30 Meal Ideas for Producing Fruit & Fuel for the Body
Written by Bethany Curee, God’s Daughter – Freckled & Free

“A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.” Luke 6:43-45

Essentially this could be said true for what we put in our bodies as well. What we put in our bodies is either going to produce fruit or produce sickness. When we fuel our bodies with the right things the difference truly can be felt. As the rainbow represents God’s promises, eating the rainbow in our diet aligns us with the way He desired our temples to be run – efficiently and effectively. Doing our part to eat that rainbow of nutrients, aligns us better with the promise to walk in health and obedience to His Word with the resources He gave us amidst a fallen world. With the fuel we take in, every fiber plays a vital role in the function of our being; every part we take in can properly be distributed throughout the body in pure nutrients if we’re making the right decisions.

So here to inspire you, is a little bit of what I’ve been cooking up for the last several weeks, even amongst the COVID-19 crisis (even more reason to make the right choices). I pray it motivates you in your kitchen to eat God’s way and to get all the beautiful variety of nutrients He gave us to savor. I do it to challenge you and inspire you to re-examine what you’re putting in your temple (you know the one that God lives in with you). If you’re not, all it takes is daily small changes to get us in the right direction and to never stop pursuing that dream.

#1 BREAKFAST FUEL

To start us off, certified organic: scrambled eggs (from our very own chickens), avocado spread, black beans and jalapenos, topped with a tiny pinch of cheddar cheese and sour cream. Because I work hard to follow very closely to the Eating by Design lifestyle, I try to keep dairy to a minimal amount, but I allowed myself a bit for this Mexican inspired breakfast. Enjoy! (Disfrutar!)

#2 A SCRAP FIXINS LUNCH

At the end of each week there is always an assortment of random things left to be eaten, I’m calling it scrap fixins. You too can make scrap fixins good. I was out of lettuce, but craving a salad, so I made one out of certified organic: raw broccoli, cucumbers, my favorite fermented beet sauerkraut, wild Alaskan salmon, a farm fresh boiled egg, a mixture of sunflower, hemp and pumpkin seeds and I topped it all with ranch. I typically would make my own dressing with apple cider vinegar but as of late I’ve just been craving a homey ranch. I served it up with a side of mixed berry kefir, chopped honey crisp apples and blueberries and a side of sliced apples with a dash of cinnamon to boost my metabolism and help with any inflammation. After intermittent fasting this was just the fuel I needed.

#3 BAKED SALMON FOR THE WIN

The kiddos and I love salmon…Tom on the other hand not so much, so in our house we enjoy salmon on a regular for lunch. This wild caught salmon I baked was delicious, I whipped it up with whatever spices I was feeling that day. I’ve learned you really can’t go wrong with some savory or spicy flavors. I served mine up with certified organic: sauteed spinach, kale, snap peas and quinoa with strawberry kefir and raw strawberries on the side and we washed it all down with lemon water filtered from our new Berkey Tom got me for my birthday. We’re all big fans.

#4 SIMPLE VEGGIES

Sometimes you just want to keep things simple and whip together a quick and nutritious lunch. Pictured here is certified organic roasted potatoes and broccoli as well as sliced heirloom cherry tomatoes. What I served alongside is one of my personal favorite go to items for what feels like dessert (as you saw above), mixed berry kefir, they have it in multiple flavors as well. I served mine with blackberries and honeycrisp apples. There is always room for something sweet after the savory right?

#5 SALMON PATTIES YESSS PLEASE

Can we just talk about salmon patties for a minute? They are so good. My kiddos licked their plates right along with me for these bad boys. I typically just wing my ingredients with whatever I have on hand. But, trust me this took years of cooking wins and fails to get the basics down. Sometimes I just read a few recipes for an idea of what to do and then I put my own twist on them. I made two different versions as you will see below, and each with whatever I had on hand. One I mixed with farm fresh eggs, parmesan, a mixture of spices and panko crumbs and the other I mixed with farm fresh eggs, a mixture of spices, Bragg’s nutritional yeast and a pinch of shredded cheese. I cooked them on the stovetop in a tad of oil and grass fed butter. Each turned out fabulous. These were served up with certified organic: roasted beets (yummo), rainbow carrots, homemade guac (onion free of course if you know me) and fresh sliced tomatoes on top. Guys. Like for real you gotta make them.

#6 SALMON PATTIES ROUND TWO

As described on #5 these delicious salmon patties made with wild caught salmon turned out divine. I could eat them everyday. I served this batch alongside certified organic sliced tomatoes, broccoli, asparagus and a few leftover roasted potatoes, #winning. For intermittent fasting I served up with a side salad.

#7 A BREAKFAST FOR THE QUEEN

Farm fresh scrambled eggs cooked up with certified organic sauteed peppers, asparagus, jalapenos, homemade guac, crushed red pepper and roasted chickpeas. You could run a few miles after this meal. Spice just right.

#8 I BE LOVIN’ SOME EGGPLANT

Thanks to my friend Meg she blessed me with a bundle of vegetables from her garden a few years back. One of these vegetables was the mysterious eggplant. I had never made it before, and honestly never took the chance on it at the store due to my inexperience with it. Meg taught me the trick to making it well. You simply slice it, sprinkle it with salt on both sides and let it sit for 20-30 mins as the salt draws the moisture out. This is an important step because it helps remove the bitter taste from the eggplant. After that I roasted it along with organic cauliflower and served them up with my homemade tomato sauce and a side spinach salad with mixed pumpkin, sunflower and hemp seeds and dried cherries. You can’t go wrong with taking a risk on this meal. Any tomato sauce of your choice would do.

#9 ROASTED VEGGIES & QUINOA

My kiddos have come to love quinoa, so I cook a batch up when I can. Thankfully it cooks fast. For this meal I made organic quinoa and a sheet pan of organic vegetables. My kiddos (including Tom…haha) will try different vegetables better if it’s mixed with some they already like. In this one I used butternut squash, Brussels sprouts, green beans and asparagus and topped it with freshly squeezed lemon juice. You can’t go wrong with enjoying a Kevita Pineapple Peach Kombucha along with organic purple grapes to complete the meal. It’s one of my favorites.

#10 KEFIR & FRUIT BREAKFAST BOWL

Sometimes you wake up and all you want is something light and fresh. This breakfast bowl of organic mixed berry kefir, blueberries, purple grapes, blackberries and mixed sunflower, pumpkin and hemp seeds has loads of antioxidants, probiotics, protein and nutrition your body needs. The nice thing about this concept is you can make endless variations of it and it will taste great. Quick and easy. Fresh sunflowers add a burst of inspiration for your day.

#11 WILD CAUGHT BAKED SALMON LUNCH OR DINNER

A sure way to get our omega-3s. A plate of baked salmon, certified organic roasted green beans and a mixture of vegetables – cauliflower, yellow squash, peppers and broccoli. Fiber isn’t an issue here and it’s quite tasty.

#12 CHARCUTERIE BOARD FUN

Thanks to our dear friends at Rustic Grains, we joined in on their live DIY with #createwithRGkids about a week ago. My kiddos felt super cool getting to make their own choices for their plates at breakfast. Our board consisted of wild caught salmon, certified organic: pickles, farm fresh boiled eggs, fresh sliced tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, raw cauliflower, peppers and baby carrots, avocado spread, diced kiwis with the skin (for the extra vitamins) and blueberries and lastly dried cherries and mangos. The whole table enjoyed this fun way of gathering as a family.

#13 FOR THE LOVE OF SALAD

I’m a huge fan of salads and honestly I could eat one everyday. I love salads because they are packed with essential vitamins that our bodies need. I love the variety in which you can make them everyday and I enjoy making a rainbow of colors to eat. I feel like my body claps its hands every time I feed it well. I know I can certainly tell the difference. I always tell my children if you eat crap you will feel like crap and it’s just plain true folks. This salad contained certified organic spinach lettuce, raw cauliflower and carrots, sliced cherry tomatoes, farm fresh boiled eggs, fermented beet sauerkraut and dried cherries. I typically make this dressing, which is our favorite but I had to take a break from it awhile as I was eating it too much. I’m feeling the craving to make it again which is good, because it’s a lot better for you than ranch.

“If you eat crap you will feel like crap.”

#14 MOMMA’S COOKING

Before the COVID-19 quarantine, my dear momma served us up some roasted chicken, wild rice & quinoa blend along with roasted broccoli, Brussels sprouts and acorn squash. If you want to know where I get my love for healthy cooking you can thank my momma. She is truly the best cook around and she instilled in me a love for real food which I am forever grateful for. She didn’t buy junk food, everything had to be cooked with love and care. Momma you did it right, you sure did.

#15 AN EGGCELLANT MEAL

Is your mouth watering yet? If it isn’t, it should be. I was feeling the need for something more filling for this breakfast so I sauteed some certified organic: yellow squash, carrots and shredded purple cabbage in salt & pepper, soy & Worcestershire sauce and a mixture of spices and fried two fresh farm eggs. Bam! It was right what this momma needed.

#16 BAKED COD DELICIOUSNESS

It’s the fishy life over here. I love fish because it’s lean and has incredible nutrients our body needs and I’m not gonna lie it makes me feel a little bit closer to Jesus when I eat it (for obvious reasons hee hee). Lemon is essential and you can never go wrong when adding a dash to the top of it along with savory spices and salt & pepper, a tad of grass fed butter and a bit of parmesan. I ate mine with leftover roasted green beans and acorn squash.

#17 GRILLED CHICKEN & THE WORKS

I love when my husband Tom gets to grill. It’s a nice refreshment for me from cooking the protein part of the meal. So to thank him, I whipped up his favorite organic mashed potatoes and sauteed shredded purple cabbage, kale, spinach, peppers, and minced garlic. Due to our daily 2 miles we’ve been getting in, I fairly earned those taters. These grilled chicken thighs were a nice mix up to all that fish we’ve been getting in.

#18 GRILLING WEATHER IS THE BEST WEATHER

Round #2 with this gorgeous perfect temperature weather we have been getting. It gives us the glorious chance to eat outside on our stunning tables our friends with Rustic Grains made us. This plate, thanks to Tom is chopped grilled organic chicken breast with grilled pineapple (yummo), leftover homemade mashed potatoes and steamed Brussels sprouts. Homemade decaf stevia sweetened tea with lemon to swallow it down.

#19 BARBECUE SALMON

Guys, if you haven’t tried barbecue roasted salmon, you seriously need to. My momma made me this years ago and for some reason it had never dawned on me to try it myself until a week or so ago. It turns out it was super easy. I literally just drizzled barbecue sauce over it with salt and pepper and baked it for about 12-15 mins on 400 degrees. If you haven’t noticed I’ve had a kick lately for sauteed vegetables. Each day I just add a little something different to the mix and the possibilities are endless. This mixture includes certified organic: shredded purple cabbage, mini sweet peppers, spinach, peas, spiralized zucchini and cauliflower. A little zest and spice make it just right. My mouth was thanking me.

#20 GRILLED VENISON STEAK FOR MEXICAN NIGHT

This photo was too pretty to not share. Tom did an excellent job grilling us some venison steak for our family’s favorite mexican night. Juicy and cooked just right, and a perfect lean meat.

While they all enjoyed it as deer steak tacos. I made mine into a salad to be good during this weight loss journey I’m still on. I loaded mine in a bed of organic romaine lettuce, 1/2 cup of long grain sprouted brown lime rice, 1/2 cup of corn cut off the cob, 1/2 cup of tri-blend beans, homemade guac, jalapenos, diced tomatoes, a pinch of shredded cheese and a spoonful of sour cream. As of last Tuesday I started really trying to measure out all of my food and track it again in My Fitness Pal to make sure I get this weight off along with daily exercise.

#21 A LITTLE OF THIS AND A LITTLE OF THAT

Another end of the week meal miracle. I was out of any kind of lettuce again, but still craving salad so I made a chopped organic baby carrot salad as the base and mixed it with 1/4 cup of kidney beans, sliced cherry tomatoes and homemade guac. Simple, delicious and nutritious while working with what I have. Fresh water served with lemon and lime from my Berkey.

#22 BUT REALLY THE MOST RANDOM AWARD MEAL

Guys I’m serious, I really needed to go to the store but I didn’t feel like going yet so I whipped together another random selection that all turned out delicious and fulfilling still. I really emptied the fridge out after this one. A. I proved to myself yet again, I didn’t need to eat out just because it was random and B. scraps are great and save money in the end. Fuel up with what you have first. This was leftover barbecue salmon (yum), a whole grapefruit sprinkled with stevia, a bowl of organic raw strawberries & blueberries and a farm fresh boiled egg (we always have those thanks to our chickens). All served up with decaf stevia sweetened tea and lemon. Strange? Maybe so, but it’s all delicious and it works people.

#23 SUNDAY BRUNCH

Since planting our church in December of 2017, Real Church, which holds Saturday night services, we have truly enjoyed our Sundays as the Lord’s day of rest. There is nothing like a slow Sunday morning to relish in, to savor family time around the table and kick back on life. This particular morning we invited my momma over and Tom gave us ladies a rest from the main cooking and fixed us up a good one. I couldn’t resist sauteing up some garlicky organic kale, spinach and peas, adding a dollop of homemade guac and sliced tomato wedges to Tom’s farm fresh eggs, organic roasted potatoes and bacon. It was the perfect way to start our day before working on our yard and picking up some fun landscaping items.

#24 FAMILY STYLE SALAD

I am convinced that pretty food sells itself. My kids definitely take notice when their food is styled well. Just as adults like pretty things so do kids. They are more willing to try food when it looks appealing. My kiddos eat incredible and for that I am extremely grateful. However, education has been key. I spend a lot of time investing in teaching my children what their food is and what it actually does for their bodies. This knowledge allows them to make decisions for themselves on what they should fuel their bodies with. With this family style salad they were able to customize what they put into their salad with organic sliced cherry tomatoes and cucumbers on the side. Some also topped their salads with black olives or dried cherries. I blended a mix of greens to ensure I was sneaking in all the nutrients they need with organic green & purple kale, spinach and iceberg (for Tommy toes). Everyone enjoyed this beauty (inside and out). We served it up with grilled chicken breast and leftover mashed potatoes.

#25 CALLING ALL VEGGIE LOVERS

Getting your greens in is one of the most important things you can do for your body. I could go on and on with the list of goodness it’s doing for you but I won’t for now. This green meal was packed with sauteed organic green & purple kale, snap peas, broccoli and sweet mini peppers. I cooked them with a mixture of spices, Worcestershire sauce, garlic and lots of freshly squeezed lemon juice and a tad of parmesan cheese. It was truly divine and the kale gave such a good bite to the mix. Does it have you ready to go green yet?

#26 BBQ VENISON BURGERS

This is one of our favorite meals as a family. Of course you can sub out ground turkey or beef if your not a fan of venison (deer) meat. We actually learned this recipe when Tom and I were first married from one of those free Kraft magazines. You simply use about a pound of ground meat, 1-2 tablespoons of barbecue sauce and about 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese. Mix the meat in with that mixture and patty them out into burgers and cook as you like. We top ours with a farm fresh fried egg, pickles and a drizzle of barbecue sauce. Our sides were organic roasted green beans and leftover mashed potatoes. As you can see we typically make up a large batch of mashed potatoes (Tom’s favorite) so we can have them for at least two meals. They are the perfect side for reheating. You can’t go wrong with this one.

And….sometimes you make something sooo good you just have to have it again. About a week after the first ones, we were already craving them again. Lick smacking good. This time we cooked them up with some good ole’ sweet potato fries and gorgeous organic heirloom tomatoes.

#27 BLT ROMAINE BITES & FRESH JUICE

This is an easy way to cut some calories and still pack the flavor. I love this simple anytime of day meal because the fresh romaine gives it such a nice crunch in addition to essential nutrients and minerals like calcium, magnesium, vitamin C & K just to name a few. With the romaine as the base, a bed of avocado mash over that, I topped mine with crispy bacon and sliced organic tomatoes with about a measuring cup worth of fresh organic sliced strawberries and blueberries with my homemade juice that I strained the pulp out of that week.

For the homemade juice pictured above and below I used a variation of organic green apples, clementines, ginger, blueberries, celery, cucumbers, baby carrots, lemons and pineapple. It’s extremely refreshing. I have found that I love to juice but I don’t have time to dedicate every morning to juicing and cleaning my juicer amongst homeschooling, working from home and all the other mom/wife duties. Now, don’t get me wrong I totally would make the time commitment for our health, but thanks to my mom’s great tip, we found a smarter way to make it a part of our lives daily. My mom gave me the great suggestion to do it every so many days. Lightbulb, HELLO, she is so smart. She just juices every three days a fresh batch of juice which will last for about that and still taste amazing. I’ve added this to my routine and it’s a life saver. It’s so much more manageable for my life while getting the great benefits of juicing in my body as well as my kiddos. The flavor combinations are endless so you can never get sick of it. According to Spirit of Health, which I think highly of and certainly recommend you looking into, they say, “Juicing is one of the best ways to get high level nutrition without burdening the digestive system. Because of this, it is one of the fastest ways to cleanse and detoxify the entire body.” That’s pretty impressive if you ask me.

#28 DESERVING OF BREAD OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT THREE WAYS

Sometimes you work so hard on all this good eating, you finally deserve yourself some bread. Ensuring I got my 2 miles in, made it an even more secure decision to take this treat. I used only one piece of bread worth 90 calories for one delicious sandwich. Assembled all with Simple Truth organic multigrain bread with sprouted grains, turkey, cucumbers, broccoli and clover sprouts, spinach lettuce and avocado mash with mustard. Served up with a side of mixed berry kefir, green grapes, sliced kiwi and a mixture of sunflower, pumpkin and hemp seeds and two mini dill pickles. Yum.

Hands down I could eat the food pictured below for breakfast every single day…or for lunch or even dinner for that fact. This is how much I love avocado toast. There is nothing like organic whole wheat sprouted grain bread (or your choice of bread) topped with avocado, sliced tomatoes and sprinkled with cheese. This particular version I added a thin slice of turkey breast and wa—la it was dynamite.

So….when trying to stay focused on your weightloss journey sometimes you really want bread as you saw above. However there are days your trying to be so good and you can’t afford bread, so, you just have to find something similar. Thankfully, I found these fun “egg wraps” made also with cauliflower that actually weren’t too bad. In fact I quite enjoyed my two pieces of bacon, organic avocado, spinach lettuce, broccoli and clover sprouts all wrapped up with this new concoction. If you’re looking for a good option like this, I found mine at Costco. Maybe something worth trying?

#29 A VIRTUAL GATHERING

Every month since our launch in December of 2017 with Real Church, (the church we planted), we have taken the first Saturday of every month to host what we call The Gathering. We do this in place of a typical service simply to come together and serve a free meal to our community in the center of the town, have fellowship, pray for one another, build relationships, often play games and simply show love to one another. During this COVID-19 we’ve had to get a bit creative. This month, we met live via zoom as we all ate dinner in our own homes to simply connect, pray, encourage and see each other’s faces. It was refreshing to say the least. For this meal during this occasion Tommy lightly pan fried us some wild caught perch and I roasted us up some organic Brussels sprouts and baked potato fries. Had I been able to multiply it through the screens similar to Jesus’s miracle, all would have enjoyed this blessing. We still have plans we’re putting together on actually being able to bless some of the community with food during this time.

#30 ORGANIC STRIP STEAK, ROASTED VEGGIES & MASHED CAULIFLOWER

It doesn’t get any better than this folks. Ok, I’m kidding all of these meals have been amazing…but there is something special about a good ole’ steak that does the body well. Tommy toes grilled our steaks to perfection and I steamed us up some fresh organic cauliflower with sauteed garlic, butter and parmesan to mash, while my green veggies of broccoli and snap peas roasted in the oven. It was a dinner quite satisfying to the palate and the eyes.

Welp, there you have it. That’s my personal 30 Meal Ideas for Producing Fruit & Fuel for the Body. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have. Let’s keep inspiring each other to stay the course for our health and our bodies. The work God has for us is worth our investment every single time. Feel free to post in the comments if you plan to or end up making a version of these yourself and/or share your recipes you’ve been dining on in your home or out on the road as well. What flavors God gave us to enjoy!

Written by Bethany Curee, God’s Daughter – Freckled & Free