Meal prep means preparing your meals for the week ahead (or even longer) in advance. You can do as much of the process as you want ahead of time. The goal of meal prep is to make eating well easier for you and your family. If meal prep stresses you out, then it’s not helping!
The process of planning your meal prep starts with…you guessed it - planning your meals! I use Plan to Eat to help layout meals. You simply add your favorite recipes to the queue and then drag and drop them to the calendar. Plan to Eat even does your grocery list for you! Start a free trial here. You can also meal plan with any calendar app or simply pen and paper. It’s really up to you and what works best for you and your family.
Whether you’re an avid meal prepper or you’re just looking for a few meals to fill your freezer, these recipes are a great way to always have filling, nutritious, real food on hand to feed yourself and your family.
There’s a few recipes that are always great to have on hand. These are the basic building blocks for a lot of other recipes.
Fermented Garlic
This is an easy beginner ferment to make. Raw garlic, has many supportive health benefits. And when raw garlic is fermented, many of these increase. The fermentation process takes about 6 weeks to complete!
Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free
Chicken Stock
Meat stock is a pillar in healing a leaky gut but this rich food is beneficial to anyone. It provides large amounts of the immune system’s favorite foods, is very easy to digest, and is a great base to modify for other healing and nutritious recipes. This recipe can be modified for any type of meat stock.
Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free
Spaghetti Sauce
I’ve always liked spaghetti and spaghetti sauce but when I started making my own spaghetti sauce, I realized I liked my own sauce best of all! I love making my own spaghetti sauce because I get to be in charge of the flavor, texture, and strength. Plus, I know everything that’s in it!
Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free
Salad Dressing
I was searching for the perfect sausage recipe. I discovered I don’t like a sausage that is heavily flavored with sage. My ideal tasting sausage was Jimmy Dean’s sausage which, of course, contains MSG.
I needed to find a recipe that would keep me from occasionally caving and eating Jimmy Dean.
Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free
Lovely Lard
Eating animal fat is important to our body's health. But eating enough fat can be challenging, especially when there is a dairy allergy. Lard is a great alternative to butter, and its taste is more mild than that of tallow. You can buy lard at the store, but it is expensive and may be hydrogenated or of poor quality. Making your own lard is simple and easy, and can be done for a fraction of the price.
Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free
Beef Tongue
Beef tongue is very simple to prepare. I prefer to boil it, but you can also put it in a slow cooker for 8 hours. Either way, the stock that you’re left with is rich and delicious. I’ve kept my beef tongue stock before and used it to make Egyptian Lentil Soup. You can also shred beef tongue to use it in tacos or slice it to use in a stir fry.
Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free
The recipes below are easy to make in large quantities and freeze well, making them the ideal meals for meal prepping on the GAPS Diet!
Sprouted Refried Navy Beans
Beans make everything delicious! When they’re properly prepared and you can tolerate them, navy beans are a good addition to your diet. These are great served with anything that has a Mexican theme with them. I like them next to eggs, like a Huervos Rancheros sort of feel.
Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free
GAPS Legal Chili
I was excited to make this chili as I hadn’t had it for years! This homemade chili was well worth the effort because of how delicious it was - and how many meals it made!
Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free
Creamy Garlic Chicken Soup
This is one of my favorite soups! It’s warm and creamy and so delicious. This soup is easy to make in large or small batches depending on how many servings you need.
Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free
DIY Sausage
I was searching for the perfect sausage recipe. My ideal tasting sausage was Jimmy Dean’s sausage which, of course, contains MSG.
I needed to find a recipe that would keep me from occasionally caving and eating Jimmy Dean.
Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free
GAPS Legal Pancakes
These pancakes are a basic of the GAPS Diet. They can be made with butternut squash or pumpkin. It’s easy to make a large batch and they freeze well for a quick snack.
Gluten Free, Dairy Free
GAPS Legal Waffles
Recently the idea struck me to try to make a GAPS waffle. I had made many GAPS pancakes, so I thought maybe it could be done. And it turns out... it can! These can also be made with butternut squash or pumpkin.
Gluten Free, Dairy Free
Chicken Tortilla Soup
This Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe is a result of me expanding my horizons in genres of food that I cook and eat! It wasn't too spicy, and it's different than plain meat stock that you typically eat on Stage 1. There were tons of suggestions about different ways to make it, so it's also easy to switch up to match your tastes.
Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free
Ratatouille
This recipe is a warm and filling side, and can even function as a meal on days your body is wanting very little meat. The lard creates a stoutness to this recipe that fills you up without making it feel like a heavy meal. I have found this recipe to be a wonderful support food when I am stressed, cold or tired and need a little more in the way of carbohydrates and fat.
Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free
Liver Meatballs
Liver is an amazing superfood! This is a recipe that I recommend to a lot of moms! It’s a great way to help your kids eat a little bit of liver every day, which is the best way to eat liver. This recipe makes a lot of meatballs so you can freeze them and take out a few at a time to have for lunch or dinner.
Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free
Lamb Meatballs
Meatballs are a simple way to add variety to your diet. They can also be a great way to get your kids to eat vegetables! Add finely chopped onions, zucchini, peppers, etc. in to your meatballs to add vegetables.
I’m making these meatballs with lamb burger but you can do it with any kind of burger.
Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free
Egyptian Lentil Soup
This delicious soup is legal on Full GAPS, and has been a hit with every single one of the many people I have served it too. This is not a leftover that gets forgotten in the fridge... it has disappeared much sooner than you want it to be gone!
Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free
Pumpkin Soup
Once you have the puree for this pumpkin soup recipe, you can also use it to make a pumpkin pie or use it to make GAPS Pancakes.
I usually eat a small bowl of pureed soup alongside a much larger bowl of another soup. It’s a great way to have a multi course meal on the GAPS Intro Diet.
Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free