February Meal Plan

So, before baby #2 comes I'm really seeking to get my meal planning back into full swing. It is SO helpful for me to have our food bought at the beginning of the month and put back in the freezer. Last night, I felt like I didn't hardly even make dinner because I just pulled our turkey burgers from the freezer and cooked them.

In an effort to simplify my days I am trying to incorporate more crockpot meals into our recipe collection; plus when I buy our meat at the beginning of the month I go ahead and portion everything out and place it all in ziplock bags in the freezer with the meal written on the outside (pictures below). This makes for quick and efficient meal prep the day of!

All of these recipes I will make gluten/grain free (Except for those with rice. Kyle and I will eat the rice but I'll leave that out of Abigail's serving.) and dairy free. Thankfully, Abigail is able to eat some corn products so we're able to still incorporate a little of those into our meals.

Week 1
Sunday - Chicken Pot Pie, Salad (Grain-free recipe)
Monday - Turkey Burgers, chips and hummus
Tuesday - Beef stir-fry, broccoli, rice
Wednesday - Tortilla Soup, chips
Thursday - Cranberry Chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli
Friday - Pepperoni Pizza (Abigail's pizza will be made on coconut flour bread. She loves this bread!)
Saturday - Leftovers

Week 2
Sunday - Steak, carrot souffle, green beans (I found the steak marinade on Pinterest and it is AMAZING!! I will say that we have tried it twice and we prefer it without the lemon juice in it.)
Monday - Fish Tacos
Tuesday - Stuffed Bell Peppers, salad
Wednesday - Chili over baked potatoes
Thursday - Coconut Curry Chicken, mixed veggies, rice
Friday - Bar-B-Q Chicken Sandwiches, chips
Saturday - Leftovers

Week 3
Sunday - Shepherd's Pie, salad
Monday - Salmon Patties, grits
Tuesday - Beef Bourguignon over baked potatoes
Wednesday - Chicken Chili, cornbread
Thursday - Chicken Fajitas, guacamole, chips
Friday - Sausage Pizza
Saturday - Leftovers

Week 4
Sunday - Steak, sweet potato casserole, green beans
Monday - Fish Tacos
Tuesday - Meatballs over spaghetti squash
Wednesday - Beef Stew, cornbread
Thursday - Buffalo Chicken Salad
Friday - Hamburgers, french fries
Saturday - Leftovers

Here are a few photos of some of the meat that I have put back in the freezer. I still have 4 chickens to cook down, shred, and freeze. :-)

 Pre-seasoned hamburger patties and meatballs.

 Ground beef

 Pre-seasoned Turkey Burgers

Super yummy fresh italian sausage.

Banana Bread Muffins

So, over the last couple of years I have tried multiple coconut flour muffin recipes and none of them have been my favorite and certainly none of them have made me say "Wow!"... until today! I found The Spunky Coconut's Banana Bread recipe this morning and I decided to brave it. I had to change it up a bit though due to being out of a few ingredients she calls for and due to our taste preferences. So, this is what I came up with:

Banana Bread Muffins

3 small mashed bananas
4 beaten eggs
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tbsp. coconut milk
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
3/4 cup raw sugar (I'd prefer to use coconut sugar but I'm all out)
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup coconut flour, sifted
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Combine wet ingredients in mixer. Blend. Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl then add to wet ingredients. Mix until combined. Add walnuts. Pour into greased or lined muffin tins. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Makes 11 muffins.

Abigail Loves Coconut Flour Muffins!

Abigail's First Grain-Free Banana Coconut Flour Muffin

Now that Abigail is eating "real food" it's been a chore to come up with things for her to eat that do not contain grains or sugar and that are not highly processed! She has a big appetite too!! I'm trying so hard to keep her off grains until she turns a year old and I don't want her having much white sugar period. (If you have questions about why we are not feeding her these, read here and here for some info. I certainly don't think someone's a bad mom if they do feed their baby grains! Please don't think that! I just prefer to keep Abigail from them at this time.) Also, the fact that I have many food allergies and she is already showing allergies to dairy, nuts, and apples helps me keep her diet even more strictly!

For breakfast this week Abigail has been eating 1/2 a banana, a handful of blueberries, and an egg yolk with sea salt on it. I've been trying to decide what else I can give her for variety and I don't want her only eating fruit (we do things like avacados, squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, etc... for lunch and dinner). Then it dawned on me last night that coconut flour is not a grain. Many people, including myself, who go on grain-free diets use coconut flour to make breads and muffins instead. Coconut flour recipes tend to be super nutritious due to the coconut, which is super healthy for us, plus they use a lot of eggs, which if you're using pastured eggs... from chickens who actually roam and eat in the grass... they are also super healthy for us!

All this to say, I decided to make Abigail and I some banana coconut flour muffins for breakfast. They were very yummy and she ate a whole one and kept asking for more! (Even after eating a whole banana while I was cooking the muffins! haha...) I used this recipe and then tweaked it for what I had and wanted to use.


Banana Coconut Flour Muffins

3 Eggs
2 Tbps. Coconut Oil
2 Tbps. Coconut Milk
1/4 cup Coconut Sugar (a scant 1/4 cup)
1 Whole very ripe banana
1/4 tsp. Sea Salt
1/4 tsp. Vanilla
1/4 cup Coconut Flour
1/4 tsp. Baking Powder

Mix together wet ingredients. Add in dry ingredients and mix. Pour into 6 greased muffin tins. Bake at 400 for 15-16 minutes. They will be moist and a little spongy.