Meal Prep: 2/27/17

If you've followed me for any length of time, you're probably familiar with the fact that I originally started meal prep sessions because I work four 10-hour days, ending between 7 and 8:30pm. As such, I eat both lunch and dinner at work. Well, after 15 months of that schedule, my schedule is changing to a more normal 5/8 structure, meaning that I might actually get to enjoy some dinners at home again! Things are still in transition, so for this week, I stuck to what I know and prepped like usual, just with one extra day of food. Moving forward, we'll see what comes of my weekly batch cook! I know for certain that I'll still meal plan, but especially when considering the low histamine diet, being able to cook more food fresh would be ideal!

Breakfast: Protein Shake // 1 scoop Vanilla Build protein by PureWOD mixed with Pop and Bottle Classic almond milk, 1 tsp Bulletproof Brain Octane, and frozen sweet potato, cauliflower, and zucchini.

Lunch: Meatballs with Roasted Carrots, Yellow Squash, and Shredded Radish // An oldie but a goodie! All of the veggies are roasted with coconut oil and salt at 400 until starting to brown. The meatballs are made with 1# of ground beef from US Wellness Meats and follow my Basic Meatballs recipe. I used thyme, oregano, garlic, sage, and rosemary in this batch. 

Dinner: Green Flatbread with Fresh Veggies, Turkey, Mayo // This meal was so delicious last week that I'm having it again! Deli turkey (which didn't seem to be a problem from a histamine standpoint) with some Primal Kitchen Foods Mayo, green flatbread (again, modified from my original recipe to decrease the histamine content; includes parsley, basil, chard, pumpkin seeds, Guiltless 7 Seed Flour, and salt), and fresh cucumbers and radishes in my new Stasher bags (hooray!).

Snacks: Fresh Apples + Artisana Coconut Butter // I'm still on this apple kick. After two years without, I'm making up for lost time!

This batch cook session was pretty quick! I steamed all the veggies for my smoothies, roasted all the veggies for my lunches at the same time, and dehydrated the flatbread overnight. Tons of veggies and real food to keep me satisfied all day long!

Have a great week!

Meal Prep: 2/20/17

It's taken three weeks, but I'm finally free of the lingering post-flu symptoms that were hanging on. About time!! Now I feel like I can more accurately assess the impact of my low histamine diet on my overall symptoms. I'm still keeping things LH overall, but I am trying out deli turkey this week. (More on that below!) As well, I did pretty well with my higher FODMAP foods last week (cauliflower, apple), so I'll continue to cautiously include those for variety!

In other news, Grocery Outlet has been killing it lately with their selection of top quality name brands, including Artisana Organics Coconut butter, Purely Elizabeth granola, Pop and Bottle and The New Barn almond milk, Straus Organic yogurt (for my husband), and more! They also regularly have Love Beets, Acai Roots frozen puree, Chosen Foods Avocado Oil, NadaMoo Ice Cream (for a treat!) and plenty of organic produce. I love shopping there, because not only is it super affordable, it's also a little like a treasure hunt, because their selection is different every time! This isn't a sponsored ad or anything, I just love any opportunity to snag a deal!

Now, on to this week's meal plan: 

Breakfast: Protein Shake // 1 scoop Vanilla Build protein by PureWOD mixed with Pop and Bottle Classic almond milk, 1 tsp Bulletproof Brain Octane, and 1 cup frozen blueberries, cherries, or peaches. 

Lunch: Macadamia and Coconut Crusted Chicken with Zucchini Fritters and Roasted Sweet Potatoes // This meal doesn't look very pretty (more monochromatic than my usual spread), but gosh is it delicious! For the chicken, I started by blending about 1.5 cups of shredded coconut and 1.5 cups of macadamia nuts with some salt and garlic powder until they were about the texture of bread crumbs. Then I took chicken breasts that I had cut up into 1-2" pieces, dipped them in beaten eggs, then coated them with the nut/coconut mixture. I baked them in a parchment lined dish at 375 for about 20 minutes or so. For the fritters, I shredded about 1.5# of zucchini in my food processor, then salted and let it sweat for about 20 minutes. After squeezing out as much water as I could, I mixed in two eggs, some salt, and about 1/2 cup of Guiltless Superfoods Organic 7 Seed Flour. Then I pan-cooked them using Primal Kitchen Foods Avocado Oil until crispy! They are DELICIOUS. 

Dinner: Green Flatbread with Fresh Veggies, Turkey, Mayo // I'm trying a potentially higher histamine option this week: deli turkey. Turkey is low in histamine, but because it is in deli meat form, I'm not sure how that ranks, and due to the limited resources on the LH diet, haven't really found a straightforward answer. I decided to go ahead and give it a try, since the most important part of any therapeutic diet is how YOU tolerate it as an individual. I'll be having that with some Primal Kitchen Foods Mayo (my favorite mayo out there, though I do miss avocado!). For the flatbread, I modified my original recipe to decrease the histamine content. This batch has parsley, basil, chard, pumpkin seeds, Guiltless 7 Seed Flour, and salt! 

Snacks: Fresh Apples // Three cheers for an improvement in FODMAP tolerance! I've been LOVING my daily Pink Lady apple!

Are you following a low histamine diet? I'd love to hear some of your favorite recipes in the comments below!

Have a great week!

Meal Prep 1/30/17

This past week of my low-histamine trial was not quite as successful as the first week. I had a few more symptoms (the return of some faint abdominal pain and some sinus congestion), and I suspect that it might have been the carob, which I found conflicting opinions on. As such, this week I'm taking it back to the basics! 

Breakfast: Protein Shake // 1 scoop Vanilla Build protein by PureWOD mixed with Native Forest Simple Coconut Milk, Bulletproof Brain Octane, and 1 cup frozen blueberries, cherries, or peaches. This is a slight change from last week, because I'm leaving out my favorite collagen peptides to see if they also might have been a factor. Gelatin is generally regarded as safe on a low-histamine diet, but some people do react to it. Since I use it almost daily, I decided I should try leaving it out and see if it makes a difference.

Lunch: Ginger Scallion Chicken Meatballs with Bok Choy, Zucchini, and Roasted Roots // Meatballs are so convenient because they cook up in a flash! To make these, I started with 1# of ground chicken from US Wellness Meats, added in about a cup of chopped green onions, 1 tsp salt, and 1/4 cup of chopped fresh ginger. I used my 1 ounce cookie scoop to make meatballs and baked on parchment paper at 425 for 12 minutes. At the same time, I sautéed about 1# of bok choy on the stovetop with more scallions and ginger, and also roasted about 1.5# of zucchini (in ghee) alongside the meatballs. When all of that was done, I portioned it out into single serving containers and immediately chilled before transferring to the freezer. Next up: the roots! I sliced about 2# each of carrots and parsnips into coins, tossed with a generous amount of ghee and salt, and roasted until golden at 400, then added them to my pyrex containers and froze. (I like these containers the most because they work perfectly with my Hot Logic Mini!)

Dinner: Sweet Potato Soup with Pumpkin Seeds // I basically made up this soup recipe on the fly. I started with about 2 cups each of carrot, celery, and onion, and sautéed those until soft in some ghee. At the same time, I peeled and chopped up two large sweet potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes and roasted them at 425 until tender and golden. (I roasted them for the depth of flavor, but you could also just throw them into the pot with everything else.) I added about 1# of chopped organic yellow squash and a can of full fat additive free coconut milk, then let everything simmer until soft before blending until smooth! Normally I would add two scoops of Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides as the protein, but since I'm testing a week without it, I'm using pumpkin seeds. It's a lower protein meal than I'm used to, but the fat should keep me satiated!

Snacks: Artisana Coconut Butter // I'll also keep a Primal Kitchen Macadamia Nut Sea Salt bar (definitely my favorite of the four flavors!!) on hand just in case. These bars are overall pretty low in histamine, but I'll only be using them as a backup this week as I test the absence of collagen/gelatin. 

Here's to another week of learning which foods work for me. This process takes planning and patience, but it's so worth it!!

Macadamia White Chocolate Truffles (Low-Histamine, Low-FODMAP)

If you've been following me for any time at all, you know that I LOVE chocolate. My usual go-to is a hearty chunk of Eating Evolved Signature Dark bar. Unfortunately, cocoa powder is a no-go on a low-histamine diet. From my research, it is on the lower end of the spectrum of histamine containing foods, but for these first few weeks I am avoiding all foods that contain a noted amount. The good news is, cacao butter isn't on that list! Macadamia nuts are also on the "low-histamine" list, so I decided to get creative in the kitchen and come up with a fun sweet treat that I could enjoy. What I ended up with is a batch of macadamia nut butter "cookie dough" and some makeshift white chocolate. I originally intended to chop up the white chocolate and mix it in with the dough, but ended up making some "truffles" out of it instead!

Macadamia Nut Cookie Dough:

• 1 cup raw macadamia nuts

• 2 tbsp brown butter (or sub coconut oil)

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 1-2 tbsp pure maple syrup

• 1-2 tbsp coconut flour

• 1/4 tsp salt

1. Blend all ingredients except the coconut flour in a food processor until a smooth paste forms.

2. Add 1 tbsp of the coconut flour and process until combined. If the mixture still seems thin, add the second tbsp of coconut flour. 

3. Scoop into balls using two spoons or a cookie scoop onto a parchment lined plate and place in fridge to set. 

White Chocolate:

• 1 oz cacao butter

• 1 oz coconut butter (Artisana is by far my favorite brand!)

• sweetener to taste (I used 1/2 tbsp maple syrup and 1/2 tbsp coconut sugar)

1. Place all ingredients in a small saucepan over low heat and stir until melted and well combined.

2. Transfer to small molds or a glass dish to later cut into chips.

To make the truffles, I put about 1/2 tsp of the white chocolate in the bottom of a silicone mold, a added a small ball of the macadamia dough, and topped it off with another 1/2 tsp of the white chocolate! 

Store any leftovers in the freezer. Enjoy!

Meal Prep 1/23/17: Low Histamine Continued

Last week's low histamine trial required some adjusting to my usual meal prep routines, but all in all, I made it work without much trouble! I was fighting off a bit of a cold early in the week, so it's hard to say with confidence if I noticed a difference in any symptoms, but I do think it was beneficial (with the most notable change being an increase in focus and a decrease in abdominal pain). The most difficult thing so far has been missing having an acid of some kind (vinegar/lemon) and a daily piece of Eating Evolved (use code "traceygtmt" for TWO free bars with your order through the end of this month!!), but I've found that an extra pinch of salt fixes the lack of vinegar in salad dressings and carob and coconut butter makes a good substitute for chocolate! 

Here's my meal plan for this week:

Breakfast: Protein Shake // 1 scoop Vanilla Build protein by PureWOD and 1 scoop Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides, mixed with Native Forest Simple Coconut Milk, Bulletproof Brain Octane, and 1 cup frozen blueberries, cherries, or peaches. 

Lunch: Lamb Skillet with Sweet Potatoes and Chard // The basic ingredients in this meal are very similar to my lunches last week (which turned out amazing, by the way), but I'm mixing up the spices and veggies for variety. I'm trying to cook use the meats I have in my freezer, hence lamb on back to back weeks! (As always, I purchased my lamb in my bulk order from US Wellness Meats.) For this one, all I did was caramelize an onion in my Le'Creuset, then add the lamb and cook until done. After that I tossed in the chopped chard and covered the pot until the greens were wilted. At the same time, I roasted the chopped up sweet potato in the oven until tender and starting to brown, portioned everything out, chilled for 15 minutes, then froze.

Dinner: Green Soup with Simple Chicken // Loosely based on this recipe, I modified my version to make it more histamine friendly by leaving out the sherry, cayenne, and lemon and replacing the broth with water. I also used a sweet potato in place of the Yukon gold. I cooked the chicken separately and froze it immediately after portioning into jars. 

Snacks: Boiled Eggs + Carob Coconut Butter Bites // The carob bites are my current substitute for chocolate. I have found conflicting information on the histamine content of carob, so I'm being cautious, but sure am enjoying the chocolate-like flavor! All I did to make them was mix up 1/2 cup coconut butter with 1/4 cup carob powder until smooth, then portion into a silicone mold to set. 

Have a great week!