Following our miscarriage, I have been really focusing on trying to eat nutrient-dense, healthy meals to help heal my body and assist my body in balancing my hormones. We’ve made efforts to cut out probably 90-95% of the processed food we eat – we want to feel we are in our healthiest possible state before we try again – and honestly I feel really good with how we have been eating. I know personally my eating habits over the past couple years have slowly started becoming a little more “lax” for lack of a better word…I still very much would consider myself an intuitive eater and overall a “healthy eater”…that being said, I know I have probably allowed for more of the highly processed, sugary foods that don’t serve my body. I don’t mean to vilify them, but I think part of being intuitive with your eating is being in tune with your body and what it needs. Right now I both know I need more nutrient-dense food and I want to eat that way.
For breakfasts I’ve been eating things like pasture-raised eggs scrambled with veggies, oatmeal with berries, and low-sugar/high-protein yogurt. I really like Two Good yogurt. Only 2g of sugar in a serving.
Lunches have primarily been huge salads filled with greens, topped with salmon or chicken. I also will have a small glass of kombucha with lunch for a good dose of healthy probiotics and antioxidants.
Snacks have included green smoothies, nuts (really loving walnuts right now), olives, veggie slices like cucumbers or carrots, and the occasional protein bar. Be careful with ingredients in protein bars if you’re wanting to clean up some of the different chemicals or processed foods in your diet. RX bars are really good for only a few, whole-food ingredients. I also still like Built Bars and while they do have some artificial sweeteners, overall their ingredient list isn’t bad either. But primarily I am trying to stick with mainly one-ingredient/whole foods, and opting for organic when I can to avoid pesticides.
Now onto dinners. These are 4 weeknight dinners we had last week and we loved them so much we definitely plan to make them again and again.
4 Weeknight Dinners
Veggie Turkey Meatloaf
I used this recipe from Jen’s blog and it is really good. Craig said “this is delicious”. Actually, he said “that was delicious” after he ate about 4 servings, ha. But I agree and def recommend. I like you can really pack different veggies in. Get creative if you want and try other kinds. You’d just want to grate them or put them into a food processor so they bake in well and don’t leave huge chunks of vegetables, unless you’re into that of course.
Harvest Taco Bowls
It’s no secret that Craig & I love taco bowls, but since I am aiming to incorporate as many vegetables into our diet as possible, I opted to try a different spin on our traditional taco bowls. This time I used brown rice, olive oil sautéed kale, roasted butternut squash, and roasted chickpeas. The squash & chickpeas I covered prior to baking with avocado oil and taco seasoning to give the taco flavor. I believe I did it on 400 degrees for about 30 minutes or until the squash was soft and the chickpeas were slightly crunchy. We topped it with avocado and it was amazing. The kale is an unsung hero too…If you cook kale right, it is so so good.
Sweet Potato Black Bean Casserole
I found this recipe on Pinterest and I’m so glad I did. Again, packed with vegetables! A note here: I did not use the tortillas as the recipe calls for but instead I added a layer of kale and it worked out really well! Kale is such a strong leafy green it can really hold up to serving as a layering tool in this casserole, and bonus points because then it’s even more veggie power. It made plenty enough for us to have leftovers, and even Emma loved it!
Chickpea Penne Pasta with Red Sauce & Kale
Okay, lots of kale in these recipes. But I have to say, between all these meals, our salads at lunch, and green smoothies, we actually finished an entire huge bag of kale and huge container of spinach in less than a week. I think that is a record for us…we always use some of what we buy but I’ll be honest, lots of it was always getting thrown out at the end of the week. So I felt pretty dang proud we used every last leaf!! Haha. This is a super easy but nutrient-packed dinner. We like the Banza chickpea penne pasta (extra fiber and protein and lower in refined carbs than traditional pasta) and I simply cook some red sauce (I usually get the Ragu Simply Vegetable red sauce, but use whatever kind you like) and cook in handfuls of kale before adding it all together!
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I hope this post has been helpful in sharing 4 weeknight dinners to give you some new ideas to try!
xo,
Bess
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