, so we ended up stopping at our favorite place for dinner on our way there.
Thursday: Chicken and Noodles
Remember that comment earlier about giving myself grace and letting go of plans? The hubs worked late Thursday, Little Man was extra grumpy, and I needed back-up at the grocery store, so what was supposed to be this delicious chicken and noodles turned into another meal out. It happens. This recipe is an old favorite of ours, though, so I promise it’s worth trying.
Friday: Small group night
For small group nights, I try to find out ahead of time if it will be something Steven can eat. We have several food allergies/intolerances in our group, so a lot of our meals are naturally allergen-free. This week, one of our dear friends was making lasagna and went out of her way to make the hubs some allergen-free baked ziti to have with it.
(I wish I could have gotten a picture of all the food set out. We had regular, GF, and allergen-free lasagna along with regular, GF, and allergen-free chocolate chip cookies. Have I mentioned before how much I love our small group? Because I really do.)
Our meal plan generally starts over again on Saturdays or Sundays. As much as we would like to take the weekend off from heavy cooking (or really any responsibilities at all), we have learned it makes the week go much better if we start out with leftovers in the fridge.
I’m in the process of perfecting some recipe tweaks (like the “mac & cheese” and allergen-free chocolate chip cookies) to share with you guys soon! Are there any other recipes you would enjoy seeing made allergen-free?
The Allergen Free Wifey 