YESSSS!!!

Anyone who knows me (or has been following my recipes) knows I LOVE Italian food made with marinara sauce. I'm not a big fan of Alfredo, but pizza, spaghetti, and lasagna are all right up there for me. Heck, I even like dipping my chicken in marinara. I've really been struggling with giving up Prego with this new lifestyle. I've tried making my own sauce, and while it's good, it's just not doing it for me.

Today I stopped at the grocery store in town that I don't go to often because I know they have a line of organic stuff. Well, I read the back of the Nash Brothers pasta sauce, and it's clean!  So I figured I might as well try it. Oh my goodness. I've died and gone to spaghetti sauce heaven!  It tastes even better than Prego!  Guess who's having spaghetti for supper tonight?!

Cheating...

Let's have a little chit-chat about cheating.  I do it.  I'll freely admit it.  Sometimes, we're out shopping and the kids are screaming their heads off because they're hungry little monsters.  So do I cave and feed them crap?  Kind of.  We do eat out.  Probably more than we should.  But I always try to make the best possible choices when we eat out.  Well, I shouldn't say always, but usually!

Anywho, I firmly believe that if you don't give in to those cravings once in a while, it's going to cause you to fall off the wagon completely.  My kids and I have a lunch date once a week.  This helps me to stay on track better the rest of the week.  It satisfies my cravings for someone else's cooking and it makes me work even harder at home to make healthy choices because I allowed myself that one indulgence.  Now this does not mean that we go out, and I eat a whole pizza by myself.  I try to stick to salads with no dressing, chicken tacos, or when we do have pizza, I just eat one or two pieces. It takes care of my cravings but doesn't send me back into my fat pants.

What happens if you never give in to cravings?  Well, I know from when I was on Weight Watchers, I got to the point that I felt like I was being deprived and I just gave up on the plan completely.  I slowly started gaining back all the weight I had lost, and then when I got pregnant with my last, I went completely nuts.  Then after I had the baby, I had all this weight to lose again and I could've kicked myself.  So, I decided that even if it takes me a little longer because I ate those 2 pieces of pizza a week or couple of pieces of chocolate or whatever, so be it. It's better to feed the beast in small doses than never and starve it until it goes nuts and eats everything in sight.  ;)  Moderation is the key!  If you gave in to that craving and ate a cheeseburger with all the fixings and that evil white bun yesterday, big deal!  Just get back on the wagon today and try not to fall off too often.  ;)

Soup!

You must try Miss Picky Pant's Favorite Chicken Noodle Soup!  Miss Picky Pants said so.  ;)  I can't get my 7-year-old to eat hardly anything,, but she ate THREE helpings of this soup tonight!  So go try it!  http://cleaneatingsmallerbutt.blogspot.com/p/to-die-for-chicken-noodle-soup.html

To my subscribers

Thank you for signing up to receive my updates!  The emails you get are sent out by a third party app called Feedburner.  I am able to see when people sign up for this, but I promise you I will NEVER share your email address.  Anywho, get to the point, Sheena.  When you sign up, you will receive an email from Feedburner confirming that yes, you did sign up for this and want to join my list.  If you don't click the link in the email, you won't get the updates.  I found this out the hard way when I tested it myself.  ;)  So if you aren't getting the updates and you've signed up for them, check your inbox and junk folder for an email from Feedburner!

Thank you!

I just have to take a moment to thank you all for reading my blog and putting up with my sporadic posts over the last couple of crazy weeks.  Making new recipes and getting them up for you all is helping me to stay on track with eating clean, and is also making me stretch out of my comfort zone of eating tacos and hamburgers every day.  :)  I look forward to creating many more yummy recipes for you and your families.

Mmmm...cake!

If this doesn't tell you how good my crumb cake is, then I don't know what to tell you.  ;)  It passed with Emy's approval.  That's enough!

Pizzaaaaa...

I just posted a recipe for taco pizza.  Make sure you check it out!  Also, the dough recipe for the crust along with my yummy clean marinara sauce recipe could be used to make regular pizza!  Just top with nitrate free pepperoni (can be found at Harmony Foods!  That's the only place I've found it locally), ground pork (remember, no pre-seasoned stuff), chicken, or lots of veggies!  Also remember to buy bricks of cheese and grate it yourself because you don't need all the junk in the pre-grated stuff that keeps it from caking.  It's cheaper in the long run to buy cheese by the brick anyway, and who doesn't like to save money?!  Again, cheese isn't technically clean, but I'm just not going to give it up because it's just too yummy, so we use it in moderation.  :)  Keep on taking those clean-eating baby steps!

More Recipes!

Well, the county fair is done for the year.  And so are my chickens.  I now have a freezer full of homegrown, horomone-free chickens.  So tomorrow, I will be sharing my recipe for pulled chicken made in the crockpot, as well as hotdish!  (Those of you who don't live in Minnesota call it casserole for some strange reason. ;) )  Stay tuned!

Jam, baby!

Yesterday, we talked about bread.  Now we need something to put on our bread!  My husband's refrigerator jam (http://cleaneatingsmallerbutt.blogspot.com/p/clean-strawberry-jam.html) with organic peanut butter is the bomb!  I feel complete again because I now have a clean toast combo for breakfast.  :)  This jam is soooooooo easy to make.  Give it a try!  You won't regret it.  And if you do, it only makes two small jars per batch, so give it away!  Ha. :D

BREAD!

I have been having a lot of trouble finding a clean bread in the store. I thought I was on to one, and then at the bottom of the ingredient list, there it was-corn syrup.  So what the heck are you supposed to do?!  I'm not into the tedious task of baking bread.  I don't have a KitchenAid mixer (yet! ;)) and I just can't get the hang of kneading bread.  Enter the best cookbook I've ever found- Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  (I do not know the people who wrote this nor have I been asked to promote it at all, just for the record.  I just love it and want to share with you all!)  I downloaded the Kindle version from Amazon onto my iPad, but if you don't have the ability to get it in Kindle version, then here is the link to order it-http://www.amazon.com/Healthy-Bread-Five-Minutes-ebook/dp/B003GFIVWA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375224477&sr=8-1&keywords=healthy+bread+in+five+minutes+a+day

So far, I have tried the master recipe, and we love it!  When we have Italian food for supper, I brush the top with a mixture of olive oil, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning before baking.  I'm trying the hamburger buns tonight.  It's awesome bread, and easy to follow! The best part is you can make enough dough for 4 loaves at a time and keep the extra dough in the fridge for up to two weeks!  I highly recommend this book if you want to make your own bread.  They have to be the easiest bread recipes ever written.

With that said, the recipes as written are NOT clean because they call for 2 1/2 cups of white flour.  I just substitute whole wheat pastry flour, and viola!  Clean!

Let's get our bake on!

O.M.SQUEEEEEE!!!  I went to Harmony Foods in Bemidji today (my favorite and only local food co-op), and I hit the mother load!  I found coconut palm sugar AND brown rice syrup.  I'm not too sure yet about the brown rice syrup or if I'm going to use it.  I need to do some more research on it.  I also stocked up on my favorite two flours-spelt and whole wheat pastry!

I know, you're thinking, "Just get to the point, Sheena.  Why are you so darn excited?"  Because I get to BAKE!!!  I've got a long list of things that I'm going to make this week including chocolate chip cookies, spice cake, pizza crust, and I may even give canning a try.  My bff threw the gauntlet down.  She wants clean canning recipes.  I have a ton of strawberries in my fridge that my awesome grandpa picked for me, so I think I may be attempting to talk my husband into making strawberry jam with honey instead of sugar. :D He's the canner, not me.  I'm too impatient.

So here's the meal plan for the week (did you know that it's been proven that if you plan your meals for the week or month ahead of time, you spend less money on groceries?)-

•  Mexican pizza
• Chicken chimichangas
• Roasted turkey breast with potatoes and carrots
• Something new made out of the leftover turkey
• Sloppy joe's with homemade buns

See anything interesting on that list that you want to learn to make?  Well, then make sure you check back during the week because I will be posting recipes for all of it along with my baking experiments (if they aren't flops ;))  Also, make sure you subscribe with your email address over there -----------------------------------------> (on the top) so that you don't miss anything!  I promise you will only get one email a day at the most. :)

Busy, busy, busy!

I'm not going to be posting too many new recipes over the weekend.  My husband and I are going to see Merle Haggard tonight with my mother-in-law, so I won't be making supper. :D  I am going to work on a pizza crust recipe this weekend as well as a couple of breakfast recipes including crockpot oatmeal and clean waffles.  Everyone knows breakfast is the most important meal of the day!  Yet it seems to be the hardest to eat clean on a time crunch or is just skipped all together.  I'm going to find a way to make breakfast easy. ;)  I hope everyone is finding some of the information and recipes I've posted so far helpful!

I'm looking for suggestions!

I am in the process of making a list of recipes that I want to post.  If you have any suggestions, please feel free to comment below or contact me!  I have already had requests for main dishes, desserts, and side dishes (specifically for picky eaters...I think I can handle that since I'm the pickiest eater I know. ;)) via my Facebook. I'm always open to more ideas.  You can also send me a recipe and I will try to clean it up for you.

I have my lasagna all typed out and saved.  Watch for it later tonight!  I want to add pictures to it before I publish it.  Mmmmmm.... :D

Recipes are now being added!  Watch for many more in the future, starting with lasagna tomorrow.  Feel free to share this page on your Facebook and Pintrest!  Also, click "Subscribe" so that you don't miss any new recipes being posted.  :D

Welcome!

I have been asked to share my clean eating recipes by many family and friends.  So, here it is!  Please be patient with my ramblings.  When I am passionate about something, I tend to want to share every single detail.  :)  Also remember that this is a work in progress.  I am relatively new to clean eating myself and am still experimenting with recipes.  I also have 3 children and am taking online classes, so I'm a little crunched for time some days.  I will do my very best to get great-tasting recipes up as fast as I can.  :)  Feel free to contact me anytime with any questions you may have.