Week Three! It's the final stretch. Whether or not you've followed the diet 100% I hope you are feeling proud of your accomplishments so far and are feeling well in your body! While this is the last set of recipes I'm posting this time around I hope it's given you some guidance around making gluten and diary a less integral part of your diet.
I find that as I reintroduce foods, I may find some that I don't do as well with than others. With the knowledge of what works for my body I can then make more informed choices about what I'm eating. Doing an elimination diet reminds me about foods I have forgotten about, and helps me remember healthy patterns (like snacking on rice cakes with avocado instead of chips) even when I've reintroduced other foods.
Here they are - the final week's dinner recipes!
Roast Lamb
The last roast recipe I'm going to use is the roast lamb. If you don't eat red meat you can go back to the first week and roast another chicken but if you do I encourage you to give it a try. Like the previous "mothership" roast recipes, they are designed to give you leftovers, which I use up in the lamb curry recipe. Leave the bacon out of the cabbage for this one, or use your own favourite veggies.
Fish Tikka Curry
I know, there are a lot of curries in this menu plan. The reason is that they are super easy to make delicious curries that are OK on the elimination diet! This one is, again, from Save with Jamie. Just looking at the pictures has me excited to cook this one again.
Leftover Lamb Curry
Jamie Oliver's "Save with Jamie" book one of my favourites right now. Especially over the winter, the idea of making a weekend roast and then having great recipes to transform the leftovers throughout the week really appeals to me. The lamb curry recipe in this cookbook is a biryani that involves making your own stock, cooking beautiful rice, and layering the yummy flavours into a dish that then gets baked for 40 minutes. The whole process takes 2.5 hours and I imagine that you - like me - do not have 2.5 hours to transform leftovers. So I've adapted it to a crock pot stew. Will it be "Incredible Lamb Biryani"? No. Will it be on plates 20-25 minutes after I've walked in door? Yes. And that is what I need on weeknights.
Ingredients
8 oz leftover lamb
2 thumb size pieces of ginger
4 cloves of garlic
2 red onions
2 TBSP olive oil
2 tsp curry powder
1/2 chopped mango
1 fresh chile, finely chopped
1 pkg frozen spinnach (16oz)
1 tsp red wine vinegar
2 cups stock
1 cup basmati rice
Instructions
Finely chop the ginger, garlic and onion. Put everything except the rice in the crock pot. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. When ready to eat steam 1 cup rice in 2 cups of water for 25 minutes.
Cabbage Salad with Duck
This cabbage salad is so yummy. It's adapted from Donna Hay's "The New Easy". You're going to want to make this all the time, elimination diet or not!
Ingredients
1/3 cup lime juice
1/4 cup fish sauce
2 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp shredded ginger
6 kaffir lime leaves
2 duck breast
1 Tbsp Chinese 5 spice powder
3 cups cabbage (shredded)
2 chillies, finely sliced
3 green onion, finely sliced
1/2 cup cilantro leaves
1/2 cup mint leaves
1/2 basil leaves
1/3 cup cashews
Instructions
Make sure all of your veggies are prepped before you start. Score the fat on duck breasts. Sprinkle with the 5 spice powder. Heat a pan on medium high heat. Cook the duck breast skin side down for 5 minutes, until skin is crispy and then flip and finish cooking (about 3 more minutes). Set the duck breasts aside to rest and turn down heat. Add lime juice, fish sauces, honey, ginger and lime leaves and stir. Remove from heat and set aside. Combine the cabbage, chilli, onion, cilantro, mint, and basil and divide between plates. Slice duck breast and toss in pan sauce. Top plates with duck and pan sauce. Sprinkle with the cashews and serve.
Squash Pasta
I always think of this for "leftover" squash but that is a rare commodity in my house so I often roast a squash just for this pasta.
Ingredients
- 1/2 butternut squash (roasted)
- 1/4 tsp chilli flakes
- olive oil
- 1 clove garlic
- pasta (I like the chick pea pasta with this sauce)
Instructions
Cook you pasta as per package directions. While it's boiling slice the garlic. Get a heavy bottomed sauce pan on medium high heat with a few lugs of olive oil. Add the garlic and chilli to the hot oil and cook for about 1 minute to flavour the oil. Add the roasted squash and mash and stir. Add pasta water as needed to create a thick sauce texture. Drain pasta and mix with squash sauce. Enjoy!
Lime Fish Taco Salad
Donna Hay does some lovely and quick fish taco recipes like this one. To make it Elimination Diet friendly, leave out the taco shell and yoghurt and place fish on a bed of lettuce or cabbage with all the toppings!
Turkey Burgers
I know it's not the obvious choice but Gwyneth Paltrow is my go-to girl for out of the box burger recipes (which I need because I could eat burgers every week in the summer!) These turkey burger patties are great alongside some salad or roasted vegetables. Everywhere I found the recipe online they included a yoghurt sauce (which you want to leave out until you've reintroduced dairy) and a bun! Which was not in the original recipe and you probably want to leave it out until you reintroduce gluten! With that caveat here is the burger link.
Well that's it for Elimination Diet Dinners this time around.
If you are thinking of doing an elimination-style diet and are looking for guidance and support - come chat with me! I'd be happy to help you!
Book a Complimentary Meet and Greet Consultation with me here