Food list for the week

Ratatouille

Sauce

2 T apple cider vinegar

2 cloves of garlic

1/2 t salt

veggies

4 large tomatoes

1 med eggplant

1 med zucchini

1 lrg green pepper

1 lrg onion

handful of fresh parsley

Parmesan cheese (optional)

Start your gluten free pasta. 
Saute the onion first in coconut oil. 
Add eggplant, zucchini, pepper. cook until they are a little translucent.  Add chopped tomatoes and Parsley, cook another minute or two.
 Premix sauce and pour it over and stir together. 
 Add on top of your cooked pasta.  (store leftovers in separate containers)

-This is an adapted recipe from "The pampered chef casual cooking book"

So to make my  life a heck of a lot easier I have started to plan the meals for the week.

It saves my life, and saves us money- I seriously don't deal with a ton of wasted veggies anymore. I use to go to the store and grab random veggies and fruits and try to figure out how to use them. Which usually resulted in me being stressed every night. 

Now I ONLY buy what is on my list with a couple extra snacking items like bananas, apples etc... (anything I am out of that I need to get) 

When I plan, I usually plan 6-7 meals. I make sure 2 of them are quick and easy ones. The rest can be a "whatever I want to try out" meal. I usually don't make more than 2 meals with meat a week. I try to keep it low, and it's usually chicken. I like to include a lot of veggies in our lives. (Not that my husband likes that plan, but he'll thank me later. - Uh... no he won't  :)  )

Since every day is different I can just pick whatever meal off the list I feel like eating that day and make that. The stressful full days I pick one of the easy ones.   Most of the meals will leave leftovers and I just have those for lunch the next day. I don't mind leftovers. I know some people do but I am totally fine with it, especially since that means I don't have to plan for a whole extra meal, or have more cooking hours in my day (which I'm not always a fan of)

On days when I don't have leftovers, I can easily steam up some rice in the rice maker and make a easy salad that I throw together with canned beans, lettuce, tomatoes, olives, sauerkraut  seeds or nuts and whatever I have on hand.

This system has totally relieved a lot of stress with the whole gluten free eating. No more "honey I was so busy, can you pick up a pizza?" "Or I don't feel like cooking" -  Obviously not an option. But I can pick from my menu and I know I have everything I need to quickly whip it up.

This weeks Menu:

Buffalo chicken salad (pg 68 Cooking for Isaiah)

Lemon Dill Chicken (a recipe I will post)

Tostadas (Healthy Gluten free cooking book)

Green Alfredo Pasta with an easy peasy carrot salad (Click here for it) (salad from above book)

Indian Food (Channa masala, Fried cabbage & chickpea fritters) (a recipe I will post)

Ratatouille (Recipe above)

Shopping List:

(Already have carrots, almond milk, eggs, and basic condiments)

Chicken - Costco

Celery

Spinach- Costco

1 Jalapeno

Chicken Broth-Costco

Avocados

1 Cilantro

1 Shallot

3 cans of cannelini beans

Parmesan cheese

1 red onion

cornmeal

eggplant

tomatoes

1 zucchini

1 green pepper

fresh parsley

1cabbage
 ginger

tomatoes 

4 potatoes

1 cinnamon stick