Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links and a product review where I received the product at no cost. A girl’s gotta pay the grocery bills!
In my MS journey I believe my nutrition is one of the main foundations to stay healthy. After my diagnosis in Dec 2014, the Wahl’s Protocol was shared with me so I largely subscribe to this way of eating after researching it. Adopting this meal plan has helped immensely with my health. I feel energetic, satiated and my digestion problems have been slowly healing. This post doesn’t go into the why of my meal plan but the how practicalities of planning, grocery shopping & prepping.
I then found the Auto-Immune Paleo site full of research & recipes. I’ve been trying out different recipes here and there in my weekly meal planning. Several people on social media asked me to break down what I eat on a weekly basis so here is a long over due post on how I use Real Plans to plan out my AIP weekly meal plan for myself and my boyfriend.
If you’d like more information on Real Plans you can CLICK HERE to read more.
Ok here’s how meal planning goes down in our household. On Saturday or Sunday morning, I log onto my computer and pull up the Real Plans website. In the Plan tab I can schedule out all of my food to visually see what I’m going to eat. I’m a creature of habit and simplicity. We eat all the same food on Monday, Wednesday & Friday and then the same meals on Tuesday & Thursday. This allows for variety but less ingredients and thus less shopping.
Here is a snapshot of what is on the plan for this week…
Breakfast is usually a combination of protein & fat. This week it’s Breakfast Sausages and 1/2 an avocado. On other days it’s a protein & carb. I’ll do this especially on heavier training days. This week I brought the Coconut Porridge back into our bellies and it’s amazing. We’ve tried it before and loved it. Not as easy as making overnight oats but still pretty simple to make.
Once you’ve laid out all the meals you click over to Shopping List. I check off ingredients I already have in the fridge or pantry and then voila my shopping list is complete.
From there I pull up my Real Plans app and open the shopping list while at the grocery store. You can even input where you buy everything and organize your ingredients by store and then pull that list open while shopping.
As we shop you can check things off the list and it makes it easier to visualize what you have left to buy.
Here is the effort of our meal planning this past Holiday Monday.
The Chicken & Lamb Sausages are at the top of the image. We gave up making Lamb Meatballs and just combined them into patties. Sometimes we don’t always stick to the plan but adapt and improvise as we go. We have Salmon Fillets for the Cabbage Tacos just below the sausages in the image. The AIP Meatloaf is in the bottom left corner of the image. I chopped up too many vegetables for this so I just sautéed the rest in coconut oil and that’s the container beside the Salmon. The Coconut Porridge is in the bottom right corner of the image. At the time of the picture the broccoli & brussel sprouts are still in the oven roasting, the bacon is on the george foreman and the roast beef is in the crock pot for cooking overnight.
Here is an image of last week’s meal plan as well.
Breakfast: Bacon & Avocado (not pictured above) or Hard-Boiled Eggs & Mix It Cereal w/ Almond Milk
Lunches & Dinners: Elk Steaks, Chicken Sausages or Pulled Chicken (Made in the CrockPot & not pictured above) with Brussel Sprouts, Broccoli or Green Beans.
Choice to add Mashed Sweet Potato or Roasted Beets & Turnips as a side.
Product Review: Mix It Cereal
We incorporated dry cereal into our routine for the past 2 weeks. I ordered 2 tubes online with Mixit.ca. You choose your base. I picked Gluten Light for myself and Quinoa Hon for Mike. I then added a mix of nuts & seeds like pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, coconut flakes & banana chips and then picked the colour tubes it arrives in. You can see the 2 blue options I picked in the meal plan picture above!
I’m not going to lie. The cereal was a massive hit with the boyfriend and he may have pouted when he poured the last of his into a bowl one morning last week. Life just hasn’t been the same since so I’ll definitely be ordering more in the future!
Happy Meal Planning, Prepping & Eating!
Thanks so much for sharing Robyn. This is very handy to have. Can’t wait to try it out.