Meal Preparation!

This was the image on my kitchen table on Sunday. I now spend two hours every Sunday evening, preparing meals for the rest of the week.

Recipes for each of these meals will be up in the next couple of weeks, but here we can see:

• Marinated turkey breast with chickpeas and vegetables
• Marinated turkey breast with roast sweet potato and vegetables
• Roasted lemon chicken breast with roasted sweet potato and vegetables

They are all super healthy and filling lunches, perfect for reheating at work. They can also all be frozen and reheated after defrosting in the fridge overnight.

I also prepared some gala melon into little tupperware bowls and some stewed rhubarb. Nice little sweet treats to finish off a healthy lunch. 

Lemon and Thyme Chicken

The butchers near where I work is excellent. The people who work there are so friendly and helpful, and they have some of the nicest cuts of meat and are always there to offer advice for what to do with them!

So the other week when they had 10 chicken breasts on for £10 I of course had to jump on it. They were all big, from free range hens from a farm only 2 miles down the road from the butchers. Now that's what I call local produce!

So the next easy meal had to be chicken, and it couldn't be simpler.

You will need:

• Chicken breasts (I used 4)
• Dried thyme - or fresh
• 1 lemon zested 
• 200ml chicken stock

Rub the chicken breasts with the thyme and lemon zest, then place in a baking dish with the stock and the lemon cut into quarters. Then bake in the oven at about 150C Fan until the juices run clear - about 30 to 45 minutes depending on your oven.

We served them whole in our little tupperware lunch boxes with mashed sweet potato and roasted carrots. 

low-FODMAP/whole30

What is a low-FODMAP diet?

FODMAP stands for: Fermentable Oligo-Di-Monosaccharides  and Polyols.

Foods that contain lots of these can be associated with bloating, abdominal cramps, flatulence etc. They are, in essence, IBS triggers. As such many sufferers of IBS are advised to try the low-FODMAP diet in order to recognise an individual's triggers and learn to accommodate them. The diet is not meant to be done indefinitely, only for about 4-6 weeks, before you start reintroducing foods one at a time.

So what is a high-FODMAP food (ie, what won't I be eating for the next few weeks):

• Wheat - basically all wheat and anything containing gluten
• Dairy products - some diets say you have small amounts of dairy, I on the other hand will be cutting out everything. No more milk, yogurts, cheese...anything!
• High fructose fruits - apples, strawberries, peaches, raisins, watermelon
• Processed meats
• Some vegetables - onions, garlic, mushrooms, kidney beans, soy beans

This list of restrictions is very similar to Whole30, which is a restrictive diet in order to reset yourself and your system, plus lose some weight!

It's a massive change as I'm not used to restricting my diet...at all. Luckily my fiance Rob is doing this whole thing with me. He's not giving up dairy, but he is giving up wheat, which is a big deal for him, I know.

Sorting out my meals for the week at the moment, and I'll have my shopping list up soon :)