I'm scared to eat clean!!!!

Tosca Reno has a clean eating cookbook out if you need recipe ideas. I like to use onceamonthmom.com for some different ideas too... it is a freezer cooking site with diet meal plans,whole foods, gluten free, traditional, etc... You do a lot of cooking in a day or over a weekend and then freeze it... easy throw in the oven/crockpot meals! The site even includes instructions, shopping lists, and labels.

My boyfriend is terrible about eating vegetables when I make them! I've heard about a lot of people that use a food processor to cut up veggies into small pieces and then just mixing them into whatever you're making for dinner!

I personally enjoy eating clean because it gives me so much energy and makes me feel great.
What I usually do is just look up healthy recipes online, from anywhere, count the calories and eat portions that are right for me. I'm not afraid to save food as leftovers for later.
The "recipe" message board on MFP is great for finding healthy, low-cal food, but Google-ing "healthy recipes" or "healthy lunch" or something like that works just as well.

Good luck!

Check out www.100daysofrealfood.com. Its a great site with lots of reicpes, and lots of info for someone just starting out. Most of their foods are family friendly since they have 2 small kids themselves.

And don't try to do it all at one, you've made a great start, just keep doing what you're doing. Its not an easy change to make overnight.

Holy Cats! I know how you feel, but I gotta tell ya... I started buying Clean Eating Magazine and I have found some absolutely FABULOUS recipes that even my picky 14 year son will devour! Super good for you foods with most recipes using ingredients you typically have around the house... okay, with some exceptions like quinoa, and sucranat, but I if I don't know what they are, I try them or I don't make that recipe.

My absolute favorite was on the cover last month... Honey Mustard Chicken with Roasted Bell Peppers. I serve it with Brown Rice and it is fantastic!

The magazine even has sections that give you a weekly shopping list and a break down of how much each meal per serving costs... so they even try to make eating clean and healthy affordable.

My best advice is to pre-plan your meals for the week ahead of time. Take an hour or two over the weekend, sit down and literally right out "lunches, snacks, dinner" for each day... or make 7 variety's and pick which one you feel like that night. It takes the worry out of it and it gives you time to look up some recipes or cooking techniques ahead of time.

As for veggies and the kids... nothing wrong with steamed! Try adding some light seasoning and some cheese (not cheese sauce, but grated cheese. It's a great source of calcium and vitamins especially for kids). In my family we love "one pot wonders" where we kinda just throw everything together once they are cooked (or just cook them together even)... throw it on the plate and there you go. The most basic recipe is this:

pick a meat (chicken, ground turkey, ground hamburger, stew meat)
pick either pasta, rice, or neither. (go for the whole wheat and measure ahead of time for serving size)
pick your veggie (mixed, broccoli, grean beans, peas... we are really tight financially so for us this is pretty much always frozen)
pick some seasonings (italian garlic and salt/pepper, seasoned salt, paprika, etc... base it off of your meat)
throw it all together, sprinkle some cheese on top and volia! Or add in a little bit of terryaki sauce and you've got a stir fry.

We've also called this pig slop... because our experiments have often came out looking... interesting. But it was always delicious!

Good luck and take this time to HAVE FUN! Try new things, or different ways of cooking.

My final suggestion... get a george forman grill. They are fairly cheap nowadays, even for a "family sized" one. Once you get your timing done it is a QUICK (cooks both sides at once, cooking time is in half) delicious way to cook your meat or to grill some veggies (zucchini!)

if you steam your veg, add enough seasoning to bring out the flavor. salt and pepper are friends. try an unseasoned spoonful then adding a shake of salt on a spoonful. you'll see the improvement immediately.

Starty by eating cleaner.. then cleaner..then cleaner. Why does it have to be an all or nothing?

I'm a big fan of Clean Eating magazine. They even offer recipes online. I have a lot to learn, but I have discovered that I can eat nutrient-dense food that really satisfies my taste buds and is really good for me.

I would make smaller amounts so that you don't have to toss out stuff that's not getting eaten. Keep offering it to the kiddos. You're exposing them to a different way of eating and kids often need to see new foods a few times before they try anything new.

I was a little intimidated at first to try some of the recipes because the ingredients seemed unusual to me. Tomorrow we will have haddock (a cold-water fish), simply prepared, and I have never had that before in my life. Gradually, I am making small changes that I am comfortable with in hopes of improving my health. I feel better already although it's been such a short time. Go for it! Hope you do well with your new eating habits

Pinterest has lots of great ideas. While it may not be the most appropriate method of cooking for the summer, crock pots are awesome! You can just throw a bunch of stuff in before work, and it is magically ready and delicious by dinner time. Another thing i use to cook healthy food is the George Foreman grill. That thing is a life saver, and it traps all the grease out of your meats. The George is also awesome for making paninis on 9 grain bread.