My sister and I were talking and she stated that she couldn't afford to eat better food. This inspired me to break down my foods this week, all clean, all inexpensive. It doesn't have to take a ton of money to eat better. It takes awhile to think about food in a different way, eating clean allows you to experiment with fruits and veggies. The most costly thing is time - take time for yourself and create some awesome food for YOU! Remember baby steps to change. Breakfast Eggs & Juice $1.50 2 eggs $ . 50 Naked Juice $ 1.00 (Available at Costco for much cheaper) Oatmeal with Raisins $ . 49 1/2 cup oatmeal $ . 09 Raisins, blueberries, craisins etc. about $ . 40 Snacks Hummus & Veggies $2.82 Hummus about 1 cup $2.22 Carrots $ . 60 Cheese & Nuts $1.08 String cheese $ . 25 2 oz mixed nuts $ 1.03 (the size of your palm) Smoothie $ .75 Mixed Frozen Fruit from Costco whole bag $7.99 add banana $ .25 **Note: I can get 15-18 large Mason jars out of 1 bag of frozen fruit. That is how I came up with the price. (7.99/16=$ .49) I make a weeks worth, put them in the freezer for that late afternoon snack or if I don't have time to grab breakfast. Lunch Salmon & Green Beans $5.34 Salmon $4.20 Green beans $1.14 Sub Chicken $1.76 Tuna sandwich $1.05 Tuna $ .26 (.79 a can servings 2-3) Bread (store bought bread) $ .66 per slice Roll from the bakery $ .79 If you make your own it really only cost pennies, (flour, water, yeast, salt, sugar) If I would buy bread, get fresh baked or Ezekiel Bread. Click here to find out more about Ezekiel Bread If you want to make your own click here for some easy recipes. Dinner Potato & Peppers $4.25 Click here for recipe **Note: You do not have to buy organic if you can't afford it. But please wash your non organic fruits and veggies if you eat the peel in a vinegar bath. Click here for details. Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup $4.93 Organic Rotisserie Chicken $7.99 Organic Carrots $1.99 Celery $1.79 Onion $1.15 Organic Chicken Broth $2.12 each Noodles 2.59 This makes 4 servings Click here for Easy Chicken Noodle Soup recipe
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These are some new items I found that are what I call "clean". Fritos - hardly no sodium, no sugar, and no preservatives. Peanut Butter puffs - have a lower amount of sugar, no preservatives. The sugar is probably more than some would like to be considered clean but there is only 7g verses 31g in Reese's Peanut Butter puffs. ** I also like that is is organic and non-GMO certified UNREAL - these have sugar in them, but I live by the 80/20 rule. If I want to cheat a little why not cheat with a good product. These are awesome I found them at Target. Click here to view what UNREAL is all about. San Francisco Bay Organic coffee - I found this at Costco, after reading about Starbucks I wanted to make sure I bought organic, fair trade,as earth friendly as possible coffee. Yes I have to grind it, but it's worth it. Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Lasagna noodles - I bought these in the regular noodle section at Fred Meyer. I couldn't believe that there was no preservatives, when all the others had over 10 ingredients. To me this was a no brainer. DeBoles Spaghetti noodles - I am not trying to stay away from gluten, but I thought I would try rice noodles. The down fall of these noodles is they cook to a more al dente consistency. Tillamock sour cream - no preservatives, no MSG because it is no the low fat option. Just dairy. Now some peoples believe wheat, and dairy are not clean. I guess you need to define what "CLEAN" is o you. Overall I feel like my trip was successful. I didn't go to different stores I just went to Fred Meyer & Costco. I refuse to make my life more stressful for the sake of clean eating. This week I chose to make bread with my bread maker, create a sourdough starter, make jam (on the weekend) and made two smaller vegetarian lasagnas with my noodles and it turned out AMAZING. I cooked it last night so all we have to do is heat it up. I froze the other one for another day. Here is the recipe I found off Pinterest. I made it without a bullion cube, because they are pure MSG, I just added some poultry seasoning instead. I hope you found this helpful. Cheers! Jenniffer My husband and I went grocery shopping today for the upcoming week. This was my first shopping trip since I have started my journey to clean eating. Clean eating can mean many things to people. My personal definition is preservative free or very little, low sodium, low sugar and lastly reducing the foods I purchase that have MSG. (See my blog page Facts about Food for more on MSG) I have to tell you that I am not perfect but I am starting small in my changes. I bought a bread machine so I can make bread for my family. I did make a few loafs by hand and they turned out okay, not great. I searched all the "healthy" breads and they either had lots of sodium or tons of MSG. My bread machine has not come yet so more on that later. It shocked my husband when I told him not to buy hamburger at Costco this month as we are going to try soy, and black beans as a replacement. I want to steer away from red meat all together. I want to do so for health reasons and for animal cruelty reasons as well. One thing I learned while doing my MSG research is that just because something is deemed ORGANIC or is Soy does not mean it won't contain MSG. I personally have decided to look at what is more important to me, not eating red meat. I reviewed different soy hamburger like products and found Fantastic Foods brand to be the best. (http://www.fantasticfoods.com/productlist.aspx?catid=Entrees+and+Side+Dishes) If you look at the nutritional info the sodium is higher than I like but I just made a large pot of Chili with the chili mix and I did not add any salt. I was more impressed with the ingredients over most soy products. There is still MSG present but much less than other soy products.
Another change is that we purchase huge bags of frozen veggies from Costco, frozen vegetables are better than canned. This is due to flash freezing of the vegetables and therefore locking in the nutrients. It's great buying frozen because you know they wont go bad. Lastly I looked at buying better foods regardless of fat. Reduced fat products are loaded with MSG, one thing my trainer said is that if you are eating pure foods, meaning whole grains, whole fruits and veggies then your body will know how to process those foods. I switched to vanilla soy coffee creamer, bought granola cereal, and am trying Almond butter instead of Jiff peanut butter. I know these changes I have mentioned may not seem like much but again I am learning and re-programing my family and I's taste pallet to new foods. It takes about two weeks for your taste buds to adapt |
This page is for me to share my journey to clean eating, little by little.
Baby Steps to a better life Archives
June 2014
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