One of my favorite memes that makes its way around online shows a mom bemoaning the fact that her family wants dinner every single night. It’s funny, because it’s true! Sometimes it seems like figuring out what to make for dinner every night (not to mention breakfast, lunch and snacks) can be exhausting. Add in a family member with a specialty diet and things get even trickier. Not only do you have to figure out what to feed everyone but also make sure it is IC friendly.
I know it can feel overwhelming, especially at first, but it gets easier. There are a few tips and tricks for meal planning with a special diet that make life easier. And there are lots of yummy recipes your whole family will love that won’t hurt your bladder!
Meal Planning with IC
Focus on what you CAN have.
Instead of getting caught up in thinking about what you can NOT have, shift your thinking to what you CAN have. That one attitude shift will make a difference as you are planning what food to make and feed your family. My philosophy when it comes to diet and IC is that I’m thankful to know what foods and drinks cause me pain so I can avoid them. However, that wasn’t my philosophy from the beginning as I would focus more on what I couldn’t have and how unfair it seemed. Once I stopped to think about it, I realized I was grateful to get to choose to feel better by avoiding the foods that bother me. That freed me up to think about the foods that don’t bother me. Thinking about those foods gave me inspiration for what I wanted to cook.
Make food you can customize.
Along with cooking for your IC diet, you may have other diet restrictions in your family. Or you may be like me and “blessed” with a particular eater or two. Meals that can be customized work well. Make individual pizzas (opt for Hidden Valley ranch dressing instead of pizza sauce and chicken for a yummy, IC-friendly option), burritos, quesadillas (consider cheese and plain chicken as an IC-friendly option), sandwiches and more. If spices bother your bladder (or just your taste buds), prepare dishes with mild flavor and let those who like more spice add that in to their own portions.
Write a list of dinner ideas.
Make a list of dinner ideas for your family. You can make this as detailed or simple as you’d like. While many folks recommend planning specific meals for specific days, I’m a bigger fan of the list. You still know what groceries you need to purchase and what meals you have ingredients for, but you can decide what the actual meal will be each day. Because the unpredictability of IC (and life in general) means some days you are able to cook more than others. Using a list is easier so you can pick what you feel up to cooking each day.
Plan ahead for bad days.
When it comes to making your list of dinner ideas and figuring out what groceries to buy, don’t forget to plan super easy meals for the hard days. You can do batch cooking and freeze meals you made. For example, make a double-batch of a soup and freeze half of it for later. Or brainstorm other simple, easy-to-make dinner ideas. Think about prepared or mostly prepared foods that work for you. My family is usually thrilled when we end up eating frozen waffles, cereal or simple sandwiches for dinner.
Don’t forget your family’s preferences.
While your goal is probably to come up with food options that work for your whole family without having to cook two separate meals, don’t ignore food your family likes just because you can’t have it. I usually have a decent supply at home of fruit I can’t eat without setting off a horrible bladder flare but that my kids love. It works well as a healthy side or dessert for any meal for them and I just skip it. I’ve also made shredded chicken for my daughter and me to have and left it plain so we could each add the sauce to it we like. I opt for a bit of barbeque sauce with a dose of Prelief in order to handle it well. She opts for a mix of barbeque sauce and honey mustard that would make my bladder angry.
Winter Recipes to Consider
As part of meal planning dinners for your family, don’t forget to look for new recipes. (You can find lots of IC friendly recipes in The IC Chef Cookbook and Confident Choices: A Cookbook for IC and OAB.) Eating food that makes your bladder happy doesn’t have to be boring and mundane. It also definitely doesn’t have to be repetitive. Winter is a great time for hearty meals made in the oven or slow cooker. We tend to crave warm food that fills our bellies when the temperatures start plummeting. All of these dinner recipes do just that!
Beef
Nutmeg rubbed beef roast and orange almond yams
Chicken
Chicken and broccoli casserole
Pork
Roasted pork and potatoes with creamy applesauce
Slow cooker herbed pork and red potatoes
Soups
Slow cooker chicken noodle soup
Ethnic foods
Potatis (Swedish-style baked potatoes)
Soft chicken tacos with roasted red pepper and corn salsa (Mexican)
Baked quesadillas (Mexican)
Almond chicken (Chinese)
Beans with rosemary and pine nuts (Italian)
Low acid veggie pizza (Italian)
No-mato spaghetti sauce (Italian)
Tomatoless lasagne (Italian)
