{Our Grain-Free Month} What We Ate

And so begins a series of posts containing all the info I gathered and all we learned from a month (give or take a few days) on the GAPS diet…

Today I’m gonna give you a glimpse into what a menu looks like when you’re not eating grains. If you can’t wrap your mind around what a grain-free meal plan looks like, it’s probably because you’re thinking along the lines of substitution and replacement. What you must do is completely turn your back on grains. Don’t stress yourself trying to recreate bread, lasagna, cereal, and other favorites with grain substitutes. This will be expensive and a lot of effort.

When we did GAPS, we ate a lot of ground beef, baked chicken, and a wide variety of vegetables. I used almond meal and coconut flour when I absolutely needed a flour-like-product, but mostly I focused on dishes and snacks that centered around the veggies and meat.

Think of a meal that you make that isn’t grain-centered. C’mon, it’s not that hard! How about meatloaf, veggies, and mashed potatoes? It only takes a little tweaking to make that meal grain-free and GAPS friendly. If you usually include some bread crumbs or oats in your meatloaf, skip that (it’s just fine without). Then replace the potatoes (not GAPS legal!) with creamed cauliflower (delicious!). Make sure you slather those veggies with butter, add a small side of sauerkraut, and a mug of warm chicken broth to drink on the side, and you have a GAPS-legal, filling meal that not even dinner guests would guess was from a ‘restrictive’ diet.

There are many ways to shape ground beef, season and bake chicken, and combine ingredients for soup. And the many forms and variety of veggies offer endless side dishes. No need to get tired of butternut squash if one day you try it purreed, another day you bake it as ‘fries’, or the next night you fold it into a souffle for dessert. The secret is to focus on the foods you CAN eat–looking at them from all sorts of new angles to achieve the variety we all love.

Here’s a sample menu of what we ate during our grain-free month.

Monday
Breakfast: Apple Almond Scones (from Cara’s sample meal plan)
Lunch: Cream of Vegetable Soup with chicken
Dinner: Meatloaf, butternut squash fries
Snacks: dried fruit, leftover breakfast, leftover soup

Tuesday
B: Apple-Egg Muffins (recipe in Real {Fast} Food – replaced wheat flour with coconut flour)
L: Leftover meat muffins and soup
D: Roast Chicken, steamed carrots, creamed cauliflower, gravy
S: Nutbutter Brownies (from Real {Fast} Food. chocolate is not GAPS legal, but I we didn’t give it up LOL), soup, apples and peanut butter, yogurt and bananas.

Wednesday
B: Banana Pancakes
L: Leftover Chicken and veggies
D: Pioneer Woman’s Beef Stew – minus the potatos. Salad with Maple-Mustard Dressing (recipe in Real {Fast} Food), yogurt with blueberries
S: yogurt, leftover brownies

Thursday
B: Scrambled eggs with aged cheddar cheese, kefir smoothie with fruit, egg yolks, and coconut oil.
L: Sour cream enchiladas with coconut flour crepes
D: Meatzza! Pumpkin Pie Souffle (made with butternut squash) for dessert
S: leftover banana pancakes, apples, leftover beef stew

Friday
B: Cheesy omelets, kefir and fruit smoothie
L: Shepard’s pie with creamed cauliflower topping
D: Leftover Meatzza, beef stew, and pumpkin souffle
S: Peanut Butter Coconut Oil Fudge, apples

Saturday
B: Squash pancakes with honey butter, yogurt and blueberries
L: Leftover shepard’s pie
D: Parmesan Chicken with Tomato Cream Sauce (from Against the Grain)
S: Apple Almond Scones, apples, cubed montery jack cheese

Sunday
B: Egg Casserole with homemade sour cream (recipe in Real {Fast} Food)
L: Spaghetti Squash with Meatsauce and Parmesan
D: Meat muffins, steamed carrots
S: apples, cheese, bananas, raisins

See? Plenty of variety, easy entrees, and even some yummy desserts and snacks!

Everyone seems to agree – the best thing you can do when going on GAPS is to menu plan. If you’re intimidated by the very idea, grain-free or not, I share step-by-step inspiration in the first section in my book, Real {Fast} Food. I went back to that chapter over and over while we were on GAPS and have to say, it was forethought and planning that got us through.

Next up: How we felt (emotionally and physically) on a grain-free diet

What’s one of your family’s favorite meals that isn’t grain-centered? Let’s brainstorm in the comments how you can make it completely grain-free!