After 3 days of planning, two trips to the grocery store and a lot of frustration- I finally have my meal plan for week one!

I know 3 days of meal planning sounds like a lot, but I was sick, on medication and knocked out for most of that time and while the foods to stay away from were straight forward, the chemicals were not. High Fructose Corn Syrup is an easy one to find, but Benzoic Acid, Candida Albicans and Tyramine took a little more research. Thankfully, Sunday afternoon my nutritionist sent me a list of these chemicals and what they were in- It made life a whole lot simpler!

So here is Week One’s Meal Planning. Any recipes links will be included. Any changes to the recipes I’ll post at the bottom.

Monday
Breakfast: Blueberry Almond Milk Smoothie
Snack: Three Blueberry Banana Almond Butter Muffin
Lunch: Turkey and Green Apple Lettuce Wrap with a few green apple slices
Snack: Green Apple Slices
Dinner: Pork Chops with Roast Tomatoes (for Scott) and Asparagus

Tuesday
Breakfast: Blueberry Almond Milk Smoothie
Snack: Three Blueberry Banana Almond Butter Muffin
Lunch: Turkey and Green Apple Lettuce Wrap with a few green apple slices
Snack: Green Apple Slices
Dinner: Grilled Shrimp with Roasted Brocolli and Carrots

Wednesday
Breakfast: Blueberry Almond Milk Smoothie
Snack: Three Blueberry Banana Almond Butter Muffin
Lunch: Hamburger with Lettuce Wrap
Snack: Green Apple Slices
Dinner: Taco Night- with Shredded Chicken, Gluten free rice, and chopped Peppers

Thursday
Breakfast: Blueberry Almond Milk Smoothie
Snack: Three Blueberry Bannana Almond Butter Muffin
Lunch: Grilled Fist with Zucchini and Squash
Snack: Green Apple Slices
Dinner: Stuffed Peppers with Gluten free rice and left over veggies from the week

Friday
Breakfast: Blueberry Almond Milk Smoothie
Snack: Three Blueberry Bannana Almond Butter Muffin
Lunch: Turkey and Green Apple Lettuce Wrap with a few green apple slices
Snack: Green Apple Slices
Dinner: Steak with Roast Sweet Potatoes

Recipes or Changes to Recipes

Vegetable Stock (since I can’t have chicken). There are a lot of great Gluten Free Options on the market, unfortunately most of them had onions, mushrooms and garlic in them. Three things are on my no-no list. So I decided to make my own
* Celery
* Carrots
* Salt, Pepper and a Mix of Herbs that are on my YES list
Add to crockpot, fill with eight cups of water and cook for six hours. Drain, store in freezer bags and repeat the process.

FLOURLESS PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP MINI BLENDER MUFFINS

I had to tweak my favorite flourless muffin recipe
* I always sub Almond butter for Peanut Buteer and I found Juntin’s Almond Butter– which makes an Almond Butter with no sugar added!
* I added blueberries in place of chocolate chips. I will leave those out next time and probably just have these plain.
* I used a green banana in place of a ripe yellow banana since I can’t have ripe fruit
* And I left out the vanilla extract since I can’t have that either
* I just realized i left out the baking soda- not on purpose but because it was 11:00pm and I just forgot! They still turned out fine!

So there is week one! I haven’t made it to Saturday and Sunday yet. I will probably have leftovers.

Every since we have been using oils, I’ve been getting a little more health conscious. As you may know, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder about twelve years ago. When looking up what to eat I would see anything from go paleo to cut out everything except water (that’s an exaggeration, but it sure felt like it). I wanted to know what I needed to do for MY BODY. About a year ago I was listening to a webinar from a friend of mine and she mentioned seeing a nutritionist and how much that helped her. Ever since then, it has been something I have really wanted to do. Last month, I finally got the nerve to set up an appointment with one! We started some test that would give us a better reading of my gut health and well as my eating habits.

My test included an Expanded GI Panel, Symptom Burden Report as well as a Mediator Release Test. I know, I’m exhausted thinking about it! Here is what the test showed

Expanded GI Panel:
* Many yeast present in the gut (not surprising since that is a symptom of an autoimmune disease)
* Heavy growth of Proteus Mirabilis- not really sure what exactly it is, but it can cause kidney stones!! Cue the flashback to having one removed last summer!!
* Positive for being sensitive to Milk (casein)- which means no milk products….ever again…. not even butter.

Symptom Burden Report
* I scored in the high priority of EVERYTHING (expect for the male only section)
* But the main thing to work on was healing the gut!

Mediator Release Test– blood test which measures if you are sensitive to certain foods
* On the line for Non-Reactive and Moderately Reactive (only eat once or twice a week): Leek, Watermelon, Asparagus, Green Pepper, Sweet Potato, Wheat, Beef
* Moderately Reactive (take out of diet for 3 months): Benzoic Acid, Fructose, Tyramine, Candida Albicans, Cow’s Milk, Cheddar Cheese, Garlic, Basil, Pineapple, Corn, Crab, Clam, Chicken, Tapioca, hazelnut, Garbanzo Bean
* Reactive (take out of diet for 3 months): Yogurt, Amaranth

In addition to these restrictions, I have an anti-fungal diet list to follow because of the yeast overgrowth. Also since I have an autoimmune disorder, she is advising me to adopt a gluten free lifestyle.

For the most part this is only a 3 month reset and then I can closely start adding foods back in. But milk is gone for good and gluten if at all possible. I’ll post my Week One meal plan later!