Week One

This is probably the toughest for me, only because I’m having find new recipes and ingredients aside from the ones I have here at home. Also, there is a pallet curve, as I  call it, for those who are eating. When dealing with kids, presentation is key! Taste is second ;) Third is convincing yourself to try recipes and ingredients that you don’t normally lean to. Like hummus (that I love, but the boys have to learn) and this beet/carrot mock tomato sauce I’m going to brave next week….maybe.

Day One

• Smoked Sausage  which I know contains beef and pork, but being day one I though tit was ok. (Jon Morrell’s is a great breakfast meat! They are are gluten and MSG Free! Plus they got a food allergy recognition  for no milk, no egg, no fish, no soy and no wheat!)
• Kix (corn) cereal with almond milk
• peaches
• Pork chops cooked in bacon drippings with salt and pepper
• roasted carrots
• peaches
• popcorn for snack

Day Two

• Turkey Links
• Quinoa flakes with maple syrup and cinnamon
• pear juice
• Ground Turkey
• Curried Quinoa
• Pears

Day Three

• Bacon ( I KNOW! pork on day three? Again? Well, I have two sick kiddos and couldn’t make it to the store. So I’m rotating what I have until hungry boy goes back to school tomorrow)
• fresh strawberries and pecans for snack
• Mini Venison Meatloaf in muffin tin ( with onion, salt and pepper, pulverized pecans to thicken instead of a grain). Hungry boy had brown mustard in it instead of traditional ketchup or bbq sauce, so we’ll see if he likes it! Also, topped with tiny strips of bacon, because venison is so lean.
• Pineapple Juice

Day Four

• Buckwheat muffins with raspberries and pecan (*since I will only use the pecan in the muffin , I decided it was ok to eat again)
• Coconut hot cocoa
• venison sausage
• leaf lettuce salad with olive oil and mustard dressing
• tilapia fillets dredged in corn starch with olive oil, salt & pepper
• Coconut milk

(I just notice that I used mustard two days in a row. This is the whole reason that food journaling and meal planning is so important! Now that I’ve noticed where I tend to overlap, I can make/find alternatives instead of leaning on repeats! Lesson one, learn from your mistakes!)

Day Five

• Cinnamon Rice Chex with almond milk
• Chicken and roasted root vegetables (parsnips, turnips and carrots) roasted in canola oil
• Almond milk
• Gluten Free Brownies (made with rice flour)

Day Six 

• beef smoked sausage
• Flat Iron Steak
• green beans
• corn chips and pinto bean dip for snack

Day Seven

• We are *trying* eggs for the first time in 3 years! (Note* in my video I said that I was going to try GF oatmeal, but I got some free GMO, organic eggs from my brother and sister in law! They were soooo good too!)
• Pork (bacon with breakfast and pork cutlets for dinner)
• Northern white beans
• quinoa

 Wow, what a challenging week! With the start and execution of this rotation diet, plus all of the usual hustle and bustle….it’s almost Christmas. So, that adds the stress just a little bit. Just a little, ha ha.

Anyways I’ve noticed a couple of things after this week.

The first is that I seem to worry about the protein part of the meals first and the grains second. That’s no good.  I really need to change the way I think about a meal. I seem to really rely on corn and milks. Especially in the morning chaos. My goal for next week is to get some more grains in the mix,  come up with some better breakfast options and worry about the protein second. That’s going to be hard for me, but I think if I continue the way I am, we’re really going to have a problem possibly with corn soon. And we can’t have that!

The second is that I need to get more fruit and vegetables in the boys diets. Which is hard when it’s the middle of winter and I’m really pushing for non GMO and organic foods. We are on a very tight budget right now, and it seems like the better quality the food is, the more expensive it is. Which is fine, but I need to buy multiple things, so it’s just adding up. Figuring out how to budget better is a must! And I’m on the hunt for some places to get better produce close by. The food co-op that I belong to has some good selection, but I can walk out with three things and have almost $100 spent. For me that’s just not an option right now. Meijer has a good organic selection, so I’ll be doing some price checking like I used to do. (it’s amazing how lazy I seem to have gotten! wow…..)

Well, now I’m off to work on week two! Wish me luck!