It is about time for one of these! I think I have skipped a week or two. One week, we were traveling part of the week, which meant my parents were in charge of meal plans for the kiddos. I am pleased to announced they did a wonderful job and the children survived just fine.
GFCF diets aren’t easy. That said, grandparents who are willing to accommodate the kids who are on them are a precious blessing. I wouldn’t blame them if they said, bring the kids…and food, too! But they don’t, and they work hard to make sure everything they cook when our children are in their home is fit for eating. Si’s mom also tried to accommodate the diet when we visited her in the winter. It was especially a challenge for her as she was a little less familiar with it all, being farther away.
I am learning a lot lately about what it means to be a good grandparent. I hope I will be a good one when my own day arrives.
But, for now, I’ll stick to raising these babes the Lord has blessed us with. Feeding them is a challenge, of course, and there are a few goals I have for us in the coming year. {I am all about goals right now for some reason.} The first is to make food fun again. In the beginning, doing the diet was survival. I was in over my head, and cranking out a weekly menu was about all I could handle. But now, I want to get us back to where we were before: really enjoying our family meals. This is especially important since there is no going out. We never use restaurants. We can’t drop by a cute little place and get an ice cream cone. So I want to think through how to incorporate fun, enjoyable food into our home again.
Second, I want to combat the deprivation mindset. I see this especially in our three-year-old, who is a bit obsessed with what she can’t have. My goal is to have everything in the house be something she can eat, with maybe a couple things hidden away for me and Si. But I want her to experience abundance and freedom instead of deprivation. At least for now. As an allergic child, she will one day have to learn to say no to things that will hurt her. But for now, I just want her to experience food as a good thing, not a forbidden thing.
Enough chatter. On to the menu!
Monday, May 12
Breakfast: Blonde GFCF Blender Batter Pancakes
Lunch: Baja Fresh, our Monday tradition with Granmama
Dinner: Tacos, fresh veggies to top, and vegetarian refried beans leftover from last night {on corn tortillas treated with lime}
Tuesday, May 13
Breakfast: Brunette GFCF Blender Batter Pancakes
Lunch: Boiled eggs and fruit slices
Dinner: Lentil burgers {no buns for the GFCF kids}, side salad, oven fries
Wednesday, May 14
Breakfast: Blonde GFCF Blender Batter Pancakes
Lunch: Leftover lentil burgers
Dinner: Savory pot roast with veggies {Betty Crocker’s Slow Cooker Cookbook p. 59; use tomato juice preserved with ascorbic acid as a safer alternative to V8 juice}
Thursday, May 15
Breakfast: Brunette GFCF Blender Batter Pancakes
Lunch: Leftover roast & veggies
Dinner: Savory cabbage & pork soup {Betty Crocker’s Slow Cooker Cookbook p. 22: Instead of pork meat I use nitrate/nitrite free turkey kielbasa from Trader Joe’s. Watch for caseinate in those sausages! That is a common hidden source of casein and can totally undo your progress for a week, especially if your child is as sensitive as my oldest child. This week, I’m making a double batch to make sure it is available as an extra snack as well.}
Friday, May 16
Breakfast: Blonde GFCF Blender Batter Pancakes
Lunch: Leftover soup
Dinner: Meatballs with GFCF sweet & sour sauce {last time, I made a double-batch of the sauce, so this time it’ll be a quicker cooking time}, and a side salad featuring E.’s homegrown radishes and green onions
Saturday, May 17
Breakfast: Brunette GFCF Blender Batter Pancakes
Lunch: Leftover meatballs & salad
Dinner: Brown rice spagetti topped with my GFCF Summer Red Sauce, and salad of course. We love salad around here.
Sunday, May 18
Breakfast: Blonde GFCF Blender Batter Pancakes
Lunch: Leftover spaghetti
Dinner: Breakfast for dinner {fried eggs and country potatoes}
Monday, May 19
Breakfast: Brunette GFCF Blender Batter Pancakes
Lunch: Baja Fresh, of course!
Dinner: Leftover buffet…clean out that fridge before the weekly grocery trip!
1 Comment
“… But I want her to experience abundance and freedom instead of deprivation….”
This is my philosophy as well. Lovely post. 🙂