Eat an Anti-Inflammatory Meal For Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner For an Entire Week (Full Recipes Included)

Inflamed joints are painful, achy, and not one bit of fun. Inflammation of the body is an immune response to injury. When your body inflames, it’s trying to heal itself by burning out infection, dead tissue, and to start the healing process.

There are two types of inflammation, acute and chronic. Acute inflammation is your body’s immediate response to injury, while it hurts or burns; it’s a good thing. It means your body is trying to heal.

Chronic inflammation is (obviously) bad. It means something has gone wrong with the immune process and your body is now in conflict. What causes continual pain is that your body is trying to heal and destroy dead tissue or infection at the same time. Chronic inflammation can also lead to more health complications down the line. This can include developing hay fever (which is the allergic reaction to pollen), periodontitis (the retreat of the gums away from the teeth), atherosclerosis (which causes artery walls to harden which can cause heart attacks), and rheumatoid arthritis (this makes your joints swell and worsens over time). It has also been linked to certain cancers such as gallbladder carcinoma.

If you or someone you know has chronic inflammation have them see a doctor. But until you can get in (or even after) here are some recipes to help you keep your inflammation in check.

Anti-Inflammatory Diet Recipes You Can Try For A Week

Breakfast:

Cherry Quinoa Porridge

I love quinoa for breakfast. Love it. Converted over a long time ago. Adding cherries to this recipe means you’re including anthocyanin. Anthocyanin is a powerful antioxidant that may help cut inflammation.

Raspberry Green Tea Smoothie

This is a perfect “quick breakfast” and one I am guilty of often needing (hey, I get up early to do yoga, and it’s a sit-down breakfast or exercise). This is a sweet boost to get your day going. Green tea is your anti-inflammatory here, so maybe ease back on your coffee consumption and get a cup of green tea instead of that third coffee.

Gingerbread Oatmeal

Okay, if I can’t sell you on quinoa for breakfast (just try it!!) we can go back to something a little more conventional. Oatmeal (the steel cut kind) is full of omega-3s and will get you HALF of your daily value of omega-3s. Also, really, the NAME of this should have sold you on trying this recipe.

Ginger Apple Muffins

Hands down, this is my favourite recipe on this list. Crystallized ginger is literally my favourite thing to snack on and also an anti-inflammatory. Wanna make these extra healthy (without sugar) sub in honey, agave nectar, or (my personal favourite) maple syrup.

Buckwheat and Quinoa Granola

Haha! I gotcha again on this whole ‘quinoa-for-breakfast’ thing. You were thinking, no way, Ms Rabbit, am I going to eat quinoa for breakfast, but you must try this recipe. You won’t even KNOW you’re eating quinoa for breakfast, and, if you insist, you can add oats into the mix to keep yourself happy.

Spinach and Mushroom Frittata

Yep, a good ol’ fashioned breakfast food. Nothing weird about this one. I recommend tossing some goat cheese in for an extra kick of flavour.

Strawberry Crepes (Gluten Free!)

These are a weekend breakfast food for me. I love crepes, but I could never manage to make them during the week. I make crepes every time my girlfriends spend the night or if I’m trying to butter someone up for something – they’re simply delicious.

Lunch:

Pumpkin Soup

Oh, man. Here’s another thing I love. Through Fall/Winter season I always have some in my fridge. It’s so delicious. Pumpkins are also full of beta-cryptoxanthin, which is an excellent anti-inflammatory (even if you can’t pronounce it).

Kipper Salad

Kippers (which is British for smoked herring) are full of omega-3s which are a wonderful anti-inflammatory. Can’t get behind kippers? Try smoked salmon or trout.

Roasted Chicken Wraps:

You know those roast chickens they have at the supermarket? Know how you never manage to eat a whole one? I have the solution recipe. This is an excellent way to use those leftovers. The red cabbage in these is your anti-inflammatory.

Persimmon and Pear Salad

My favourite kinds of salad are with fruit, so I’m sold on this recipe. Keep your dressing separate from the spinach to prevent your leaves from wilting. Nothing is more depressing than a wilt-y salad.

Roasted Sweet Potato Soup

Like the pumpkin soup above, this is a great soup to have on hand in your fridge (or freezer) for some quick meals. If your roast the sweet potatoes beforehand you get an extra kick of flavour, and it’s worth the extra effort.

Smoked Trout Tartine

Tartine is a fancy way of saying an open-faced sandwich, meaning a sandwich with just one piece of bread instead of two. Paired with one of the soups or salads above, this is a great way to help fight inflammation.

Lentil and Garbanzo Bean Soup

Garbanzo beans. Fun to say, fun to eat. The trick to this soup is to make it ahead. When the flavours get to hang together for a day or so, they become best friends, which makes this soup a best friend to your tongue.

Dinner:

Poached Eggs with Curried Veggies

I love eggs for dinner. I really do. I’m always game for breakfast-for-dinner. But the real game changer here is the curried veggies since turmeric, garlic, and chickpeas are all anti-inflammatory. This is a simple recipe for keeping inflammation down.