At first, that was very overwhelming. It still is to some degree. It's easy to start thinking about all the foods you CAN'T have. But once I wrapped my mind around it and officially committed to eat this way, I started thinking of what we CAN eat. For now that's helping.
Here are basic things we can eat:
Meat
Beans
Lentils
Fruit
Vegetables
Raw nuts (not peanuts)
Substitute milks (almond, rice, coconut milk, etc)
Rice
Quinoa
Starchy vegetables (potatoes)
So what does this mean. For now (2 1/2 weeks into the program) I'm keeping it simple. As I find things we can eat that we like, I will add them to the list so it's easier to shop and keep the things we need stocked. Here's what our diet looks like.
Breakfast
- Eggs (my kids LOVE eggs, they're a good source of protein, and they're affordable. We have plain eggs, omelets, and once in awhile have bacon or sausage with our eggs. But mainly we just have eggs).
- Fruit
- Rice Chex (or another gluten free cereal) with Almond Milk
- Oatmeal
Lunch
Lunch is the most difficult for me to deal with because I used to do sandwiches, chicken nuggets, or something noodle-ish. So I'm looking for good solutions.
- Leftovers (whenever possible I serve leftovers from dinner the previous night)
- Lunch meat
- Fruit
- Apples and bananas I usually serve with almond butter or sun butter to give them a bit more protein
- Veggies
- Baby carrots and snap peas are favorites around here
- Sometimes I serve them with homemade hummus
- I even found a dairy free homemade ranch dip which is fun once in awhile
- Chips (there are some chips that they can have. I check labels to be sure, but there are quite a few products now that are just potatoes, olive oil and salt) My favorite are sweet potato chips. Delicious! That's more of a treat, but something they can technically eat.
- Homemade chicken nuggets (with gluten free bread crumbs)
- Sandwiches with gluten free dairy free bread (yes there are options, but I only have so many hours in the day so making bread and homemade chicken nuggets only happens once in awhile. I put my time into dinner so we can have a nice meal as a family and try to have the other other meals and snacks be fairly quick to prepare. I just saw this recipe and wanted to link to it. I'm still in search of a great bread loaf recipe, but this might be the answer for lunch sandwiches once in awhile. Sandwich Rolls
Snacks
- Fruit
- Fresh
- Fruit leather (100% fruit) - I make this when we have access to lots of fruit and the kids love it for a treat
- Applesauce squeeze packets (I found a box at Sam's Club that makes them less than $.50 a packet instead of over a dollar each if you buy them individually at the store)
- Raisins
- Craisins
- Dried fruit (but check labels if you're buying it. Many of them are not just dried fruit, but have added stuff, including soybean oil, which we can't have)
- Veggies
- Baby Carrots
- Snap Peas
- Celery with almond butter or sun butter (and raisins if they want - "ants on a log")
- 100% fruit juice
- Sweet Potato Chips
- Olive Oil Potato Chips
- Tortilla chips with guacamole (this is a new favorite at our house. They kids LOVE guacamole).
Dinner
In general, dinner is not too difficult for me to figure out. I am trying to keep the grocery budget manageable though and form some new fun traditions for the kids so here is what I have come up with so far.
- We do a day or two of just meat, rice/potatoes, and vegetables. Usually one fish day and one chicken day, but it could be any kind of meat really. The kids LOVE grilling so while the weather is decent, we're trying to grill meat when we can.
- I rediscovered a love of tacos with my kids. I knew they liked them, but now that we aren't having a lot of their other "favorites" my kids are becoming HUGE fans of tacos. So I'm going to do a taco night once a week. There are so many recipes and ways to change it up (ground beef, chicken, pulled pork, etc) so it won't look the same every week, but this is what we decided to do. And right after I decided that was a good idea, a stroke of genius hit me. My kids LOVE "The Lego Movie!" LOVE IT!!! So we're going to have "Taco Tuesday" like on The Lego Movie. It makes it more fun for the kids and starts a little family dinner tradition.
- I'm going to do soup once a week as well. There are tons of budget friendly recipes that fall into our dietary requirements. And I happen to LOVE soup! It doesn't really matter what night we do it, but for now, I'm planning on soup on Thursday since Thursday we have quite a bit of running around and I can get something going in the crockpot and it will be ready for us when we get home that night. Also, Thursday is the unofficial soup day in Sweden. They call it "split pea and pancake" day. There's a whole history on it, but it started because of fasting on Friday so they would have a hearty meal on Thursday to prepare their bodies for that. And since on my side our family heritage includes a lot of grandparents from Sweden, I thought that would be a fun way to start a meaningful tradition that opens up discussions of family history.
- Rice and beans will be one of our nights as well. It will sometimes have meat, sometimes be quinoa instead of rice, etc. but we'll have a rice and beans night once a week as well.
- Friday used to be pizza and movie night at our house. We're still having the movie part and if they keep their screen time hours (they don't lose them during the week) that is when they get their movie for the week. We also have fewer commitments on Friday so Friday will be a day to try some new recipes I find online (whether it's gluten free dairy free crepes for breakfast or vegan macaroni and cheese for dinner).
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