Menu planning for the week

This recipe box was a hand-me-down from my grandma. It says Eureka Springs on the top. I'm not sure how old it is but I love it and use it nearly every day.

Menu plan for the week:


Baked macaroni with carrots as side dish (from the book Saving Dinner by Leanne Ely. Highly recommend this book because even though it's not GF, a lot of the recipes are easily converted. Organized by season so as to optimize fresh food when possible.)

Pizza and salad
Husband is eating mini pizzas on Ezekiel english muffins. Big Girl and I are trying the frozen TJ's gluten -free pizza for the first time.


Quesadillas, avocado, and some vegetable. Maybe finish up the salad.

Another recipe-less recipe. Chicken, Monterrey Jack cheese, and corn tortillas. Apparently the Aldi corn tortillas are made with corn flour which is off limits on the no flour no sugar diet, but I have some from Walmart that aren't made with corn flour.


Stroganoff over rice spiral noodles and zucchini

My mom gave me this recipe from a book compiled by La Leche League members several decades ago. I have modified the original quite a bit to accommodate allergies. I'm using cubed steak because it was on sale and regular steak wasn't, cornstarch instead of flour as thickening, and leaving out mushrooms. I'm a little nervous about this one because it sort of stretches the bounds of substitution more than I'm comfortable with.

Pork fried rice and broccoli

This is the recipe I posted last week (see: How gluten turned me into a foodie)

Parmesan fish and asparagus

Fish+egg wash+parmesan cheese. Grill. The end.

Tacos, refried beans, and carrots (veggie subject to change depending on what's left in the crisper)

Those La Leche ladies of the 80's were some awesome cooks. Just saying. This is ground beef with a can of tomato sauce, onion, cumin, marjoram, salt and pepper. I find mixes way too salty and that a lot of them contain wheat.


Breakfasts: pretend rice chex from Aldi, frozen berries, plain yogurt (also with frozen berries), TJ's gluten free granola (cut with something less sweet). I might make some muffins.

Lunches: leftovers, peanut butter or lunchmeat "sandwiches" on rice cakes. Lots of fresh fruit (love that this is coming back in season!)

In addition to the ingredients I had left in the pantry and fridge, I spent $25 at TJ's and $70 at Aldi. It's not as low as I'd hoped for but with two somewhat different diets to accommodate I feel like it's okay. Two kids ago and before special diets, I used to get our groceries for $70-$75 and I have this fantasy that I'll somehow fall into a price time warp and spend closer to that amount again.