Whole Food Recipes for 2017!

Don't most recipes involve whole foods? I have tons of recipe books which I use for ideas, and all of them are whole foods based (they might have flour or grains or whatever, but if you don't like that you could skip it, none would have things like jello and it's really quite rare for the recipes for savory dishes to include sugar (some homemade sauces will, and some like to add a bit to tomato based sauces to round out the flavor, but it's often easy to skip). I don't normally cook from recipes, though, but just use those ideas and my own creativity and wing it.

Good site I'd recommend: http://www.101cookbooks.com/

Also, for a ton of recipes (mostly whole foods based in my experience): http://www.epicurious.com/ and http://www.foodandwine.com/

Good basic cookbooks are Mark Bittman's various ones (I learned to cook fish from his Fish), lots of different vegetable ones (I like Greene on Greens and Barbara Kafka's Vegetable Love). Tips for roasting everything are in Kafka's Roasting, but there are millions of others -- I love food/recipe books too much.

Granted, I use stuff like soy sauce and olive oil and vinegar and wouldn't dream of not, and I learned to cook using salt and pepper (never add it at the table). I also use various other herbs and spices, of course, but would consider those "whole foods" (wouldn't think using salt and pepper would disqualify a meal, I guess, just never crossed my mind, and seems like an unnecessary restriction).

I'm obsessed with the Whole 30 plan. I've been doing it way longer than 30 days. Tons or recipes on Pinterest and Facebook.

I cook a lot...pretty much everything I cook comes from scratch, whole ingredients or minimally processed ingredients (like a can of crushed tomatoes, etc)...I would think most actual recipes you would find most anywhere would be comprised mostly of whole foods. I get most of my stuff from Pinterest.

ChristieisReady wrote: »

wowmanacat wrote: »

I try to cook with whole food and I am working at getting better at it. I do use canned beans and frozen veggies a lot since there are only two of us here.

To my thinking, those are "minimally processed" foods and 100% welcome in anything but a "detox" diet.

Detox? And why on earth couldn't you eat frozen vegetables on a detox...they actually contain more nutrients than fresh.

I don't understand what is unclean about salt.

ChristieisReady wrote: »

My goal was to avoid recipes that begin with "take your reduced-calorie american cheese and use it to dress up a rice cake" which is low-calorie, but still basically "junk food" (No hate on junk food. A little is very nice.)

Ah. I just never run into such recipes, so your thread seemed like "post any recipe," which seemed confusing. Anyway, hopefully my links are interesting to people.

There are some people who view salt as a "preservative", and soy sauce as a "processed food", because, well, they are.

They are both processed foods, sure. I've just never thought of clean eating (which granted is a term I hate) as excluding salt. If so, might as well exclude pepper, paprika, chili powder, cinnamon, Japanese 7 spice, etc. But anyway, you aren't -- it just struck me. (One reason I care about good cooking with whole foods is that I think it's tastier, and using a little salt to me helps with that. Not a lot, but a little coarse salt of some sort.)

ChristieisReady wrote: »

janejellyroll wrote: »

I don't understand what is unclean about salt.

Some people need to reduce their salt intake, and "clean eating" has been part of how they do that. Many people don't need to monitor their salt intake. If you don't need to, then don't worry about it. There are whole books about added salts and entire panel discussions on whether or not it's beneficial. But if you don't need to worry about salt, then don't worry about it.

This is precisely why some people take such issue with the term "clean eating" because it has such a variable definition for so many people. If someone is on a reduced sodium diet for medical reasons they surely know how to modify recipes accordingly, and saying that removing the salt makes this "extra clean" would be something I can see as misleading for all these people thinking that one has to "eat clean" in order to be successful.

I'm always a fan of sharing recipes though, I get a lot of mine from skinnytaste.com or Pinterest, but I also use processed/convenience foods often to supplement my overall diet or certain meals. Tonight we are having grilled salmon with a bottled marinade, grilled asparagus, and rice. Most of that won't fit the definition of clean, Whole Foods, so I will wait to share some recipes till later.

ChristieisReady wrote: »

My first one's a dessert, but healthy life needs dessert sometimes, too.

Clean Berry Parfait (also GF and Vegan)
• 1 tsp(s), Vanilla extract
• ¼ agave syrup
• 1 can Coconut Cream
• Juice of ½ Lemon
• 4 cups berries

Refrigerate the coconut cream (or full-fat coconut milk) overnight, sitting in the bowl that you’re going to make whipped cream in (so it’s cold, too). Begin whipping coconut cream, slowly adding agave syrup, then vanilla, until peaks form. You have whipped cream.
Wash your berries and squeeze lemon juice over them. Take parfait cups (or pint glasses) and put alternating layers of berries and coconut whipped cream in them. Garnish with cocoa (cacao) powder, if desired.

How is agave "clean"?

And eating more whole foods naturally reduces your salt intake - most people would need to add salt to their diet to maintain proper balance in their body, it's not a clean/dirty ingredient

livingleanlivingclean wrote: »

ChristieisReady wrote: »

My first one's a dessert, but healthy life needs dessert sometimes, too.

Clean Berry Parfait (also GF and Vegan)
• 1 tsp(s), Vanilla extract
• ¼ agave syrup
• 1 can Coconut Cream
• Juice of ½ Lemon
• 4 cups berries

Refrigerate the coconut cream (or full-fat coconut milk) overnight, sitting in the bowl that you’re going to make whipped cream in (so it’s cold, too). Begin whipping coconut cream, slowly adding agave syrup, then vanilla, until peaks form. You have whipped cream.
Wash your berries and squeeze lemon juice over them. Take parfait cups (or pint glasses) and put alternating layers of berries and coconut whipped cream in them. Garnish with cocoa (cacao) powder, if desired.

How is agave "clean"?

And eating more whole foods naturally reduces your salt intake - most people would need to add salt to their diet to maintain proper balance in their body, it's not a clean/dirty ingredient

Yeah, I make most of my meals from whole foods. Unless I'm adding soy sauce or hot sauce to my meals, adding some salt when I cook is crucial for my health.

I guess I understand a note on the recipe saying "Omit if limiting salt intake," but the note was more like "Omit to be really clean," which I still don't understand. If some people need to limit salt for health reasons, that doesn't make salt dirty for the rest of us especially when foods like agave aren't noted at all.

First time to the message boards and this topic caught my eye. One request: Could submissions include number of servings, total calories, etc... much as we would do if creating our own recipes for use within our food diary?

ChristieisReady wrote: »

Roasted Broccoli
• 1 Tbsp, Lemon zest
• 1 lemon yields, Lemon juice - Raw
• 4 clove, Garlic - Raw
• 4 tsp, Parmesan Cheese
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 6 cup, chopped, Broccoli – Raw
Preheat oven to 400. Line a baking sheet with tinfoil. Clean, DRY and chop broccoli. Put on baking sheet. Grate the zest from 1 lemon over broccoli. Finely chop 4 cloves garlic. Toss with broccoli, shredded parmesan cheese, and olive oil. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the tops are crispy.

Other roasted green vegetables:
Brussels Sprouts: Omit lemon zest and juice, garlic, and parmesan. Use salt and pepper only.
Green beans: Omit Parmesan and garlic. Add cumin and ground oregano. (~1 tsp each)