Happy Monday, everyone! This week’s meal plan comes from one of our readers, Ki, who shares with us what works to plan out a week of real food in her home.
But first, let’s get to know her a little better! Here’s my interview with Ki:
What’s your “conversion” story? How did you come to eat real, traditional food, and how long ago did that happen?
I got to the point where I was in really bad shape. I had abused my body to the point where I was unable to keep most food down, and was throwing up after most meals. I was constantly tired, I was losing my hair, my skin was really bad, and I was eating Rolaids like they were candy. I was severely overweight, and on a nonstop yoyo diet. I would restrict my calories down severely and drop tons of weight, then burn out and gain it all back.
About a year ago I stumbled onto the Paleo diet, and gave it a try, thinking that it would help me lose weight. It didn’t really help me lose weight, but going grain free made my stomach feel so much better. Then I was diagnosed with endometriosis in May of 2011 after an endoscopic surgery to remove a large cyst from my ovary. My doctor wanted me to go on birth control, but I have had horrible side effects with BC in the past and decided that I was going to heal myself.
Searching for an answer to the endo led me to the WAPF and traditional foods. I am no longer grain free, but I am gluten free and try to get as much healthy fat as possible to help my hormones. I’m not quite where I would like to be, but I think I’m doing pretty well for only being on this journey for a little less than a year!
BB: Wow! That’s incredible! I love that you decided you would heal yourself, rather than taking a drug from your doctor. Good for you!
What are some of your nutrition or health goals you have for this year, or the future in general?
This year I want to continue to move towards more healthy food. I want to have a fermented food with every meal. I want to begin cooking GAPS friendly food so that I can eventually do the GAPS diet without too much of a horrible transition. I also want to get a good amount of produce grown this year in my parent’s garden. I also want to learn to make gluten free sourdough bread so that I can begin weaning my husband off of gluten (and so I can have bread again!)
BB: Nice! Ahh, I’m so happy to see you’re looking into GAPS, too! Easing into it by learning to cook GAPS food is a great idea. I’m really looking forward to seeing how that improves your health. I’m doing it too, you know! And fermented foods with every meal, now that’s a goal everyone should have! Awesome.
Do you have any tips to share for cooking real food, meal planning, or for making life easier in the kitchen?
Meal planning is really important, but knowing what’s in your kitchen is more important. I like to make an inventory each week of what I have on hand, and what I need to stock up on. I hate thinking I have a staple pantry item, and then getting to a meal that needs it, only to find I’m out.
Also, if you have a tight budget (like we do!) one of the most cost effective ways to help your diet is fermenting food. A small jar of lacto-fermented sauerkraut from my local farmer’s market is ten dollars, but I can make four times as much with 3 dollars worth of organic cabbage. I also encourage people to get kefir grains, as kefir is so much easier to make than yogurt, and really much better for you. Also, if you are new to the real food lifestyle, get in touch with your local WAPF chapter. I got my kefir grains and my kombucha scoby for free from a local member.
BB: What great advice! Fermented foods really do pack a nutritional punch, and can be very inexpensive! And combining meal planning with a habit of keeping an inventory of your kitchen, that definitely makes things so much easier.
What are some of your favorite kitchen gadgets or cookbooks?
I don’t have too many kitchen gadgets, as my husband and I just started “setting up house” a few months ago. I do use my blender a lot to make smoothies, mayonnaise, refried beans, etc. I also use my juicer a lot to make fruit juice to flavor my kombucha. Next on my list of things to buy is a crock pot so I can make stock and beans and roasts easier.
BB: Ooh, a juicer! That’s next on my list. I like the idea of using it to flavor kombucha., since store-bought juice is just…crap. And crockpots, those are a must-have!
Do you have any questions you’d like our readers to help answer?
I would love to know all about gluten free sourdough! If anyone makes it, if it’s easy, everything. I get nervous with most gluten free baking because it uses so many odd ingredients, most of which are either very expensive or sound a little too processed for me. I would also love to know if anyone has any tips for getting spouses on board the whole food lifestyle, especially when they are very picky.
BB: So true about the gluten-free baking recipes. I feel the same way with some of those ingredients! I’ve never actually made sourdough, but I do know that Cultures for Health sells a brown rice sourdough starter as well as a book called The Art of Gluten-Free Sourdough Baking. Maybe those would help!
Oh as for the picky hubby, gosh, take a look at those dinner plans below — how would anyone be resistant to eating food like that?! Furrealz. I got nothin’, girl!
Ki’s Weekly Meal Plan
I only plan the dinners, as my husband works and eats the same thing every day for lunch and breakfast (which is not real food! But our dinners are.) I normally eat leftovers or smoothies during the day.(BB: Hey, a week of real food dinners is leaps and bounds ahead of what most of the rest of the country is doing! And that’s true that a lot of times leftovers is what’s for lunch, or breakfast. I’d say having dinner planned is the most important!)Monday:
Hamburgers using this bread recipe made into buns: http://gnowfglins.com/2009/09/10/spelt-sourdough-bread/ with homemade lacto-fermented ketchup and homemade lacto-fermented mayo. I also use raw cheddar cheese and some fresh veggies. I make myself a salad with homemade kefir ranch dressing (http://www.culturesforhealth.com/kefir-ranch-dip-recipe) and I have a glass of raw milk.Tuesday:
Hot dogs with the same bread as above, only made into hot dog buns. I top mine with homemade lacto-fermented sauerkraut (NT recipe) and homemade lacto-fermented ketchup. I make a box of gluten free mac and cheese also. It’s not great, but at least my husband will eat it. I try to get the least unhealthy box, but it’s still a work in progress. A salad will be my side again.Wednesday:
BBQ pork ribs, with organic BBQ sauce. I don’t make my own BBQ sauce yet, still looking for a recipe my husband will eat. But I buy organic so there’s not HFCS. I have a side salad, my husband has corn. It’s the only veggie he’ll eat (I know it’s not a veggie, but what can you do?)Thursday:
Chicken Fried Steak and Mashed Potatoes. I use a gluten free breading for this, and make my own white gravy with spelt flour. The mashed potatoes have lots of butter and grassfed cream.Friday:
Pork Chops and Apple Sauce. I use a gluten free breading on these too, and then fry them in pastured lard. The apple sauce is lacto-fermented (one of the only lacto-ferments my husband will eat!)Saturday:
Nacho night! I use organic tortilla chips, grassfed ground beef, homemade refried beans (I soaked the beans for 48 hours to remove all the phytic acid, and then cook them with grassfed beef stock bones for at least 6 hours, until very tender. Then they get mashed and fried in either lard or bacon grease.) raw cheddar cheese, and kefir sour cream. So good!That’s how my week will look next week. It’s not perfect, and there are compromises, but it’s where we’re at on our journey.
Don’t you just love that? It’s so not about being perfect — real food is about being REAL! But, can I just get an amen for how amazing Ki is doing cooking this much traditional food after only having been introduced to it for less than a year? Lacto-fermented applesauce, homemade fermented condiments, and sourdough buns? Uh, yeah, that’s a full-blown real foodie in my book!
And I think Ki’s dinners sound so delicious. She doesn’t have a blog yet, but I sure hope she does soon, because those would be some killer recipes to post!
Thanks so much, Ki, for your awesome submission!
Now, it’s your turn!
To be featured in this series, submit a week’s worth of meal planning from your meal calendar — preferably with links to recipes if they can be found online, or names of cookbooks they were found in — to me by email: emily @ butterbeliever . com (minus the anti-spammy spaces.) Of course since we’re all about real, traditional food around here, your meals have got to be legit. So obviously, no toxic, fake, or super processed ingredients. If you’re not sure what counts as real food and what doesn’t, dig around here a little or just ask me.
Your weekly meal plan could be as simple as just a list with days of the week and what you’re feeding your household for each day — breakfast, lunch, dinner, and hopefully even a few snacks or dessert thrown in there. Or you could get fancy, and submit an image from your meal calendar, or a spreadsheet, or whatever. We just wanna know what you eat! Oh and pictures are great too, if you have any you’d like to share.
(What’s in it for me?)
If your submission is chosen to be featured, you’ll get some goodies!
- A free e-book. My very first e-book to be sold on the site is coming shortly, and each featured Meal Plan Monday submitter will be getting a free copy. (as soon as it’s ready!) It’ll be worth like, lots of money of course.
- 10 bonus entries into the next giveaway. Whatever the next prize giveaway is here at BB, you’ll get 10 bonus entries for free!
- Promotion of your blog or website. You’ll of course get a link and I’ll write you a little blurb, but you could also include links to your own recipes in your weekly meal plan!
So, if you’d like to participate, send in your submissions for a chance to be featured! See you all back here next week!
[photo credit: shimelle on Flickr]
OK, I’m going to get a meal plan together for you this week! I actually plan for 2 weeks at a time to minimize my shopping, so it shouldn’t be too hard 🙂
Oh, Ki, I feel your pain on the hubby issue. I’m in a similar boat but with a different twist to it. My hubby’s not picky — he’s a human garbage disposal and will eat anything. He doesn’t really care what he eats and is forever tempting me with all sorts of bad-for-me things. So, yeah, it’s tough but it looks like you’re doing a GREAT job! And your menu is making me drool!
I love this post! It’s so helpful to me to see where other people are at in their journey. It helps me remember that I don’t have to be perfect.
I think you are my new favorite blog!!! Yeah for butter!!! I have thoroughly enjoyed reading a few of your articles tonight, and will be spending more time here. I have been re-learning to feed my family of ten healthy and traditional real food which isn’t easy as we live in a town home…but we do what we can while we yearn for a little farm of our own. Thanks for ll the great info!
Some of her meal ideas sound great, especially the nachos! I’m also going to check out the hamburger bun recipe, I was going to make my own today!
Thanks for sharing your meal plan, Ki. I can completely relate to a picky husband!! When my hubby and I first got married 11 years ago, the only veggies he ate were iceberg lettuce, corn, peas, & carrots. While I grew up on a SAD diet, we did eat a large variety of veggies, especially lots of onions and tomatoes in everything. You can imagine meal times were a bit of a challenge once we married.
It’s been slow going, but he really has expanded his list of veggies he’ll eat. I used to have to puree all onions or keep them on the side. Now he’ll eat them if they’re finely diced. It also helped to have him read some about healthy, traditional diets and he has really made the effort to try new veggies. He’s also reluctant, but willing, to eat organ meats that I grind up and mix in our meals now. I never thought I would see that happen!
One tip: I try to have at least one veggie I know he loves along with others that he’s not as into. That seems to help a bit.
Best of luck to you with your picky husband! I know it can be a bit trying at times, but hopefully he’ll come around as the years progress.