Meal Planning – A New Thing

I have a love-hate relationship with meal planning. I love to know what I have on hand to make, that it makes shopping easier and keeps me on track nutritionally (well, most of the time). The only thing I dislike is how long it takes me to get a meal plan together most of the time. You would think that after 10+ years of cooking, I would have it down, but nope. Then you throw in a little thing like a major diet change and BAM!, an all day affair.

We are smack in the middle of our six week GAPS experiment. It is one of the things on my 2012 To Do List for various reasons. After a year of researching, praying and talking with my hubby, we began on May 1st.

Meal planning for me is not new. The new part is sharing my weekly plans here. I will also be sharing some recipes I’ve come up with to fit in our new eating habits. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be on GAPS to use them.

One thing you will notice about my meal planning is that I do not assign certain days for my meals. I have come to notice that the root of all my problems is that I do not like to be told what to do, even if it is by a list that I made myself. So, this gives me structured freedom. 😉

Dinners (side dishes in parentheses)

1. Cheese & veggie cakes with sour cream (side salads)
2. Bacon, lettuce, tomato salad (sauteed mushrooms)
3. Healthy hamburger helper (steamed broccoli & cauliflower)
4. Banana pancakes with homemade strawberry syrup (sausage, carrot muffins)
5. beef stew (steamed cabbage, coconut flour pumpkin muffins)
6. pizza made with low carb pizza dough (green beans, applesauce)
7. dinner salads topped with boiled eggs, raisins, bell pepper, onion, mushrooms (parmesan drumsticks)

Lunches

1. chicken noodle-less soup
2. butternut squash latkes with applesauce or apple slices (pictured above)
3. salads
4. monkey platter
5. leftovers

Breakfast is always yogurt with fruit (usually strawberries) and eggs (scrambled, fried, boiled).

Snacks & Treats

1. Flourless zucchini brownies (these are not GAPS legal because of the chocolate chips, but we have made a personal exception in our experiment for dark chocolate so they work for us) (Oh, and they are FABULOUS!)
2. Trail mix (almonds, raisins, walnuts)
3. Cheese cubes
4. Apples, grapefruits and bananas

If you would like to find more Meal Plans and recipes, be sure to visit this week’s link round-up at Organizing Junkie.