Meg's Meal Planning

gluten free

Quinoa fried rice

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Gluten free, paleo friendly, and dairy free quinoa fried rice with healthy vegetables like carrots and mushrooms. Pair it with grilled chicken or tofu for extra protein.

fried rice quinoa

I love making a big batch of quinoa to use for lunches for the week. Prep it over the weekend and you’ll find it helps control some of the craziness of what I call the “dinner rush” The time from 5-6:30pm when you cook dinner, feed the toddler, give the baby the a bottle, convince the toddler to eat dinner, feed the baby puree foods, start bargaining with the toddler to eat, give the baby a bath, then the toddler a bath because he has FOMO, put the baby to bed, do the dishes, put the toddler to bed, all while trying to eat yourself! Just typing that was exhausting.

Quinoa fried rice is an easy prep ahead meal, you can add chicken or tofu for some more protein. I followed this recipe for grilled chicken.

Quinoa fried rice

Quinoa fried rice
 
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Gluten free, paleo friendly, and dairy free quinoa fried rice with healthy vegetables like carrots and mushrooms. Pair it with grilled chicken or tofu for extra protein.
Author:
Cuisine: Quinoa
Serves: 2-3
Ingredients
  • 1 cup uncooked quinoa
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 large carrots, peeled and diced, about 1 cup
  • 10 mushrooms diced
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 4 tablespoon coconut aminos
  • 1 tbsp. toasted sesame seed oil
  • 2 green onions, chopped
Instructions
  1. Cook 1 cup quinoa according to package directions. Set aside into medium bowl.
  2. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil over skillet, add carrots and mushrooms, sauté for 8 mints or until soft.
  3. Make a well and add eggs and stir apart breaking up the eggs into small pieces, add the garlic and ginger and stir for about 30 secs.
  4. Remove from pan and add to quinoa. Let cool.
  5. Once cooled add coconut aminos, sesame seed oil, and green onions. Stir together.

 

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quinoa fried rice and chicken

Gluten and dairy free meal plan. Week one

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For the month of February, my husband and I ate gluten and dairy free, or at least we tried to. This was a new way to eat for us, and we definitely had some bumps in the road, but I wanted to try it after reading the book, The Walh’s Protocol. I heard about this book, which was written by a doctor who talks about how to improve symptoms of autoimmune disease through diet, from a patient of mine. My husband and I do not have any autoimmune conditions, but in the book she talks about how everyone can benefit from following her protocol and rebuilding your cellular health. If you have an autoimmune disease or food sensitivities, I highly recommend checking it out for yourself. Click here for the link for the book.

There are three levels to her protocol. The first and most basic level is what we followed. The criteria are the following :

  1. Gluten and dairy free.
  2. Eat 9 cups of fruits and vegetables daily. (Can adjust the amount of cups for your height/weight).
  3. Eat organic lean protein daily.

In the book she breaks down each criteria in more detail. The 9 cups of fruits and vegetables are broken down into three categories: 3 cups leafy greens, 3 cups of vegetables rich in sulfur, and 3 cups of bright colored fruits/veggies.

Paleo breakfast
Kale and red bell pepper frittata

If you know me or follow my blog, you obviously know I like to plan my dinners. However, to follow this protocol I also had to plan my breakfasts and lunches; I didn’t know how challenging this would be, but with a little time and effort we made it successful!

Week One

Monday

  • Breakfast- Shake with 1 cup spinach, kale, 1/2 cup fresh fruit (I used blueberries, grapes, and raspberries), 1/2 cup left over broccoli stems/leaves, 1 tbsp almond butter, 1/2 cup almond milk, 1 1/4 cup water, and 1 tbsp ground flax seed.
  • Lunch– Mediterranean quinoa salad minus the feta cheese. I cut the recipe in half and we still got three lunches from it.
  • Dinner– Eggplant parmesan with vegan cheese, a side of chick-pea pasta from Banza, and roasted broccoli.
Quinoa salad 2
Mediterranean quinoa salad

Tuesday

  • Breakfast– Frittata with red bell pepper and kale and avocado toast with gluten free bread.
  • Lunch– Salad with romaine lettuce, red bell pepper, avocado, cherry tomatoes, and rolled up/sliced deli meat.
  • Dinner– Chickpea pasta and a spinach salad. This dinner was an “oops”, I planned for a whole chicken in the crockpot, but when I cooked it a few days in advance, I turned off the crockpot to let it cool and forgot about it during the dinner time rush! It sat out overnight, so we had to toss it.

Wednesday

  • Breakfast– Shake – 2 cups spinach, handful of fresh blueberries and frozen strawberries, 1 tbsp almond butter, 1 tbsp ground flax seed, half an avocado, 1 cup almond milk, and 1 cup water.
  • Lunch-Left over mediterranean quinoa salad.
  • Dinner– Asian chicken chopped salad. I added half an avocado and fresh mango to our salad.

Thursday

smashed chickpea sandwich
Smashed chickpea and avocado sandwich

Friday

  • Breakfast- Left over frittata.
  • Lunch– Kale, edamame, and quinoa salad. I added a hard boiled egg to mine for more protein.
  • Dinner– Pizza night. I used cauliflower crust from Trader Joe’s and topped it with tomato sauce and vegan mozzarella cheese (also from TJ’s)

Saturday

  • Breakfast– Banana cinnamon paleo waffles. I used almond flour instead of coconut flour because that’s what I had on hand. I also doubled it hoping to have left overs, but we didn’t. My waffle iron must be bigger because it only made six. P.S. Noah loved these, he had two whole waffles, which I definitely didn’t account for!
  • Lunch– Left over chickpea pasta and kale quinoa salad.
  • Dinner– Beef and rice stuffed peppers. I used ground turkey. The recipe calls for 5 bell peppers, but I only made three, and didn’t cut back on the rest of the ingredients. I used the left over stuffing for salads the following week.

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Mother’s Day Brunch recap

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We had such a wonderful time celebrating Mother’s Day with our families. We are so blessed and fortunate to be able to celebrate with both our parents.  Two out of three of my brothers came home too, sadly my youngest brother, sister, and brother in-law were unable to make it.  So that left us with 8 people.  The menu came out great! There were a few variations and a few extra desserts – but you can never have too many of those!

For the orginal menu, you can click here to view it.

I ended up following a very similar recipe to the egg muffins I posted about a few weeks ago (click here for recipe). Except I didn’t add any ham or scallions this time, just cherry tomatoes, spinach, and zucchini. They were a big hit! And it worked out really well because I put them out as soon as they were ready, so they served as almost an appetizer, along with the gluten free banana bread.

I also didn’t end up serving spinach salad since spinach was going into the egg muffins. I thought that might be overkill, so instead I made almond green beans.  Again, I knew I didn’t want something that would take up precious oven real estate, so these green beans worked out well on the stovetop.

I had a ricotta cheesecake, but ended up buying it along with a fruit tart from a local grocery store, Highland Park Market. But I did make black bean brownies.  Please, before you knock them, you must try them! I’ll post about them later this week, so be on the look out for the healthist brownies you will ever eat!

Overall the day turned out great! And I’m so happy to be able to do this for our hard-working moms!