The Weekly Menu May 16, 2016

by Deana Larkin Evans · May 15, 2016

Hi everyone! It’s time for the weekly menu May 16! Hope you had a great week.

Last week was super positive for me having earned an ‘A’ in both my Intro to Bioinformatics & Coding classes at JHU. Yay!

Part of the challenge has been eating really clean to keep my gut bacteria as happy as possible, exercising to keep stress down, and surrounding myself with positivity and love.

It’s a good feeling to be on the mend and challenging myself and finding joy in those accomplishments.

Eating Clean

So when I say we eat clean because my system is super sensitive, what does that mean?

I’m not sure if it was the toxic mold or month-long of strong antibiotics to treat MRSA infections or some genetic thing, but my digestive system went haywire many years ago.

And I’ve just learned to listen to my body and eliminate foods and chemicals in the home that are disruptive, cause inflammation and brain fog.

As we learn more about our individual microbiomes, it will be fascinating to see how the food we eat and chemicals we are exposed to are all connected.

Add that to the list of gluten-free, dairy/casein-free (except for the Parmesan cheese), nonGMO/organic (to avoid glyphosate contamination, not the technology), no refined sugar, antibiotics, chemicals, additives, or preservatives.

No BPA from cans, saran wrap or heated plastics. I’m also trying to remove all the xanthan gum, too. And I’m not a fan of seafood for so many reasons, even though I know the omegas are good for us.

It sounds so depressing. You would think that all I could eat is chicken, broccoli and rice (by the way we switched from brown rice to Basmati rice to avoid higher levels of arsenic in the brown rice).

But no.

Having the staples of a lean protein, veggies, good fats and whole grains are just the starting point (unless I’m busy or not feeling creative then it’s perfect).

But since we can’t use cheese or creamy sauces anymore, we’ve turned to spices and non-dairy sauces for flavor and a little punch. So we end up eating pretty clean while coming up with some fun and tasty recipes…