Let's see, the basics are: rice, quinoa, mung beans, adzuki beans, lentils, lots of veggies, some fruit, and some meat.
So how does that translate to our daily menus?
One of my favorite sites for recipes is The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen. Their cookbook (The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook) is also a great source for recipes and info.
Green smoothies
Cabbage quinoa soup
Broccoli soup (from another of my favorite recipe sites)
Red Lentil Soup
Curried Cauliflower Carrot soup
Potato Leek soup
Chicken stew
Lentil and rice casserole
Lettuce wraps
Nori rolls (we stuff these with whatever veggies we have in the frig- avocado, sprouts, spinach, cucumber, carrot, green onion, steamed sweet potato, cabbage, etc)
Quinoa salmon burgers (we really like these!)
burrito bowls
parsnip fries (quite good- kind of sweet)
sweet potato fries
steamed broccoli
sauteed zucchini and summer squash
Treats:
Mango coconut pudding (I also made a peach version)
Date treats
Breakfast is usually a green smoothie with leftovers from dinner
Lunch is usually a burrito bowl, nori rolls, or a lettuce wrap and a piece of fruit
Dinner is one of the recipes mentioned above
Snacks are fruit, carrots (LMS will go to the frig and grab a carrot and start munching), or a date treat (LMS really likes them. I've fiddled with the recipe a bit, but the date taste is still very strong, and I'm not a huge fan of dates. I need to mess with the recipe some more)
So we have plenty of food we can eat. It's mostly a matter of changing up our menu and cooking completely from scratch. It takes more planning on my part, but some of the recipes come together very quickly. We're getting used to eating lots and lots of veggies and we're getting to try a lot of new recipes. Changing my mindset about how I cook has been a bit of a hassle, but LMS and I are both feeling good (and LMS's intestines are finally healing) so it's worth it.
The only downside to changing up our menu this way is the increase in cost. Lots of veggies costs lots of money. I read an article recently that said something along the lines of the cost of 500 calories of vegetables costs a lot more than 500 calores of junk food or convenience food.
Eat a couple candy bars and you've eaten 500 calories and only spent a couple bucks and you'll be hungry again soon. I dare you to try eating 500 calories worth of broccoli at one sitting. I found this site that shows 200 calories of a food.
Hmmm. That's 200 calories worth, which means that 500 calories is another plate and a half full of broccoli. That'll stick around a lot longer than a couple candy bars. And it's a lot healthier. However, that much broccoli will cost a lot more than a couple candy bars.
Despite the increased costs, the health benefits are definitely worth it.
That doesn't sound as bad as what I was imagining. And I'm glad you brought up cost. I mentioned to a friend that it costs more to eat healthy and she seemed to think that if you eliminated the junk you buy, it would come out even. Fruits and veggies are not cheap but I'm glad they are something you guys can eat.
ReplyDeleteI used to think it was cheaper to just cut out the junk food too, but our food budget says otherwise. On the other hand, it's hard to put a price on good health, and we've had enough health problems to know it's worth the extra money spent.
ReplyDeleteI hear you on the increased cost of eating well--it definitely costs more money, but it's definitely worth it! I feel like most of our food budget goes toward fruits and vegetables now which is something I never would have imagined before. No wonder there's such a problem with obesity, etc in our country when it costs more to buy a pound of broccoli than it does to buy a box of mac'n'cheese! It's sad. :(
ReplyDeleteAnother "what can you eat?!" question for you--how are you accounting for grain- (specifically corn)-fed animals with your corn elimination? I imagine the amount that's still in the meat, especially in something like beef or pork is still fairly significant with the feedlot nonsense in the meat industry. Just curious.
The first few weeks of the elimination diet you don't actually eat meat, so eating corn-fed meat isn't an issue.
ReplyDeleteWe have been eating small amounts of salmon several times a week since the second week because I felt we needed the protein. This is actually mentioned on the website.
Up until yesterday we'd only eaten salmon (wild Alaskan, not farmed), without problems. Yesterday I made a chicken stew (we had the sister missionaries over and I felt obligated to feed them something half-way normal), but there didn't seem to be a problem.
I've wondered about corn-fed meat before, but haven't actually researched it. Add that to my list of things to do. For our everyday meals, we rarely buy beef- we eat elk and deer that Mr M hunted. We do buy pork and chicken though, so I need to research this issue some more. Thanks for bringing it up!