Meal Planning

I touched on meal planning being very important to being successful on any diet but more so on Yeast Free.  This is due to the many temptations around you.  You get in from work and you're tired or your children are hungry and want feeding, like NOW!  Do you want to be looking in the fridge or freezer and start planning your meal? No probably not, this is not saying that this won't happen from time to time so don't beat yourself up about not being organised just have certain things that you can rustle up a nutritious yeast free dinner quickly.

Breakfast

All your meals are important but breakfast is one of the most as this kick starts you for the day.  I always say that a car cannot run without petrol so why on earth would you not eat. Your body i guess is like a car it needs fuel.  You don't have to have a heavy breakfast, something light such as puffed rice and rice milk, it's easy and quick to do if you're in a rush.  But don't forget you can't just grab a banana or a cereal bar if you're in a rush so to plan your breakfast set your alarm half an hour earlier to give you that extra time.

Lunch

Why don't you make your lunch the night before or make a little extra with the previous nights dinner and put it in the fridge for dinner the next day?  If you work and you're lucky to have a kitchen like I have at my work then why don't you take your lunch to work for the week.  On a Monday I generally take a bag of salad, a punnet of tomatoes, chicken or fish, nuts or seeds, olive oil, i also take a pack of rice cakes and some Almond Butter for a mid morning and afternoon snack.  I sometimes take some homemade hummus and a cucumber to chop into sticks to dip when i'm peckish.  I then don't have to worry about my lunch and remembering to do it or worry about thinking what i can have.  Doing this kind of planning gives you far less temptation to steer toward eating something that has yeast and undoing all your good work!

Dinner

Try and plan this the night before, defrost your meat, fish etc overnight or organise what is going to go in the crock pot in the morning before you leave for work.  When you get home not only will you have a delicious smell as you walk through the door you'll be ready to eat.

Salt

Just be careful about the amount of salt you are using.  It's easy to flavour your meals with salt and overload your body with this too and salt can also be a detriment to your health causing a number of health issues.

Acute effects are

Muscle Cramps, shortness of breath, dizziness and water retention

More serious effects are

High Blood Pressure
Heart Disease

amongst others so don't fall into the trap of overloading your food with Salt!!

Oh I'm starting to sound Neurotic!

For my dinner today i made some Chicken Burgers, they were delicious and i just put what i had in the cupboard in.

here's what i did

Chicken Fillets Blended
Chick Peas instead of using bread to bulk out
garlic
Onion
Herbs

I heated two tsp into a frying pan.  Took out enough of the mixture to make a burger shape and placed it into the oil.  I cooked on both sides until browned and cooked.

I served them with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, sunflower seeds and a drizzle of oil, not too much though.

I've planned my mealtimes next week and i'm using a meal planner that i got when i purchased the recipe book from theyeastdiet.com Here's my shopping list

Lettuce
Celery
Tomatoes
Carrots
Cucumber
Green Beans
Sweet potato
Red Pepper
Onion
broccoli
Advocado
Cauliflower
Salmon
Lean Mince meat
Chicken Fillets
Eggs
Onion Powder
Kidney Beans
Spaghetti
Tomato Puree
Rice Cakes
Brown Rice
Tortilla Chips, no salt and yeast free
Stock Cubes, yeast free
Garlic
Fresh Parsley
Tuna
Almond Butter
Cornmeal
nuts, not peanut
Vanilla and plain Rice milk
Rice Bread for crumbling when i make Beef Burgers
Tahini to make my homemade hummus

Just call me Chef Gail!!! ha ha