Clean Eating Weight Loss Meal Plan 69

Breakfast

Whole Wheat Bagel with Organic Cream Cheese, Banana Slices and Scrambled Eggs

Mid Morning Snack

Trader Joe's Whole Organic Dried Cranberries (found here)

A little sweet and a little sour, these cranberry-raisins can sweeten up your entire day.

Enjoy with nuts or alone. Either way, they make an awesome clean eating snack.

Lunch

Egg Sandwich with All-Natural Cheddar and Whole Wheat Toast

Simple and easy, this was a scrumptious way to lunch.

Afternoon Snack

Late July Organic Mini Cheese Bites (from here)

These are USDA-Certified-Organic, with no trans-fat or hydrogenated oil. Plus, they are delicious!

The product is described as kid-friendly, but in my opinion, they're adult-friendly too. In fact, I just downed an entire bag.

Trust me. They are good.

Get them at Late July Organic Mini Cheese Bites.

Dinner

Greek Salad

Simple and light.

For dressing, try Stonewall Kitchen Dressing in Classic Greek Flavor.

It's delicious.

That's all for today.

Thanks for visiting Clean Eating Weight Loss Meal Plan!

See you next time.

Oh, by the way, visit www.cleaneatingrecipesblog.com for more clean and healthy ideas!
 

Thanksgiving Leftover Special: Tom Turkey Kha Gai

One of the great blessings, and curses, of Thanksgiving is leftover turkey. The next day it’s great reheated, or made into sandwiches, but by Day 3 you want something that tastes like not turkey. That’s where this spicy Thai coconut soup recipe comes in.

This is my take on Tom Kha Gai, and as usual I make no claim as to its authenticity. I do know it tastes amazing to me, and will make you forget you even roasted a turkey. There’s lots of everything going on here, so be prepared to adjust radically to your tastes. It should be fairly spicy, sweet, sour, and salty, all at the same time. 

If you can, see if you find galangal, or galanga root, as it's sometimes called. It looks like a thin-skinned ginger, with a sort of similar flavor, although people that make this soup for a living will say it's much different and far superior. I decided to use ginger, since that's what the majority of my audience will use, but I thought it was worth mentioning, in case you live in an area where this rhizome is available.      

As far as the chili oil goes, all I did was mash together a couple tablespoons of sambal with twice as much vegetable oil with a mortar and pestle. Once it settles, the gorgeous, red oil rises to the top, and you’re ready to drip. I hope you have a great Thanksgiving, and that some of your leftover turkey finds its way into this delicious soup. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 4 serving:
 6 cups turkey or chicken broth

3” piece ginger, sliced thin

2 stalks fresh lemongrass, bruised and sliced

kefir lime or lemon leaves, sliced

2 tbsp cilantro stems

1/2 tsp chili flakes, or to taste

Simmer for 15 minutes

Add:

1 pound cubed turkey or chicken

1 cup little mushrooms

2 tsp sugar

2 tbsp. fish sauce

1 (13-oz) can coconut milk

1/4 cup lime juice

1/4 cup green onion

2 tbsp chopped cilantro leaves

Chili oil, cilantro leaves, and lime wedges to garnish

Clean Eating Weight Loss Meal Plan 68

Special Thanksgiving Message from Clean Eating Weight Loss Meal Plan

 Hi there. Welcome back!

It's Thanksgiving week, and you're celebrating with mouthwatering food: savory meats cooked to tender perfection, rich sauces dripping with oil, and mouthwatering desserts oozing with cream and chocolate...

It's feasting time, and you most-definitely deserve to enjoy yourself. 

But...

Please don't forget to eat clean!

You can eat healthy during Thanksgiving.

Indulge on the holiday, but eat sensibly for the rest of the time. Practice clean eating as much as you can, and drink plenty of water to keep hydrated. Also, if you need a break from family and guests, exercise. Not only does exercise offset extra calories, it takes away stress too.

Remember: Clean Eating is a lifestyle, so do as you normally would, even if there's a big meal planned ahead.

Good luck, and Happy Holidays!

Today's Clean Eating Weight Loss Meal Plan

Breakfast

Organic 8-Grain Cereal Topped with Trader Joe's Jumbo Seedless Black Raisins

This was a simple breakfast, but it was wholesome and filling. For natural sweetness, I originally wanted to add real maple syrup, but switched to Jumbo Seedless Raisins the last minute. The raisins tasted just as sweet while adding texture.

 
Have you tried Trader Joe's Jumbo Black Raisins? They are awesome. I love adding them to oatmeal, cereal and such, but love snacking on them too.

For cereal, I recommend Earth's Best Organic Whole Grain Cereal. It's made with grain oat flour, and contains an abundant amount of vitamins, iron and zinc. It doesn't have any additives or preservatives. Plus, it's quite tasty.

Mid Morning Snack

Sea's Gift Korean Seaweed Snack (Kim Nori)

Love roasted seaweed. Love Korean flavors.

This healthy, delicious packet offers flavor, crunch and few calories. It's (pretty much) the perfect clean eating snack.

Lunch

Stir Fry Pork Slices and Tofu

I marinaded pork slices in corn starch, Tamari soy sauce, agave nectar, Vegetable oyster sauce, and Organic Rice Wine. Then I cooked it over stove top, using extra virgin olive oil, with organic tofu slices.
You can eat the dish alone, or top it over organic grain such as brown rice or quinoa. I personally prefer brown rice for Asian meals.

I like San-J Tamari Soy Sauce very much, and use it in most of my cooking. It's reformulated to be gluten-free, and is certified vegan and non-GMO. It has a rich, savory flavor that adds fantastic taste to meals.

If you want to read more about this type of soy sauce, visit this link. Along with product descriptions, you'll also find more reviews.

Afternoon Snack

Trader Joe's Cocao Dark Chocolate

Not much to say about this except that it was HEAVEN ON EARTH!

Dinner

Garlic Spinach Chicken Stir Fry (get recipe here)

Plump chicken slices sauteed in garlic and extra virgin oil, with healthy, richly-green spinach--this meal was delicious, healthy and fanfastic!

I think you'll enjoy it. I know I did.

Find recipe at Clean Eating Dinner Recipe.

Thank you again for visiting Clean Eating Weight Loss Meal Plan!

Hope you enjoyed the suggestions today.

Happy Holidays!

Whole Boneless Thanksgiving Turkey – As Close to Turducken as I’ll Ever Get

If you’re a turkey, and you’re getting boned-out, there’s a good chance you’re about to become Turducken, which in this chef’s opinion, is one of the most overrated recipes of all time. When was the last time you sat down in a restaurant and thought, “I hope the chef’s doing a turkey, duck, chicken trio.”

However, the idea of removing those pesky bones before your bird makes its grand entrance may be worth considering. Not only do you get an impressive looking roast to wow the table, but carving is significantly easier. I didn't have time to show here, but of course you are making a killer turkey stock with all those bones, so that's another advantage. Also, if you're worried about losing flavor, don't. This tastes virtually identical. 

If you’ve ever found yourself hacking up a perfectly good turkey in front of the family, while flop-sweat drips onto the mangled meat, then this approach may be for you. Sure, it takes a good hour to prep, but that’s pretty much where the hard work ends.  

These types of videos are near impossible to edit into any reasonable length, but the good news is this is a lot easier to do than I make it look. Just go slow, and keep that knife against the bone, and you’ll be fine. By the way, chickens make an affordable and delicious thing to practice on.

I’ve included my “prop” stuffing below, which was great. It’s more the style you’d see in a stuffed pork chop, but as I said in the video, your favorite stuffing will work beautifully.

I’ve also posted a bonus video below that goes into more detail on the tying technique. So, if you’re looking for a new and exciting challenge for Thanksgiving, I hope you give this a try. Enjoy!

Notes:

• My turkey was about 15 pounds, but this will work on any sized bird.
• I wanted to try salt only on the outside, without butter or oil, like in our salt chicken recipe, just to see what would happen, but nothing did. So, feel free to slather on the butter.
• You’ll need about 3-4 cups of prepared stuffing depending on the turkey.
• My pan sauce was nothing more than the drippings with a big splash of cream, reduced until slightly thickened, and strained.  

Procedure:

Start in a 450 F.  oven for 15 minutes

Reduce to 325 F. until you get an internal temperature of 150 F. (mine took about 1 1/2 hours more)

For the stuffing I used:

1 1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup finely minced onions, sautéed golden

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup turkey or chicken broth, or enough to moisten

salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp chopped fresh sage

1 tbsp chopped fresh tarragon

2 tsp fresh thyme leaves

2 tsp fresh chopped rosemary leaves

Bonus Knot Tying Video

Singapore Chili Crabs – King of the Crab Recipes?

Living in San Francisco, I’ve had more than my fair share of crab; prepared in more ways than I can remember, but I’ve never enjoyed it more than in this Singapore-style chili crabs recipe. Just be sure to have lots of napkins around. Lots of napkins.

Apparently, this is the national dish of Singapore, and you can’t throw a rock without hitting someone eating a plate of it. By the way, that’s not something you’d want to try. Just ask Michael P. Fay.

As far as I can tell, there’s no one standard way to make this. Besides the crab, and some kind of tomato product, I couldn’t find two recipes alike. What you see here is my take on this, but it does contain many of the most typical ingredients.

Most are easy to find, except maybe the tamarind paste, although any high-end grocery chain should stock some in their international foods section. If you can’t find it, maybe add a little extra pinch of sugar, plus the juice and zest of one lemon.

Obviously the most important ingredient is the crab, so find something really nice. The store up the street had a special on freshly steamed, Dungeness crab, so that’s what I used here, but any similar variety will work. 

If you can somehow get live crabs, that’s the ultimate choice, but I know that’s not realistic for most of you. The good news is, this is incredibly delicious either way. I really hope you give this Singapore-style chili crabs recipe a try soon. Enjoy!

Please Note: My friends in Singapore tell me they serve this with at least twice the amount of sauce, and a type of fried roll to soak up the goodness with. So, if you want to rock the chili crab like a Singaporean, then you should probably double the sauce ingredients!

Ingredients for four appetizer size portions:

2 whole cooked Dungeness crabs (about 2-3 lbs. each), cleaned and cracked

2-3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1/4 cup minced shallots, or other onion

6 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp minced fresh ginger root

1 tbsp minced serrano pepper

For the sauce:

1/2 cup tomato ketchup

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 tablespoon tamarind paste

2 tablespoon sambal (or any spicy ground chili sauce)

2 tsp fish sauce

2 tsp palm sugar

1 large egg

1/2 cup chicken broth or water

Finish with:

2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

2 tbsp sliced green onions (the green parts) or 1 tbsp sliced chives

Clean Eating Weight Loss Meal Plan 67

Breakfast

Whole Wheat Bagel with Greek Yogurt Cream Cheese (or Organic Cream Cheese) and Raisins

Grapes on the Side

Have you tried Organic Valley Cream Cheese? It's awesome. 

It doesn't contain a lot of ingredients (Organic Pasteurized Milk and Cream, Cheese Culture, Salt, Organic Locust Bean Gum) and tastes great.

Mid Morning Snack

Organic Vegan Caramel Corn (from this place)

Made with 100% vegan, organic and gluten-free ingredients, this is the perfect snack for health-conscious individuals who value nutritious and delicious foods.

Crunchy, sweet and air-popped to perfection, you wouldn't even know they're healthy.

Get them at Organic Vegan Popcorn.

Lunch

Baked All-Natural Chicken Breast, with a Side of Baked Squash in Cinnamon and Natural Cane Brown Sugar.

This was a simple yet delicious clean eating lunch. If you don't want to make the chicken yourself, I recommend ready-made rotisserie chicken from local grocery stores. Just ensure you purchase the all-natural kind. Simply Organic is a good brand to try.

For squash, I used Wholesome Sweeteners Fair Trade Organic Dark Brown Sugar. I like this brand a lot, because it supports Fair Trade. I use it in most of my cooking and baking.

Afternoon Snack

Much-Ado-About-Mango by Peeled Snacks (from here)

These are just as good--if not better--than Trader Joe's Just Mangoes. 

These contain no sugar and no preservatives. It's vegan, non-GMO, certified organic and sulfite-free. Most importantly, though, they taste AWESOME!

Find them at Much-Ado-About-Mango. You won't regret it.

Dinner

Broiled Salmon in Homemade Teriyaki Sauce, with Side of Steamed Mixed Vegetables.

I'm lucky to be living in the Pacific Northwest, where salmon is abundant.

I'm also lucky to have a father who loves salmon-fishing.

Tonight's clean eating dinner was made with freshly-caught salmon. Oh it was so good! I'm sure you can find equally fresh salmon from local grocery stores.

The teriyaki sauce I used was homemade. You can find the recipe here. I marinaded salmon with sauce and extra virgin olive oil, and broiled it until it's thoroughly cooked.

It was a simple and wholesome meal. You should try it.

Well, that's it for today's Clean Eating Weight Loss Meal Plan.

Thanks for visiting.

Please visit www.cleaneatingrecipesblog.com for more clean eating ideas.

See you next time.

Homemade Flatbread – If You Have Flour, You Have Bread

As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, possibly in our last post, today is National Homemade Bread Day. So, I decided to do a flatbread video, demonstrating what was probably the world’s first wheat-based bread.

It never ceases to amaze me how a little flour and water can be transformed into such delicious, gorgeous bread, and in just a matter of minutes at that. Inspired by the thought of these earliest flatbreads, I went with about half wheat flour and half all-purpose, as well as a little spoon of corn meal for some extra texture. 

I’ll be giving no ingredient amounts below. Flatbread’s not like that. Combine water, flour and a pinch or two of salt; and mix together as shown until you have a soft, sticky dough. That’s it. The other key is to use a very hot cast iron pan or griddle. You can wipe the surface with a tiny bit of vegetable oil, but basically a dry pan works the best.

If you’re not in a hurry, wrap your dough and let it sit on the counter top for an hour or two. This will give the flour time to hydrate, which will provide a little nicer texture. Having said that, I didn’t wait at all, and mine came out fine.

So, if you’re interested in making flatbread like they did when people thought the earth was flat, then I hope you  get this easy and delicious technique a try soon. Enjoy!

Clean Eating Weight Loss Meal Plan 66

Breakfast

Cheesy French Toast with Whole Wheat Bread, All-Natural Shredded Colby Jack and 1/2 Table Spoon of Real Butter

Very yummy and very cheesy. Enjoy!

Mid Morning Snack

Babybel Semi-Soft Mini Cheese

These bite-sized snacks are made with 100% all natural cheese and provide 15% of your daily required calcium. Plus, they are delicious! After one bite, I became quite addicted.

Definitely packing a few of these for upcoming snack time.

Find them at Babybel Mini Cheese.

Lunch

Turkey Sandwich with Whole Wheat Bread and Natural Turkey Breast Meat, All-Natural Cheese Stick and Mixed Veggie Chips

The veggie chips I had today were homemade; but I also like Terra Exotic Original Veggie Chips. They're crunchy, savory and contain a mix of great flavors.

Afternoon Snack

Cucumber Slices with Hummus Sauce

If you're making hummus yourself, and want to add flavors, consider using Casbah Hummus Mix. 

Made with garbanzo bean flour, sesame tahini and garlic, this hummus mix has classic Mediterranean flavors that's mouthwatering and flavorful. It's also a great clean eating choice, because it has all-natural ingredients.

Find it at Casbah Hummus Mix.

Dinner

Turkey Avocado and Feta Combo (find recipe here)

This was one of my all-time favorite clean eating ideas!

It was quick, simple and delicious. An awesome choice for week night dinner.

I love avocado! Add scrumptious turkey and top with tender feta, a delicious dish is made!

I hope you like it too. Find recipe at clean eating dinner idea.

I hope you found good ideas from today's Clean Eating Weight Loss Meal Plan!

If you need more clean eating recipes and ideas, visit www.cleaneatingrecipesblog.com.

See you next time!

Also, have you seen Blogilate's Chicken Lettuce Cups? It's a delicoius, affordable recipe--and I highly recommend you check it out at the video below.