When the opportunity arose to review The Migraine Relief Plan by Stephanie Weaver I jumped on it. While I’ve been lucky enough, at least in these first 28 years of life, to not be a sufferer of migraines, migraines do run in my family. My grandmother, great uncle, aunt, uncle, and mom have all dealt with varying versions of them. As a young child even my brother would suffer from headaches! Thankfully he’s outgrown them. I hope that means our family history of migraine attacks ends with our generation.

My mom’s headaches seem to be the least severe of the group, but I remember not even being allowed to utter the word “headache” around her, resorting to simply calling them an “H” when I was younger. I don’t know if that’s still the case, but I won’t use the word in her presence to this day. My aunt seems to suffer the most of the bunch and continues to get severe migraine attacks. These migraine attacks would result in days spent in bed and helped contribute to an early retirement. I can’t wait to share this book with her. As a doctor, I know she would appreciate the amount of research Stephanie put into developing the Plan. When I asked if it’d be okay to mention her in this blog post, I discovered that she’s already heard of the book and I look forward to giving her more information about it.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of The Migraine Relief Plan in exchange of my honest review. This post also contains Amazon affiliate links.

The Migraine Relief Plan: An 8-Week Transition to Better Eating, Fewer Headaches, and Optimal Health is an incredible resource for anyone living with migraines. Stephanie is an author, blogger, and certified wellness and health coach. She has a Master of Public Health in Nutrition Education from the University of Illinois. Her recipes have been featured in Cosmopolitan, Bon Appétit, Cooking Light, Parade, and more. She lives in San Diego, CA.

The book is broken down into 5 parts: Creating the Plan, The Plan, Maintaining the Plan, Creating a long-term lifestyle, and Migraine-friendly recipes and meal plans.

In Part I you’ll read about Stephanie’s story. Part II explains the 8 week Plan. Stephanie’s 8 week plan is a perfect way to completely change your eating habits and lifestyle without “quitting cold turkey.” Even as a non-migraine patient I can look to her plan for ways to improve my own lifestyle. While near every processed grocery item contains “triggers” Stephanie’s well thought out way of eating and cooking is a fantastic guide for cutting out those boxed and packaged foods. (Something we said we were going to do when we moved back in April that still hasn’t happened…) Part III takes you through months 3-6 on the Plan, focusing on adjusting your lifestyle to reduce the onset of migraine attacks. Part IV is all about how to maintain your new lifestyle by slowly, thoughtfully, and carefully introducing potential trigger foods into your diet. Part V contains over 75 recipes to make your journey along the migraine relief plan delicious. Each recipe includes nutrition facts, helpful cook’s note, budget friendly indicator, and diet indicators.

I think the biggest game changer is cooking without salt. I’ve already tried 4 recipes from this book and not once did my husband comment on a lack of salt. Honestly, I was shocked! Stephanie has really succeeded in creating recipes that are full of flavor and healthy.

I made Herbed Cheese Spread (which I used as a pasta sauce for a quick dinner), Firehouse Turkey Chili, and Peachy Pulled Pork. All three were adult and kid approved!

The recipe I’m featuring today is Wild Rice and Carrots. We served this side dish next to simply sautéed fresh tilapia for a great weeknight dinner. I had the leftover rice for lunch the next day. It’s been a while since I’d cooked with carrots and we found them to be delectable! They’re perfectly tender and subtly sweet. Wild rice was fun to work with, too! I think I’d only ever had the grain once before and I’m looking forward to utilizing it more as a side dish option.

Wild Rice and Carrots

Ingredients:

• 2 C (500 mL) filtered water or unsalted chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 C (150 g) wild rice, rinsed and drained
• 1 tbsp organic extra virgin olive oil or unsalted grass-fed butter
• 2 large carrots, thinly sliced on the diagonal
• 2 ribs celery, finely minced
• 1 handful fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Steps:

1. In a medium saucepan set over high heat, combine the filtered water and rice. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and cook for 45 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the cover on for at least 10 minutes.
2. In a large skillet set over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Add the carrots and celery and cook, stirring frequently, for 6 to 8 minutes, or until tender. Stir in the rice, parsley, and black pepper. Cook 1 minute more until everything is warmed through.
3. Serve right away or refrigerate, covered, for up to 5 days.

Vegan/Vegetarian, Dairy-free, Egg-free

Cook’s Note: Wile rice is only grown in North America and may not be available overseas. You could substitute a hearty brown rice instead. I wash the parsley, then roll it up in a clean kitchen towel to help absorb extra moisture. Finely chop just before adding to the recipe.

Budget friendly: Very

Per serving: 6 g protein, 35 g carbohydrates, 4 g fat, 0.5 g saturated fat, 54 mg sodium, 381 mg potassium, 4 g fiber

*This recipe is reprinted with permission from The Migraine Relief Plan, copyright 2016 Stephanie Weaver. Published by Surrey Books, an imprint of Agate Publishing, Inc.*

Because my carrots were smaller than the ones photographed by Laura Bashar, I used 5 little colorful organic carrots instead of 2 large ones. Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly to very happy reviews. I used water to cook my rice and olive oil for sautéing the veggies.