Menu plan Monday!

I'm sorry I haven't posted in a bit - we've all been fighting off colds.

My daughter had her first sleepover since becoming Gluten Free and I think it went exceptionally well (at least as far as the food!). She brought her own pizza, cookies, and cereal. She said she didn't feel uncomfortable at all eating her special foods. I was so proud of her! Again, preparation is key.

This is our menu plan for this week. You can probably tell I wasn't feeling so hot when I made this plan, hence the many easy meals. I'm thinking a few will change once I get more energy. I'm only posting dinner. Everything else is "fly by night" until we are well. :)


Dinner menu
Sunday - black beans and yellow rice with cornbread
Monday - hot dogs and baked beans
Tuesday - shrimp fritters
Wednesday - beef stew
Thursday - cornbread sandwiches and soup
Friday - steak and potatoes
Saturday - Church fall festival, eating there!

I've checked out a couple of more cookbooks from the library and I haven't been as excited about them as with my first one. I'll let you know if I find anything wonderful. The thing that bothers me about all these GF cookbooks is that their recipes depend on the book's specific flour recipe, which costs additional money to make when I already have mine. I would like them to be more generic so I could use my own mix.

Hope everyone has a blessed week!

Some days

There are days when I am so blessed to know I did all the right things to keep my precious girls healthy. Other days I forget to check a label and don't realize it until a stomach ache appears and we pinpoint a specific item. Then there are days like yesterday when my oldest has a belly ache and headache and we can't figure out anything she's eaten to cause it. Those are the times that frustrate me. The only possible culprit we can figure is that she had touched a cracker before eating her own snack - is her belly really that sensitive? Evidently, yes. She skipped her Wednesday night AWANA because she was feeling so bad. It just breaks my heart on days like that.

Still progressing

The menu planning has been an enormous blessing. My daughter doesn't get anxious at meal times anymore trying to figure out something safe to eat. I have it hanging in our kitchen and there are no surprises! We had a last minute dinner party this past weekend and the GF kids managed to avoid glutens - hallelujah! It is possible!

I made my first GF flour mix from a recipe in the new cookbook. I am completely blown away at how much better it tastes than the ready made brand. It was outrageously expensive to buy all the ingredients for it, but I'm thinking it will eventually be much more cost effective. I think it ended up being $24 for everything, but I should be able to make many more batches. It was definitely more moist than the store bought. I've made a bunch of ziploc baggies of it and have it stored in the freezer - evidently it has to kept that way or it will go bad very quickly.

I haven't attempted any more bread. I'm rather afraid of wasting such expensive flour on another catastrophe.

Menu Plan 10/17-23

I have been posting my menu plans at the beginning of the week, but since I am trying to use coupons I am going to be doing my menu plans and shopping at the end of the week (today or Saturday), so this is when I'm going to post it. My menus are based on the sales at our local Publix - my favorite store. I may even try to keep a record of my grocery bill here - perhaps it will keep me accountable. Also, you will notice I'll not typically post breakfast and lunches on weekends. My husband is home those days and our schedule is so crazy that I can't plan anything - so it's fly by night on those days.


Breakfast menu
Sunday -
Monday - pumpkin muffins
Tuesday - cereal
Wednesday - berry corn muffins
Thursday - cereal
Friday - toast
Saturday -


Lunch menu
Sunday -
Monday - GF macaroni and cheese
Tuesday - pancakes
Wednesday - Bob's red mill biscuits & eggs
Thursday - rice cake sandwiches (normally peanut butter & honey)
Friday - pizza
Saturday -

Dinner menu
Sunday - black bean pork chops (slow cooker)
Monday - tostadas
Tuesday - chicken waffles (never made them last week)
Wednesday - potato bacon egg pie (never made it either!)
Thursday - pasta
Friday - slow cooker bbq
Saturday - chicken tenders with fritos for crust

Another day

I took the kids to a park yesterday for a playdate with a couple of other families. I had to run in the store to get drinks and a snack for everyone. I glanced over the labels and grabbed 2 bags of chips that I thought were great choices. You know where this is going, right? We were thoroughly enjoying them until I say in BOLD print that they contained wheat ingredients. How on earth did I miss that? Thankfully, only myself and the little munchkin had eaten them. Un-thankfully, her attitude reflected that for the rest of the day. Sigh.

I made rice and bean corn enchiladas last night and all the kids devoured them and asked for more. I love when that happens! I'm looking forward to lunch when I get to eat the leftovers! The older kids had AWANA, so I made a box of Betty Crocker Gluten Free chocolate chip cookies while they were gone. They are delicious! A bit crumbly, but still good enough for me to eat 4... It was very nice to just crack open a box and cook for a quick snack. It made 2 dozen, so it was more than enough for our entire family.

Yum

My three year old, Kyndall, doesn't have any idea what she is supposed to eat. If someone hands her a snack, she eats it - without question. Today at co-op (we homeschool), I brought her a snack of gummies, but due to a mis-communication she was given cheerio-s. Complete accident, but it made me aware of what to do for our next class. She has been so sweet since switching her to the gluten free diet. It's been 3 full days and I've seen a dramatic change. Within a couple of hours of eating gluten she gets very cranky. We went to the ball park tonight to watch hubby play softball and someone gave her a bag of crackers, which she devoured before I could stop her. She crashed about 15 minutes later with a tummy ache. I think we are definitely on the right path - for her attitude and health, but we shall see.

We did great again today - the baked ziti was a hit (it was actually penne pasta, but close enough). I have to make 2 pans since there isn't as much pasta in the GF box. I make one gluten full, and one free for the 3 of us. I make it first so there isn't any "contamination", and I use my beautiful new red strainer just for GF foods. I have stuck exactly to our menu plan, and yesterday was food heaven around here. The hash brown waffles were unbelievable - I ate so many I lost count. Seriously. That. Good. On to dinner - the shrimp fritters will become a staple in our house, as well as the cornbread salad sandwiches. The sandwiches probably don't sound appealing, but my carnivorous husband requested them as a meal in themselves. Oh, and the berry muffins for breakfast - so good. I was in the kitchen most of the day, and it was really nice. I enjoyed every minute of it. To top it all off, Shayla told me that eating gluten free isn't bad at all. How's that for a compliment from an 11 year old picky eater? Yup, I was a rock star yesterday - all by the grace of God! I prayed every time I tried to cook worried that the $8 bag of flour was going to flop in a recipe. It's too expensive to experiment with, but what choice do I have?

GF Menu Plan Monday 10/11-10/17

I haven't posted in a while. I've had nothing worthy to say since every day was full of gluten joy. We were home only one night, the rest of the week Shayla chose to have all kinds of foods that are absolute no-no's. We also had a yard sale 2 of those days and I have no idea what she consumed while I was busy. She was paying for it dearly by this weekend - lethargic, moody, continual belly ache. She felt so good for the first couple of weeks being gluten free that she forgot how bad she felt before. It seems to get progressively worse the more she eats, so that first donut might have been worth the pain, but by Friday night when she chose pizza after her salad she was almost unable to stand the sickness. So, back to square one. I compiled a wonderful menu based on the cookbook I purchased and we will be enjoying it's amazing recipes starting tonight. I am not listing the recipes today, but if you would like one please email me, I'd love to share! Our menu plan always changes throughout the week based on my level of exhaustion, but this gives me an idea of what I have on hand so I can cook without calling my neighbor and asking for yet another missing ingredient.

Kyndall (our 3 year old), and I are also strictly on the GF diet. I've been very good with making wise choices on her foods, but at church yesterday she walked out holding a cup of cheerios. Once again, it comes down to being prepared. Next time I will be bringing a bag of snacks for her that she will like enough to eat instead of throwing a fit for the helpful, innocent volunteers.

Ok, here are the menus.

Dinner menu
Monday - Shrimp fritters with cornbread greens stack (basically a cornbread sandwich with salad as the filling
Tuesday - Baked ziti, salad
Wednesday - Black bean and rice enchiladas, shredded lettuce, sour cream, salsa
Thursday - pizza made with Bobs Red Mill dough, salad or green veggie
Friday - ham and tomato cornbread sandwiches with jalapeno mayo and fries
Saturday - Steak on the grill, mashed potatoes, salad
Sunday - chicken and waffles with maple bacon gravy

Breakfast menu
Monday - Berry corn muffins
Tuesday - cereal
Wednesday - eggs
Thursday - banana crepes
Friday - cereal
Saturday - ham & chive crepes
Sunday - cereal

Lunch menu
Monday - hash brown waffles with eggs
Tuesday - rice cake sandwiches (normally peanut butter & honey)
Wednesday - frozen pizza (we found a great gf one)
Thursday - toasted ham sandwiches
Friday - rice cake sandwiches
Saturday - sloppy joe filled potatoes
Sunday - potato bacon egg pie