Give me some practical clean eating tips, please!

lainiefig

lainiefig

Cathlete
My husband and I have recently begun eating much cleaner and much more plant than animal food. We are not really going vegetarian, just making meat a much less common part of our diet. I'm a busy mom of 3, so I can't be growing my own soybeans or milling my own grains or anything like that, which is why I said "practical". It's not necessarily about weight loss (though we could both stand to lose a bit) but more about being healthier.

I would just like to hear from forum members what some of your favorite clean foods are and how to cook them, good clean cookbooks, that sort of thing. I do have the Clean Eating Diet Cookbook already.

I'll start off with one tip I am already doing--we make a healthy breakfast for the whole family every morning now and it's often steel cut oats. We pack as much good stuff in with the oats as our boys will eat (blueberries, walnuts, wheat germ, bananas, etc.).

Oh, and related question to that, we use either the regular steel cut oatmeal (McCann's) or the 5-minute kind, depending on how much time we have. Is there any disadvantage to the 5-minute kind? It looks like it has slightly more fat and slightly less fiber, but that's all I see that's different.
 
What? You don't want to mill your own grains??? HEATHEN! :p

My best friend for clean eating is the cafeteria salad bar at work. They have lots of fresh (usually), clean stuff that is already chopped, washed and prepared for me - what could be easier? And they have the decency to have bottles of different vinegars for those of us who don't want fatty, HFCS-laden dressings. Of course, you can't come and eat lunch in my cafeteria (well, you COULD, but it would be a bit of a drive). But salads loaded with different veggies, and maybe some hardboiled egg whites - that's the epitome of clean. And easy!

I love my steel cut oats too. I make a big batch of them on the weekend (I make the slow cooking kind) and keep it in a storage container in the fridge. Then I dish out a serving every morning and reheat in the microwave.

You could also try making your own soups. A big pot of soup can last for several days, and they can take as little as 30 minutes to make. Something like a hearty minestrone, with lots of veggies and beans in it. Or vegetarian chili. Or a white chili with turkey or chicken. Lots of options. :)
 
Hey, Emily. Mind sharing how to cook those steel cut oats in a big batch ahead of time like that? I might like to try that!!!!
 
I'd thought about doing a big batch--was wondering if it would reheat well. I have to admit my husband is in some ways a better cook than I am. I can cook with a recipe and can't do much without one. I am creative in some other ways, but not in cooking. When I try to get creative with cooking it's a bad thing. Brian has been whipping up some great stir-frys (stir-fries? that looks wrong, too) and soups and stuff. He will add just the right stuff to give it a variety of tastes and textures and it's so yummy. Wish he could cook all the time but he only cooks once or twice on the weekend and sometimes makes the oats in the morning.
 
Cooked steel cut oats reheat remarkably well. I just make them in a big saucepan on the stove. Basically, however the bag says to make them (I think the bag tells you how to make 4 servings), I'll double it. After they've been refrigerated, they have a bit of a gelatinous consistency, but once you reheat in the microwave, they're fine. I'll reheat in the microwave for about 45 seconds - 1 minute and they're perfect! :)
 
I make a lot of stuff with beans, including 3-bean salads, vegetarian chili, and Indian chickpea-based dishes. Big tip with beans, if you suffer from gas or general subterranean rumblings, is to rinse them really well (this applies whether you cook them yourself or use canned) and if you still have trouble, take digestive enzymes when you eat them.

Stebby
 
I like the advice Emily gave you, especially about making soups. I make at least one big pot of soup every week and we get several meals out of it. If you keep a staple of vegetables (fresh or chopped frozen), canned diced tomatoes, canned beans, lentils, onions, pasta (preferably ww), and cartons of broth, dinner will never be more than 30 or 45 minutes away.

There's a wonderful cookbook called How to Cook Without a Book, by Pam Anderson http://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Without-Book-Techniques/dp/0767902793/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_a . It's not "clean" but it's the best book I've ever found for teaching cooking methods and recipe formulas. If you know those two things you can really cook ANYTHING and have it turn out perfectly. It has some great recipes, all of which are simple to make and rely on basic ingredients, and most are easy to modify. Most of the recipes can be prepared in 30 to 40 minutes. I highly recommend this book. I've had mine for years and I've used it so much that it's in tatters and held together with duct tape. ;)
 
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Quick & Healthy Fish

Tilapia with pesto - rice and veggies

Prep: I cook ahead whole grain rice and store them in the frig

I get a 5 lb bag of frozen Tilapia fish from walmart and they are individually wrapped and so I take how many I need out and run it under warm water for a few minutes and it's thawed.

I make a large quanity of pesto sauce and freeze them in little bagies and then put them in one big freezer bag. I do the same thing with the fish to thaw a small packet.

So I take out 2 pc fish, rinse them until thawed outside the bag it's wrapped in then remove that and rinse with cooler water (just b/c).
Dry it, and place it on already heated pan (oven safe), spay pam and cook fish a few minutes on 1 side, flip and then add the pesto (squeeze it on top of the cooked side of the fish) and then I stick the whole pan into a preheated oven (@350 degrees F) and let it cook about 5 min's (if fish is thicker, it goes in longer, but not longer than 10 minutes or it will dry out, and the other side already cooked a bit. When the pesto is softened it is usually done.
Wala - just heat up rice and some veggies for a quick and yummy meal.
DH loves it, and he doesn't care for fish unless it's been fried to death. :eek:
Hope you like it, Autumn
 
Miss Lee said:
I like the advice Emily gave you, especially about making soups. I make at least one big pot of soup every week and we get several meals out of it. If you keep a staple of vegetables (fresh or chopped frozen), canned diced tomatoes, canned beans, lentils, onions, pasta (preferably ww), and cartons of broth, dinner will never be more than 30 or 45 minutes away.

There's a wonderful cookbook called How to Cook Without a Book, by Pam Anderson http://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Without-Book-Techniques/dp/0767902793/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_a . It's not "clean" but it's the best book I've ever found for teaching cooking methods and recipe formulas. If you know those two things you can really cook ANYTHING and have it turn out perfectly. It has some great recipes, all of which are simple to make and rely on basic ingredients, and most are easy to modify. Most of the recipes can be prepared in 30 to 40 minutes. I highly recommend this book. I've had mine for years and I've used it so much that it's in tatters and held together with duct tape. ;)
Click to expand...

You bought a cookbook by Pamela Anderson:eek:!

Carrie

P.S. in all seriousness to Lanie, I found the easiest way to eat clean is to start slow. Do it one meal at a time. I am getting there very slowly. I am starting by making "healthier" choices...not necessarily healthy, but healthier. It is very overwhelming to do all at once!
 
My advice: get a crock pot.

I do my steel cut oats in large batches in the crock pot overnight and it is AWE.SOME. Lately I've been making "Zucchini Bread Oats." I grate an entire zucchini, add 1 1/2 cups of steel cut oats, cinnamon, a few raisins and walnuts, and a teensy bit of maple syrup. I just add water and turn it on right before I go to bed. In the morning, my apartment smells amazing and breakfast is ready! And then I have an entire week's breakfast ready to go in the morning.

I also make veggie soups in the slow cooker - this enables me to use lots of dry beans, which are cheap and can be delicious. Lentils, black beans, navy beans, whatever. I pack soup for lunch most days of the week. I throw in a giant salad with all kinds of veggies, or a veggie wrap.

Clean snacks (at least, as I define "clean") include the easiest stuff of all. Any fruit + a handful of almonds, peanuts, or whatever kind of nut I please. A slice of Ezekiel bread with sunflower seed butter. Baby carrots and sliced peppers with homemade hummus. Apple slices with almond butter.

HTH!
 
Easy tip: When you chop up vegetables for one meal, chop up double the amount and put it in a tupperwear box for the next time.

For stir frys, start with your thickest vegetables first then add your light weight vegetables. Take them out of the pan. Then cook your protein seperately, this can be pork, chicken, tofu, or an egg. Then add your vegetables back to the protein to warm up together. At this point add your sauce. I make my own with lime juice, some sort of fruit (pineapple works well) and tamari sauce (wheat free soy sauce.) I use coconut oil in stir frys.

For soup, sautee your vegetables first in some fat. Then add your broth and
bring to a boil or simmer. Then add some sort of carb like beans or pasta. Bring it back to a boil, add your protein (cooked) and parsley or other fresh herbs last to keep them looking bright green. Serve with a dollup of plain yogurt or a little drizzle of oil.
 
One more quick recipe

He's another quick recipe that we had tonight:
baby spinach
roasted chicken (cut up)
dried cherries or craisens
either pecans or walnuts

dressing:
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp mustard

We love it and eat it once a week.
 
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Thanks for all the great ideas! I'm going to have to print these out.

Michele, I ordered that book on Amazon today.
 
Afreet said:
My advice: get a crock pot.

I do my steel cut oats in large batches in the crock pot overnight and it is AWE.SOME. Lately I've been making "Zucchini Bread Oats."
Click to expand...

I just got a brand new crockpot for Christmas (I already had one but it was ancient). I am definitely going to try that Zucchini Bread Oats--zucchini is my favorite veggie!
 
materialsgirl said:
Cooked steel cut oats reheat remarkably well. I just make them in a big saucepan on the stove. Basically, however the bag says to make them (I think the bag tells you how to make 4 servings), I'll double it. After they've been refrigerated, they have a bit of a gelatinous consistency, but once you reheat in the microwave, they're fine. I'll reheat in the microwave for about 45 seconds - 1 minute and they're perfect! :)
Click to expand...

That would last about 2 days in my house (with 4 of us eating it). Maybe I'll put it in my biggest pot and quadruple the amount.
 
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