transition to eating clean

Quinoa, Brown Rice, whole wheat bread, whole wheat english muffins.

Lots of fruit & veggies.

Favorite easy snacks: Triscuits & cheese; English Muffin Pizzas (muffin, ketchup or left over spaghetti sauce, italian or other seasonings, 1 oz slice of cheese, broil until bubbly)

Hello

My suggestion is to begin with snack foods first. It was easy for me to go through my cabinets and toss all of the processed stuff (chips, cookies, etc). Replace those things with simple foods like whole fruits, vegetables and plain nuts (i.e. raw almonds versus candied peanuts, etc). To save on your grocery bill, buy produce that's on sale or in season. As a rule of thumb, I always keep apples and bananas in my house. As soon as I run out, I purchase more. They're good to have on hand for an easy, clean snack.

For me, anyway, I find that snacking is where I'm most likely to slip up and eat something processed. Having an abundance of produce and nuts around keeps me on track.

As far as staples to always have on hand:
- Oatmeal
- Eggs: not very expensive, and a clean powerhouse food, in my opinion. I eat at least one or two hard boiled egg whites each day. Good for breakfast or for a snack
- Brown rice: Again, not super-expensive, and you can purchase in bulk to have readily available for a side dish
- Frozen vegetables: I prefer the kind that you can microwave directly in the bag. Easy, clean side dish for dinners/lunches

For easy meals, look to the slow cooker/crock pot!
You can find all sorts of simple, clean recipes for soups online. I make a chicken enchilada soup in my crock pot with a few simple ingredients and it is really tasty.

Soups are frequently on my menu because they're easy to make clean and quickly. Plus, they're a good way to get your vegetable servings in.

Hope this helps!

If you need family friendly recipes that are generally clean eating and the family will LOVE, you have to check out the www.skinnytaste.com website. I sing Gina's praises and have printed off so many of her yummy dishes, I wouldn't be able to count them all. She cooks using smart foods most people have in their pantry's, but with more vegetables, fruits and spices instead of the pre-packaged stuff you would normally buy at the store.

Her recipes do take a bit more time because of the ingredients, but my entire family would agree with me when I say the extra time is so worth it. Check her out, you won't regret it!

My fav 2 cookbooks are color me vegan and quick fix vegan. The recipes are easy and most the ingredients are cheap/easily accessible.

You really don't need fancy recipes to start. Most of our meals are just some kind of meat (grilled chicken, roasted chicken, fish just boiled in the pan, chicken sausage cooked in a pain or grilled) with some plain veggies or a salad with olive oil, mustard and vinegar dressing, and potatoes/couscous/noodles/rice/squash. We buy whole grain bread, brown rice, whole grain pasta, whole grain crackers etc.... We never buy processed foods except grain stuff and condiments pretty much.

For snacks we have more 'junk' like goldfish and oatmeal cookies but it's also whole grain crackers, cheese, fruit, yogurt.

It's a bit hard to give you ideas on what to improve when you don't know what you eat though.

I agree, make the transition slow! It will be amazing to how you feel and how you look. Eating clean does wonders! I also found that Shakeology (a meal replacement from Beachbody) did wonders. It's an all nautral shake that is so yummy, but helped me lose weight and stay on track. It helped curb my hunger, so I could eat clean and not pick up a fatty snack. I swear by Shakeology......check it out, the health benefits are amazing! MEssage me if you're interested, I could get great deals sine I'm a beachbody coach.