Beginner AIP meal plans

[kim]

I think the hardest part about eating healthy is knowing what to make each day for meals and having snacks on hand. Having a plan really helps. We have not done AIP yet. Next month, I would like to start my family of 4 on AIP. Can you recommend a schedule of meals or even specific recipes to include in a meal plan to get us off to a good start? Thank you.

[Erin]

I think it's great that you and your family are ready to dive in to the autoimmune protocol waters. I personally don't meal plan, which is surprising considering how OCD I am in every other facet of my life. At any rate, it may help to look at ingredients you can roll into other meals and take advantage of organ meats for their lower price and nutrient dense qualities.

For example, adding ground liver to your ground beef. You'll find a ratio that works for your family {mine likes a 1:3 ratio for liver:beef or 1:1:2 for liver:bacon:beef}. I know Sarah has a 50-50-50 burger. www.thepaleomom.com/2014/02/505050-burgers.html

You can also buy a whole chicken to roast or rotisserie and use in a chicken entree salad {a good way to boost veggie variety and intake}, leftover meat can be used for breakfast the next day {in a hash?} and bones/carcass can be used for making bone broth. Then the broth can be used in a delicious soup!

And, I know that Mickey Trescott's cookbook includes an AIP meal plan. That might be a great starting off point.

[abtacha]

I can't give you a complete meal plan just some general tips, sorry.
Try incorporating AIP meals into your routine this month already that way you will find out what you like and have some family favorite staples that you can make often. Cook more than you need and use leftovers for lunch or even breakfast. You can eat the same meals a couple times a week it doesn't have to be something new every time you cook.
Maybe someone else has more insight on this topic (I personally can't follow a meal plan to safe my life )
I know it's not a big help right now but Sarah's upcoming cookbook will have a lot of meal plans. For right now I can suggest you look into Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo. There's an AIP meal plan in there.
May I ask why the whole family starts AIP?

[sarahinparis]

When I decided to go AIP I went through my recipes and found a few that could easily be modified to AIP and a few things that I knew were AIP (roast chicken, hamburger patties, etc). My key was figuring out what I would have for breakfast - once I did those things, found a few meals I knew would work for the first week and cooked up a big batch of something that would work for my breakfasts, it wasn't all that hard.

I spent a lot of time the first week or two looking online for recipes and I bought 2 cookbooks (Diane Sanfillipo's Practical Paleo which has an AIP menu and modifications, and Well Fed 2, which also has AIP modifications listed). Frankly I haven't used either cookbook extensively, most of what I've eaten I've found from blogs.

Good luck - I know it can feel overwhelming to start, but if you just think about a few days (you could repeat meal plans for 4 or 5 days all month if you can tolerate the monotony, for example) then it becomes much more do-able.

Oh, I also gave myself permission to have avocado and bacon any time I wanted as my "treats" since they are both OK on AIP and I like them both. The first days I did have far more of both than usual but it's now been over 2 weeks since I ate bacon and the last avocado I opened had to be thrown out because I'd let it get too old. So I'm not depending on those crutches anymore, even if I still "allow" them to myself when I want them.

[kim]

Mickey Trescott's cookbook should be arriving from Amazon soon. Yay. We've been grain-free for several months now.

Why whole family? My husband has an AI liver disease My 15 year old has Celiac, Tourettes, and Hemochromatosis. I have had various health issues that docs simply shrug at. My 13 year old has to come along for the ride, because I figure if it is good for us then it is good for him. ;-)


So far I am a fail at organ meats. I have tried multiple times but we cannot stand the taste or texture. I even tried mixing just a tiny bit of it into ground beef, and for us, it ruined the taste of the whole batch. Not sure how I will figure out out how to get around that.

I have two teenage boys which makes it nearly impossible to have leftovers, even when I double batches. LOL. Their appetites seem to expand to fit the pot.

Thank you for the advice and suggestions. I will keep them in mind and implement them over the next month or two.

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[knorman]

I have two young boys, so I have to meal plan and try new things to keep food in the house! They are always hungry.

Some healthful snacks that they enjoy are plaintain chips, zucchini chips, and Kale chips. You can easily roast these in the oven. I plan ahead by using my pinterest to save meals that I can tweak for AIP. I make my grocery list from these pins and make sure I map out the week's meals and ingredients on paper. I often buy ingredients that can go with any meals.

For example, I use seasonings interchangeably. If I have lots of basil, it goes in almost every meal.

I freeze anything I don't use and plan next week's meals around that.

Follow AIP boards on Pinterest. Sarah has some. Just search AIP. Double check the ingredients, though, because some people are in reintroduction phases.

[abtacha]

Oh, wow. AI really is hereditary.

What organ meats have you tried? Maybe you could try different organs? Or the same organ from a different animal? Chicken liver is way milder than pork liver for example. If that still doesn't work you could make liver (or other organ meat) pills and just take them that way. Also, incorporate lots of broth in your cooking

[salixisme]

I do mealplan, but I find that plans worked out by someone else do not work well for me - it means that I cannot take advantage of special offers, and I usually end up spending more than I can afford or have to substitute lots of things.
I find it better to buy the ingredients, then come up with the meal plan to utilize what I have bought to the best advantage.
I get a piece of paper, sit down with the receipts and a list of what I have in the fridge, pantry and freezers and come up with 7 breakfasts, 7 lunches and 7 dinners. I list side dishes that I am going to serve as well. Snacks are usually fruit in our house.

[knorman]

Salixisme makes a good point. I also keep a running list of what I have and find recipes that coincide so I don't waste food and money.

Katrina Norman

[elleneliza]

I like eating the same thing multiple days in a row, so I find myself creating meal plans for the week with a bit of variation from meal to meal. It makes it easy to plan and to use up leftovers. It's a strategy that works well for me.

Example, this week:

Breakfast:
chicken sausage OR leftover roasted chicken, diced
kale OR spinach (from frozen)
sweet potato (baked, leftover) OR squash (from frozen)

Lunch:
lettuce greens, sprouts
leftover roasted chicken OR sardines mashed with avocado and nutritional yeast
baby carrots
sauerkraut
maybe a bison bar (the new Epic brand! not sure if it's 100% AIP but I'm still transitioning)

Dinner:
huge salad with mixed greens, sprouts, carrot, raisins, avocado, olive oil/ACV/turmeric dressing
liver/heart/tongue patty OR venison patty, topped with avocado, sauteed mushroom and onion
sweet potato on side

Dessert/snack:
jello made with gelatin, coconut milk, cinnamon, vanilla


Next week, I'll probably switch it up like this:

Breakfast:
beef sausage OR bacon
greens (from frozen)
sweet potato OR plantains

Lunch:
mixed greens
sardine/avocado mash (I try to do this a lot for omega 3s) OR TBD other meat

Dinner:
this chicken/cabbage soup, sub sweet potato for potato and coconut oil for butter (I have yet to make this but I'm excited!): www.kitchenstewardship.com/2014/01/29/recipe-connection-turmeric-chicken-soup-with-cabbage-and-coconut/ OR smoked mackerel and salad


I use the Cronometer app to track my meals, and most days, I'm within a healthy calorie range and I'm getting most of my nutrients (way more than I was getting from food before I went paleo!).

[kim]

We have tried cow and pig tongue, cow heart, & cow liver. Years ago I tried chicken liver.

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[JoanL]

Hi Kim, 

I'm just staring out on the AIP too after having been a vegan for 15 years and falling off the bandwagon a few times in the past month. Yesterday I tried pig's heart for the first time! I cooked it the 'Chinese' style with lots and lots of ginger and use coconut aminos and just a small teaspoon of honey. Fry it up real quick and I actually tolerated it and kind of liked it. I grill lots of fish like Saba mackerel, shishamo, salmon cutlets and pollock etc. I eat more fish than chicken, beef and pork but once a week have some roasted chicken and make patties with minced beef and pork. Mickey trescott has a really kick beef, carrot and sweet potato 'chilli' that I love so much and make on a rotational basis. I also make chicken soup with the leftover chicken carcass after roasting. 

[space]

Apr 10, 2014 6:06:24 GMT -5 kim said:

Mickey Trescott's cookbook should be arriving from Amazon soon. Yay. We've been grain-free for several months now.

Why whole family? My husband has an AI liver disease My 15 year old has Celiac, Tourettes, and Hemochromatosis. I have had various health issues that docs simply shrug at. My 13 year old has to come along for the ride, because I figure if it is good for us then it is good for him. ;-)


So far I am a fail at organ meats. I have tried multiple times but we cannot stand the taste or texture. I even tried mixing just a tiny bit of it into ground beef, and for us, it ruined the taste of the whole batch. Not sure how I will figure out out how to get around that.

I have two teenage boys which makes it nearly impossible to have leftovers, even when I double batches. LOL. Their appetites seem to expand to fit the pot.

Thank you for the advice and suggestions. I will keep them in mind and implement them over the next month or two.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

[space]

Their appetites seem to expand to fit the pot.

LOL !!