Banana Pancakes Are My Fav!

We love big breakfasts on the weekends. Saturday we made eggs, bacon, fresh fruit, wheat sourdough toast and yummy potatoes with onions and peppers!

Today's deliciousness included Wheat Banana Pancakes, Fresh Fruit and Breakfast Sausage!

If you'd like to make your own sausage try this recipe Turkey Breakfast Sausage

For the pancakes:
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons Coconut Sugar
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
2 Large, Brown, Organic Eggs
2 Cups of Milk (whatever you drink)
2 Tablespoons of Melted Organic Butter
1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
2 Ripe Bananas, smashed

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl and stir with a wire whisk to make sure there's no lumps. Combine milk, egg and butter and add to dry ingredients. Stir in banana then stir until the entire mixture is smooth. Drop 1/4 cup at a time onto a pre-heated non-stick griddle on medium heat. Flip over once bubbles form and cook the other side.

Cut up fresh banana to place between each pancake, serve with butter and syrup or peanut butter on top!

Olé!

Last night's dinner was a huge hit! I made Grilled Chicken Tacos full of lots of yummy goodness!

Season & Grill 2-3 large Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast, cut into strips

Make whatever Clean Eating rice your family likes, I made This but jazzed it up with spices

1 14oz. can Organic Black Beans

1 Cup chopped Organic Tomatoes

1 1/2 cups freshly grated cheese, we use Sharp Cheddar

2 cups shredded Romaine Lettuce

1 Avocado, cut into strips

Whatever Tortillas your fam eats or Large Lettuce Leaves to wrap

Sour Cream (optional)

Hot Sauce (optional)

The fam assembled them to their liking & devoured them! Serve with fresh fruit on the side

Friday Night Sloppy Joe's

My family loves Sloppy Joe's so I thought I'd "clean" up the regular recipe to see if it was a noticeable taste difference or not. It got a thumbs up so we'll make it this way from now on:

2-1/2 pounds Ground Beef or Ground Turkey
1/2-3/4 Large Onion, Diced
1/2 Large Green Bell Pepper, Diced
5-6 cloves Garlic, Minced
2 cup Homemade or Preservative Free Ketchup
1 cup Water
2 Tablespoons Honey
2 teaspoons Chili Powder (more To Taste)
1 teaspoon Dry Mustard
1/2 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper (more To Taste)
5 or 6 dashes Worcestershire Sauce, To Taste
2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste (optional)*I did not have any so I added a little more Ketchup
Tabasco Sauce (optional; To Taste)
Salt To Taste
Freshly Ground Black Pepper, To Taste
Whole Wheat Rolls or whatever you like

Brown Ground Beef in a skillet or dutch oven on medium-high heat then drain off the fat.
Add onions, green pepper, and garlic. Cook for a few minutes, or until vegetables begin to get soft. If you need to hide veggies like I do, place garlic, bell pepper and onion in a magic bullet, food processor or blender and blend until smooth, then add to beef to saute for 4-5 minutes.

Add ketchup, honey, chili pepper, dry mustard, cayenne, water and salt and pepper to taste. Also add tomato paste and Worcestershire if desired. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed. Stir to combine and simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

We ate these on whole wheat hamburger buns with apple sauce and kettle chips!

Clean Italian- Take 1

The house smells divine today! I have an insanely busy schedule so I let my crock-pot do the work for me.

On the menu tonight: Quinoa Shells with Hearty Tomato Sauce:

-3 cans (28 oz. each) organic diced tomatoes OR 6 cans (14.5 oz. each) organic diced tomatoes. I'm still looking for jarred tomatoes, no luck yet
-1 can (6 oz.) organic tomato paste
-1 cup water
-4 carrots, peeled and diced
-1 large onion, diced
-6 to 8 cloves garlic, minced
-4 Tablespoons dried basil leaves
-2 Tablespoons dried oregano leaves
-1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
-1 Tablespoon honey
-1 teaspoon sea salt -1 teaspoon black pepper -1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
-1 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese, optional

Place canned tomatoes, along with their juice, in a large 5 to 6 quart crock-pot. Add in tomato paste, honey and water, stirring to mix.

Place chopped carrots, onion, garlic, basil, oregano, and cayenne pepper into crock pot. Stir all together to combine.

Place lid on crock pot, leaving it cracked slightly to allow steam to escape. Turn on high and allow to cook for 6 to 8 hours. Taste for seasoning and adjust according to your taste

Puree sauce with a stick blender in the crock-pot until desired consistency in achieved. Mine will be super smooth so the kids don't know they're eating veggies..shhhh

Stir in olive oil and cheese (optional)

Busy Bees

Well, we didn't get our goodies made over the weekend because we were busy working in the yard and refurbishing an old desk for my daughter. It turned out great! We did do very well with eating right even in the midst of the chaos when a drive thru would have been easiest. We are celebrating a Birthday today so I've been scouring the internet for a decent clean chocolate cake recipe but we may have to go with our old standby, still homemade but calls for all-purpose flour and granulated sugar.

This a.m. I made these Clean Blueberry Muffins and they turned out great! I was scared of using wheat pastry flour but it's yummy!

Off to make a cake and have some fun in the sun with my fam before a yummy dinner!

Tackling Snacks!

Snacks have been the biggest struggle for my girls so far. They crave chocolate dipped granola bars, fruit snacks, soda, microwave popcorn, chips, goldfish, fruit rolls ups etc. and are really struggling with the concept of making better choices. We've had some meltdowns and begging but I'm determined not to give up. I did clean out some of the pantry staples that we used to survive on but left a small bin of snacks for them to go through and when they're gone, they're GONE! Slow and steady. The last thing I want my kids to feel during this process is that they're being punished. Rome wasn't built in a day!

This weekend in the test kitchen we'll be making these yummy (hopefully) replacement treats! We've made the popcorn before and I'll tweak the granola bars some but we're excited to try these!
Mmmm Bananas
We Love PB And Chocolate
Granola Is Good For You
Fruit By The Foot
Yummy Popcorn

Go-to snacks for me personally are:
~Fresh Fruit and Cottage Cheese (Cottage Cheese and some dairy in general is harder to find "clean" because of how it's made but they're some out there)
~Roasted Red Pepper Hummus and Wheat Pita Chips or Veggies
~Peanut Butter and Banana or Apple or Celery
~Mixed Nuts ( I like cashews, peanuts, pistachios, raisins and a few dark chocolate chips on occasion)
~Oranges
~A Few Slices Of Block Cheese, Pepper Jack and Sharp Cheddar Are My Fav (Kind of in the 20% zone of the 80/20 rule)
~Avocado With Salt And Pepper
~Hard Boiled Eggs With Salt and Pepper

Now I'm hungry!

I think I can, I think I can..

As I continue to do my homework on clean eating for families, I'm finding a lot of the same suggestions. 100% eating clean is very hard to achieve in the beginning, especially for busy families like mine. We've decided to adopt the 80/20 rule. 80% of what we eat will be squeaky clean, where the other 20% will be variable. Until I have extra time on weekends to test out homemade condiment recipes, we'll be eating the best we can find from the store, just keeping it real! Another misconception is that eating clean will magically make people lose weight. WRONG! This is about getting rid of the crap in what we eat. We will not be counting calories or posting portion sizes, that's not what this journey is about for us.

For example, I made a delicious BBQ pulled chicken in the crock-pot for dinner last night with broccoli slaw and served it on wheat Hawaiian rolls. I can't call the entire meal clean because the bread, although made of wheat, was mass produced and has preservatives. (Here's the recipe for the chicken. Deliciously Easy Crockpot BBQ Pulled Chicken)

The Basic Gyst!

We're going to take a little longer to achieve the 5 week list but it's a good guide on where to start! The no alcohol part might be fudged some but that's how to cookie crumbles around here!

Month 1, Let The Grumpy Begin!

Happy New Year! It's a new year for a new me, well an improved me anyway!

I took my kids in for physicals a few days before Thanksgiving (they were not happy with me at all ) and the pediatrician had some rather harsh but sound advice for me. He said, "You've got to get rid of the junk, especially sugar!" I have 2 kids that have very fast metabolisms and 1 that does not, mine is sort of in the middle and works when it feels like it. Needless to say, meal planning to meet all of our needs is not easy! We decided as a family that we'd enjoy the rest of 2013 eating however we desired but that we were all in on making positive changes once January hit.

Step 1- Over the next 18 days, I will slowly replace common staples we eat that are chock-full of preservatives and artificial flavors, coloring and sweetener with natural, fresh, sometimes organic ingredients.

I stopped buying soda a few weeks ago and I for one am having a bit of a hard time. I only drank a few Dr. Peppers per week but I miss them! I bought my kids their own insulated cups for Christmas and lots of ice water is being consumed already, if they can do it I can too! I'm not a big fan of water so adding bubbles and a slice of fruit has been very necessary

This week, I've planned 5 meals, all homemade- no boxed mixes, sauces or pre-made ingredients. Making everything from scratch takes much more time and some recipes take personal tweaking but I know exactly what we're eating. These meals are not the healthiest on the planet but they are well balanced and to me it's a great first step. I know from past experience that taking away all things delicious and thinking my family will embrace meals full of veggies will be a waste of time and money. My little one especially is a picky eater so I need to pay close attention that she's getting the calories she needs daily while we bump our way through these changes. Slow and steady wins the race!

Up next: I'm recruiting the kids and tackling healthy, yummy snacks. Homemade granola bars and fruit roll ups are first, then on to yogurt and homemade ice cream! The days of scarfing down a bowl of cereal after school are over, that's going to sting a bit for 2/3 of my kids but it has to be done!

We're spending more time outdoors as a family, walking, gardening, taking a walk on the beach when we visit family close by, roller skating etc. A body in motion, stays in motion!