Meal Plans Week of 12-2-12

First full week of December, and it's a busy one.  We have lots of places to go.  And I feel like my to-do list is doubled with Christmas only a few weeks away.

Aside from our usual activities I'd like to take a couple yoga classes again this week.  There is a ladies' night out with my mom group, but I'm not sure if I'm going.  Justin has worship team.  I have a MomBreak meeting.  Justin might go out for dinner for work one night.  And finally...we have a date night on Friday!!  This will be the first date night since Abram was born...he'll be 19 months old this week.  Yeah, it's been a while.  In honor of our date night I'll include some photos from our trip to Spain...before kids ;)

Also this week we are doing an eval for Rebecca with a speech therapist.  We're hopeful this will help with her chewing/texture/eating difficulties.  Justin and Rebecca will likely go to a Christmas concert at Calvin College on Saturday.  Justin wishes he could play in it again :)

I finally made an appointment with a new doctor for myself.  I'm excited for that in 2 weeks.

Last week we filled our freezer with 80 lbs. of grass-fed ground beef.  That should last a while :)

Last week Abram was on a baking streak, so we ended up making our first batch of Christmas cookies, a batch of vanilla wafers (egg white free version), muesli, banana bread and coconut flour bread (egg white free version).  I also made mayo and yogurt.

On the agenda for this week: soaked graham crackers, yogurt, kefir, turkey broth, homemade golden grahams, grain free sandwich buns and sewing.

Updates on me: I'm doing quite well overall.  I'm learning that eating a variety of foods and making sure a good bulk of my meal is vegetables makes a big impact.  By rotating foods I've been able to tolerate some of my "maybe" foods and even some foods on my no list.  I've been able to increase the amount of raw and fibrous foods I eat as well.  I've been eating blueberries, pineapple, grapes, raspberries, lettuce, raw broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts and a few nuts here and there.  With no pain!!  That is truly amazing. 

I know I have a lot of healing to do yet, but this is encouraging.  I still have to avoid my big no-no foods.  I tried a couple bites of cooked carrot last week...nope, still doesn't work.  But being able to expand my diet even a little bit and add in some raw foods and more fruits and vegetables has been so wonderful!  I did some baking with coconut flour last week.  The jury is still out on whether I tolerate that or not now.  I have found that Rebecca is pretty sensitive to coconut.  So I have to be careful with how much I give her.

On Friday I was warm and my ears were hot all evening...a good sign of a boosted metabolism and healing!  I'm getting there.  I think I'm about to order Eat For Heat to keep going in this healing/heating process.  I've already been through Diet Recovery.  I think this will be just as good.  Check them both out at 180 Degree Health if you haven't already.  How do you keep your body temp up and your metabolism burning?

On to this week's menu.  To help with meal planning I decided to do a different protein every evening this week: chicken, beef, beans, turkey, fish, dairy and pork/eggs.  I'm still trying to plan all my meals ahead to help with variety and keeping track of what does/doesn't work.  It gets tough as I get closer to grocery day.  Almost all of our fresh produce is gone.  So it's hard to get much variety.  But I'm doing my best.  Here's what's on the menu for now.
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S (prep dinner, church, program practice, prep smoothies, soak flour, make kefir)
  B - lemon blueberry yogurt, soaked cereal bar (J), chicken salad (chx, avocado, peas, raisins) over squash (M)
  L - cp chicken meatloaf, baked potatoes, carrots, sqaush, avocado
  D - sausage, scrambled eggs, toast, peas

M (make grahams, make golden grahams, FTT, PS, prep dinner, yoga, strain kefir)
  B - smoothie, granola bar (J), smoothie (M)
  L - meatloaf (J), salad (M)
  D - lasagna, corn

T (make turkey stock, cook beans, KM, MNO?)
  B - homemade cereal w/ milk, fruit (J), sauteed brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, peas w/ fried egg yolks (M)
  L - lasagna (J), salad w/ beans, avocado, meatloaf, olives (M)
  D - baked beans w/ hot dogs over rice, squash

W (strain/freeze stock, bake gf muffins, Meijer, PS, yoga, WT)
  B - sd breakfast cookie, fruit (J), smoothie, cereal, squash (M)
  L - meatloaf sandwich (J), baked beans, raw sugar snap peas (M)
  D - turkey noodle soup, coconut flour blueberry muffins

Th (clean, Justin out for dinner, strain kefir)
  B - sd breakfast cookie, orange (J), turkey noodle soup w/ squash, soaked graham crackers (M)
  L - at work (J),  turkey noodle soup, raw sugar snap peas, coconut flour muffin (M)
  D - salmon, peas, squash

F (chop veggies, sewing, MB, PS, Date Night!!!)
  B - sd breakfast cookie, yogurt, banana (J),  sauteed brussels sprouts and cauliflower w/ fried egg yolks (M)
  L - lasagna (J), salad (M)
  D - crackers w/ cheese, broccoli, applesauce (kids/with baby-sitter), out to eat (J/M)

S (sewing, make gf buns?, concert)
  B - waffles (J), misc. veggies (M)
  L - leftovers (J), squash soup (M)
  D - Bacon, lettuce, avocado sandwiches topped w/ fried eggs, sauteed broccoli, fruit