Clean Eating Ideas-Please Help!

If you are a salad person then you might be interested in the salad that I have been eating. My salad doesn't have any lettuce in it. I cut up a whole cucumber, add a whole small container of grape or cherry tomatoes, a half a head of broccoli, and an avocado. This makes a gigantic salad. I do mean gigantic but it fills me up. As for the salad dressing, I don't use the bottled stuff anymore. I squeeze all the juice out of a lemon and pour it over all the veggies. Then I add garlic salt and pepper. The dressing tastes great over the veggies and is as simple and as clean as you can get.

You can switch out the veggies or add more if you would like. The avocado makes the large portion of the calories and the giant salad is about 490 calories and I am stuffed at the end of it. If you take out the avocado it is like 100 something calories. I am vegan so if you are not, you could always add chicken. Or you can scale down the salad if you don't feel like eating such a massive amount.

Batch cooking is amazing and then keeping a small arsenal of things that are easy to mix up for boredom is nice. For me, it's eggs, some veggies, spinach, green leaf lettuce, and a cheese. This can alternate b/t omelets, a frittata, and salads.

Buy protein on special and freeze it. It can hurt that week, but you come out way ahead since the average cost for that protein ends up being really low. Then things start going into the crock pot during work. Chicken thighs are a perfect example. Always on sale and they take well to crock potting, but it's not everyone's cup of tea. Pork is another protein that's overlooked a lot, but it's fairly lean w/ the right cuts.

Frozen broccoli and canned black beans are two cheap things that end up in a lot of meals for me. Diced tomatoes as well. Cauliflower is pretty cheap fresh and can go a long way. Cooking quinoa or brown rice in chicken/pork broth w/ some herbs can really keep those from tasting boring. Also, canned tuna isn't my favorite anymore, but it's easy enough to make a simple salad with.

There's some recipes for cold oatmeal (made w/ the whole oats that aren't cut) that sound easy and cheap. Apple sauce, oats, honey, let sit overnight, etc.

I feel like greek yogurt, avocado, and nuts are really expensive. I like all of those things, but six dollar almonds is just crazy (what in the world happened with those?!).

My clean eating idea, is to not worry about clean. For weight loss: I worry about sustainability in keeping a calorie deficit. To do that, I only eat food I enjoy and use moderation and portion control. I make sure I am meeting my macro and micronutrient goals, and get some fiber and that's it. Throw in some exercise for fitness and some weight training if you can. It doesn't need to be so complicated.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/822501-halp-my-sandwich-isn-t-clean?hl=Halp+my+sandwich+isn't+clean

Brown rice, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, lots of lean protein, humus, whole wheat pasta. It really is a matter of figuring out what you like (I think) and making healthy options of what you already like.

^^
I have all of these in my house right now... they are staples, along with yoghurt (Greek and lowfat berry flavours), and plenty of veggies, nuts and seeds, and some fruits. On the weekend, I steam my veggies, boil eggs, make brown rice using vegetable stock for flavour, cook mini-frittatas in muffin tins, bake up my chicken and my fish, chop up lettuce and grate carrots, then put them in tupperware in the fridge (freeze the mini-fritattas). I keep the fruits out on the counter on a platter. When I get hungry, healthy choices are right in front of me, ready to warm up (or not) and eat. Plus, since everything is pre-prepped, it is a cinch to bulk up and round out meals by tossing together the different "clean" elements to create interesting and nutrient-packed meals.

I also keep ready to grab and go fiber bars, unsweetened oatmeal sachets, and protein bars in the cupboard for mornings when I'm running late, or days when I'll be away from healthy choices (like meeting days where they serve plates of muffins and mayonnaise laden meat or fish salads) for the workday. Toss a couple in a bag with some fruit and perhaps one or two of your boiled eggs, and you are set for success away from home.

I'm still getting my cupboards "clean"... one set is full of a variety of beans and whole grains like brown rice, quinoa, and barley, as well as different salsas. Unfortunately, the other one still has bags of Doritos... the next area to conquer in the kitchen!