Idea Starters for Your Healthy Diet Changes (Gluten Free, Dairy Free)

One thing that comes up regularly during the typical, random conversations I enjoy with people I meet regarding food usually includes something like “I want to eat healthy, but I don’t know what to do”. Here are some great idea starters for your healthy diet changes!

It’s Totally understandable considering all the confusing and contradicting information and diet regimens that you’ve probably seen thrown around or heard of someone trying out, each with its own set of pros and cons and do’s and don’ts.

Plus, the food and drink choices we usually go toward are oftentimes influenced by the meals eaten in our family as we grew up, foods that the people surrounding us usually eat, as well as the diet choices aggressively marketed on tv, online, and as you move around your community.

I know I was confused for a long time too, and all of these challenges affected me powerfully, but I eventually started connecting the health challenges I had been experiencing with my diet and lifestyle until about 13 years ago. Once I made that connection, it was so much easier to prioritize my health over the obstacles that had been in my way and start getting my health on track.

Making Changes

There are several areas that you can focus on to impact your health and they do work together and influence each other, but food is probably the most obvious way to get started and impact every system of your body. What might be the easiest way to begin your health shift is to prioritize meals that maximize nutrients through real food. Just by choosing to be more real food focused, you can:

• access real nutrients that your body recognizes and can use, and
• enjoy simple meals with ingredients you are familiar with.

To prioritize real food as the mainstay of your diet:

• start reading the labels of what you currently eat and consider alternatives with fewer and/or cleaner ingredients and primarily made from whole food where needed,
• spend most of your food shopping time in the real food areas of your preferred grocery store (mostly the periphery) or at your local farmers’ market,
• experiment with and incorporate new meal, drink, and snack choices and recipes made from tasty nutrient dense real food,
• increase the nutrients available in your main dishes, seasonings, and sauces, sides, snacks, and drinks by adding herbs and spices, and colorful real food.

As I began adjusting familiar meals with different and additional ingredients that pumped up the nutrient load, particularly including foods that were gut healing initially for better digestion and absorption, I began to notice several changes:

• many of the foods that were labeled as healthy weren’t really healthy,
• my tastebuds woke up and I more and more enjoyed the flavors of the foods I was eating including some I had tried once before and decided I didn’t like,
• not-so-healthy foods that I had been previously eating began to have a stronger chemical flavor to them.

Dish, Drink, and Snack Ideas to Get You Started

Looking for ideas to help get you started or maybe expand on your already developing healthy eating journey?

Check out the categories below with links in each for you to explore and consider. Each recipe is gluten free and dairy free. Most are nutrient dense plant based (51-100% plants), but also easily personalized to match your particular preferences.

Not counting what you might decide to combine these with, each of these have little to no oven time and the minimal stove time shouldn’t heat up your house during these hotter months.

1. Popsicles – Watermelon Cucumber Lime Popsicles, Chocolate Wonder Pops, Creamy Strawberry Popsicles
2. Salsas – Mango Salsa, How to Cut a Mango, Tomatillo Salsa, Homemade Salsa or Pico
3. Smoothies – Breakfast Smoothies, Easy Blueberry Green Smoothie, Pineapple Coconut Smoothie, Carrot Cake Smoothie, How to Make a Perfect Green Smoothie ⋆ 100 Days of Real Food
4. Ice Cream and Sorbet – Mango Cherry Banana Ice Cream, Cantaloupe Sorbet, Chocolate Mint Ice Cream, Chocolate Pecan Ice Cream
5. Grilled – Grilled Chicken Skewers with Veggies, Lemon Shrimp Skewers, Grilled Vegetable Salad, Tropical Fruit Skewers
6. Sauces and Dressings – Cilantro Lime Sauce, Jalapeno Ranch Dressing, Oil Free Ranch Dressing, Avocado Dressing
7. Pasta/Quinoa Salads – Tuna Pasta Salad, Crunchy Thai Quinoa Salad, Chickpea Pesto Pasta Salad, Creamy SW Pasta Salad, Easy No Mayo Pasta Salad
8. Infused Water (Agua Fresca) – Homemade Vitamin Water, 15 Flavored Water Recipes, Herbal Waters, Herb Infused Lemonades
9. Vegetable Bowls – Chickpea “No Tuna” Salad, Asian Slaw, Broccoli Raisin Salad, Lentil and Rice (Mujaddara), Sweet Potatoe Breakfast Bowl, Simple Slaw
10. Desserts – Cherry Pie Energy Balls, No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars, Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Balls, How to Make Energy Bites, Apple Crumbles
11. Salads and Soups – Paleo/Vegan Kale Salad, Vegetable Broth, Crunchy Kale Salad with Cranberries, Detox Salad
12. Entrees – Chicken Tenders, Black Bean Tacos, “No Tuna” Salad, Baked Salmon Salad, Build Your Power Bowl, Sweet and Sour Meatballs

A Few Potential Surprises

You might experience 1 or more of these as you go from eating mostly processed foods to mostly real foods:

• doing the research and finding out about what you’re eating and want to begin eating will take time,
• realizing your online search may prioritize only selective information, so dig,
• preparing real food meals and snacks will take more time than what you might be currently needing,
• adjusting to the new taste and flavors will take time,
• discovering (new to you) foods will be fun and open a lot more eating possibilities,
• experiencing health improvements that you hadn’t actually thought about.

Additional Ideas and Information

How about recruiting others in the household and making meal prep a team project? I know we have The Best conversations in our house while chopping, seasoning, cleaning up, and sitting down to meals. My husband actually considers himself to be the sous chef (support chef) of the family.

Don’t be afraid to play around with recipes. You might not like a recommended ingredient but discover you actually prefer something similar. I don’t like peanut butter, so I use almond butter instead the No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars listed above.

Every household has a different financial situation. I do recommend investing in good tools that make meal prep easier and faster when possible. A few that I regularly suggest are a good, high-power blender, processor, and a few good knives.

I actually have a weird combination of good knives that I’ve built up over the years.

I also highly recommend a Vitamix. While it took me a few years of convincing my husband in our household due to the price tag, ours is The workhorse appliance in my kitchen with daily use for over 12 years now.

• this Vitamix 5200 but there are other models you might prefer,
• Cuisinart Food Processor
• Glass containers like these from Azure Standard and these

Since we are a gluten free and dairy free household, a few of my preferred ingredients include:

• Coconut Secret Coconut Aminos (GF replacement for soy sauce or tamari),
• Jovial Pasta (our favorite),
• Quinoa (white has a milder flavor but don’t miss others) like these or these
• Olive oil or coconut oil (with and without the coconut flavor depending upon recipe).

Also check out Vitacost and Azure Standard as additional online food resources. I use both for bulk buying and access some cleaner brands I can’t find locally.

Have Fun Eating Real Food

Have fun trying some (or all) of these yummy recipes. I know our family has.

I’m really excited about the journey you are beginning and all the health benefits coming to you and your family. I’d love to hear about your journey and any benefits and surprises you noticed.

Enjoy feeling great when you’re giving your body foods that it can recognize and use to fuel your good health!

Have fun!