My mom meal planned and kept careful track of her spending while grocery shopping. I brought her system into my home as adult and tweaked it to fit my family. It has saved my sanity, helped to keep us on budget and eat well at the same time. I was thrown off of my meal planning when Mark’s diet changed drastically. I wanted to keep our meals as similar as possible, because making two meals sounded like a lot of work to me. Our kids already know we serve a eat what we have or go hungry until the next meal.
If our kids do not like what we are having we do not offer them a peanut butter sandwich or let them fix their own meal. In my opinion and you are free to run your home the way that works best for you, but in our family I believe it is a waste of our food and my time for them to fix something else. I have usually carefully allotted for snacks, lunches and dinners. If they eat outside of what’s planned, it throws our meal plan and budget off. There is a very rare occasion were a meal will get too spicy or not turn out at all (yup, I still have those moments) and the peanut butter is taken out as a replacement.
I try to make our meals as emotionally and mentally satisfying as they are physically nourishing. It has taken experimenting with textures, flavors and ingredients, but slowly I am getting a good feel for what works. To keep my meal planning simple I have kept track of all of our favorite things to eat. We love sandwiches, pasta, I love casseroles, our kids love simple meals like hot dogs and chicken nuggets. We try to have tacos once a week, some kind of sandwich and a different pasta. This keeps meal planning simple and it’s not as challenging to get our kids to eat them.
We have worked really hard to teach our kids to like veggies. We have tried them roasted, boiled, sautéed and raw to help us decide the way we prefer them the best. I have found our kids prefer raw veggies, so each day one of our kids is in charge of putting a salad together. When they help prepare it they are more likely to eat more of it. It makes one less dish I have to put together and it gives me time in the kitchen with the kiddos. Building skills and developing pallets all at one time.
It’s a work in progress, but here is our low histamine meal plan for the next two weeks. Something to keep in mind is every body is different, what you can eat may very well look different than what our family can eat. Most meals can easily have meats and veggies changed out. Many low histamine eaters can eat eggs from free range chickens, Mark cannot, so you won’t see them very often, if at all in our meal plan. If you can eat them and love them, by all means work them into your meal plan.
I lay a meal plan out, but I don’t give it a day of the week, because it allows me to create the meals when it is convenient for me. I follow it as a guideline, not the rule of law that cannot be changed when life changes.
Tacos
shredded chicken
Mark’s toppings:
Avocados
cucumber sauce
tomatillos
romaine hearts for a wrap
Us:
shredded cheddar cheese
flour tortillas
Gluten free biscuits & Gravy
Fruit
Fresh Salad
Roasted Chicken
Sweet potatoes
salad
Fresh Fruit
Meatballs & Spaghetti Squash
Salad
Fruit
Stir-fry (honey-ginger)
Chicken, carrots, cauliflower, water chestnuts
Fruit
Curry-Taco Twice Baked Potatoes
Ground turkey, avocado (leftovers from Taco night)
Pulled Chicken Wraps
Pulled cooked chicken, sliced almonds & carrots
Romaine hearts for Mark, flour wraps for kids
Pizza
Gluten free crust for Mark
Flour crust for the kids
Greek Sweet potatoes/white yam loaded fries
Diced cooked chicken with greek seasonings, avocado and cucumber sauce
Fruit
Breakfasts
Mark:
Turkey Sausage
Avocado and fruit
Gluten free biscuits
Coconut yogurt Parfaits
Gluten free pancakes
Kids:
Yogurt with fruit
Oatmeal
Fried oatmeal
Waffles/Pancakes
cereal
Lunch
Mark:
Leftovers
Kids:
Left overs
sandwiches
cheese/meat & crackers
Chicken nuggets/Corn Dogs
Mac N Cheese
Spaghetti
Many of the meals I have planned have yet to have a recipe. I am still putting together flavors, veggies and herbs to create flavors our whole family likes. I will continue to put the recipes I create on the blog. What are some of your families favorite meals?