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This week's meal plan: Trim Healthy Mama, gluten-free, whole foods

In addition to posting "what I ate last week, Trim Healthy Mama™ style", I am going to post my weekly menus here.

My aim is to show people new to THM that it's totally possible to integrate this way of eating into your own tastes, style and food culture.

When I first heard about Trim Healthy Mama, I'm embarrassed to admit that I pre-judged the plan (before reading the book - shame on me!). I thought everyone on plan ate weird Frankenfoods.

Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, I've noticed after being on the THM Facebook group, that so many people dramatically improve the quality of food they're eating once on plan. They give up sugar, junk food, fast food (mostly), "white" food, etc. They start eating tons more veggies, healthy oils and integrating superfoods (such as collagen, turmeric, apple cider vinegar, coconut oil) into their daily diet.

I am working on making all of the recipes in the THM cookbook eventually, so I use it a lot at the moment, but I'm also including my own recipes and long-favorite meals, to show how they can be "THM-ified" easily.

An example would be the Leek-Cauli soup. I love leek soup, and usually make it with potatoes, but since white potatoes aren't on plan, I'll substitute cauliflower (and I doubt me or anyone else will be able to tell the difference once the soup is pureed).



So here's what's on Le Menu for this week. 

(As always, it's gluten-free and Trim Healthy Mama approved.)

- *Jalapeno Popper Soup - this recipe, from the THM cookbook, gets rave reviews and hubby loves jalapenos, so I'm giving it a shot.  The family will get organic corn chips on the side, I'll forego those - "S" meal

- Roast Chicken with Vegetables (likely, roasted cauliflower and asparagus) and green salad - "S" meal

- Leek-Cauli Soup with *Swiss bread - "E" meal, dessert t/b/a

- Tacos with all the fixings - The family will eat theirs with corn tortillas, I'll have mine in a bowl. - "S" meal

- *Fooled Ya Pizza with green salad - "S" meal

- *Red lentil soup with socca (a gluten-free flatbread made with chickpea flour) - "E" meal

- Eat out or leftovers night

Recipes with an asterisk * come from Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook: Eat Up and Slim Down with More Than 350 Healthy Recipes

Trim Healthy Mama-friendly recipe: Minestrone Soup

Minestrone soup is a favorite in my home. I always make it in a huge stock pot so we have leftovers. It's also one of my favorite things to bring to a new mom. It's nutritious, full of fiber, and everyone who tries it loves it. It's also very budget-friendly, and all of the ingredients are available at ALDI.

In Trim Healthy Mama, this would be an "E" meal because of the healthy carbs in the beans, rice and carrots. (Alternatively, you can add beef or Italian-style sausage, leave out the rice and beans and make it into an "S" meal.)

This recipe lends itself very well to substitutions. You can put nearly any vegetable in it, so experiment. 

Minestrone Soup - Trim Healthy Mama "E" Meal 

Minestrone Soup


Ingredients:

• 1 T olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 celery ribs, chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 2 small or 1 large zucchini, chopped
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 2-4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cans cannellini or navy beans (can used dried, and can substitute kidney beans)
• 2-4 cups raw spinach or kale (frozen is fine too)
• 6 cups beef or chicken broth (boxed or homemade)
• 2 cans stewed or diced tomatoes
• 2 tsp Italian seasoning
• sea salt and black pepper to taste
• red pepper flakes to taste

optional: 2 cups chopped, cooked lean meat of choice

• 1/2 cup brown rice (uncooked) 

Directions:

In a large stock pot, heat olive oil on medium heat, and add onion, carrots and celery (a bit of trivia a la francais, this menage a trois is called "mirepoix" (MEER-pwah). Isn't that lovely?). 

Cook until soft. 

Add garlic, cooking for a minute or two. Pour in remaining ingredients, cover and cook on low-med until vegetables are soft and rice is done, around 45 minutes. 

Serve with fresh grated parmesan sprinkled on top (limit the parmesan to a tablespoon for your portion, unless you're ok with being in "Crossover" mode). 

Lovely served with an on-plan bread.

What I ate last week on Trim Healthy Mama™ plan

Time for my weekly food journal post, a la Trim Healthy Mama™.

A few notes about abbreviations and such:

BPC stands for Bullet Proof Coffee. I typically make it by adding heavy cream, a bit of grass-fed butter, collagen and MCT oil, then blending until frothy with my handy-dandy frother. Sometimes I drink this first thing in the morning, then have breakfast a couple of hours later, and other times I have it with my breakfast. Either way, it's very filling, yummy and creamy, like a much healthier latte. 


(Google has tons of recipes for bullet proof coffee.)

HMV is homemade vinaigrette. I never buy salad dressing, preferring to make my own with olive oil, apple cider vinegar, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper (and herbs if I have them).

Clearly, my life is so hard.

I ate "dessert" for breakfast three days this week. Two days I had leftover Zapple Crumble, a zucchini-based crumb dessert from the THM cookbook, and the third time it was leftover cheesecake.

The Wedding Cheesecake recipe (shown above) is amazing, some of the easiest and tastiest cheesecake I've ever eaten, and it's 100% sugar free. This is the first time I made it with the Pay Off Candy recipe drizzled on top (a brilliant idea posted on the Trim Healthy Mama Facebook page!) instead of berries and chocolate.

Even though I had dessert every day, and plenty of dark chocolate and red wine, I lost another pound. This plan WORKS.

Life is good!

I made my food journal into a chart this time, hopefully it's easier to read.

Tilapia Veracruz - a quick, tasty, very healthy "E" meal. Served with brown rice and carrot salad. 

Date	Food	Time	Fuel Type
1/24	2 fried eggs, 2 pieces bacon, BPC Brown rice, *Fish Vera Cruz, veggies, carrot salad *Trimtastic zucchini cake ½ hamburger patty, Cobb salad (greens, hardboiled eggs, bacon, avocado)	8:15 11:15 2:15 5:15	S E S S
1/25	Scrambled eggs, bacon, BPC Leftover Cobb salad, *Shake Gone Nuts *Volcano mud slide muffin topped with coconut butter *Pot roast with radishes, celery, onions	8:30 11:30 3 6	S S, FP S S
1/26	*Zapple crumble, coffee with cream Chocolate overnight oats with berries, *Secret big boy shake *Zapple crumble, small portion leftover pot roast * Reuben in a Bowl	8 12:30 3:30 6:30	S E, FP S S
1/27	*Zapple crumble, coffee with cream *Reuben in a bowl, green salad ½ c. 0% Greek yogurt with peanut powder, ½ apple *Lentil soup, *strawberry muffin, *Bust a Myth cake	8:30 12 3 6	S S FP E
1/28	Scrambled egg, 2 bacon, sauteed veggies, 0% Greek yogurt 0% Greek yogurt Green salad with bleu cheese, BPC, piece dark chocolate Tuna made with paleo mayo (the purist in me doesn't approve of canola oil!) Two thin slices turkey, Happy farms light cheese (these are the ALDI version of Laughing Cow) Burrito bowls (shredded chicken, salsa, brown rice, pico de gallo)	9 11:30 1 2:45 4:30 6:30	S FP S S FP E
1/29	2 baked egg ham cups, BPC small piece *BAM cake, 0% Greek yogurt w/stevia BAM cake *Troodle casserole, green salad with Bleu cheese and HMV *cheesecake, red wine 85% chocolate	8:30 11:30 2:30 6:00 8:00	S E E S S
1/30	BPC, *cheesecake 2 slices crustless pizza, green salad, leftover *Troodle casserole Green salad with grilled chicken, Bleu cheese, berries, pecans Red wine, dark chocolate	8:30 12:30 7:15 9:30	S S S S

Recipes with an * asterisk come from Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook: Eat Up and Slim Down with More Than 350 Healthy Recipes

The Reuben in a Bowl recipe was a HUGE hit with the family. I love a good Reuben sandwich, but haven't eaten one in years due to my gluten-free diet (rye bread is a no-no). This recipe will be on the rotation frequently!

This was also my first time making Bust-a-Myth banana cake. I hate calling it a cake, because it's more like a very dense, filling banana bread. Barely sweet at all, but everyone loved it. I served it to the kids with butter or peanut butter on it. It's called Bust a Myth because some people think you cannot have fruit on Trim Healthy Mama, but that's... well, a myth. Life without fruit? Quelle horreur!

We also really enjoyed the Troodle Casserole, made with zucchini "noodles". I bought a vegetable "spiralizer" at ALDI the other week for a couple of bucks, and I can see it's going to get much use.

Trim Healthy Mama-friendly recipe: Zucchini Rolls

Ah, zucchini! If you're eating the Trim Healthy Mama™ way, it's probably one of your most-used vegetables. If you and yours are getting tired of using zucchini to make vegetable "noodles", try this recipe instead.

I haven't made this recipe in a while (which is why I don't have a picture, my apologies!), but when I do it's a huge hit. This recipe serves 2-3. I always triple it.

And all of the ingredients are available at ALDI.


Prosciutto-Mozza Zucchini Rolls

Ingredients:

• 2 large zucchini, sliced lengthwise into long, thin strips
• 6 oz prosciutto rolled with mozzarella cheese
• olive oil, salt, pepper, basil
• one jar (sugar free) spaghetti sauce or large can pureed tomatoes

Preheat oven to 425F.

Season zucchini slices with salt and pepper. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Blot moisture from zucchini.

Pour olive oil into pan and cook zucchini in single layers until golden brown, adding more oil if needed.

Set zucchini slices aside until cool enough to handle. 

Unroll or slice prosciutto/cheese slices, and top each zucchini with a piece of prosciutto and cheese cut to fit. 

Roll each stack into a pinwheel and spear with a toothpick to hold. (If you don’t have toothpicks, place each roll into the cup of a muffin tin.)

Pour tomato sauce into a square baking dish (or into muffin cups). Place zucchini rolls side by side in dish and remove toothpicks. Sprinkle with basil. 

Bake until cheese is bubbly, about 10-15 minutes.

Enjoy with a green salad or other non-starchy vegetables. 

This is an "S" meal in Trim Healthy Mama because of the fat in the prosciutto and cheese. 

Friday Trim Healthy Mama weigh-in

Every week, I'll post an update of my Trim Healthy Mama™  journey.

I'm not quite at goal weight yet. Even when I am, I think it will be informative (for me, and hopefully for others too!) to see how going completely sugar-free has impacted my health and well-being.

Here is a pic I snapped today. My first THM goal was to fit into my old, pre-pregnancy jeans. Done! These are a size 6.

(Sorry for the cheesy bathroom selfie. I live with 8 people, not a photographer in the bunch.)

I felt a tiny bit concerned about over-doing the carbs last night with dinner. I had an "E" meal with chicken, black beans, sweet potato and brown rice, and I was afraid my portions were a bit too large. But when I stepped on the scale, I had lost a pound.

Yes to being able to enjoy healthy carbs!

I still have a bit of extra "love handles" to get rid of, but I'm pleased. So far I've lost 10 pounds on Trim Healthy Mama, almost 2 dress sizes, and I never feel deprived or like I'm "dieting". Because I'm not... THM is a lifestyle, not a diet. It's a forever eating plan that is healthy and sustainable.

My answer to this question is a resounding yes. While Trim Healthy Mama isn't a gluten-free diet (sprouted breads containing gluten are "on plan"), it is very easy to be gluten-free on THM.

In fact, people who are already gluten-free might find that the transition to THM is easier because they've already given up many of the blood-sugar spiking foods that contain gluten (pastas, breads, cookies, crackers, etc).

Can you do Trim Healthy Mama™ gluten free?

I began eating gluten-free years ago when lab tests confirmed an allergy to wheat. I began my THM journey only a couple of months ago.

Pictured: a gluten-free Dutch baby pancake, Trim Healthy Mama fuel type "S"

I keep things very, very simple in my Trim Healthy Mama gluten free diet. I don't scout for on-plan gluten-free breads or crackers or bake complicated recipes. I find that I don't miss bread, crackers and such, and giving up gluten-free bread was probably helpful in my weight loss, because I often craved bread before THM. While I was better off on a gluten-free diet than before, I still craved carbohydrates and sugar, which was a struggle.

One of the reasons I love Trim Healthy Mama so much is that because of it, I was able to kick my lifelong addiction to sugar. 

Since gluten-free breads often contain starch (tapioca, rice starch, potato flour, etc), they cause a blood sugar spike, which leads to a vicious cycle of craving. Many of the gluten-free products I used to purchase were delicious, but they were making me gain weight. No thanks!

The Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook has several gluten-free bread recipes in its pages, and dozens and dozens more gluten-free muffins, cakes, pies, candies and more.

There is even a Trim Healthy Mama "Allergen Free" Facebook group. It has dozens of files with recipes, tips, product recommendations and more, as well as many members who are gluten-free (and who have other allergies as well).

I don't need toast with my eggs, but I do enjoy a gluten-free Trim Healthy Mama muffin or Bust a Myth Banana Cake or Banana Nut muffin or French Toast in a Bowl or Volcano Mud Slide muffin, all of which are far healthier and much more filling than gluten-free bread anyway! (All those recipes are available in the Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook.)

I don't need to sandwich my tuna or lunch meat inbetween slices of bread. I like to add more veggies to my plate, so I eat my tuna with cucumbers or in yellow or red bell peppers, or roll up slices of deli meat around pickles, sauerkraut or cheese. Or, I wrap all the ingredients in a large piece of Romaine lettuce. Delicious!

For dinner? My family doesn't eat pasta, but we love lasagne made with spinach or zucchini instead of noodles. I even bought an inexpensive vegetable "spiralizer" so I could make zucchini noodles that are delicious in recipes that traditionally contain pasta. And of course, we eat brown rice with our "E" meals.

Note: the Trim Healthy Mama Baking Blend is gluten-free, and so are many of the other baking flours available in the THM store.