Let’s Talk Poo 7 (Week 1 of The 2 week Prep Diet)
So I thought I’d write a post about the foods we’ve been eating for the last week, in case anyone was curious or needed ideas. We are 1 week into our 2 weeks of preparation diet suggested by the CDD. By “we” I mean Lee and Ashely, but the rest of us are pretty much following the high fiber diet with Lee as it’s just easier than cooking too many different meals.
Ashley has to be on a low fiber, low residue diet. The idea behind this is to starve the current bacteria in her gut, good or bad, so that the new bacteria have less competition when they are infused.
Lee, on the other hand, is beefing up his bacteria (and giving his bowels the best opportunity to work daily, even though he doesn’t have issue with that) by eating a very high fiber diet. I’m also giving him inulin, a prebiotic, to help feed his microbiota even more.
Both diets are supposed to avoid processed or cured meats (sausages, packaged lunch meats, pepperoni, ham, bacon, etc). Ashley has to avoid all pork.
I think I’ve explained before that we are pretty darn good at eating balanced meals. We always have a fruit, a vegetable, a protein and a starch. I’d consider the way we eat to be pretty healthy, but certainly not perfect. It has been interesting and fun trying foods outside of our normal wheelhouse and we’ve found some that we really, really like!
This is how it’s been working so far. Breakfast, everyone is on their own for the most part. Lee has been eating high fiber cereals (Grapenuts, wheatberries, oat bran) and Ashley has been eating bagels, eggs, and yogurt.
Lunch is typically leftovers. Ashley packs a lunch for school of her low fiber leftovers or makes a white bread sandwich with non-cured meat. Lee has been eating the high fiber leftovers or having a sandwich with non-cured meats on homemade oat bran bread.
Dinner is when we are all present and eat together. We’re still eating mainly the same proteins we were before, it’s our side dishes that have changed. We still have a fruit and a veggie, but our starches have changed. Ashley gets a pasty white starch and Lee and the rest of us get a high fiber starch.
So far, so good! Though I will admit that in a moment of weakness last night (Friday) , after a busy week of extra cook prep and time for these healthy meals, we broke down and had McDonalds. Lee made up for it with a lot of fiber-full snacks that evening.
Below are some recipes that we’ve found in week 1 that have been quite enjoyable. I hope this helps!
Kale Chips – These were surprising! We enjoyed them, though we felt that the 1 tsp of salt was overkill and probably could have used half of that. We’re looking forward to trying other flavors in the future! Kale is a super food and has a surprising amount of fiber! It’s a veggie, for those not in the know.
Black Bean and Tomato Quinoa – We are new to quinoa. We’d heard of it, but never taken the time to try it. It went great with Tacos. Quinoa was available in packages in the rice aisle at the grocery store.
Winter Wheat Berry Salad with Northwest Vinagrette – Super delicious! One of my favorites. See the bottom of the post for recipes. Wheat berries were in the bulk food of the health foods section of my local Safeway.
Zesty wheat Berry and Bean Chili – This was super delish too. I was really surprised as I’m not a fan of adobo or chili for that matter. We replaced the black beans with a can of chili beans and a can of kidney beans.
Beef & Barley Soup – Another winner. We added extra veggies and extra barley. Barley was in the bulk food of the health foods section of my local Safeway.
Oat Bran Bread – This easy to make, ‘easy to get ingredients’ health bread was perfect for us. I did replace the flour with Bread flour. It’s a recipe for a bread machine, so even better! Oat Bran was in the bulk food of the health foods section of my local Safeway, as well as in the baking aisle with the Red Mill brand bread baking stuff. Fred Meyer also had all of the Red Mill brand items (lots of good whole grain options prepackaged, including waffles!) in one of the health food aisles.
No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies – These were a low sugar, decent fiber snack that Lee could turn too when his sweet tooth was screaming at him. They were really good! It’s the second cookie on the page. I haven’t tried the first one yet. I skipped the Chia seed, but it was available near the quinoa in the rice aisle at my local Safeway.
Turkey Breast – I also cooked up a turkey breast and then sliced it up for lunch meat since both Lee and Ashley are supposed to avoid cured and processed meats.
Winter Wheat Berry Salad
1 c cooked wheat berries
1/4 c toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped (I could only find in the baking aisle)
1 tsp thyme leaves
1/4 c chopped parsley
1/4 c chopped celery
1/4 c unsweetened dried cherries, halved if large, rehydrated (in apple juice)
2 Tbsp Northwest vinaigrette (see recipe)
Salt and pepper to taste
Place wheat berries, hazelnuts, thyme, parsley, celery and cherries in a bowl and stir to mix. Stir in vinaigrette into wheat berry mixture and toss to coat ingredients. Add more seasoning if needed. Store at room temp or chilled.
Northwest Vinaigrette
1/4 c oil
1/4 c cider vineger
1 tsp runny honey
1 tsp stoneground mustard
pinch of salt
black pepper
Shake to mix and store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
