Remember clean eating is eating 'as close to the source as possible' - be it fruit, veg or meat. This method of eating is promoted heavily by the weight loss community, body builders and hippies! The idea being that the less chemicals and nasties you ingest, the better your body will function, the better your digestion etc. Plus we want the foods we eat to offer us vitamins, energy and essential nutrients which you won't get from your packet of crisps.
Some of you might notice that a minority of my ingredients are not 'clean'. Remember the 80/20 rule I mentioned in one of my earlier blog posts? Be good 80% and have a little bit of what you fancy 20%? I use this daily. I eat corn tortillas (no flour which means no refined carbohydrates and seem to be used widely by clean eaters) I eat 0% fat total Greek yoghurt every day - it's mega high in protein and contains only 3 or 4 ingredients (not to be confused with 'Greek style yoghurt' often fat free, this contains an abundance of ingredients and artificial sweeteners to make it taste nice). Whey protein powder, one of the few processed foods which does offers benefits, and finally I eat whatever graze boxes pop through my door! These are my little daily treats that I look so forward to every day :-)
When it comes to my meals and snacks I plan plan plan. I try to eat little and often. I don't think you can ever prepare enough when it comes to food, ask me Monday what I'm having for dinner Thursday and odds are I'll be able to tell you. This keeps me on target because I always have some kind of good food to look forward too!
Anyway enough jibber jabber! I hope you get some healthy food inspiration and I'm sorry if the photos are bad quality :( I am not a professional food photographer...
Breakfasts
I have had a protein shake for breakfast every single day this year up until Tuesday! This is because until recently I was not exercising regularly. I think that after a work out protein shakes are good for recovery and refuelling. So now on my crossfit days, I'm having solid breakfasts so I can have a protein shake (just mixed with water) after my work outs.
My breakfast protein shake:
1 frozen banana
250ml unsweetened almond milk
1 large handful of spinach
1tbsp chia or flax seeds
1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder
(You can put whatever the hell you want in this, it was only taste like vanilla from the protein, perfect excuse to sneak in some leafy greens!)
Yoghurt Layers
Yoghurt of your choice
3 strawberries chopped
Small handful of raspberries
1tbsp of chopped nuts
1tbsp pumpkin seeds
1 peach smiled
Drizzle of honey
Layer in a glass however you want. I put my strawberries in the bottom and used a muddler to smoosh it all down, followed by one layer of yoghurt, 1tbsp of nuts, yoghurt, seeds, yoghurt and top with raspberries and peach slices. Drizzle with a little honey and enjoy!
Porridge and fruit
Pretty self explanatory... I used unsweetened almond milk to make my porridge and stuck on whatever fruit I had left over.
Lunches
Weekdays I try to eat leftovers as often as possible because my dinners are usually my most nutritious meal of the day and mostly microwave friendly. I do sometimes have 2 lunches. Double lunch days are my fave. I have some fresh soup around 11:30 (there is no way my phone camera can make soup look appetising). Then I have my left overs around 1, I'm not usually hungry until dinner then. When I go to Dans for the weekend I do like to indulge in sweet quesadillas but I usually limit myself to one a weekend and opt for veggie omelettes at least once.
Sweet quesadilla
1 tablespoon of peanut or almond butter
1 or 2 corn tortillas
1 small banana
Handful of berries of your choice
Pinch of cinnamon (optional)
Put all the ingredients in the tortillas, fold in half and stick in either a flat sandwich toaster, or heat in a frying pan or George foreman.
Cut into quarters and drizzle with honey/agave/maple syrup if you wish! Enjoy <3
Left over fajitas
Corn tortilla
Chicken or steak
Fajita spice mix (I make my own with chilli powder, cayenne pepper, oregano, garlic salt and paprika)
Peppers
Onion
...I really don't have to tell you how to cook fajitas. I bought fresh salsa and guacamole to serve, jalapeños are very welcome too! I must add here that when I went to buy guacamole (something I don't usually eat) I went straight for the discovery squeezy bottles and was very upset with the ingredients. Life's too short to have everything home made but I am careful where I cut corners! If you bought tomato soup you would expect the main ingredient to be tomatoes yes? Squeezy guacamole's main ingredient was cream (30%) followed by (4%) avocado extract or something of that sort. I went straight to the fresh dip aisle and bought 76% avocado guacamole for £1.30. Obviously it doesn't keep for as long but it taste a lot nicer and at least you're getting your daily dose of healthy fats from the avocado!Dinners
I try to eat lean meat and lots of veg for dinner. This week I tried a new recipe I stole from Waitrose's free magazine. It was amazing and so easy and has most definitely made its way into my staple dinners! I already happened to have all the cupboard Ingredients which made it extremely cheap too. Definitely worth investing in (they're pretty cheap items which can be used for all Asian cooking). Seriously if there's one of my recipes you're going to try, make it this one! 
Chicken mini fillets
2 tbsp sweet chilli dipping sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
Veg of your choice to stir fry
Preheat the oven to 200'c. In a bowl mix the chicken with the chilli sauce and sesame oil. If your sesame seeds aren't already toasted just stick in a frying pan for two minutes until they turn golden brown. Put a little oil on an oven tray, place the chicken onto the tray and coat on both sides with the sesame seeds. Bake for 10-15 mins or until cooked through. Stir fry your veg and serve with chicken placed on top. Don't forget to make extra for your lunch :)
Beef stir frySteak cut Into strips
Pepper
Onion
Tomato
Mushroom
Roughly chop all your veg, drizzle with a little oil, season with a little salt and stick in the oven at 200'. Keep an eye on this - mine only took about 15 minutes. Then fry your steak and chuck it all together! I always buy 'quick cook' steaks or Morrisons 'sandwich' steaks. They're usually around £4 and you get anywhere between 3 and 5 in a pack. These fry in literally 45seconds so be ready! I smothered mine in Tabasco to give it a bit of a kick :)
Baked sweet potato
1 Sweet Potato
Some chicken...up to you how much!
2 Spring onions
Feta cheese
Tobasco - or your choice of spices
This is super easy to make. I baked my sweet potato same as you would a regular jacket potato. put some oil and sea salt on, pierced the skin. I started it off in the microwave and then put it in the over for about an hour. Once you can easily poke a knife through the middle of the potato, take it out of the oven, chop in half and using a spoon, scoop out the potato 'filling' and stick it in a bowl. Put the sweet potato skins back into the oven to crisp them up a bit. Whilst the potato is cooking - fry or roast your chicken with some spices. (I fried mine and then mixed it up with loads of tobasco). Mix this in with the sweet potato and then transfer the mix back into the sweet potato skins. Top with chopped spring onion and feta cheese and pop under the grill for a minute or two. Leaving the chicken out of this would make a great vegetarian dinner too. Also you can use different cheeses.
Desserts
As I mentioned earlier I tend to have Greek yoghurt every day, and that is (on non workout days) my final little meal of the day :) I have 100g of it. I know it seems anal to weigh it out but there is 500g in a tub and I don't want to find out on day 5 that I have a tiny portion left because my eyes were bigger than my stomach earlier in the week! I usually serve this with a very small portion of fruit, or 1tbsp of chopped nuts and a drizzle of honey.
A while ago I bought loads of different nuts - it's amazing all the different health benefits that come from different nuts and seeing as they're so high in calories it can be hard to get a decent mix of them all. So I bought almonds, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts and macadamia nuts, chopped them all up and stuck them in an air tight jar. I used myfitnesspal combined with the weight to work out that there is exactly 100 calories in 1tbsp :) not that I calorie count much but it's nice to have a general idea because sometime people expect health foods to be low in calories and more often than not that is not the case! This is a good idea to do at home, it will set you back about £4/5 the first time you do it but will last you forever. It makes great toppings for yoghurt - or ice cream if we're going down that road...Snacks
I always seem to eat my snacks and then remember I was supposed to take a photo of them first... So here's a few of many.
Almonds
Usually I have a really small handful of plain but I found this bag for 99p in Waitrose and I remembered I'd tried them at the Taste of London last summer and I loved them!
Apple with almond butter
1tsp of nut butter - I try to use almond but sometimes only peanut will do...
Graze box
Summer berry compote - one of the nicest graze boxes I've eaten :) Mini wholemeal shortbread and some compote.
So there you have it - this is me pretty much Monday through Thursday. Hopefully this has inspired you to make some nutritious AND delicious meals. Preparation is everything, plan the day ahead - it makes lunch way more exciting! If you have any questions about anything (related to this please) please do not hesitate to ask me and I shall do my best to answer.
Minnie
xXx
