Clean Eating Recipes

For any of you that know me, you know that I'm not much of a cook.  Gerry loves to cook, and he can walk into a kitchen and whip up all sorts of treats.  Me... not so much.  I would get so frustrated when I tried to cook because it took me 3 to 4 times as long to cook one meal.  

However, over the past few years, as Gerry and I have tried to really embrace the "clean eating" lifestyle,  I have found lots of easy and manageable recipes.  I wanted to share them here for people who want healthier options but-

1. Don't want gross or boring food
2. Don't have a ton of time to cook complicated recipes
3. Don't even know where to start in the kitchen!

So below I am sharing links to all of the recipes we've tried that we really like, and of course, they're mostly from Pinterest.  I am going to list them in order of how I learned to cook them, because at first I really focused on 5 or less ingredients to make it REALLY simple, then I made it a bit more difficult, and now we are in a phase of our lives where 4 out of 5 meals each week are made in the crock pot.  Something for everyone :)

A side note- we cook or prepare all of our meals on Sunday.  It seems like a lot of work, but you wouldn't believe how much easier our weeks go.  If we are making something in the crock pot, we will go ahead and put all the ingredients together, so all we have to do is put it in the crock pot later in the week. 

Clean Eating Chicken Nuggets
One of the first recipes I made was homemade chicken nuggets for Catie Grace.  Obviously more work than opening a bag- but not processed.  On a side note, the breadcrumbs you make for this recipe are AH-MAZE-ING with Bread Basket whole wheat bread.

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Protein Bars
I just have to say.... these are just amazing.  Period.

Shredded Salsa Chicken
One of my favorite recipes is so simple, I don't even have a link to it. I'm sure I saw it on Pinterest or something, but I don't remember the source.

Take 4-5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts and put it in the crockpot.  Then pour about 3/4 of a jar of salsa over the chicken.  Cook it on low for 6-8 hours.  Once cooked, take two forks and shred the chicken.  Serve over lettuce and add cheese, sour cream, maybe some cilantro- whatever you like in a taco salad.  Perfect!

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili
This is a great new twist on chili- just in time for football season!

Chicken and Dumplings
So I have to admit, I have only had chicken and dumplings a very limited amount of times.  Being from New Orleans, our family staples were things like jambalaya, gumbo, and red beans- not this country dish.  I liked this a lot- but make sure you use King Arthur whole wheat flour.  The other whole wheat flours are extremely grainy and make this kind of gross.

Jamie Eason's Monster Meatloaf
This was my first step into a slightly more difficult recipe.  I guess there's a point that you get a little tired of knowing about 5 recipes and eating chicken and vegetables for all our other meals.  It's really not a difficult recipe, but it took me some time at first.  Now I can make this in no time at all.  Oh, and it's SO good!  It's enough to feed like 10 people for a week, but you will find yourself going back for more!  It's not dry at all, and you really don't need the ketchup- but we do add a little. :)

"Apple Pie Breakfast"
This is called "apple pie," but I think that's giving it a little too much credit.  Don't get me wrong- I did like it. It's a great fall/ cold morning breakfast option, but not apple pie.

No Rice Stuffed Peppers
Sloppy Joe Stuffed Peppers
Both of these stuffed pepper recipes are great in their own way.  Try them both!

Key West Chicken
This is a wonderful recipe for the grill.  Perfect for summer... or these last few days of fall.

Lazy Sunday Casserole
This is delicious!  We made this without the potatoes, and we both really liked it.  When I was making it, I didn't think the ingredients went together at all, but I was wrong.  Wonderful.

Crock Pot Buffalo Chicken
These wraps were very good- especially if you are having a wing craving.

No Carb Pizza This recipe was how were taking care of our pizza craving, and then we found another recipe recently- Crock Pot Pizza- that has Gerry and me completely head over heels.  The first one is good, but the second one is good and healthy (not just lower carb).  We put black olives, artichoke hearts, onions, and pepperonis in ours and it was great!  Oh, I did notice the second recipe doesn't call for any spices.  We added Italian seasonings and a dash of cayenne.

Cilantro Lime Tacos
These are super delicious!  Definitely a new twist on fish.  We didn't eat tortillas with it, but we just served it over lettuce like we do with our shredded chicken and salsa.

Also- We figured out (no link needed) that you can put a rack of ribs in the crock pot, on low all day, and you will have the most tender ribs ever!  The original recipe I found had you put a bottle of sauce in the crock pot too, which I thought was good, but Gerry tried it with just the ribs, and it was perfect! I would highly suggest it!

Chili Cheese Dog Casserole
Ok, as the name implies, this is not clean eating.  It is however, a low carb treat.  We make this without the hot dog buns (believe me, you won't miss 'em) and buy the all-natural turkey hot dogs.  Anyway, CG loves this, I love it- you will too!

Mexican Chicken
I found this recipe on Pinterest, but I realized the link has something different than the comment:
4-6 frozen chicken breasts bag of frozen peppers and onions pkg of taco seasoning 1 can cream of chicken soup 1 can Rotel tomatoes Place frozen chicken in bottom of slow cooker. Sprinkle with taco seasoning. Top with frozen onions and peppers. Mix cream of chicken soup and Rotel tomatoes together and then pour over the top. Cook on LOW 6-7 hrs. Serve over cooked quinoa.

Oh, and by the way, along this healthy food journey we discovered quinoa which is wonderful! You can find more information here, but basically it's a superfood that is packed with amino acids and protein.  It can replace rice in most recipes and it's pretty spectacular.

Zucchini Pizza Casserole
Is it obvious that we love pizza?  This is yet another really awesome, vegetable-packed recipe.  Yum!

Crock Pot Taco Soup
This is a perfect fall recipe.  Throw it in the crock pot and forget it.  We omit corn because of the carbohydrates, but everything else is pretty much the same.

Breakfast Quesadillas
These are to die for!  We didn't have leftover ham as the recipe calls for, but we bought ham at the grocery store.  Put them on whole wheat tortillas and these are a great on-the-go breakfast.  We made a bunch on Sunday and they lasted all week.


If you are on Pinterest, follow me on my board "To Eat Clean."  I update it often and find the best recipes there.  Good luck and let me know if you have any questions!