Clean Eat Education: The Dirty Dozen

We receive a lot of questions about whether or not we eat everything organic.  While we suggest that you try to eat as much as you can organic, we understand that not all stores have a large selection and sometimes it is more expensive.  You might have heard of the "The Dirty Dozen" before - these are the foods that you want to buy organic.  If we can't purchase these items organic, we don't even buy them!  These are mainly your fruits and vegetables with thin skins.

UPDATE: Check out "The Clean Fifteen"!

- The Gang

P.S. If you want more information you can read this article from PBS.

Clean Eating Shopping List

We have compiled our past shopping lists into one list.  These are the items that we typically purchase but it does not include every single item that is considered clean.  We mainly shop at Publix, Costco, SHOP.com, and Amazon.

If you want to learn more about what to eat, how to journal, or just need examples of meal plans, check out this Health Guide & Journal.  It's the best one we've found so far and it's only $24.95.

Clean Eating Shopping List

Proteins:

• Chicken Breasts
• Ground Chicken Breasts (Our local Publix is always gracious enough to grind chicken breasts for us!)
• Lean or Extra Lean Ground Turkey
• Organic Eggs *read more about eggs here
• Pasteurized Liquid Egg Whites
• Grass-Fed Beef
• Bison
• Wild-Caught Salmon
• Wild-Caught Mahi Mahi
• Tuna

Carbs/Starches:

• Brown Rice Cakes
• Quinoa
• Sweet Potatoes
• Food for Life Products (Ezekiel products)
• Kidney Beans
• Black Beans
• Gluten Free Steel Cut Oats
• Gluten Free Oat Flour
• Gluten Free Rolled Oats
• Granola (try to keep sugar under 5 g per 30 g serving)

Healthy Fats:

• Natural Peanut Butter (ingredients should be just peanuts or peanuts and a little salt)
• Almond Butter
• Almonds
• Walnuts
• Pistachios
• Cashews
• Avocado

Oils:

• Olive Oil
• Coconut Oil

Dairy:

• Cottage Cheese
• Plain Greek Yogurt

*We try to consume dairy in moderation

Misc:

• Quest Protein Bars (our favorites are Cinnamon Roll & Lemon Cream Pie or you can get a variety box so you can try all the flavors!)
• Spice Rack
• Unsweetened Almond Milk
• Unsweetened Rice Milk
• Chia Seeds *read more about chia seeds here
• Ground Flax Seed
• Apple Cider Vinegar
• Liquid Aminos (in place of soy sauce)
• Coconut Aminos (in place of soy sauce)
• Pure Vanilla Extract

Sweeteners:

• Xylitol
• Stevia in the Raw
• Truvia
• Honey (look locally for this, within a 30 mile radius - it will help with allergies)
• Applesauce (no sugar added)

Supplements:

• Multivitamin *read more about supplements here
• Fish Oil
• Whey Protein Powder (Chocolate & Vanilla) *read more about protein powder here
• Veggie Protein Powder (Vega & SunWarrior)

****We also always buy a very large assortment of fruits and vegetables.

Learn what you need to purchase organic and what you can skip!

• The Clean Fifteen
• The Dirty Dozen
• What Does Your Produce Sticker Mean?

These are our previous shopping lists:

• Costco
• Publix
• Specialty Stores
• Online Retailers

Going on a Road Trip?

Need ideas for Clean Food to take to your Office?

Happy Shopping!

- Scott & Whitney

*Please note that Xylitol can be toxic to animals so keep this ingredient away from your pets.

Save Money on Clean Eat Pantry Staples

Let's face it, there's a tradeoff that you make when you follow a clean eating lifestyle. You trade the high costs of medical bills for the slight increase in your weekly/monthly grocery bill. A $10-20 spike in my bill to purchase whole, fresh foods is worth it than to spend $30 on a copay to see a doctor and an additional $20 in medications each month!

Just because you understand your new lifestyle may cost a little more doesn't mean that you have to settle for paying high grocery store prices! Here are a few tips to get you saving money on your grocery bill without even having to leave your house (saves on gas too!).

Amazon Prime - Have you heard about this service? It's an annual fee of $99, but it provides you with FREE, 2-day shipping on all Prime-Eligible (just make sure this option is checked when you are searching for items) purchases - most of the time, you will receive your item next day at no additional charge. Prime also includes FREE instant streaming of movies and TV shows, as well as 1 FREE Kindle book to "borrow" each month.  You can get a one-month trial for FREE if you haven't had the service before!

$99 a little steep? No problem! Split the service with friend or two! Amazon also allows you to link multiple accounts to your Prime membership, with multiple addresses for shipping.

Now that you have that info, here are the items we save on each week/month:

• Bob's Red Mill Oat Flour:
• Know what you really need. I am not intolerant to gluten, so for me, I don't need to buy gluten-free oat flour; however, my grocer only has this type available and I end us buying it out of necessity.
• Amazon Price - $11.14/4 bags = $2.79 ea
•         Or, use Amazon's subscribe and save feature and buy 4 bags for $10.58 = $2.65 ea
• Kroger Price (Gluten Free) - $5.49 ea
• Amazon's Price for Gluten Free (Auto Ship) - $ 21.01/4 = $5.25 ea
• Bob's Red Mill Almond Flour:
• Amazon Price - $36/4 bags = $9 ea
•         Or, use Amazon's subscribe and save feature and buy 4 bags for $34.20 = $8.55 ea
• Kroger Price - $9.99 ea
• Simply Organic Pure Vanilla Extract:
• Amazon Price - $16.47/2 = $8.24 ea
•         Or, use Amazon's subscribe and save feature and buy 2 containers for $15.65 = $7.83 ea
• Kroger Price - $8.79 ea
• Simply Organic Cinnamon:
• Amazon Price - $11.23/3 = $3.74 ea
•         Or, use Amazon's subscribe and save feature and buy 3 containers for $10.67 = $3.55 ea
• Kroger Price - $4.29 ea

You name it, you can probably find it on Amazon. With the Prime account, it's not worth it NOT to take advantage of the savings that you can garner with making online purchases work for you!

What do you buy online that saves you money at the grocery store?

Here is our "Online Retailers" shopping list.