Overnight Oats

This morning I woke up and went to my favorite Vinyasa class and came home to a DELICIOUS bowl of overnight oats. What a perfect way to start the day.

Recipe adapted from Skinny Taste
Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup quick oats
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1 tbsp chia seeds
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 banana
• seed and nut trail mix
• maple syrup

Place oats, almond milk, chia seeds, vanilla, and cinnamon in a mason jar with lid. Shake to combine and refrigerate overnight. In the morning remove jar from fridge and go to yoga while it thaws! Put mixture in a bowl and top with sliced bananas, trail mix, and drizzle with maple syrup (add a little more almond milk if you'd like).

Weekly Meal Planning

One thing that I think is really important when you have GI issues is meal preparation. If you're always prepared with something to eat that's good for your tummy, you're less likely to just eat whatever is lying around. Sunday is the perfect day to go grocery shopping and plan out meals and snacks to set yourself up for a successful week of feeling great. These are the meals and snacks that I've planned for the week. I've been trying to eat more veggies.

Snacks

• Mozzarella sticks wrapped in turkey
• Lactose free yogurt cups
• Carrots and peanut butter (Sounds weird but tastes surprisingly good)
• Hard boiled eggs and chocolate almond milk (Also sounds a little weird but it has a ton of protein and curbs my sweet tooth. If you need something sweet it's best to pair it with protein so your blood sugar won't spike.) 
• Macrobars- I just saw these for the first time at Whole Foods and got to try a sample. Ok like 5 samples. They are the first protein bar I've found that is completely FODMAP free!
• and of course Bobo's Oat bars. These can be trouble though since they're a little over 300 calories per bar. Usually I'll eat half mid-morning and the other half in the afternoon.

Meals

• Baked chicken and sweet potato
• Salad- mixed greens, cucumber, shredded carrot, grape tomatoes, red pepper, hard boiled eggs, and balsamic dressing.
• Tuna salad on a bed of fresh greens- I like to make tuna salad with a little light mayo, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and Cholulaha and will sometimes add cucumber and grapes.
• Stir fry- I always keep jasmine rice, chicken, zucchini, scallions, peanuts, and red peppers on hand so my husband can make stir fry :) 

After looking at this list I realize how much I like to snack.

Favorite Food Friday

My favorite treat lately has been iced coffe with LOTS of ice and french vanilla coconut creamer. I'm not a huge coconut fan so I was reluctant to try this (I really don't care for coconut yogurt) but I'm so glad that I did. It's really creamy, sweet enough that you don't have to use a whole lot, and it doesn't have much of a coconut flavor. Yum!

Favorite Food Friday

This week's favorite food is... Green Valley's Lactose Free Vanilla Yogurt!

Silk soy yogurt used to be a staple in my diet. When I found out that I shouldn't be eating it and would need to switch over to real yogurt, I was actually disappointed. I've never preferred the taste of regular milk or yogurt and was reluctant to try this yogurt. I have to admit, it did take a couple days to get used to the consistency, but now I LOVE IT. Great lightly sweet flavor, very creamy and rich, and it's really filling too. I would eat twice as much soy yogurt to feel as full. Lately what I've been doing is having it with homemade maple cinnamon granola and a seed and nut trail mix.

Clif Products

I am really enjoying IBS: Free at Last. It's very informative and is helping me feel less frustrated with this diet.  I've learned some new things about additives in foods and thought I should update my previous post on energy supplements for endurance sports. Sharkies are now out. They contain fruit juice concentrate which is a no-no. Clif Shot-Bloks and Clif Electrolyte Drink are in! and they are yummy too. Clif Bars and Energy Gels are unfortunately out but Bobo's Oat Bars are a good substitution.
And I'm still mourning the loss of Honey Stingers and Waffles.

Favorite Food Friday

I was really worried that being on this new diet (I hate the word diet, more like nutritional plan) would make me feel limited with my food choices, but it has actually opened my mind up to new things. There are a ton of new-to-me products I've fallen in love with, so I decided to start "Favorite Food Friday" to feature one every week. My husband wanted to call this post "Fantastically Flavorful FODMAP Free Food Friday", but I thought that was a little much. ;)
So the first most delicious food ever is... QUINOA PASTA!

Who would have thought? I used to hate quinoa. This pasta is blended with corn and you can't really tell it's not wheat, except that it has a delicious buttery flavor and texture. Which is better, so I will not miss traditional past at all! I've been making it with spinach and feta chicken sausage and 365 organic pasta sauce. They have one flavor of sauce that doesn't contain onions, just garlic. That seems to sit ok. I'd also love to try this mac n cheese recipe (minus the garlic and plus gluten free breadcrumbs).