How To Get Out Of A Meal Planning Rut + Weekly Meal Plan

It might look like I'm a meal planning pro, but I still get stuck in a rut sometimes!! Last week was one of those weeks. Nothing was really sounding good, I felt like I had been eating the same thing on repeat for weeks, and I wasn't feeling inspired to come up with anything creative. When this happens, there are a few things that I do to spark my creativity and get the ball rolling!

How to get out of a meal planning rut:

-look at past meal plans (#wholedailylifemealplans is a great resource for this!)

-pull out some cookbooks (I love the original 21 Day Sugar Detox book, Nourish (AIP), and The Autoimmune Paleo Cookbook)

-search on Pinterest for terms like #whole30, #onepot, etc.

-look in the fridge/freezer/pantry to see what is already on hand and try to make meals out of that

-go for something simple, like a no-cook plate or a pot of soup!

-let good enough be good enough; meals don't have to be elaborate or fancy, they just need to be nourishing!

Here's this week's meal plan:

Breakfast: Creamy Lemon Chicken and Kale Stew // You can find the recipe by AIP Lifestyle here. I have been making this for years and it never disappoints! I especially love starting my day with this because it is so easy on the digestion.

Lunch: Tuna Cakes with Haricots Verts // I didn't used to be able to eat green beans, but I've been doing just fine with these! I steam them well (about 10 minutes) so they're super soft and that's it. For the tuna cakes, I used this recipe as inspiration, but modified it pretty heavily because that's just how I roll when it comes to cooking! They are packed with flavor from the smoked paprika (which I tripled). I also wanted to mention that the ONLY tuna I use is Safe Catch, because each fish is lab tested to be well below the acceptable limit for mercury content. I have a double MTHFR gene mutation, which hinders my body's ability to detox, so mercury isn't something I'm willing to mess around with!

Dinner: Curried Beef with Sautéed Red Cabbage // The curried beef recipe is in my ebook, Weeknight Paleo. It's one of those "chop it all up and toss it in a pan" kind of meals, and there is tons of flavor from the curry! Red cabbage is another food that I didn't used to tolerate at all, but since I have healed my gut, I've been doing well with it. All I did here was add about 2 tbsp coconut oil and 1 cup of water in a large pot with 1 head of thinly sliced cabbage and let it cook for about 40 minutes until very tender. I didn't Add any seasoning to this other than a bit of salt since the curried beef has so much flavor!

Snack: I'm bringing a little Zupa veggie shot to work each day, and will probably pair this with some jerky or nuts. I do my best to eat intuitively, which means that if I'm hungry, I'll have more food, and if I'm not, I might not need it. (wholedailylife for 15% off your Zupa order!)

This entire meal plan is both Whole30 and 21 Day Sugar Detox compliant!

Have a wonderful week!

-Tracey

On Eating Slowly + Weekly Whole30 Meal Plan

Good morning my friends!

It just came to my attention that my blog posts haven't been going out to all of you lovely people for about a month, so I apologize for that!! I've been sharing some fun tips in previous weeks, so if you've missed them, you can catch up here:

The all in one "ugly" meal that I've been loving.

Tips on batch cooking a lot of food in a short period of time. 

Strategies for keeping your to-do list from taking over your life.

My go-to skillet hash recipe.

Whole30 Recipes takeover recap and where you can find my Hashi/SIBO story.

Before jumping into the meal plan, I did want to briefly talk about one thing. Did you know that eating in a hurry/while stressed/distracted can have a serious impact on your digestion? 

It's true! Digestion actually starts when we look at food. This begins the digestive cascade of hormones and enzymes that we need to properly digest and absorb. This process is inhibited when we're in a hurry, feeling stressed, or pouring through our email inbox while we mindlessly feed ourselves. We've all heard "fight or flight" and "rest and digest," right? Those refer to the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems of the body. Just as they imply, we need to be in a calm and "resting" state to optimize our digestion. 

Well, this past week I was working some overtime and ended up needing to teach a class at the time that I would usually eat my breakfast. Rather than wait until after class, I decided to go ahead and eat before, even though I was a little short on time. Sure enough, the food felt like a brick in my stomach, and my digestion was sluggish all day! (Granted, I was extremely busy all day, so I never really had a chance to get into rest and digest mode to let it catch up.) Even though I was trying to be mindful as I ate, just knowing that I only had 15 minutes until I needed to be in class was enough to slow down my system.

I've always been a slow eater, which works to my advantage. I usually take 20-40 minutes to eat a meal (thought I'll be honest, at lunch I am usually multitasking because we only get a 30 minute lunch break), chewing each bite thoroughly and enjoying it! If you find that you usually eat distracted, try eating mindfully for a meal (or few!) and see if you notice a difference! 

A few practical tips:

1. Try putting your phone in the other room while you eat.

2. Try eating outside if you have the option.

3. Put your fork down in between bites so that you chew each bite completely.

Here's this week's meal plan:

Breakfast: BBQ Chicken with Yellow Squash and Green Beans // This meal was done in all of about 20 minutes, and I cooked all three parts at the same time! I chopped up 5 small yellow summer squash (I always choose organic here) and tossed with some olive oil and salt, then roasted at 350 for about 20 minutes until golden. At the same time, I cut two chicken breasts into large pieces and put them in my Instant Pot with about 1/2 cup Tessemae's Ketchup and 1/3 cup aged balsamic vinegar (makeshift BBQ sauce!). I cooked that on high pressure for 10 minutes then let the pressure release naturally. While that was cooking, I steamed some green beans on the stovetop. When the chicken was done, I shredded it so that it would soak up the sauce, and portioned everything out!

Lunch: No Cook // I'm trying out the new deli turkey from Trader Joe's this week! The ingredients are just organic turkey, water, and salt. So glad to see products like this hitting the market! I'll be having this with a soft boiled Vital Farms egg, some sprouted nuts, an apple, and one of the new seasonal flavors of Zupa (Green Gazpacho is my favorite of the two, but Spring Bean Mint is also good! "wholedailylife" for 15% off!)

Dinner: Peach Lamb Meatballs with Asparagus and Carrots // Asparagus was on sale at Sprouts this week and I had some leftover roasted carrots in the freezer from last weekend, so those were easy sides! I had a recipe for "peached glazed lamb meatballs" that I had saved a while back, but instead of going through the process of "glazing" them, I just chopped up about 2 cups of peaches and 1/2 cup of parsley and mixed these into 1 pound of lamb (I buy from US Wellness Meats) with 1 tsp salt...they didn't want to hold together very well but they were super quick to make!

Snack: I always have something else when I get home from work, but it always varies, which is why it doesn't make it into the picture. It might be a bar, a smoothie, or some leftovers from the weekend!

Have a great week!

-Tracey

The Whole30 Recipe That I Didn't Mean To Publish

You guys know that I'm all about easy, efficient meals during the workweek. Well, when I was hosting the Whole30 Recipes account, I shared a photo in the stories one day of a very off-the-cuff meal that wasn't pretty but tasted delicious. SO many people asked me for the recipe that I incorporated it into my meal plan this week so that I can share it here! It's the one in the bottom row: ground turkey with ginger scallion sauce and cauliflower rice plus cinnamon acorn squash. I mix it all together before I eat it and it looks terrible but tastes amazing!! So many of you have sent me your own versions as well (swapping the acorn squash for butternut, adding in various spices, etc); it's an incredibly versatile template!

In other news, I PROMISE I'm working on getting that blog post together about my Hashimoto's and SIBO story. In fact, I'm working on that post concurrently, so this one is going to be short and sweet!

Here's the meal plan for this week:

Breakfast: Meatball Sheet Pan Roast // For this meal, I chopped up 1# of fingerling potatoes and 1# of carrots, tossed with a couple tbsp of olive oil and about 1 tsp of salt, and roasted for 20 minutes at 350 on two sheet pans lined with Silpat. In the meantime, I made a batch of my Basic Sweet Potato Meatballs with 1# each of ground beef and pork (I get all of my meat from US Wellness Meats), 2/3 cup mashed steamed sweet potato, 2 tsp each salt/sage/oregano, and 1 tsp each garlic and fennel. I also chopped up two small heads of broccoli into florets (about 8 cups) and drizzled with olive oil. After 20 minutes of roasting, I tossed the potatoes and carrots, added in the broccoli, and nestled the (raw) meatballs among the veggies. I cooked these for about 15 more minutes at 425 until the meatballs reached an internal temperature of 165. 

Lunch: No-Cook // This week I'm having Ayoba-Yo as my protein (if you haven't tried this jerky yet, their Droewors beef sticks are my favorite!!) and a Zupa for veggies, along with an apple. I'll probably also add some nuts or half of an avocado here, depending on what I'm feeling like. ("wholedailylife" for 15% off both Zupa and Ayoba-Yo)

Dinner: One-Skillet Turkey Hash // This is the "recipe" that I never intended to actually publish! To start, I put two acorn squash (halved and de-seeded) in my instant pot to steam for 7 minutes, then used the quick release. At the same time, I cooked 1.5-2# of ground turkey in a large skillet with about 2 tsp salt, then added in 1 bag of Trader Joe's cauliflower rice. While that was cooking, I used my food processor to finely mince (or you could chop by hand) a 2" knob of ginger (roughly peeled, no need to be perfect) and 1 large bunch of green onions (about 2 cups). I added this, along with 1/2 cup olive oil, to the skillet once the cauliflower rice was tender, and turned off the heat. When the acorn squash was cool enough to handle, I scooped it out of the peel and added some cinnamon and portioned everything out into 6 containers! (In the past I have mixed it all together from the get-go, but here I left it separate.)

Snack: I have been more hungry lately since I've gotten back to weight lifting, so I've been having another little mini-meal somewhere in my day, depending on how I feel. It might be a bar, a smoothie, or something like veggies and dip. It varies day by day, but if I'm hungry, I eat!

This prep took me about 2.5 hours, including the two meals that I prepped for my husband as well (roasted veggies + steak, date shallot chicken + green beans). 

Have a great week!

-Tracey

A Week of Whole30 Meals In 2 Hours

In case you missed it, I shared all about my meal planning strategy in my Instagram stories this weekend! I saved it in my story highlights as "Meal Plan" so that you can use it as a reference. I've been meaning to type up a blog post about this for many months, but this will have to suffice for now! I also brought you along in my kitchen to show you how I made all of this week's food (20 meals total, 10 each for me and my husband, plus 5 no-cook meals for each of us) in two hours!! Hint: it includes multi-tasking and LOTS of dishes. 

Here are a few key strategies that I use to cook a lot of food in a short period of time:

-I keep my recipes simple. Nothing that can't stand a few extra minutes on a burner or in the oven, because I'm not that precise when I'm batch cooking.

-I'm almost always using my Instant Pot, both racks of my oven, and multiple burners on my stove at the same time. 

-If I can make it a one-pot meal, I do! For example, when I made stir-fry for my husband this week, the chicken, rice, and veggies all got mixed together. 

-When I'm done cooking, I portion the food right into single serving dishes so that I don't have to do it later. 

Here's what's on the meal plan this week:

Breakfast: Simple Chicken Soup // You can find the recipe in this post, but this time I pulled the chicken out of the IP and just put the veggies right in. I cooked on high for 10 minutes, then added the chicken back in and it was done! 

Lunch: No-Cook // True Story deli turkey, a soft boiled Vital Farms egg, a handful of Nourishing Nutz, an apple, and a bottle of Zupa Noma! ("wholedailylife" for 15%)

Dinner: Meatballs + Veggies // I used my Basic Meatball recipe (and added in about 1/2 cup mashed cooked sweet potato to keep them tender) and served them with some roasted zucchini (350 degrees x 25 minutes), steamed haricot vert, and some Melted Sweet Potatoes that have been lingering in my freezer!

ALSO. I almost always have something else when I get home. It totally depends on what I'm feeling like, but it might be a bar, a shake, some eggs, some leftovers, etc. These things don't usually make it into the meal prep picture, but I realized this was misleading because it looked like all I was eating in a day was what was in the photo! If I'm hungry, I eat. My focus is on nourishing my body, not depriving it. 

Have a great week!

-Tracey

To-Do List 101 + Weekly Meal Plan

Does your to-do list stress you out?

I used to be the master of making the never-ending to-do list. (Type-A problems, right?!) I put everything on one list that I would look at each day and try to cross off as many things as possible, before transferring the leftovers to a new list for the next week.

While this strategy was effective in making sure that I eventually got most of these things done, the down-side is that I felt constantly stressed out by the list that was never finished. I never felt like I was able to end my work for the day because there was always more on the list. 

Well, if you don't know, now you do: there is a definite connection between chronic stress and illness. Stress affects our hormones, and our hormones influence things like autoimmunity, digestion, and much more.

At the beginning of my health journey, I had a practitioner tell me that I needed to reduce my stress. She recommended walking, taking baths, sitting outside, etc. and I thought "All of that is well and good, but I'm busy! How am I going to work those things in on a daily basis?!" While I did start to implement those things as I was able, I also took a look at the other things that were causing my stress, and my to-do list was one of them. 

So, I changed my strategy. 

Now, I'm not perfect at this (as evidenced by the fact that just today I added a couple of items above my "top three"), but here's what I do now. Instead of writing everything out as one long list, I write out my list day by day (duh, why didn't I think of this before??). More importantly, I choose three top priority items. We see a lot of big names and successful people who do this. They prioritize three things that if they get nothing else done that day, they would have accomplished what they needed to. 

That doesn't necessarily mean that I only have three things on my list, I always have more than that. But my focus is on those top three. If I have the time and energy, then I tackle some others. 

The difference that this has made for me is in giving me the freedom to "close the list" and be done for the day. I don't feel like I need to accomplish the entire thing and take on the world all in one day. It gives my mind (and therefore my body) permission to relax, which is essential for good health!

Do you have a strategy when it comes to how you organize your day? I'd love to hear about it over on this meal prep post on Instagram!

This Week's Meal Plan:

Breakfast: Batch Prep Frittata + Roasted Sweet Potatoes // This is one of the recipes that I shared during my Whole30 Recipes takeover! You can find it here. I used some Whole30 compliant chicken sausage for extra protein and added chopped spinach!

Lunch: No-Cook Meal // I'm on product overload at my house after all of the samples I got from Expo, so I'm using them up during my weekday lunches! I have a variety of Whole30 compliant meat sticks and bars from some of my favorite brands, a bottle of Zupa for veggies ("wholedailylife" for 15% off), and some Amazi baked plantain chips! These chips are not Whole30 compliant because they are a "chip," but they are delicious and have completely clean ingredients. They have AIP options as well. If you're on the Whole30, simply sub these for a piece of fruit each day!

Dinner: Yai's Thai Curry with Chicken // This is another recipe that I shared during my Whole30 Recipes takeover! You can find the recipe here. My favorite trick is using the white sweet potato to chicken and extend the curry sauce. It makes it extra creamy!

I also shared in my stories last week that if I'm hungry, I do have another mini meal when I get home from work, usually some combination of a protein and veggies or fruit, or sometimes a bar. When we're eating real food, our bodies are smart about letting us know when we need more and when we've had enough! If you're legitimately hungry, please nourish your body and give it more food! Every week (and every day) is different.

Have a great week!

-Tracey