grain free eating {a plan}

I have found that eating grain free takes a plan.  I can't just leave it up to fate when it comes to dinner!  Or even snacking for that matter.  Planning makes this a viable option for me.

Here are some dinners that we have been enjoying lately:

• Teriyaki chicken, broccoli and red peppers sauteed in butter and garlic, roasted ginger carrots (this teriyaki chicken recipe is no fail and super tasty!)
• wild caught salmon, fresh greens beans, zucchini sauteed in butter and onions
• cinnamon venison chili, cinnamon pears, big green salad ( I can't find the exact recipe I used for the chili, but several come up when I google 'paleo cinnamon chili')
• meatloaf muffins, roasted cauliflower, green beans, acorn squash (I grew acorn squash in the garden this summer!)
• roasted chicken, sauteed squash and zuke, green beans
• cabbage with meat sauce (I do something similar to this but use beef instead of pork, and some other minor adjustments. I actually thought I made this recipe up out of necessity!  Ha!), big salad, side veggies
• spaghetti squash with meat sauce, salad, zucchini

For lunch I am loving chicken salad with avocado cream sauce instead of mayo.  I could seriously eat this everyday!

• I roast or boil a chicken (depending on if I need broth) over the weekend.
• mash up a whole small avocado (or half of a large one) and add the juice of half of an orange and some sea salt
• mix the chicken and the avo mix
• finish out however you prefer!  Here I ate it over greens with blueberries, pepitas, and tomatoes.  Sometimes I use grapes, it just depends on what I have on hand.
• the kids love this too!  In this picture I used tuna instead of chicken and the kids really liked it.  I served theirs on sprouted bread with greens, veggie sticks and some fruit

For other lunches I eat leftovers, or sometimes when I am so sick of meat, I just eat a salad or a big smoothie.  

Do you have any favorite grain free dinners to suggest?

menu and blog change

I spent some time this weekend finally learning how to make a blog banner (!) and updating my pages on the menu bar.  The most exciting change for me (besides my banner) is the addition of a true bookstore!  I've always wanted to be a bookstore owner and now I am.   Virtually anyway.  Sure, I can't dance around it with my daughter like Meg Ryan did, or smell the inky pages, but it's something!

I also spent some time thinking this weekend.  John ended his summer camp schedule this week with his last youth camp and he is ready for a change in his eating.  To be honest, I am too.  Our occasional treats have gotten way out of control this summer and I have been left feeling shaky and crampy.  It is just a sad truth of my life that I have to eat better than the average bear in order to feel somewhat normal.  My threshold is very narrow.  Before I know it I am clear on the other side feeling awful.  In that light, we have decided to do a week of grain free, sugar free, and pasteurized dairy free (so long tiny cheeses) eating.  Just a week, but it will be a good start to see where we should go from here.  I for sure had to do some meal planning this week, or I knew I would revert to "how about some cheese and crackers for lunch?".  We are also doing some major juicing this week to help jump start our engines.

A grain free a dairy free meal plan:

breakfasts:

almost oatmeal
paleo pumpkin muffins
homemade raw yogurt
pastured eggs
good morning muesli
lots of green juicing
smoothies

lunches:

romaine salad with blueberries, almonds, chia seeds
confetti salad
thai salad mix
leftovers
miso soup (here's hoping I can find miso!)

dinners:

chicken soup with bone broth
roasted chicken w/ sauteed okra and tomato, summer veggie kabobs
lamb meat balls w/ garlic swiss chard and ginger carrots
beef soup with bone broth (potato free)
beef and bean casserole (cheese free)
lemon chicken with capers sauteed summer veggies

*daily kombucha intake as well (and hopefully kefir, if I can come across some grains!)

That's more meat than we typically eat.  But with the very light lunches I figure we'll be pretty hungry in the evenings.  Also, Buddy has been very cranky lately and we've been eating mainly a vegetarian diet, high in carbs.  I'm interested to see how a higher protein intake effects him.