I wrote most of this post earlier in the week, prior to my awareness of what is going on in our country regarding racism. Honestly, I’ve been avoiding the news as much as possible because it’s so negative. I feel like I need to stay aware of what’s happening in my local community and state, but I don’t know how to receive that information and not feel so devastated and yucky afterward. So I was a few days late to seeing what has been going on with George Floyd and the resulting violence. This is not the place to enter into that discussion, but I didn’t feel I could ignore it completely and start talking about food. If you are a praying person, please pray for peace and love to prevail in our country. I feel like so much is out of our control right now, but we can control our own behavior and our words and we can PRAY. God is in control and that is the one thing for sure that we can rest on.

I do want to provide you some meal inspiration for your week. Especially now, as you may be distracted by what is going on in the country and the world. Try not to let the stresses around you affect your health. Below you will find what I had written previously and snapshots of last week’s meals and what’s planned for this week.

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The country may be “opening up,” but my family is staying firmly planted at home. I took a trip to my local Costco yesterday (Thursday) thinking all would be hunky dorry, as Costco had been the place I felt safest shopping. They had been doing such a great job of crowd control and enforcing social distancing. Well, I don’t know what happened, but all of that was over. It was back to normal, except that everyone had on a mask. They were out of toilet paper again and I witnessed a fight over one package. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

That little excursion made it very clear to me that this girl is not ready to get back out there. Our virus numbers have reach all time highs, both in terms of confirmed cases and hospitalizations. My fridge and freezer are stocked up again for a few more weeks and I’ll continue to share what we’re eating in hopes that it will help you figure out how to continue feeding yourself or your family healthy, nutritious meals at home.

Week 7’s Meal Plan just went out on Wednesday so this one will be a a little shorter.

Here’s what we ended up eating last week:

Wednesday: Nut-crusted Snapper and roasted cauliflower

I had planned to make kale salad with the snapper, but honestly, the snapper is a little labor intensive (but totally worth it) and the cauliflower needed to be eaten ASAP. Getting that chopped and in the oven was super quick, giving me time to devote to the snapper.

Thursday: the plan was hotdogs, oven fried okra and applesauce. We ended up having chicken nuggets (from the freezer), tater tots (from the freezer) and spinach. Not exciting, but honestly, I was worn out from my Costco trip and feeling stressed over some meetings I had earlier in the day and just needed a “no thought required” dinner. This fit the bill. PS. There are the gluten free nuggets from Costco and we didn’t really like them. We much prefer the Bell & Evans brand available from Whole Foods. PPS. I highly recommend you keep some convenience foods at home for days like this – when you don’t feel like cooking and don’t feel like going out. There are lots of frozen and packaged gluten free foods available now. They certainly aren’t ideal, but sometimes life doesn’t allow for ideal. And generally, any meal you make at home is going to be better for you than what you would grab quickly at a restaurant.

Friday: The plan was pizza and veggies with my girl, but the boys decided they wanted to eat with us before their camping trip. Um, this disturbed my plans a bit, but I love them so I said ok. I ended up making a quick spaghetti sauce with ground beef from the freezer and a jar of Rao’s marinara sauce that’s been sitting in the pantry. I cooked some gluten free pasta, mixed it all together and topped it with cheese for a quick baked spaghetti. I have a baked spaghetti recipe that uses spaghetti squash and I much prefer that recipe, but I had all the ingredients on hand to make this quick version (crucial, these days) and it was super fast to throw together at the last minute. I added a big bunch of spinach and some mushrooms to the sauce so I wouldn’t have to worry about a side dish.

Saturday: My family ate leftovers and I had eggs with one of our test bagels and leftover roasted cauliflower. 

Just ignore the smoked sausage on the plate. I cooked that thinking I’d want it, but was too full after the cauliflower, egg and bagel. One of my *always hungry* children will eat that sausage for a snack.

Bagels! My kids love bagels and beg for them whenever I go shopping someplace that has a gluten free variety. I can’t say as I’ve ever had one of the store bought gluten free bagels, but I used to eat bagels all the time in my gluten eating days and I know what a good bagel is supposed to taste like. So much has to do with the texture and I was pretty certain you could not replicate that in a gluten free version and certainly not in a paleo version. Well, I’m eating my words – and a lot of bagels! My daughter has been begging me to make some and so with the boys away, I figured it was the perfect time to try it. I found two recipes on the internet that seemed ok – not too complicated, not too many ingredients – and we set to work.

Both versions tasted ok, but one was definitely better than the other. I’ve made another batch, tweaking a few things and am getting that recipe all ready for you right now. I feel bad showing you what we’re eating when so many of the foods are experimental recipes and I can’t give you the recipe for a while, so I’m working real hard to get this one to you pronto. I hope you will give these a try!

Sunday: Costco Pizza and salad

I know, I know. I was seriously lacking motivation, inspiration and time this week. Just so you know, I always make sure we have plenty of plant foods to go along with our main dish, whether it’s something fancy like the pecan-encrusted red snapper or something simple like a frozen pizza. It’s all about balance. I forgot to snap a picture, but I ended up having a big bowl of greens topped with some of those gluten free chicken nuggets you saw earlier in the week, while my family enjoyed the pizza.

Let’s move on to next week and hope for better things! Here’s my plan as it stands right now:

Monday: Fresh Fish Sticks, roasted potatoes and okra

• I picked up salmon filets the last time I was at Aldi so I’ll be making those into fish sticks and filming that for YouTube
• Roasted potatoes – just like all roasted veggies, just tossed with avocado oil or bacon grease, season as you like (we love the Cajun seasoning) and roasted until crispy outside and tender inside
• Since the oven will be on anyway, I’ll fix another tray with okra and roast that too

Tuesday: Chicken enchilada casserole

• This is an experiment, but the plan is simple shredded chicken breasts I’ll prepare in the Instant Pot, mixed with enchilada sauce, some sautéed veggies and baked, topped with cheese.
• Lots of possible substitutions for this one: use any meat you like or have on hand, leave out the cheese, make a cashew cheese sauce instead of using real dairy. We don’t do cashew sauces because my son is allergic, but I’ve heard they’re an amazing dairy substitute. Here’s one that looks good. (I would leave out the miso and maybe substitute with some coconut aminos.)
• If you have made a batch of my AIP tortillas, you could layer those into the casserole and get more of an authentic enchilada experience.

Wednesday: Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy and Broccoli

• I have a really old recipe for paleo fried chicken and gravy and feel like making that over. I’ve been watching some of my old favorite Food Network stars on YouTube and Paula Deen made fried chicken recently and that’s what inspired this one.
• You could make just the fried chicken and serve it with any vegetables you have on hand.
• As I proof this post early Monday morning, I’m not feeling like having such a heavy meal when it’s supposed to reach 90 degrees on Wednesday, so this meal is very likely to change. My daughter loves mashed potatoes so that piece might stay. 🙂

Thursday: Waffles, bacon and fruit

• My family has just been screaming for waffles lately and since I’ve just created a recipe using the All Purpose Baking Mix, it’s an easy request to fulfill. (Look for this recipe June 10th).
• Substitute my pumpkin paleo pancakes, which are always a hit, even when it’s not pumpkin season.

Friday: Calabash style shrimp, hushpuppies and slaw

• Wild-caught, peeled and deveined shrimp reappeared at my Costco so I snatched them up. They make such a fast and easy meal! Instead of frying them, you could simply sauté in a little ghee or coconut oil or skewer them and grill them. That’s what we’ve been doing lately and everyone loves it!
• Hushpuppies are because I’m craving them, but substitute any of my bread or biscuit recipes like this one, this one, or this one.
• As for the vegetable course, any fresh salad greens you have would be a great substitute for the slaw. We’ve had a lot of slaw lately because cabbage lasts so long and I’ve been only shopping every few weeks. If you’re not doing that already, think about this when you do your shopping – buy some veggies that are more perishable and others that have a longer “shelf” life and use accordingly. Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, bell peppers, heartier greens like collards and kale all last longer in the fridge than squash, mushrooms, tender greens and the like.

Saturday: I’m thinking burgers and oven-fried squash

• Hoping for squash from the garden, but if they’re not ready yet, we’ll have another vegetable, likely okra because I have a lot of it in the freezer.
• Burgers because everyone loves them, they’re fast and easy, and grass-fed ground beef has been available the last few times I’ve gone shopping so I have a few packages in the freezer.

That’s it for this week. I hope and pray your week is a good one. Always lead with kindness and understanding, think the best of people, remember that we don’t know what’s going on in the private lives of most of the people we encounter so be compassionate, slow to anger, quick to love.