Meal Ideas - Breakfast

I have made the personal choice to not bake for breakfast.  I find, that if I do so, breakfast will take an hour or more to prepare, eat and clean up after.  As a homeschooling family I prefer our days to start more quickly than that!  So, the most time I plan on spending for breakfast is cooking eggs.  If we include baked goods like breads, energy bars and such it will because I made them at a different time.


I have many great "breakfast" ideas listed under Snacks and Lunch in case you want to spend more time on your morning meal.


As I find new recipes I will be adding to the list.  And as we try each of these recipes I will post reviews as well as any modifications we made.


Fruit & smoothies - good add-ins include coconut oil, raw egg yolks, flax seed oil, yogurt, kefir

Yogurt - homemade 24-hour fermented

Juice - freshly pressed

Granola or this or this - there are many variations of grain-free granola if you care to search

Milkshakes 

Cashew vanilla banana shake - vanilla may or may not be legal on GAPS

Pumpkin coconut smoothie - vanilla may or may not be legal on GAPS 

Russian custard – alone or with fruit

Any leftover baked good

Fruit cereal - various fruits cut up into bite-sized pieces, served with Russian Custard or nut milk

Eggs of any sort
Paleo fruit crumble - no stevia, no arrowroot
Raw butternut squash cookies - honey only to sweeten
Granola bars....maybe chunk it for "cereal"


All of these recipes can be eaten on the Full Stage.  Some of them can be eaten in earlier Stages as well.

Meal Ideas - Soup

All of these soups are appropriate for Full GAPS.  Some of them will require modifications, but I've tried to list what those changes would be.  Not all soups are Stage 1 legal so please look through the ingredients to determine which Stage you could add it.  I have a recipe index for each of the Stages which lists the various recipes (and soups) which would be appropriate, if you need help.

I have not made all these soups yet.  As I make a recipe I will post a review with any modifications I made.

Please let me know if you have any recipes to add.  You can never have too many soup recipes for GAPS!!!

Thai Coconut Soup or this - homemade coconut milk & fish sauce, honey instead of agave, no grapeseed oil for sautéing
Thai Lemongrass Soup
Lentil Soup - you can modify any lentil soup recipe
Kale and Veggie Soup
Curried Lentil Soup
Hungarian Mushroom Soup
Tuscan Wedding Soup - GAPS legal beans, homemade breadcrumbs, sub broth for wine
Easy Chicken "Noodle" Soup

Chicken Coconut Soup or this - use homemade coconut milk, honey instead of agave

Thai Vegetable Soup - use GAPS legal fat for cooking onions, homemade broth (chicken would work best), homemade coconut milk

Butternut Squash Soup 

Carrot Ginger Soup 

Meatball Veggie soup (GAPS book)

Broccoli and Garlic Soup 

Chicken noodle soup   

Pink Soup 

Fish Soup (GAPS book)

Egg Drop Soup

Roasted Eggplant Soup - use a healthy fat instead of vegetable oil

Mexican Chicken Cauliflower Soup

Creamy Chicken Peanut Soup - use homemade broth, ghee/butter instead of margarine

Nigerian Peanut Soup - homemade peanut butter 

Meatball Soup with Greens - not sure on psyllium husks

Albondigas Soup - homemade broth, no potatoes (add other veggies instead)

Albondigas Soup - use broth instead of water, homemade salsa, GAPS fat instead of olive oil 

Albondigas Soup

Cabbage Soup - use 2 quart chicken broth instead of water and bouillon, use GAPS fat for sautéing

Zucchini Avocado Soup 

Roasted Carrot Soup 

Pumpkin Sausage Soup 

Shredded Beef Soup with Kimchi

Easy Intro Beef Soup

Beef Soup with Squash

Italian Meatball Soup - use homemade bread crumbs, zucchini or spaghetti squash pasta

Sweet and Sour Cabbage Soup - don't discard fat, honey instead of sugar, GAPS fat instead of vegetable oil

Borscht - omit the sugar

Olive Garden Soup (with cauliflower instead of potatoes)

Hamburger soup
Ground beef soup

Meat Patties

One of our very favorite meals thus far is meat patties (which can also be meatballs).

It's a recipe you can change around all the time but the basics are thus:

ground beef (or chicken or lamb or turkey)
salt
pepper
pureed veggies - I like to use onion, garlic, carrot regularly and then add in a few extras - zucchini, spinach, kale, etc.
you could also use fresh herbs in Stage 2/3 and dried herbs/spices in Stage 5 to change the flavors around

For 2 pounds of beef I usually use 1 small onion or 3/4 a medium one, 2 or 3 cloves garlic and one huge carrot.  If I'm using a leafy green, I'll use several handfuls.

Mix it all together and form into patties.  Bring a pan of broth to a boil (use the kind of broth that matches your meat - chicken broth for chicken patties) and place the patties in the broth - enough broth to come up about halfway on the meat.  Reduce heat, cover and let simmer for about 30 minutes, turning a few times.  You can either let the broth reduce so it's thick like gravy and serve it with the patties or you can use the broth as a soup.

I've tried adding the meatball version of this directly to soup and letting it simmer, but they don't end up nearly as tasty as having them in the concentrated broth and then put into the soup at the end.

These are flavorful, soft and snarfed down by my kids.  You could easily make large batches of this and freeze them uncooked.  When you're ready to make them just pop a few into the pan and let them simmer until cooked through.

Day 17

Breakfast
Smoothies (blueberries, strawberries, banana, coconut oil, flax seed oil, raw egg yolks, mango)
Juice (carrot, apple, mandarin orange)
nuts - soaked and dehydrated
(Full for smoothies, Stage 4 for juice, Full for eating nuts plain)

Lunch
Scrambled eggs, Meat and Veggie Sausages, pumpkin pie carrots, watermelon
(Stage 3 for eggs, Full for sausages because of seeds but could modify to be Stage 3, Stage 5 for carrots, Stage 6/Full for watermelon)


Today's "sausages" had the following:
chicken stuff - skin, meat, etc picked off a few smallish chickens over the past week or two
1 turnip
3/4 an onion
4 cloves garlic
1 red bell pepper
carrot pulp from juicing - probably 10 carrots worth, maybe a bit more
the guts of 2 zucchini (I used the outside parts for noodles)
1 1/2 head broccoli
spinach - 4 or 5 large handfuls
almonds and walnuts - maybe a cup
pumpkin and sunflower seeds - about 1/2 cup
a few spoonfuls coconut oil and palm oil
salt

I skipped the cumin, but wish that I hadn't.  I should have just reduced it.  They didn't hold up as well as the last batch and fell apart at turning and storage.  The kids (and hubby) liked them though and said they'd be happy to eat the pieces.

Dinner
Meat patties, broccoli, zucchini noodles, sauerkraut, avocado (and olive oil)
(Stage 1 for meat patties, broccoli and noodles, Stage 3 for sauerkraut, avocado and olive oil)

Tonight's meat patties had:
3/4 an onion
1 huge carrot
a gob of spinach

Pureed the above together and mixed with 2 pounds ground beef, salt and pepper.  Simmered in a pan with broth (about 1 cup beef broth), covered until they were cooked through.  I did turn them a few times while cooking.  I used the excess broth as a "soup" for myself.

Once again the meat patties were a huge hit.  I thought I'd use 2 pounds so I'd have leftovers for tomorrow.  I have no leftovers.  They ate them all.

Reactions:
The 10-yr-old has been cranky for days.  Maybe he's detoxing, maybe he's sick of the diet, maybe he's hitting puberty.  Who knows?

No real physical changes going on, either good or bad.

Thoughts:
I continue to work on menu plans and scouting recipes.  Today was the first day since we started that the counters were clean!  They are usually covered with clean pans, dirty pans, soaking foods, etc.  Drives me crazy.

I want to expand my ferments so this week I'll be making a few different types.  We're also going to try yogurt (once I get it made).

Peanut Butter Fudge

I love coconut oil and I love finding sneaky ways to get it into our diet.  My kids raved about this fudge.  The five-year-old was 'surprised we could eat chocolate'.  I didn't use a food processor to mix it, I just stirred it together and there was a layer of peanut butter/honey at the bottom once it set up.  I'll try the processor next time to see if that makes a difference.  I'd also like to try this with almond butter, maybe cashew as well.

1 c. coconut oil
1/2 c. peanut butter (homemade, or other nut butter)
honey to taste
a pinch or two sea salt
1 tsp. vanilla - still not sure if this is GAPS legal or not

Melt the coconut oil over very low heat.  Pour it and remaining ingredients into food processor or blender and have at.  Pour it into an 8x8 glass pan and place it in the freezer to "set up".  You'll need to leave it in the freezer or refrigerator unless you live in Antarctica and have no central heating.

I'm not sure where to put this.  Too much coconut oil too early might cause problems.  Honey in small amounts is allowed starting in Stage 5.  Vanilla is still up in the air.  I'd save it for Full or at least Stage 5.

Chicken Coconut Soup

several quarts of chicken stock/broth
almost 2 cups homemade coconut milk
a knob of ginger, peeled - I just threw the whole thing in to give it a subtle flavor
a few pinches salt
2 cloves garlic, minced

Brought to a boil and added zucchini noodles (2 smallish zucchinis turned into "noodles") and simmered until soft.  Added about a cup of cooked, shredded chicken.

At the table the adults added chili flakes and most of us added a few spoonfuls of olive oil which, surprisingly, really added to the flavor.

This would have been really good with some cilantro and perhaps a chopped avocado.  I want to play around with this a bit.  The homemade coconut milk was rather thin....I want to figure out how to make it thicker.  Everyone ate it (no leftovers) and they all said the zucchini noodles were great!  One son will not eat chunks of zucchini in soup, but he slurped up every noodle.


This recipe is Stage 6 due to coconut milk.  You could serve it in earlier Stages by leaving it out.  

Honey Bread

I used this recipe from the Healthy Home Economist.  I did not use a glass loaf pan and my edges were very, very brown/black.  I'm not sure if it was from my pan or the changes I made to the recipe.  Everyone still loved it though.  This would be good with a nut butter, butter or jam, but not tuna or anything savory.

My changes were as follows:

6 eggs
5 tablespoons ghee (we're not eating butter yet)
6 tbsp. water (didn't have coconut milk and no dairy milk yet)
6 tbsp. honey
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. coconut flour
did not use the baking powder or stevia listed

Whisk together everything except the coconut flour.  Sprinkle it over the wets and mix/whisk until batter is smooth.  This part took longer than I thought it would.  Pour into a glass loaf pan and bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes (mine took almost 30 for the middle to set and the sides were black).

This recipe is a Full recipe due to the coconut flour.