menu planning Archives - Page 2 of 15 - Emily Roach Health Coach

Back to School Meal Plan

Hello back to school season! It’s time for a new meal plan that will help you save time, plan ahead, and make lunch packing a breeze. Well, that’s the goal anyways. Life tends to get in the way of our grand plans sometimes. Those early mornings are hard, aren’t they? But, it’s easier to start with a plan and adjust when necessary. My back-to-school meal plan can help you fill in the blank of what’s for dinner when you are making the grocery list for the week ahead.

The recipes I’m sharing use real food ingredients, although I too rely on some quality packaged items to round out my kid’s lunch boxes. They are used when time is tight, or it’s the end of the week and we are out of all the prepped goodies. The kids don’t mind when they get the occasional bag of pretzels or beef jerky sticks. I don’t mind either when I’ve taken the time to read through the ingredient list and weed out the junky versions. Eating well needs to be a balance, for everyone in the family. Time is tight and if you are making a couple of new recipes each week to expose everyone to new flavors, you’re on the right track.

In the coming weeks I’ll share with you some additional lunch packing tips that are specifically for kids. After the novelty of the first couple of weeks, we all need a little variety in the lunch packing routine!

Here’s a few recipes to help you get ready for those after school activities and map out your back to school meal plan!

Sheet-Pan-Shrimp-Fajitas-Back-to-School-Meal-Plan

Dinner

Late Summer Minestrone Soup– one pot meal that’s quick and uses fresh, local ingredients from Aimee at Simple Bites.

Instant Pot Carnitas-from PaleOMG

Cashew Chicken Sheet Pan– another prep ahead option with paleo and gluten free notes included

Thai Basil Turkey Bowls– make this part of your Sunday meal prep for the week. Grab cauliflower rice in the freezer section to save time.

One Sheet Pan Shrimp Fajitas– quick 20 minute meal from No 2 Pencil

Great “green” lunch from The Natural Nurturer. The mac daddy of all lunch boxes is the PlanetBox.

Lunch

Granola Apple Peanut Butter Crunch Wraps– use my homemade granola listed below and swap in a nut-free butter for school to make this work.

Chickpea and Avocado Salad– from the Natural Nurturer

Chili Garlic Tofu Bowls– look for organic tofu to avoid GMOs.

Breakfast

Sausage Pizza Egg Muffins– from Paleo Running Momma

Banana Almond Chia Pudding– make ahead option from Grits and Chopsticks

Homemade Granola– leave out the nuts and add more seeds (like sesame for calcium!) and then use it as a nut-free school option.

Southwestern Breakfast Bowl -from The Do It All Mama. Make this one for dinner and have the leftovers for breakfast. Mix in some spinach to get in a serving of greens first thing in the morning.

Snacks

Oatmeal Green Smoothie Muffins– totally making these again this week! Super fast to make with your blender.

Cranberry Coconut Energy Bites-swap in pumpkin or sunflower seed butter to make it school-safe.

Fruit Leather-use a dehydrator or your lowest oven setting to set.

Bonus

*Healthy Batch cooking ideas– tons of ideas for all meals of the day. There are lots of ideas here you can add to your own back to school meal plan.

*I purchased the Real Lunches Real Easy III as I love having something new for packing lunches. It’s worth the $10. I’m not an affiliate but think it’s a great product and something you can share with your kids to get their input. I’ll be printing mine at Staples and having it bound together as a true cookbook.

back to school meal plan with quick and easy recipes

For more inspiration, check out the years of past dinner plans here, my Pinterest collection here, or OrgJunkie for a link-up of weekly meal plans. Leave a comment with your favorite family recipe to add a back to school meal plan.

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August 28, 2017/4 Comments/by eroachwellness

Autoimmune Meal Plan with Anti-inflammatory recipes

I spent the better part of this past fall learning about culinary nutrition, and I focused on creating an autoimmune meal plan for women with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. The strategies I included in those meal plans are applicable to anyone dealing with autoimmune disease. As it becomes more common for us to hear of friends and family getting an autoimmune diagnosis, I want you to have the understanding of which foods may keep symptoms quiet.

When I was three, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. I recovered, but it means I’m more likely to develop another one. Add in a strong family history of autoimmune diseases, an inflammatory arthritis diagnosis, and I’m using these guidelines myself as preventative measures. For the past 9 months, my symptoms have been extremely quiet and I’m so happy I no longer need to read for Advil to deal with ongoing pain.

Autoimmune Anti-inflammatory Meal Plan

How to develop an autoimmune meal plan.

There are a couple of key factors I want you to consider as you plan your meals. You want your meals to be nutrient dense, and anti-inflammatory. Those are your top priorities. How do you accomplish this? By adding in a wide variety of vegetables and gut-healthy foods to your autoimmune meal plan. It also includes the following elements:

*Cold water fish, like Salmon-provides you with essential fatty acids to reduce inflammation

*Bone broth-gut healing and provides collagen and gelatin to ease joint pain

*Chia and flax seeds-helps with elimination and binds with toxins to exit the body

*Organ meat-rich in a wide variety of vitamins and minerals that are easy to absorb

*Seaweed- provides a wide mix of minerals, including iodine which helps hypothyroid patients.

Learn how to make your own bone broth here.

Changing Your Diet

There are some foods you want to avoid to optimize your health. Those are foods containing gluten, refined white sugar, vegetable oils, and dairy. Why? These are the primary culprits that trigger inflammatory responses. For some people, it’s a flare up of rosacea or lupus. For others, it’s brain fog and joint pain. By eliminating this primary group of allergenic foods, you give your body an opportunity to heal and run as it’s supposed to. For some people with autoimmune disease, you may want to eliminate foods from the nightshade family from your meal plan. That includes tomatoes, peppers, black pepper, eggplant, paprika, and potatoes. I help clients figure this out when we work through their custom nutrition protocol.

Here are some recipe suggestions to get you started. If you need more for a certain category, let me know and I’ll add more to this post.

Dinner

Chicken Livers with Leeks and Kale by Simple Seasonal

Easy One Pan Salmon with Roasted Vegetables by Cooking Classy

50/50/50 Burgers from Paleo Mom

Salmon Sliders with Sweet Potato Buns and Cashew Cucumber Dip

Balsamic Chicken Drumsticks by Paleo Leap

Coconut Quinoa and Kale Salad by Cookie and Kate

autoimmune meal plan recipe ideas

Lunch

AIP Carrot and Sweet Potato Chili

Brown Rice and Arame Seaweed Salad– please skip the canola oil and swap in avocado or olive oil instead.

Breakfast

Moroccan Breakfast Skillet from Autoimmune Wellness.

Paleo Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

Grain Free Granola from Minimalist Baker

Paleo Breakfast Hash with Sweet Potato from Balanced Bites

Snack

Mochaccino Breakfast Pudding

Green apples and almond butter

Lemon Cashew Energy Balls

Bananas rolled in chia or flax seeds

Allergy Season Meal Plan: Low Histamine Diet

allergy season meal plan low histamine

Can a low histamine diet help your seasonal allergies? Do your allergies flare up in the spring? Below is an allergy season meal plan, which follows the protocol of a low histamine diet.

Your food choices can help alleviate, or aggravate, allergy symptoms. Histamine is part of our natural immune response. When our body detects something foreign in our body, like pollen, histamine is released to “attack” it. Sometimes our body is too aggressive with the histamine release and then you end up with itchy eyes, runny nose, and sneezes for days.

I had the worst seasonal allergies and it wasn’t until I switched to a gluten-free, dairy-free lifestyle that I found relief without a prescription. Both gluten and dairy can cause chronic inflammation in your body. By removing these two triggers, your body is less likely to overproduce histamine when it’s allergy season. Pair this with a low histamine diet plan and you will set yourself up for fewer sniffles and sneezes!

There are a few other key things to do during allergy season to complement the meal plan below.

Boost your immune system with foods rich in vitamin C and polyphenols.
Use locally grown raw honey repeatedly in the weeks prior to allergy season to prep your body for local pollen.
Increase your intake of fresh herbs, like mint, cilantro, and watercress. All of these increase your levels of quercetin, a natural antihistamine.
Focus on fresh food first (meat, produce.)
Avoid cultured, processed, cured, fermented, and aged foods. (cheese, beer, wine, beef jerky, and smoked meats.)
Avoid soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and yeast extract.

RELATED: Do you have Histamine Intolerance?