A GF weekly meal plan

I'm a bit excited! I've come up with some more ideas to share with you.....

I know that last post I put out a challenge for you to trial the gluten free diet. I know that the hardest thing to commit to something new is getting the ingredients and figuring out where to start. So I've done the hard work for you. I've completed a weekly meal plan for all meals, and the recipes can be found on the blog.

It's simple......Print off the plan (you may need to hi-light and control p to print) figure out what you need to buy, go to the supermarket buy the ingredients and your challenge can begin.

WEEK 1 GF MEAL PLAN

	S	M	T	W
B	Scrambled eggs	GF cereal	GF toast	Yoghurt and fruit
S	Fruit	Piece of GF cake	sultanas	popcorn
L	Potato and ham soup	GF toasted sandwich	Potato and ham soup	GF sandwich
S	Piece of GF cake	Fruit	Fruit	Trail mix
Di	Roast Beef and veggies	Creamy chicken pasta	Beef strongaff	Stuffed chicken breast
De	Small serve frozen yoghurt	Fruit	Fruit	Small serve frozen yoghurt

	T	F	S
B	GF cereal	Boiled eggs	GF cereal
S	Fruit	Carrot sticks	Trail mix
L	Rice cakes with ham cheese tomato	Rice with a small tin of flavoured tuna	Salad with meat or tuna
S	GF cake	GF rice crackers	Fruit
Di	Chinese Marinated pork ribs	Lamb in cranberry sauce	Sausages and veggies
De	Fruit	Small serve of ice cream	Chocolate mousse

Note: All recipes for the meals, soups and cakes can be found on the blog. Write your shopping list for the week based on the meal plan. The Saturday meal of sausages is just an easy to fuss dinner, you might choose something else you have in the freezer that won’t take long to cook. This is a guideline feel free to mix around as much as you like. It’s a good idea to make a pot of soup on the weekend and put in the fridge or freezer, they make great nutritional lunches through the week. Remember you need to drink at least 2L of water each day. Don’t forget some alcohol such as beer and scotch etc contains gluten! Any questions send me a message or email on mmoagflife@gmail.com

Evaluation of GF Diet

For each point use a scale of 0 for nothing to 10 being the worst possible. Bowel movements are affected by gluten in people who are coeliacs or have an intolerance, so although it may seem a bit too personal (this is only for you) record how many times you went to the toilet each day. This record is useful for yourself to monitor the success of the diet and very helpful to show you doctor or nutritionist if you want to seek further advice.

Day	Bloating	Bowel	Cramping	Tired
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

I will also put up an evaluation form if you are trying the gf diet for autism or behavioural issues. This will be added later in the week when I gather more information about the benefits of gf diet on autism and behavioural issues.

Please feel free to contact me to ask any questions and let me know how you go with this challenge.

Goodluck
xxxx

A challenge

I was out with my oldest friend today for her birthday and we got to chatting about gf food. Whenever she comes over to visit, she will generally bring some tasty goodies for me! She actually said that she has developed a taste for some of these foods and that she feels better when eating gf products.

It's not wise to completely remove gluten from your diet if there isn't a dietary need, but certainly reducing the amount of gluten you eat or removing it for a short period of time, will definitely do you some benefits.

So I have decided to put it out there to my lovely readers, I challenge you to remove gluten or as much gluten as possible from your diet for a week! This is a fantastic idea for those of you who my be experiencing some symptoms that I have mentioned are related to coeliac or you just simply feel yuck after eating certain foods.

Before you ask 'how can I possibly do that?', I would like to draw your attention to the various recipes that I now have on my blog. There is a variety of main meals, soups, sweets, cakes and desserts that you can try. The only meal of the day that I haven't got recipes for is breakfast. My advice for you while your on the challenge as gf cereal is rather expensive eat porridge (oats) there isn't conclusive medical evidence that they contain gluten or eggs or yogurt.

I know there is lots of cakes and yummy food in my recipe collection but please make sure you eat your daily serve of fruit and veg!

Also to follow this challenge correctly you will need to remove packaged food that contains gluten, remember to read the label of everything you eat and wheat from sugar is okay (that means most lollies) but wheat starch or anything else is not!

Please keep me updated on the progress of your challenge, I'd love to know how if works for all of you.

Any questions just comment or email me and I'll try and answer it asap.

Don't procrastinate another day, give it a go.......

p.s recipe of the day will be in the cakes and sweets section!

Fart humour

One of the side affects of being a coeliac, when you eat gluten you can have some rather bad wind! Now I know this might be taboo but it's a side affect and you need to have a good laugh sometimes!

I might be pushing 30 but I still find fart humour amusing. It's hard sometimes when you're a teacher and your trying to chastise an 8 yr old boy who has just 'let one rip' and you have 26 little people laughing and holding there noses, I've tried to be serious but many a time I have just started to laugh with them! Yes I am a child!

I remember talking to a girlfriend when I was waiting for test results and asking about coeliac, she had some family and friends who had it and she said you have really really bad wind! Now I wasn't as close to this friend as I am now, and I didn't feel comfortable saying 'oh god yes! That's me all the time!', I just nodded my head, interested, pretending that I didn't have that at all!!

But yes, yes, yes that definitely is me! I'm not talking a bit of a smell, the farts of a coeliac are potent, wipe you out, gas you out, make you gag! And not just for a minute, when you get the first whiff, I'm talking it lingers for ages!

My husband has walked into the bedroom and I could have let a sneaky one go at least 20 minutes prior and the smell is still lingering. He will refuse to come to bed until the smell has disappeared.

I think sometimes he forgets how potent they can be, and he will think that he can win in a farting competition. I remind him that all it takes is for me to have a mouthful of bread and I will win hands down!!

The good news is that the stinky farts go away when you stop eating gluten! And if you accidentally eat gluten the farts are usually a good indicator that you have eaten something that you shouldn't have. Unfortunately not eating gluten doesn't diminish the need to fart, that is a normal bodily function!

Apologies if my fart humour isn't to your taste, but I bet it made you smile a bit!

The recipe for the day will be posted later in the main meal section, I am a clever duck!