The weekly menu

It’s kinda silly categorizing this post “the weekly menu” considering the week was only, like, a second long and I already blogged about the first half of it, but it is what it is.

To recap, Monday we did melon, avo, and butter lettuce salad with poppyseed dressing.  Legit.

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Tuesday we had crock pot stuffed bell peppers.

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They were based off this recipe but then I made them completely different to meet all of our families allergy requirements and preferences.

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Wednesday we skipped market (again) and cooked in.  The weather was forecasting 108 again but it was only mid 90s in the end.  “Only” – ha!  Still too hot for a picnic.

Enter this shrimp and avo pasta salad.  By another Elise blogger.  🙂

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SO GOOD.  I used GF noodles and green bell peppers (from the farm).

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Kyle was going ga ga over this and demanded it’s addition to the rotation.  So if you want a delicious summer salad, this is it.

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Lime and cilantro are basically all I want in the summer anyway.  I added some red onions to his portion only.  My gut has been doing really well lately and I’m kinda excited about it.  I think it has to do with all the coconut oil I’ve been eating lately.  Between my home-made crackers and home-made bark I get a significant portion every day.  I’ve also upped the amount of carbs I’m eating during the day and committed to really planning out my lunches and making sure they are vegetable and grain packed (and meatless).  Pretty excited about it.

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I made tomato rice seasoned with green onions, cumin, paprika, garlic and salt for our weekly pool party/get together on Thursday.

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It was Mexican food themed (potluck), which is awesome because it’s a very allergy friendly cuisine.  My girlfriend texted me the label of the seasoning before adding it the ground beef and I gave her the go ahead.  Little dude loves him some beef.

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These tomatoes!  Gah!!  The photo doesn’t even do the color justice.  Needless to say, the rice was good.

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I’ll stop here because I’m probably going to do a separate post of the whole 4th weekend.

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Comments (10)

  1. Lesq

    We eat so very similar. I feel much better also on the diet that you do. Just a quick question, do green bell peppers bother you because they are a FODMAP and do you find animal protein causes you negative symptoms also? I find other people’s information often helps me. Have a great fourth!!!

  2. Elise (Post author)

    My gut has been sorta wonky (read: unpredictable) ever since I got pregnant and I’m guessing that’s because (a) I’ve been more lenient with fodmaps, and (b) my hormones seem to affect my gut and with all the changes associated with pregnancy and post partum, so I’m definitely dealing with lots of physiological changes. For those reasons I don’t really know what’s causing what in terms of my current diet. For example, I used to be fine with avocado (and most polyols) and the last few months had me questioning that because I couldn’t figure out what else it could be. Every time I think I have identified a specific food, I’ll get thrown for a loop (like, I will react to something I’ve really thought I tolerated). The only way is to re-do an elimination diet but that isn’t in the cards yet.
    So all that is to say, my gut’s bacterial balance isn’t what it once was back when I was not pregnant and strictly following a low fodmaps diet.
    Nowadays I’m getting back on track and I don’t think animal protein bothers me. I try to limit it to one serving a day, but I’ve had more and have never noticed negative symptoms as a result. I do think green bell peppers affect me though. [Full disclosure: I only ended up eating half the bell pepper]. The symptoms are not as bad as other things (garlic, say), but they’re a change from perfect.

  3. Lesq

    Thank you so much for responding. Your info is always so useful to me. I cut avocado out about a month and a half ago because I thought it was bothering me. I agree with you that our gut flora changes which causes digestive issues we were not experiencing previously. I find papaya to be a very soothing fruit and buy them weekly at Whole Foods. I find only the ones grown in Belize are to my liking. It has a lot of beneficial digestive enzymes. We traveled to the Italian and French Rivieras three weeks ago and the food in Europe always agrees with me more because they eat much more clean, whole foods and a lot of produce in many of the countries. We travel a lot and it’s funny how once I acclimate I find there food sources much easier on my system. BTW, we delt with food intolerances too and I also was diligently on top of it. I so respect all your loving, devoted and hard effort. Ours were outgrown over time. Your an awesome mom. Enjoy your awesome family the journey is so rewarding!!!

  4. Elise (Post author)

    Thank you so very much for this kind and encouraging comment! I’m very hopeful that things will only improve with time…
    Side note: I too had such an easy time when traveling to Australia last year with the food – I think the diets outside the US are so much more conducive to gut health.

  5. Ellyn

    Hi Elise! I really love reading your blog. Thank you for posting all these great recipes and your photos are so colorful and happy. I appreciate seeing someone who genuinely cares about what they put in their body and adjusts their diet according to how their body responds. I’m always trying to adjust my diet to figure out what makes my body happiest. I used to think I had a major gluten sensitivity, but lately, I’m beginning to realize that sugar was possibly a bigger issue for me. I notice major changes when I cut back.

    I have a question for you… Do you have a good way of organizing your recipes? Do you do it electronically or print out your recipes? How do you access all of these great ideas when you’re putting together your weekly menu? Thanks in advance!!

  6. Elise (Post author)

    I don’t have a great system honestly and I’d be up for anyone who can offer some good suggestions. In the end, I use bloglovin and pinterest to bookmark things, and then when it comes time to make the weekly menu I go back and look at what I recently marked. I’m not super organized but I have rough categories within those platforms (i.e. meat, poultry, fish, vegetarian, crock pot, salads, etc.) which makes it nice when I know we have chicken and I want to find a good recipe for it. Or if we are in the mood for salads or whatever, you get the point, it’s easier to find things that way.
    I also use through cookbooks from the library (or my own) and read bon appetit so sometimes recipes come from those sources too. I go through phases. Obviously I can’t bookmark those digitally though.
    Starting Friday (usually) I take stock of what we have on hand from the week before (perishables and produce and whatnot) and match it up to recipes that I’ve recently bookmarked and then I just go through each recipe one by one and write down what we need on the (paper) grocery list. Sometimes we have almost every ingredient for a recipe and I only have to get one thing, and sometimes we have to get nearly every ingredient called for. Totally depends on the fridge situation. I really try to use up everything we have though and we waste basically nothing in our house. If it seems lie it’s going to go bad before we can use it, I freeze it. I also give Kyle leftovers revamped in his lunch.
    The only “special” thing I do in regard to my written list is the way I note which store we will get which items. We buy 90% of our stuff from Trader Joe’s but there are definitely things I know they won’t have that I get at either Whole Foods or Nugget market and those get starred or highlighted.
    Oh! Another thing I do is subscribe to all our local stores’ sales newsletters and emails. If something is on sale, I want to know abut it so I can either include it in that week’s menu or buy it in bulk to freeze for a later week. WF’s #onedaysales are great and Nugget market has a “secret special” each week in addition to their weekly discounted items. I get both of those emailed to me and factor that in if it’s relevant. Sometimes they are useless (wine sales) but sometimes they are awesome (organic chicken / almond milk – things we buy frequently).
    Whoa, wrote a novel. Hope that helps!

  7. Reduceri online

    Great idea!

  8. Pingback: Fourth Festivities Weekend | Hungry Hungry Hippie

  9. Laura Dieden

    Kyle lets you pickle things?? Wow…he’s getting better with his anti-pickle persona?

    Also…you should make pork crackling next time you do port belly….yum!

  10. Elise (Post author)

    haha…as long as it doesn’t smell like vinegar when he’s around he’s okay with it. and then i hide them in the fridge in the garage.

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