AIP Diet Protocol – Day 1 – My experience of day 1 of the Autoimmune Protocol Diet – with paleo friendly beginner recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. 

AIP Diet Protocol – Day 1

I was both nervous and excited to start the AIP Diet Protocol. I’ve read of so many testimonials of success from following the diet, and also about how challenging making meals and actually adhering to the diet can be. 

So, I took a couple of weeks to plan, prep and get myself mentally ready to start the restrictive elimination diet. 

AIP Diet Recipes

Here are the meals and snacks I enjoyed through my first day following the AIP diet Protocol. 

AIP Diet Breakfast

I started my day with a sweet potato breakfast hash and a small bowl of chicken soup. As I’ve been vegetarian for the past few months, I feel that I need to slowly adapt to having meat/chicken for breakfast. So, I felt a compromise was a big veggie breakfast has and a small amount of chicken in my soup. 

To make the breakfast has I melted coconut oil in a frying pan and then added chopped onion and garlic. While that was frying I peeled and chopped a large sweet potato and a small apple, which I then added to the frying pan, along with more coconut oil and plenty of salt. 

While the veggie hash was cooking I heated up a saucepan of stock with a big of chicken thrown in. I made a huge pot full of stock yesterday, so it was really easy to just heat up for breakfast on day 1. 

I cooked the stock until bubbling and veggies until they were all beautifully golden and cooked through. 

My day one breakfast was the perfect way to start the AIP Diet. I’d never had sweet potato and apple fried up together and I really enjoyed the flavour combination. It’s one I see myself enjoying in different forms from now on.

Overall, the breakfast was full of nourishing and flavourful ingredients that kept me happily full until lunch. 

AIP Diet Lunch

Through my Keto Diet journey I regularly made Egg Roll In A Bowl for lunch. It’s great to make ahead of time, pop into containers and take to work to re-heat. 

So, I just stuck with what I know and made an AIP Diet friendly egg roll in a bowl. I’ve share the whole recipe on my blog here, but briefly – you’ll need beef mince, cabbage, salt, coconut aminos and coconut oil. 

Heat coconut oil in a frying pan. Once hot, add beef mince to brown. While the mince is frying, finely slice half a head of cabbage. Once the mince has browned, add the cabbage, salt and 2 tablespoons of coconut aminos. (Where to find coconut aminos.) 

Then, it’s just a matter of cooking until the cabbage is reduced, softened and done to your liking. 

You can stick to just the simple recipe mentioned above or add in chopped onion, garlic, spring onion or grated carrot. 

This recipe makes heaps of egg roll in a bowl, enough to enjoy leftovers for days. 

AIP Diet Dinner

For my day 1 dinner I went for Honey Roasted Chicken with Butternut Pumpkin and Spinach.

Just before making my lunch, I got to work marinating a 1kg/2lb pack of chicken thighs. Here’s a rough recipe for the marinade: 

• 2-3 Tablespoons Coconut Aminos
• 1-2 Tablespoons Honey
• Salt
• 2-3 Garlic Cloves – Crushed
• 1/2 teapoon Ground Ginger 

I marinated the chicken straight in the dish for cooking, but you could also pop it all into a ziploc bag if you’d prefer. I left the chicken to marinate in the dish for the afternoon. You could do so for at least an hour or overnight. 

Once ready to cook, preheat the oven to 200C/400F and fill a baking tray with chopped butternut pumpkin, or your vegetables of choice. Drizzle over olive oil and salt and shake to combine. 

Remove the chicken from the fridge and make sure it’s in an oven proof dish. 

When the oven has preheated place the chicken and vegetables on separate racks in the oven. 

Roast for 25 minutes, remove from the oven, flip the chicken and vegetables over and place back into the oven for 20 minutes or until golden and cooked through. 

The whole family adored this dish and it’s one I see myself making over and over again through my AIP Diet journey. (And beyond!) 

AIP Diet Snacks 

For snacks, I simply stuck to fruit when I felt like it. And, for a mid afternoon snack I made 2 ingredient Mango Ice Cream by blending together a bag of frozen mangoes with a can of coconut milk.   

You can add as much of each ingredient to get the consistency you like. More coconut milk is more of a smoothie texture whereas more mangoes create a creamy ice cream texture. 

I found that there was more variety in meals that I had thought there would be. All the research into allowable foods and meals really helped in coming up with a delicious day 1 menu.

I could quite happily enjoy these tasty meals day after day without getting bored. But – you can expect loads of meals and ideas to come as I experiment with AIP friendly foods and meals. 

AIP Meal Plans has also been a real life saver with helping me come up with compliant meals – you get sent weekly AIP Meal Plans and a shopping list to make it easy to shop, prep and cook AIP Diet meals. Click here to learn more.

Subscribe to receive the FREE weekly newsletter, packed full of easy recipes and food inspiration plus exclusive, subscriber only content. Click here to Subscribe by Email.

Disclaimer – this post is meant for informational post only and should not be construed as medical advice. Please consult with your health professional before making any dietary changes.

Disclosure – this post contains affiliate links.