Clean Eating Condiments

Remember that clean rule: Avoid processed foods. Or maybe this rule: Buy only foods with 3 or less ingredients on the food label. Or maybe even this one: Avoid anything high in saturated and trans fat, fried, or high in sugar. Yea, pretty much cuts out any and all store bought condiments and seasoning packets, along with cream of something soups... Use these instead!

Product                                                       Homemade Version

Nutella                                                         Chocolate- Covered- Katie’s Nutella

Crackers                                                      Oat Flour Veggie Crackers

Spaghetti Sauce                                            Simply-Clean-Livings Spaghetti Sauce

Italian Dressing                                             Heavenly-homemakers Italian Dressing

Mayo                                                           Crunchy-Bettys Mayonnaise

Ranch Dressing                                             Heavenly Homemakers Ranch Dressing

Ketchup                                                       Heavenly Homemakers Ketchup

Taco seasoning                                             Heavenly Homemakers Taco Seasoning

Onion Soup Mix                                           Heavenly Homemakers Onion Soup Mix

Cream of Mushroom                                     Heavenly Homemakers Mushroom Soup

Cream of Chicken                                         Food.com's Cream of Soup Dry Mix
Teriyaki Sauce                                              Food.com's teriyaki sauce

Clean eating breakfast, lunch, and snacks

Tosca Reno suggests eating six small meals a day that consist of a lean protein and a complex carbohydrate. In my mind, this meant skinny meat with bread. Yep, clueless. To make matters worse, she expands carbohydrates into starchy and non starchy and we need less starchy than others! Gah! I started to freak. But, after learning the benefits linked to pairing protein with carbohydrates, I decided to figure out what foods fall under the lean protein and the complex carbohydrate categories.Thankfully, her book The Clean Eating Diet Recharged made it pretty easy to understand. (No freaking out necessary!)

I took what I learned and created a chart to make meal planning a breeze. (Note: The following chart does not contain all the foods that fall into the protein/ carbohydrate category. Also, I am no expert! Please check out Tosca's book for more information.) To use this chart, simply choose a protein and then a complex carb. to enjoy with it from either the second or third column! Happy meal planning!
6 Meals Explained Previous post: Clean eating beverages.
Next post: Clean eating desserts.

Portion Control While Eating Clean

Relevant Clean Eating Rules:

• Eat within proper portion sizes.
• Eat fruits, vegetables and lean protein in six small meals throughout the day

Tosca Reno herself explains portion sizes in this youtube video. 

Also, I found this chart to be helpful: (source unknown)

The do's and don'ts to clean eating

The rules of clean eating are clearly spelled out, but let's get specific!

Do:

1. Six small meals a day

2. Drink half our body weight in ounces daily

3. Eat within portion sizes.

4. 3 ingredients maximum on food labels.

5. Limit saturated fats

6. Buy organic, when possible.

7. Consume healthy fats

8. Plan ahead, take clean snacks to go!

Don’t:

1. Eat before bed time

2. Eat at fast food restaurants

3. Sugar

4. Preservatives

5. Artificial colorings

6. Processed food

7. Carbon foot print

8. “Fake foods” i.e. high calories, low nutrition

My personal cheats:
Sour cream, corn tortillas, and rice chex may have more than 3 ingredients on their food label, but as I don't know how to make sour cream we're keeping it in the fridge. Also, being a celliac (unable to eat wheat/ gluten) we can't purchase the clean eating approved wheat bread or bread crumbs. So, as a substitution we're going to keep buying corn tortillas for wraps, fajitas, tacos, and quesadillas. We'll keep buying rice chex because they work so well as gluten free bread crumbs in recipes, but are a whole lot more affordable than actual GF crumbs! 

Cinnamon Coffee Cake

Kathy over at Your Gluten Free Kitchen. com posted this recipe for a gluten free cinnamon coffee cake. (Not going gluten free? Just use your favorite all purpose flour in the recipe.) We had it for breakfast this morning, and decided it's a keeper! Our kitchen smelled wonderful! I am so glad I came across this recipe on Pinterest!

Source.

1 1/2 cups gluten free flour; with xanthan gum in it, like my GF flour blend. (See right side bar.)
4 1/2 tsp. Saf instant yeast or a rapid rise yeast (equals two envelopes)
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2/3 cup milk – warm to 120 degrees (use your microwave)
1 egg

For the cinnamon goodness:
3 Tbsp. butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Sugar glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 to 4 Tbsp. milk
1 Tbsp. butter, melted
1/2 tsp. vanilla

"Whisk all the dry coffee cake ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the egg and milk. Beat with hand mixer. Should look like thick pound cake batter. Pour into an 8×8 baking pan or a 9" pie plate sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside and let rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, let's make the cinnamon goodness.

Mix together the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon in a large cereal bowl or 4 cup measuring cup. You can use a fork to squish the butter into the brown sugar until it forms clumps. After the 10 minute rest is up, sprinkle the top with the cinnamon butter clumps. Push a few down with your fingers into the dough.

Now, place the baking pan or pie dish in a COLD OVEN (no preheating here!). Set it for 350 degrees and bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick poked into the center comes out clean. Remember, NO preheating. Placing this is in a cold oven allows it to rise with the increase in heat in the oven. It really does work. Not only does it save you time, it saves energy too. No wasting 10 minutes worth of energy to get the oven up to temp. Nifty huh?

When your coffee cake is done, let it cool for 10 to 15 minutes. Cover with the sugar glaze. Combine all the glaze ingredients and beat with a hand mixer until smooth and yummy. Pour over your coffee cake, slice and eat right away.

To make dairy free: just replace the butter with either dairy free margarine or use butter flavored shortening like Spectrum Naturals. Use dairy free milk (like coconut milk or rice milk or almond milk or a dairy free coffee creamer would be good here!)

Makes 8 to 9 servings depending on how big they are and who gets to them first!" -Kathy

Shredded Chicken Black Bean Enchiladas

1 quart sized bag cooked, shredded chicken (I always keep these stocked up in my freezer.)
2 oz cream cheese
1/2 can black beans, drained
1 can chopped green chilies
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Combine the above and spoon into corn tortillas.

Roll up the tortillas and arrange in a baking pan, seam side down.

In a seperate bowl, combine red salsa and sour cream with a 2:1 ratio. Spread sauce over enchiladas. Cover pan with plastic wrap. Freeze for later use.

To prepare: Pull from freezer and allow to thaw. Remove plastic wrap and cover with foil. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Remove foil, top with shredded cheese and return to the oven until cheese is melted.

Serve with rice and fresh toppings. (Lettuce, tomato, black olives...)

Teriyaki Chicken Freezer Meal

Recipe adapted from Ring Around the Rosies

Medium bag of carrots
1/2 red onion cut into large chunks
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 can water chestnuts, drained
1 large can of pineapple, undrained
1 large can of pineapple, drained
4 chicken breasts
1 cup teriyaki sauce

Split the recipe between two bags, seal, mix, lay flat and freeze.

I suggest doubling the recipe and having two meals ready to go just waiting in the freezer!

To prepare: pull two teriyaki chicken meal bags out of the freezer. Let thaw until able to empty contents into crock pot. Add an additional 1/4 cup of teriyaki sauce. Cook on low for 6 hours.

Serve over rice and with a bag of frozen stir fry vegetables, prepared.