Monday, August 10, 2026

Menu Monday: Nourishing Body and Soul

 


                Starting this past Monday, Ryan and I elected to do a bit of a protein-focused, clean eating reset just to help us get back on a better track. We’re using a strict start and hope to park here for a month or so while we retrain our bodies away from sugar. We know that in that time, we have some events that may not allow us to hold as tightly to it, but for the days we can, we will. This first week afforded us the chance to eat at home every night and have leftovers for lunch each day, so it went well!

                In this phase, we are eating a lot of protein and non-starchy vegetables and abstaining from grains, dairy, and most fruit. We’ll be adding all that back in soon, but this is the starting point. The meals I’ve made are filling, and we don’t have any kind of restriction on them. We eat until we are satisfied. So below are the recipes I used as guides, though I did have to modify some of them to eliminate cheese or some veggies if they fell into the starchy category.  Honestly I’d keep all these recipes in full even after we move out of this phase.

                I think the things I miss the most are my morning toast and my yogurt and granola. They’ll be back, and absence will have made my heart grow fonder. I’m just sure of it.

Monday: Sheet Pan Chicken and Broccoli

What We Modified: I made this recipe as written – minus the teriyaki sauce. I will make this again later, and when I do, I will use G. Hughes teriyaki sauce, because I do love their dressings and marinades.

Tuesday: Grilled Tilapia and Sauteed Zucchini

What We Modified: Ryan grilled our tilapia, which is the only way I can handle fish, and I made this sauteed zucchini recipe. I had massive zucchini from our garden, so I just cubed it in larger cubes rather than using the baby zucchini the recipe calls for. Otherwise, I followed this recipe.

Wednesday: Ground Turkey and Green Beans

What We Modified:  I really loved this one. I left out the onion (for now) and used cauliflower rice instead of regular rice. (And since I wasn’t using regular rice, I didn’t need the broth.) I skipped the mustard and Worcestershire sauce. I used green beans from our garden, and this was a delicious meal!

Thursday: Chicken Salad Lettuce Wraps

What We Modified: I didn’t remove anything, but I did add diced dill pickle, because we love it in chicken salad. We ate ours over salad greens, and Ryan added boiled egg, cherry tomatoes, more pickles, and some pepitas on his.

Friday: Chicken Salad Lettuce Wraps with Leftover Zucchini and Asparagus

What We Did: We didn’t have a ton of the chicken salad left, so we added leftover veggies to round out the meal.

Saturday: Chicken and Mushrooms with Roasted Zucchini

What We Did: I made the recipe but it didn’t feel like it was going to be filling enough, so I sliced up some of our garden zucchini and summer squash, sprinkled it with seasoned salt and Italian herbs. Baked it at 425 for about a half hour. It was delicious!

Sunday: Taco Salad

What We Did: I browned some ground turkey, added taco seasoning and served it over mixed greens with salsa on top. We missed our cheese and chips and yogurt, but it was still good!

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