Tag: Meals Made Simple

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Grain Free Summer Vacation Food Plan

Going on vacation for my family has always meant eating at restaurants.  Usually we made unhealthy food and drink choices. Camping for my family has meant “traditional family camping food” again usually unhealthy food and drink choices.  Both vacation and camping eating usually result in low energy, bad digestion, leading to more unhealthy food choices. Also eating fast food and at restaurants is expensive.

After a year of practicing Whole 30 and feeling great, I decided this vacation we would take our camper and stock it with healthy choices.  I would know that all of the food I ate would make me feel great. My family knew we had good tasting food in the camper, so they wouldn’t be tempted to eat fast food or other unhealthy choices.

The trip was for 6 days.  I selected 5 salads. Our vacation was planned for the end of June.  The weather was 80 to 90 degrees. I didn’t want to do much cooking inside the camper for our dinners due to the heat.  All 5 salads included meat protein. We were going on a physically demanding vacation with hiking and stand up paddle boarding adventures and needed to have lots of energy.

I selected these salads for their ease and their great taste.

BLT Salad. Meals Made Simple pg 104

Asian Sesame Chicken Salad  Whole 30 Cookbook https://www.whole-sisters.com/asian-sesame-chicken-salad/

Warm Taco Salad with Creamy Avocado-Cilantro Vinaigrette Meals Made Simple pg 102

Beef and Broccoli Slaw Lettuce Wraps Whole 30 Cookbook pg 48

Six Ingredient Chicken Salad Whole 30 Fast & Easy pg 22

I completed a shopping and preparation list for the trip which is available if you contact me by email.

I cooked the meat portion of the salads during the 2 weeks before we left.  I made double recipes of the meals we ate during those 2 weeks. I froze the meat in ziplock bags for our trip.  I purchased the vegetables for the first 2 dinners because the camping fridge isn’t very big. We shopped at the local grocery store to purchase ice, lunch meat, and the next 2 days vegetables for dinners.

For breakfast, lunch and snacks, I followed the Whole 30 travel guide, https://whole30.com/downloads/whole30-travel.pdf.  Our cooler included boiled eggs, canned tuna fish, cooked bacon, canned olives, whole 30 compliant condiments, dressings and fresh produce.   I kept a copy of the Whole 30 seasonal fresh produce guide https://whole30.com/downloads/seasonal-produce.pdf in my purse for my shopping trips to keep my costs down.

I felt great the entire trip.  My energy was great. I was up at sunrise every morning.  My family enjoyed the flavorful meals. They also enjoyed the stocked fridge whenever they were hungry.

My family’s favorite part of vacationing with the camper was lunch time.  We would stop to fill up with gas. Move to the side of the truck stop to make our lunches in the camper.  Everything they wanted or needed was right there. They had a great lunch and we all felt great after eating it.  Lunch time was fast, fun and cheap.

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The First Step in My Whole Foods Journey

My stomach always burned.  I had pretty low energy. Modern medicine prescribed proton pump inhibitors and muscle relaxers.   They didn’t work. I decided to take control and heal myself. This would mean changing the food I ate.  I told my family that I would need their support in making these changes. They agreed to help whenever they could.  

It’s hard to make the change from eating the American diet to eating a whole food diet.  My family loved flavorful food, comfort food, and good old American food. It was important for me to slowly make changes to our diet. I didn’t want my family to suffer while I made these changes.   I needed my family to be satisfied with the changes I made. I work full-time, I volunteer at my children’s’ school, and my children were involved in after school activities. With this schedule, I needed the food preparation to be easy.

When I finally decided to change the way I eat, I tried using gluten-free flours.  I tried different non-wheat flours and recipes to use the flour. I was amazed at how good the food tasted.  I cooked with the flours for several months. I didn’t really notice much of a change to my health, but I was encouraged to keep moving forward.

My husband suggested I check out Danielle Walker, Against The Grains.  I read Danielle’s blog. I read her story and it reminded me of mine. I was blown away.  I was not alone in my battle with unexplained painful stomach. There was someone else experiencing these issues that couldn’t be helped with western medicine.

I purchased her cookbook, Meals Made Simple.  Danielle provided an 8 week menu of dinner recipes in her cookbook.  She included a shopping list for each week. I told my family we were going to try this 8 week plan.  I followed the recipes and my family raved about my cooking. We really enjoyed the healthy flavorful meals and they were so easy to prepare.  

I learned a lot about reading labels and looking for hidden gluten in the ingredients.  I learned about selecting better quality ingredients that would encourage healing in my body.  I noticed an improvement in my energy right away. After the eight weeks, the burning in my stomach was improving.

I purchased Danielle’s other books, Against The Grains, and Celebrations.  Her recipes are so easy and taste great. With her recipes and shopping lists for each week, my confidence in my cooking increased and I was ready to try other whole food diet authors.

I stuck my toes in the water.  I was exposed to a different way of healing myself.  I didn’t feel completely deprived of my favorite foods.  I had a long way to go to heal myself. It was time to research stricter diets that would treat my gut fungus.