Meal Plan Week 12

This Meal Plan Week 12 is Father’s Day on Sunday and we have planned ribs on the BBQ. We use a boil and then grill method. It gets them “fall off” the bone tender and we can add flavours to the boiling liquid to infuse into the meat. Then pair the ribs with a homemade BBQ sauce.

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Meal Plan Week 12 In-Depth and Top Tips

Monday

Chilled Cucumber Soup

This Chilled cucumber soup is one of my favourite summer dinners. Ten minutes to make in the blender and boom. Dinner is made! For an even deeper taste make it the night before, and pop it in the fridge to chill overnight. Then all we have to do is pull it out, shake it to mix it as it will have separated a bit and eat. It is perfect as we have a lot going on this night with kid’s activities and will need a fast meal.

Top Tip:

For a fuller meal we may make a salad with lettuce, a few berries, onions, and pumpkin seeds. Drizzle olive oil and white wine vinegar on the salad and we will have a ton of veggies in the kids and a big enough dinner for Rob.

Tuesday

Quesadillas and Cut Veggies

We will be using the store brand Gluten Free rice tortillas and filling them with Violife or Daiya cheese, a few red peppers, black beans, tomatoes and olives. The adults will also add onions but the kids won’t eat them in these or pizzas. You could also cut up cooked chicken, corn, jalapenos, or whatever you like. In a slightly oiled skillet (we brush the pan with oil to not get too much in it.) heat the quesadilla on both sides until the cheese is slightly melty.

The kids love to dip their quesadillas in extremely mild salsa. We buy the pace picante or store brand mild or make our own. A can of diced tomatoes (including the juice), ½-⅔ of a medium onion, 2 cloves of garlic, a bit of cilantro, ¾-1 teaspoon cumin, ½ teaspoon of sugar, ¼-½ teaspoon each of salt and pepper. All in a blender to puree. The sugar is added in any tomato based sauce to cut the acidity in the tomatoes.

Top Tip:

Use the cheese sparingly as vegan cheeses can get really oily if too much is used. The cheese won’t get super melty like real cheese.

Wednesday

Chicken Papaya Salad

We will be using our recipe for Chicken Papaya Salad but instead of making it curried we will be subbing the curry for ½ the amount of thyme.

To cut costs, instead of serving 6 people’s curried chicken salad in a half papaya, we will cut 1 large papaya in cubes and put a bit of it on each person’s plate. The chicken will be served on a bed of romaine lettuce instead. The kids may prefer their chicken salad served in a sandwich with gluten free bread or bagels like those Little Northern Bakehouse.

Top Tip:

This is a great way to use pre-cooked chicken. If you had extra chicken left over from last week’s coconut lemon chicken it is great in a recipe like this, just don't add all the sauce. If desired the chicken can have the sauce patted off if it had a strong sauce on it that may over power the dish. 

Thursday

Sloppy Joe and a Garden Salad

Our kids love Sloppy Joe’s, which kind of surprises me as I never had it until I was an adult. This is a special request meal from two of the kids to have for dinner this week. We will use ground beef, but you can use a different kind of ground meat (chicken, turkey, pork, bison). This recipe will be posted ASAP. We make our own mix for it with onions, garlic, a yellow pepper, tomato sauce, and coconut aminos. The spices are turmeric, paprika, cumin, oregano, salt and pepper. 

We serve it all on a Gluten Free bun like the Little Northern Bakehouse ones. If you can have soy and mustard the Schar ones may be a better fit for you as they are softer and closer to regular bread.

Our salad will be a pretty simple garden salad with a homemade ranch dressing. It is made with 1 C of vegan mayo, ½ C of plant milk that has been soured with 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, 1 teaspoon dill, ½ teaspoon each of parsley, chives, garlic powder, and onion powder. Salt and pepper to taste ⅛-¼ tsp. All mixed together and left to sit for 1 hour. It keeps for about 4-5 days.

Top Tip:

Save any leftovers for the spaghetti sauce on Friday night. 

Friday

Spaghetti Bolognese 

We use any leftover Sloppy Joe meat and sauce and add it to jarred sauce. For us a few sauces have been okay but always check that they are safe for you. If using pre-made sauce, check for allergens. We find milk, soy, and wheat ingredients are most prevalent in the pre-packaged sauces and sometimes double checking with the manufacturer is needed for inquiring about shared lines.

We prefer the Pedon More Than Noodles brand of gluten free noodles. The other noodles we use are either corn or rice based. We find the pure rice noodles get sticky and need to be a bit under cooked or they go really soft.

Top Tip:

Another option for the sauce is from when we made the Slow Cooker Lamb recipe a few weeks ago and froze the veggies from the sauce that we had strained out. We thaw the veggies and add them to either tomato sauce and paste with a bit of oregano and thyme or add them to a jar of safe sauce. 

Saturday

Jo Cook’s Curry Chicken and Rice

We will be making curried chicken and rice using the recipe from the Jo Cook’s Blog. It is an easy and quick dinner. We usually double the recipe for our larger family. We really miss ordering from our favourite Indian restaurants as we used to have them once a month. This recipe isn’t an authentic one but it is a fantastic substitute that we can make at home easily. The less time we are in the kitchen, the more time we can spend doing other things with the kids.

Top Tip:

Some curry blends have mustard. Check that the one you are using is safe for you. 

Sunday 

Father’s Day Root Beer Ribs and Packet Potatoes with Grilled Asparagus

We are going to be BBQing our root beer ribs, potatoes and asparagus. The prep on the ribs will be done earlier in the week and chilled to firm the meat up. We prefer to boil the ribs in liquid that has veggies, and root beer to flavour the meat. We have tried the slow roasting and the instant pot methods but we keep coming back to the boil method. 

The Root Beer BBQ sauce will be homemade. Both recipes will be uploaded this week, if you are looking to make a rack of ribs for this meal. 

The grilled asparagus is going to be in an aluminium packet with a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper, and peach balsamic. The aluminium foil will be used just so the veggies don’t drip through the grill. 

The packet potatoes are easy and go on the top rack to cook. 

Top Tip:    

If choosing to use a beer in the boiling liquid make sure it is gluten free. Be really careful as some beers are made with less than 20 PPM not zero so they may still have enough allergens to make some people react.

We Love Feedback!

Did you make any of the meals we did let us know? What is on your meal plan this week? Drop a comment on this post or tag us on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok.

• Vegan Lemon Meringue Pie - GF/DF/EF, Top 8 & 9 Free
• Gluten Free Tabouli (Tabbouleh) - GF/DF, Vegan, Top 9 Free
• Tomato Free Pasta Sauce - GF/DF, Top 9 Free
• Mashed Oven Roasted Acorn Squash - GF/DF, Top 9 Free, Vegan
• Gluten Free Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb - GF/DF, Top 8

We have to remind everyone that we are not medical professionals or dietitians, so these meal plans are not balanced for nutrition, they are for information purposes only. Please discuss any dietary concerns, changes, or proper meal plans with your medical team.

Always check the labels for any products to make sure they are right for you. We also encourage you to contact the manufacturers in addition to checking that the process of manufacturing is also safe for you, and that there aren’t shared lines. One product or ingredients may be safe for one person but not another. Always check the products and ingredients before purchasing.