Meal Plans Week of 6-5-11

June is in full swing.  And summer weather is here for sure!  Wow, it was hot yesterday.  Hopefully the whole summer won't be super hot.  Else we may have to consider getting another window AC unit for the downstairs.

Last week we kept pretty active.  Monday we went to the mall.  Tuesday we went to the grocery store.  Wednesday we took our first walk to the park near our house (a bit tougher with 2 kids in tow!).  Thursday we went to another local park for a MOPS playdate.  And yesterday we went to the zoo.  Not too bad for having a new baby.  Sadly yesterday we didn't get to have our picnic at the zoo...we left our cooler on the table at home :P  Rebecca was sad, but at least we got to be much cooler while we ate.  Aside from getting out almost every day Rebecca and I baked garlic nut butter bread, cherry chocolate coconut muffins and carob muffins.  I also experimented with homemade sausage and stir fry sauce.  Lots of yummy stuff happening in the kitchen last week.

This week will be busy.  And also kind of crazy in terms of meal planning.  Too many unknown factors.  We are getting one meal today from someone at church.  And we are supposed to get two meals from MOPS this week (so far only one on Tuesday for sure, but possibly Thursday as well).  So I potentially have 3 mystery meals coming...don't know if I can eat them or not.  So I have to plan lots of alternative menus and just see how the week goes.  I've got several soups in the freezer that I can take out for myself if need be.  Or I can always eat eggs.  Also, Justin will likely go out for dinner one night for work...but he doesn't know which night yet.  So I can't plan for that yet either.  So I did my best to plan meals...but I'm sure things will be changing as the week goes on.  I would like to keep up with broth this week.  Shouldn't be too hard if I end up eating lots of soups - starting with homemade chicken soup today.  This week the farmer's market starts, so I'll have to see what produce is available there to add to our menus.  And our lettuce will be ready soon.  So I could be adding salads to our meals as well.  Again, we'll just have to wait and see.  I'm going to check if Harvest Health has coconut milk.  I've been wanting to try that for a while.  And with hardly eating dairy because of Abram now is a great time to try it.  If I can find it I'll experiment with that a bit in cooking and baking.  I also want to see what they have for digestive enzymes...if there is anything good or if I have to order some.  If I'm brave I might try my new probiotic again this week...maybe start with half a pill this time.  If time and weather allow I'd like to do some more baking this week...a new batch of graham crackers and possibly some homemade cereal (an experiment)...sometimes Justin really wants a bowl of cereal...but I don't want to buy that junk.  I have not heard anything about our beef order yet, but it should come sometime this month.  So I'm working on cleaning up the freezer.  I dug around a bit on Friday.  I have a couple large roasts and a few steaks to use up from last year's order.  So those will be on the menu over the next couple weeks.  And finally, I'm still working on figuring out if what I'm eating bothers Abram.  So I'll try to be even more strict with dairy this week.

Overall I'm doing well with sticking to GAPS food.  As I read more blogs about others doing GAPS I'm finding that most people do several trials with GAPS before they go into the intro/full program.  So I'm doing pretty well.  Start with full GAPS.  Then do some of the intro stuff, experiment, etc.  So that at some point I will be ready to start from intro and work my way through.  I'm definitely on the right path.  One thing I'd like to add is juicing.  It's a way to get all the nutrients from fruits and veggies without having to digest fiber (the part that an unhealthy gut has trouble with).  But I don't have a juicer.  So I need to figure out if there is a way to do it (just blend and squeeze out juice through cheesecloth???).  I think it would really be helpful.

Still getting back on track with exercise.  I've been doing about a mile on the treadmill (walking and jogging) most mornings if I can squeeze it in.  And making sure that I eat well.  Abram is quite the eater.  Sometimes he eats every hour for half the day.  So I need to be sure that I'm eating enough to keep up.

Finally on my agenda...figure out Father's Day gifts!  This is always a tough one for me.  But I think I finally have a couple ideas.  Hopefully I can get things finalized this week.

So, here's what's happening this week.  Today is church.  Justin is playing in the worship team, has to collect and it's installation Sunday (thankfully he's retiring!!).  So that means he has to go early, stay late, go to evening church, and I can't sit by him at church (he has to sit with the elders and deacons).  Bummer.  And we'll have to eat dinner separately since he gets home later from evening church.  Monday is Harvest Health, and I have a nursery cmt dinner at church.  The main course is pizza...hopefully there is something else there I can eat.  Tuesday is farmer's market.  Wednesday is Meijer.  Nothing going on the rest of the week at this point.  But maybe we'll try to plan a fun outing on Saturday again.  Trying to get out an enjoy our summer.

**I forgot to mention that Abram's eye is all better!  A couple days of using breastmilk on it...totally cleared up.  What a marvelous thing breastmilk is :)  Too bad it doesn't take away reflux :P

Here's what's on the menu...for now.
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S (church, make mayo, feed sd)
  B - sausage, beets (me), egg muffin, carob muffins (Justin)
  L - chicken soup, bread
  D - (separate) - gf fish sticks (from freezer), avocado, squash (me), leftover pork, steak, potatoes (Justin)

M (HH, nursery cmt dinner)
  B - leftover fish sticks, beets, carrots (me), orange raisin muffins, grapes, strawberries (Justin)
  D - meal from church (chicken pot pie) (Justin), at church (me...hope someone brings a decent salad/side since I won't be eating the pizza...maybe I'll bring a small snack in my purse just in case)

T (farmer's market)
  B - chicken soup, hard boiled egg (me), yogurt, apple bar, grapes (Justin)
  D - MOPS meal (mexican casserole) / squash and sausage soup (me)

W (boil/peel eggs, Meijer, open dehydrator, make dessert, clean freezer)
  B - leftover squash soup (me), blueberry sourdough muffins (from freezer), grapes (Justin)
  D - beef roast in cp,leftover casserole, veggies (Justin), pea soup (me)

Th (make graham crackers, make cereal, roast beets, make hm dressing, soak/dry cashews, put away laundry, library)
  B - hard boiled eggs, toast, sugar snap peas, cucumber
  D - MOPS meal? / salad w/ chicken, egg, nuts, cucumber, avocado (me), Justin out to dinner

F (clean, bake gf strawberry rhubarb muffins)
  B - leftover pea soup (me), homemade golden grahams (Justin)
  D - pancakes w/ fruit topping and nuts, scrambled eggs, grapes (Justin), gf muffins, avocado, olives, scrambled eggs (me)

S (laundry, clean)
  B - strawberry rhubarb muffins, beets, olives (me), leftover applesauce pancakes and strawberry topping (Justin)
  D - beef and veggie stir fry over zucchini "noodles" beef roast in cp w/ veggies