Sorry I’m posting my menu plan so late, it’s been a long weekend of yard work and gardening. I am determined to grow SOMETHING this year and break the curse of my dad’s black thumb, LOL! Mike and I have been working hard, building raised beds around the perimeter of our yard and amending our extremely sandy soil (I live in the New Mexico desert, sand kinda comes with the territory out here).
Wanna know what we planted?
12 Tomato Plants, 3 Grape Vines, 60 Strawberry Plants, 1 Eggplant, 4 Okra plants, 5 head of Cabbage (these will probably die, along with my 6 Broccoli Raab plants…I think I planted them too late), 3 Rhubarb plants, 1 Artichoke, Kale, Purple Potatoes (assuming I will be able to eat potatoes again by harvest time), Sweet Potatoes, 3 Cucumbers, Zucchini, Yellow Squash, Green Beans, Carrots, Leeks, Onions, 2 Watermelons, 4 Blackberry bushes, Fruit Trees: 3 Apples, 1 Peach, 1 Pear and 2 Cherry trees!
This will either be an abundant success or a very expensive flop…I’m keeping my fingers crossed. My father-in-law, who is a master gardener, told me to buy some organic fish emulsion to use as fertilizer…and Mike is sticking my smell-less self with the job of applying it! Have you used fish emulsion in your garden? How bad is it? 
Lastly, I want to thank you all for sharing your heartfelt comments and stories to the post I shared on my personal journey as an atypical celiac. As difficult as it was to write, it was also cathartic and I feel as though I can finally put that chapter behind me and continue dreaming a new and better dream with my family…and some fish emulsion. 😀
I thought I would try something new for my weekly menu plans and highlight the recipes from one particular blogger each week. This week I am going to try several of the recipes from Chef Rachel Matesz, author of the blog, The Health Cooking Coach.
Rachel is a natural foods chef, cooking instructor, healthy cooking coach, author, speaker, blogger, and food lover. She teaches people how to cook up healthier, more productive lives. From cooking classes to cooking parties and through cookbooks, one-on-one coaching, magazine articles, blogging, and speaking engagements, she teaches people how to improve the way they shop, cook, eat, and look at food––so they have more energy for life!
Rachel is particularly skilled at helping people follow special diets – wheat-free, gluten-free, dairy-and/or casein-free, corn-free, grain-free, peanut-free, egg-free, and preservative-free diets. Do you have a child on the autism spectrum, one with ADD or ADHD, or frequent respiratory infections? Do you have Celiac Disease, food allergies or intolerances, an autoimmune disorder, migraines, PMS, a digestive disorder, acid reflux, excess weight, unpleasant cravings, acne, or other health challenges you would like to deal with holistically? Have you read about the benefits of a gluten-free, dairy-free, low-sugar, organic, paleo, or primal diet but been unsure of how to implement it? Click here to continue reading more about Chef Rachel.
For more gluten-free menu planning ideas, be sure to visit Wendy over at Celiacs in the House, she’s hosting this week’s Gluten-Free Menu Swap!
Monday:
Memorial Day, going to a BBQ.
Tuesday:
Breakfast: Green Smoothie, Pumpkin Seed Pralines
Lunch: Applegate Farms Organic Grass-Fed Beef Hot Dogs, Raw Veggies with Cashew Dill Dip, Apple Slices
Dinner: Honey Mustard Chicken, Steamed Green Beans with Bacon and Onion, Salad with (for supplemental reading, check out Rachel’s post on Pasture-Raised Poultry)
Dessert: Pineapple Slices with Coconut Milk
Wednesday:
Breakfast: Green Smoothie, Homemade Breakfast Sausage
Lunch: Creamy Broccoli-Avocado Soup, Applegate Farms Roast Turkey Roll-ups, Raw Veggies with Hummus
Dinner: Grilled Shrimp and Scallops with Dairy-Free Pesto, Salad
Dessert: Strawberry Ice Dream (for supplemental reading, check out Rachel’s post, Got Coconut Butter?)
Thursday:
Breakfast: Green Smoothie, Homemade Breakfast Sausage
Lunch: Wellshire Farms Pastrami Roll-ups, Marcona Almonds (these really are a great alternative to the chips I used to buy for my kids and they are so much better than regular almonds!! I buy mine raw and roast them myself in olive or coconut oil, sea salt and fresh or dried herbs).
Dinner: Grilled Chicken using Rachel’s recipe for French Lemonette Dressing as a Marinade, I will also use the dressing as a marinade for grilled veggies: yellow squash, zucchini and green beans, Alcohol-Free Sangria
Dessert: Fresh and Fruit Finger Gel (Jello)
Friday:
Breakfast: Green Smoothie and Homemade Breakfast Sausage
Lunch: Grilled Chicken “Nuggets,” Raw Veggies and Hummus, Fruit Salad
Dinner: Bacon and Steak Bites, Sauteed Mushrooms and Onions, Salad
Dessert: Fresh-Frozen Blueberries (this is one of my favorite snacks and has been since I was a kid. Wash and Dry Fresh Organic Blueberries, place on a cookie sheet and pop them in the freezer until frozen. This trick works great with grapes too and are the perfect dessert/snack for kiddos on a hot summer day…no dripping!).
Saturday:
Breakfast: Green Smoothie, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Paleo Pumpkin Muffins
Lunch: Chicken Vegetable Soup using Rachel’s Basic Bone-Building Broth (I use Kombu Seeweed)
Dinner: Cedar Plank Salmon, Grilled Vegetables, Salad
Dessert: Crenshaw Melon drizzled with Raspberry Sauce
Sunday:
Breakfast: Green Smoothie, Bacon-Wrapped Dates (I don’t have super high hopes that my little guys will embrace these, but I believe it is very important to expose young children to lots of different foods…they key is to be okay if they don’t like them, otherwise you will set up the perfect battleground for future experiments!). For a good supplemental read, check out Rachel’s post, In Defense of Bacon.
Lunch: Salad with Grilled leftover Cedar Plank Salmon
Dinner: Infallible Roast Beef, Silver Dollar Sweet Potatoes, Salad (for supplemental reading, check out Rachel’s post: Benefits of Hidden and Not So Hidden Veggies)
Dessert: Watermelon Slices
Did you plant a garden this year? If so, what did you plant and do you have any favorite gardening tips?
And welcome to my blog!
Whether you're here looking for advice on how to go gluten free (with delicious kid-approved recipes of course!), or to read some of the latest medical research on celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity...or even to read about one woman's rise from the depths of gluten-free despair to a place of downright enthusiasm, it makes no matter. The point is, you are here now so let's have some fun!
Hi heidi
I am sooo impressed with all the products you are growing and cheering you on!!! Gooo Girl … I live in florida so also have the heat to worry about as well as very bad soil in some areas of the yard. I planted tomatoes, cucumbers, zuchini, green peppers and Okra early March. All are doing really well but I cheated on my "raised beds", I just grabbed a few large pots like the ones you get from the store, cut the bottoms off, put them on the ground and and filled with good compost soil!!!!. I can't believe it but they are actually growing and I harvested 2 green peppers, a few okra, a bunch of cucumbers and still waiting on the tomatos to turn red!!!
Fish emulsion smells like a really ripe fish tank or a poorly maintained Fish Market. Lucky you that you can't smell it. 😀
Holy Moly, your gardening plan is really aggressive. We, I suppose, are lazy gardeners. We add 3 new raised beds each year! Good luck with it and I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
The only reason we weren't "lazy" this year (as we've been in past years), is our every increasing grocery budget! It AIN'T CHEAP feeding a family of 4 (with two growing boys), nothing but organic, non-gmo produce, and grass-fed/free-range meats! I'm hoping to grow enough that I will be able to stock my freezers and pantry for the year (wishful thinking?). 😀
That is always my hope too, grow enough to lower our grocery bill. It's the weeding I hate. We just harvested organic Broccoli and I think it is so cool to just go out to your garden and pluck what you need. I just can't wait to see your garden grow.
Isn't it fun to just go pick what you need, when you need it? I've also noticed how much longer my picked greens stay fresh in the fridge (not traveling thousands of miles before I buy them)…much less waste! I just added an artichoke to my mini-farm, LOL! (I'm pretty much just experimenting to see what grows well out here in the desert). My kids are really excited as well…crazy what they will eat when they pick it themselves!
I have a friend with a fish tank. When she cleans it , we use the old fish water on the garden so if you have a fish tank or a friend with one, it is a free source.
You are right Heidi, everything is getting so expensive. Do you have plans to post pictures of your vegetables as they grow?
You mean IF they grow? LOL! That is a very good idea and I think I will just that…good or bad. I can either share my ideas for what to do to grow a successful garden…or, (and more likely), share what NOT to do! 😀
It is crazy the cost of food lately, I went to buy a 4-pack of Applegate Farms Frozen Turkey burgers (one of the few convenience foods I can have anymore) and they were $9.99!!! For 4!! The one good benefit is that the convenience factor is not so appealing to me anymore, because I can make much better food for less money…and now I trying on my hat as Farmer Jane! 😀
I find that trying to eat healthy, work full time and run my natural skin care business is a challenge unless I am willing to pay alot of $$$$ for food because I don't have time prepare healthy meals. Convenience is great but it comes with a high health price tag attached.
We had bacon wrapped pears this morning for breakfast. I have also done bacon wrapped bananas. My kids loved both. My 14yo picked the dates out of my carrot cake. If they don't go for the dates, try another fruit.
Thanks for the ideas Wendy! How do you do the bacon wrapped bananas and pears, do you bake them the same way as the dates?
What is the green smoothie?
I'm loving that you're posting your menu plans. After watching a certain couponing show, I gave the whole stock pile thing a small chance. Then again I would never have 30 boxes of anything sitting around. But anyway, I must have been doing something wrong cause it didn't seem like I was really saving all that much money and we were eating the same thing a lot. So I decided I need to go back to meal planning and just buy for that. And if I happen to have a coupon for something on my list then awesome! I just wish they had more coupons available for gluten free/dairy free stuff.