THIS WEEK (#44) MEALS

We have started eating a lot more salad once we found a dressing we all enjoy and figured out what veggies everyone likes. The dressing is a sweet lime ginger that I make from scratch in large amounts!

 
Dinners:
Salmon, Turmeric Squash, salad with my ginger dressing
Chicken Pot Pie (making up the recipe from several others will post later if it goes well)
Broccoli Tofu Stir Fry
Avocado Verde Enchiladas
Black bean and corn tamales (from the local farmers market), salad, Mexican rice (husbands specialty)
Leftovers Night
Out to eat


Lunch:
Quinoa Pizza Bites  I plan to not use cheese and sub in a little coconut "butter" for flavor
Lemon thyme almond cakes, salad
Peanut butter and jelly on banana nut waffles (2x), apple slices
Apples and peanut butter, chocolate chia pudding
Thia Tofu tacos
Leftover Lunch

Breakfast:
Oatmeal Bars (2x)
Banana Nut waffles (freeze leftovers)
Avocolada Smootie - I am making this up from several other ideas but I have a lot of frozen pineapple, plan to add coconut milk sugar avocado, maca powder and raw sugar (I will update once I have tried it!)
Yo Soy (yogurt) and fruit (2x)
Cold Cereal and Flax Milk (our new favorite drink!)


Snacks:
Pineapple upside down cupcake (I use the Betty Crocker GF mix, coconut butter, otherwise like the old fashioned type)
Chocolate garbanzo bean mini muffins (see previous blog)
Fruit

Obviously I am feeling ambitious today and like trying a lot of new things ;) Lets see if I actually do it!!

Dinners for week #42

Sunday: Leftovers


Monday: Gluten Free Pasta with canned spaghetti sauce (w/ extra garlic, onion, diced up veggies)

Tuesday: Tuna Casserole Wraps


Wednesday: Tofu Curry and Rice


Thursday:  Lentil Soup

Friday: Tacos (corn tortillas) with chicken (for every one but me) re-fried pinto beans, Spanish rice and guacamole

Saturday: Out to eat (at Pei Wei)

Sunday:  Margarita Pesto Pizza

Overcoming illness

So a lot has happened since my last entry. Mainly I have had some major health issues and seem to be on the recovery side of them most days. Basically I have no idea what is wrong. I have had more tests than I can count, seen several different specialist and no one ever could give me an answer. I lost the ability to walk or have had days where it is very difficult and then a couple weeks later I am fine. I have had migraines that were completely debilitating causing me to not be able to have any light, making me so dizzy and nauseated I would throw up and at one point they were happening every week for a few days. I have been so fatigued that I feel like moving an arm or leg is like trying to lift 1000 pounds. I have had such bad limb pain that I can't stand to move. I have had extremities go completely numb. My peripheral vision and depth perception was getting worse. The doctors were not giving me answers or a cure and I was (still am) frustrated. Finally they just started assuming it was all in my head and I was crazy (awesome). The last neurologist appointment I went to he recommended I start seeing a psychiatrist and take anti-depressants to lower my anxiety. It has been a frustrating year medically speaking. I tried all types of all natural diet changes. I ate more beef (thinking I was anemic), I started drinking raw milk (thinking I was missing some enzymes), I tried fermenting my own food (thinking I needed more probiotics, and adding a variety of vitamin supplements. I tried migraine medicine (caused me to have a mini stroke!). After ending up loosing my ability to speak and in the ER with my last migraine pill I refused to take any more medicine. My doctor said "what do you want me to do if you won't take medicine?" I answered that I wanted to understand what was wrong. Why is my body giving up on me?
I gave up on medicine! I read a lot of books during this whole ordeal and one really jumped out at me. It talked about inflammation in the body and I definitely have an issue with that!
The book was called "Eat to Live"by Joel Furhman and I have been following the diet outlined as well as eating gluten and dairy free 95% of the time and I have not had a migraine since and have had very few symptom days. The days I have had symptoms they are much less intense than they were. I can live my life again! Hooray!! You will notice from now on my posts and recipes will be mostly vegan (with the exception of fish) They will still be gluten and dairy free :) I fell off the wagon and got sicker than I already was becoming. It turns out my body just doesn't do well with any type of animal protein. I wish I could explain why or understood it but that just seems to be the case.

Meal Plan (2 weeks)

This was a post from a year ago that somehow stayed in the draft phase and I never published. This isn't my actual meal plan for the next two weeks now (but it was a year ago :)

Today we picked up our biweekly bountiful basket  which is a coop for fruits and veggies. I like to meal plan now on Saturdays because I find out what fruits and veggies we will have once we pick up our basket. Today we got a bunch of key limes among other things. My husband really wanted key lime pie which was one of the few things I made for him before we got married and convinced him I was a great cook (which he quickly found out was far from the truth). So I am making one because I love him :)

Saturday: 

Breakfast: fruit and Apple Oatmeal

Lunch: left overs and sandwiches

key lime pie 

Dinner: Salad, Cilantro Potatoes (we will see how they go), Salmon Patties (from Costco) with Cilantro Lime dressing (will be modified)

Sunday:

Breakfast: Smoothies & Apple Donuts

Lunch: Strawberry Spinach Salad, Pork Tenderloin, Asparagus

Dinner: Out

Mon-Tues: Vacation so we will be eating out :)

Wednesday:

Breakfast: Smoothies & Cereal

Lunch: Cucumber Salad & Chicken Nuggets

Dinner:  Tomato Basil with sourdough bread

Apple Pie

Thursday:

Breakfast: Waffles and fruit

Lunch: Left overs

Dinner: fried squash and pickles, Spaghetti

Friday:

Breakfast: Smoothies and Cereal

Lunch: PBJ and fruit

Dinner: Tomato Basil with sourdough bread