A menu...finally!

I finally made up a menu!  It has been months since I last wrote a menu.  It was too depressing to make one up since we were just eating the same foods again and again.  I couldn't take it anymore!  On top of just going bonkers eating the same things again and again, I wanted to have some mock recipes, knowing that when my pregnancy cravings kicked in I will need to have more options.  Granted I won't know what I will be craving in particular, but at least I may have a few more recipes under my belt. 

I've said before that there are PLENTY of GAPS recipes out there.  The problem with a lot of them is that they are too time consuming. I already spend the majority of my day in the kitchen between cooking and cleaning up, I don't have any more time to put towards food prep than what I am already giving.  The past few days I've spent searching for something new, but familiar.  And I found some yummy looking options.  I actually wrote out a menu.  Along with that, I wrote up a prep list that I shared with the girls.  I told them that we would be spending Friday evening and whatever time it took on Saturday to do some prep work, which will help immensely come dinner time in the middle of the week. 

This time around I did not assign a meal to a particular day.  Instead I chose 7 dinners and 7 lunches for the week, which will then be repeated the following week.  I am also trying something a bit new to us, having multiple foods with each meal.  I used to do this years ago when I only had a few children.  But lately for lunch we might just have leftovers from dinner, let's say chili for example.  But that is *all* we ate at lunch, just chili.  This pay cycle will be tight and I thought by adding in side dishes with our lunches and dinners we may see (HOPING TO SEE) a decrease in the never ending munchies.  I'll let you know how it goes.  So here is my menu.  I will try to link to the  recipes when I have the time.  Right now I have a couple of these recipes bookmarked on one computer, another couple of recipes on a different computer, and still a few more on the third.  My head is spinning just thinking about finding them :-)

Breakfast:
(these are not scheduled, just a list of choices to have on hand)
eggs and their variations (ex. omelets)
yogurt and fruit
granola, fruit with coconut milk
smoothies
banana with toppings

Snack options:
kefir smoothie (will try to make this daily)
veggies with dip
fruit (banana with toppings, or with yogurt dip, or with peanut butter)

Lunches:
mini pizzas with salad
"mac and cheese" with baked beans, and veggies with ranch dip
chicken nuggets with squash fries, and cut fruit
squash chips with guacamole dip, cut fruit, and trail mix
soup with broccoli salad
cheeseburger broccoli with fruit, and yogurt dip
'potato' salad, baked bean, and veggies and dip

Dinner:
hamburgers (on lettuce 'buns'), potato salad, and squash fries
soup and salad
'pasta' with meat sauce, veggies and dip (pasta is made of spaghetti squash)
chicken enchiladas, either over cauliflower rice or wrapped in coconut flour tortillas
soup with cilantro lime beans
roast chicken with veggies (peas or garlic beans)
BLT's with soup (blt's will be on lettuce, with homemade mayo, and a slice of avocado)
taco's with toppings in coconut flour tortillas, side to be determined :-)

This looks like a promising menu.  It's success will be determined by how much prep work we get done.  My prep list is as follows:

make pickle brine (before shopping day)
start soaking beans (staggering batches-this will take multiple days from start to finish)
   -after soaking start the sprouting process
   -cook beans
   -dehydrate beans
dehydrate summer squash for the squash chips
mix up ground beef for hamburger patties and freeze
cook some plain ground beef, to be used in the cheeseburger broc. and tacos
make and freeze pasta sauce
cook a few chickens
   -start broth
   -use some chicken to make chicken nuggets, freeze
   -freeze the rest as cubes
make granola

That is what I hope to accomplish over the weekend.  After that I plan on making some of the veggie dips and mayo.  The mayo will be used plain and in the ranch dressing dip.  I plan on making a guacamole, dahl, and possibly a white bean hummus.  The girls will be in charge of cutting up our dipping veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, cucumbers and bell peppers).

If all goes well, some of these dishes will lend well to freezing for future meals.  I may be only 6 weeks pregnant, but a big concern of mine already is what will I be able to make for freezer meals for when the baby comes.  I am anticipating still being on GAPS, and having foods that I can freeze for easy meals will be essential.  With my last three babies, I had made a bunch of freezer meals.  With Aubrey (my last one), I literally had enough meals frozen for an entire month.  Our freezer was stocked to the limit!  This makes a HUGE difference in how peaceful the postpartum period is.