After over 20 years of cooking gluten free meals for the family—and with children with very different food preferences and dietary requirements—there are often days when I just can’t think of anything to cook. It’s as though I’ve just run out of steam…I open the fridge and see some basic provisions, a range of vegetables (some older than others!) and various bits of leftovers, and despair.
I do remember my mother saying that the hardest thing about cooking for us when we were little was coming up with ideas, and I absolutely agree. But of course she was much more skilled than I am at cooking a meal with a view to the next meal—that is, what she would do with the leftovers. I tend to put any leftovers in the fridge and then forget about them until far too late.
I’m sure I’m not unusual in this—I suspect that proper meal planning is a skill that is in decline. One of my sisters has a fabulous recipe book that takes her through the year week by week, showing how to make meals that can be repurposed later in the week. I envy her the structure—but it wouldn’t work for me, because it doesn’t offer gluten free solutions and it is very heavily meat-oriented.
But I’ve come across a potential solution…It’s a recipe subscription package called Eat Real With Me, developed by Amy Jensen.
Amy calls it ‘meal stacking’. She provides the plan for the week (plus recipes and a shopping list) and shows how by cooking a 20 minute meal on day 1, you would have enough for two 5 minute meals on days 2 and 3. Her recipes serve 2, so they’re easy to multiply up for more. They look delicious, it’s all real food—and everything is gluten free.
Some of the ingredients on the shopping list are American-only, so if you’re based in the UK you might need to do a bit of translating. But if, like me, you look for recipes online these days, you’re probably quite familiar with some of these terms. And at the moment Amy’s meal-stacks tend to be meat or fish-oriented, but I can see how they could be turned into vegetarian meals and—best of all—everything is gluten free.
For example, by preparing Baked Fish with Caper Raisin Relish and Roasted Vegetables on Day 1, you would have quick gluten free meals of Southern Chopped Salad and Cumin and Paprika Chickpea and Quinoa Bowls for Days 2 and 3.
A typical week’s recipes:
- Pulled chicken tacos (20 mins)
- White bean and chicken chili (5 mins)
- Verde chicken enchiladas (5 mins)
- Lemongrass burgers with thai sauce (20 mins)
- Lettuce wraps (5 mins)
- Coconut rice bowls with lemongrass dressing (5 mins)
Doesn’t that sound good? Do go and check it out…
Especially, if, like me, you’ve run out of inspiration or just don’t have time to plan.
*** Please note that this post includes affiliate links to Amy’s site. This means that if you buy something after clicking on that link, I will earn a small commission. Your purchase won’t cost you any extra.
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I’ve written a book summarising what we’ve learnt over 20 years of dealing with the gluten free diet, and it might be just what you’re looking for. It packs the lessons we’ve learned into what I hope is a helpful and straightforward guidebook. It’s available on Amazon, as a paperback or for your Kindle… |
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