Clean Meals Mama

One of my favorite breakfasts is yogurt parfaits. Nothing beats ripe berries, topped with some yogurt, sprinkled with granola. I grew up on my mom's homemade granola, so the store bought versions just do not cut it for me.  One of the things I enjoy about making homemade is being able to add the ingredients that I enjoy. Here is my base recipe.  Feel free to add your own take on this recipe, it is easy to alter. Homemade Granola Yields 7 cups Ingredients 4 cups oatmeal 1 cup coconut 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon 2 cups mix-ins (some of our favorites include sunflower seeds, peanuts, almonds, pepitas, etc.) 2/3 cup honey 1/2 cup oil Directions Preheat oven to 325 degrees.   Mix dry ingredients in a large roasting pan, or cookie sheet.   Heat together honey and oil on stove top until mixture begins to boil. Pour mixture slowly over dry ingredients, and mix thoroughly Bake for 30 minutes (or more depending on desired crunch)...

Here we are, back at it for another week. This week is very busy for my family with dance, hockey, and baseball meetings. With that being said, I know that I will be the most successful this week by planning ahead.  With nothing going on Monday evening, I will spend time prepping some of the food to make the rest of the week smooth. Here is the meal plan for the week: April 8th-14th Sunday B- Oatmeal with plain greek yogurt and frozen blueberries L- Salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, chicken, sunflower seeds, dressing D- Sloppy Joes , cut up veggies, potato salad, S-Celery with peanut butter Monday B- Hard boiled eggs, grapefruit L- Leftover sloppy joes, cut up veggies, D- Ham, buffalo cauliflower , baked sweet potato S- Energy balls  and apple Tuesday B- Gluten free toast, cottage cheese, avocado L- Cucumber, cream cheese, lunch meat sandwiches, side salad with dressing, apple D- Baked chicken, quinoa, roasted green beans S- hard boiled egg and clementin...

This week you will notice a lot of my lunches are dedicated to the Thai Peanut Chicken Crunch Salad. I made this for dinner on Saturday night, last week, and let me tell you...it made a TON!  Both my husband and I will be eating it most of the week for lunch.  I have made similar recipes before and knowing it would make a lot, I did not add the dressing on when I made it in order for it to keep better in the fridge.   Other than that, you can see what I will be making this week.   Monday B- Berry Cheesecake smoothie with oats: 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1 cup frozen berries, 1 Tlbs. chia seeds, 1/2 cup water (or more). Blend until smooth, then add 1/2 cup dry oats and gently blend.   L- Thai Peanut Chicken Crunch Salad (leftover) D- Pulled pork sandwiches , gluten free bun, steamed green beans Tuesday b- 2 Fried eggs, 1/2 avocado, sliced and 1 tomato, sliced.  Stack avocado and tomato on top of egg, sprinkle with a little s...

Everyone, who is trying to eat healthier, has a story as to why they choose a style of eating.  Mine choice usually is clean eating.  So what is it?  At its simplest explanation, clean eating is eating "real" foods.  Those foods that are minimally processed or refined, in their whole state or as close to whole as possible. But why clean for me?  Why do I choose to eat this way? The simplest explanation is that I feel better when I eat this way.  A few years ago, I was having a lot of joint pain, was tired all the time, and was getting headaches almost daily.  After many trips to the doctor, without an explanation, I decided to try to eliminate certain foods out of my diet to see if I would feel better.  What I found is my body has food sensitivities to corn (in all forms) and to gluten.  Both of these sensitivities are self diagnosed, meaning I have not seen a doctor to verify these.  However I do know that when I eliminate these foods...

Welcome to Clean Meals Mama.  First, a little about me. I am married with 4 children, the oldest is 9, the youngest is 3. As a stay at home mom, my job for the past 9 years has been to make sure my children are taken care of.  Somewhere along the way, I forgot how to take care of myself.  After years of putting my family first, I decided it was time to include myself in the people I take care of. Like many of you, I try to eat healthy (most of the time) but lately I have been lacking the motivation.  I struggle with finding clean meals that my family will eat as well-because I don't have time to make more than one meal. My goal for this blog is to provide a space where I can share clean meal plans for the week. I am hoping this space will be helpful for you and your family as well.  In return, I hope that by sharing my meal plans, I find the motivation to return to my clean eating days.