Clean Eat Recipe: Quinoa with Mixed Vegetables

Quinoa is a very healthy, easy to prepare side dish.  Adding vegetables makes it even more delicious!  Try the recipe below or try your own variation and let us know how it turns out!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup organic quinoa
• 2 cups organic, low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup organic edamame
• 1/2 cup red pepper, chopped
• 1/2 cup cucumber, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 tsp sea salt

Directions:

1. Combine the quinoa and broth and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover and lightly simmer for 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed.
2. Mix together edamame, red pepper and cucumber.
3. Once quinoa is cooked add garlic, black pepper and sea salt and mix throughly.  Then add in your vegetable mix.

I will sometimes add baked chicken and eat it in a bowl as one of my meals while I am on the road!  Easy and nutritious...add any vegetables that you like!

Enjoy our recipes?  Get help with your grocery shopping here.

- Whitney

Our Daily Food: Scott and Whitney

One of the questions we get asked the most is what do you eat?  We basically eat the same things each day with a little bit of variation.  Below is what we eat during the week. On the weekend we try to introduce new things such as bison and fish.

We prepare all of our food for the work week on Sunday (boiled eggs, homemade protein bars, chili, chicken muffins, black beans, brown rice, salsa chicken, veggies, etc).  We eat every 2-3 hours and most meals contain protein and complex carbohydrates.  Preparation is the most important thing when it comes to eating clean.  We also weigh and measure everything we eat.

UPDATE:  We eat this way because we love it.  This is what works for us.  If you read "Our Story" you will notice that we both work full time.  We are usually gone from 7 AM - 8 PM. So instead of making excuses & grabbing fast food each day we prepare in advance because we literally have no time to cook dinner each night.  Some seem to be missing the point.  There are A LOT of options when it comes to clean eating.  The goal is to pair a lean protein with a complex carbohydrate.  Which one you eat is your choice.  These meals are actually a little out-dated for us & we will be posting updated ones soon.  You can tell by our recipe page on this blog that we actually have a lot of variety in our food.

Scott works in an office all day which makes it easy for him to eat all of his meals on time.

His meals usually look like this (he also has one serving of healthy fat per day):

Meal 1 (7 AM)

• Whole Eggs (Organic, Free Range)
• Egg Whites
• Steel Cut Oats

Meal 2 (10 AM)

• Greek Yogurt with Oat Bran
• Homemade Protein Bars
• Salt-Free Brown Rice Cake (Our favorite is Lundberg Eco-Farmed)

Meal 3 (1 PM)

• Salsa Chicken
• Brown Rice
• Black Beans
• Veggies

Meal 4 (3 PM)

• Turkey/Chicken Meatloaf Muffins (Jamie Eason’s Recipe)
• Brown Rice
• Black Beans
• Veggies

GYM (5:30 PM – 7 PM)

Meal 5 (6 PM) DURING WORKOUT

• Protein Shake
• Apple

Meal 6 (8 PM) POST WORKOUT

• Salsa Chicken
• Veggies

Meal 7 (10 PM)

• Natural Casein Protein Shake with Flax Seed

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Whitney is in a car for most of the day.  This means she can usually eat on time but must have food that is decent to eat cold.  She packs a cooler each day to ensure she is prepared for all of her meals.

Her meals look like this (she also has one serving of healthy fat per day):

Meal 1 (7 AM)

• Egg Whites
• Ezekiel Toast OR Steel Cut Oats with Berries

Meal 2 (10 AM)

• Homemade Protein Bars OR Greek Yogurt with Berries

Meal 3 (1 PM)

• Salsa Chicken
• Rice, Black Beans, Quinoa, Baked Sweet Potato “Fries” OR Couscous
• Veggies

Meal 4 (4 PM)

• Turkey/Chicken Meatloaf Muffins OR 2 bars of Monster Meatloaf
• Veggies

GYM (5:30 PM – 7 PM)

Meal 5 (7:15 PM or as soon as she gets home from the gym)

• 3-Bean Turkey Chili (Jamie Eason’s Recipe) OR Protein Shake with ½ a Banana
• Veggies

Meal 6 (10 PM)

• Egg Whites OR Natural Casein Protein Shake

** The photo above gives you a quick snapshot of her meals (not pictured are meals 5 & 6).

We eat like this because we spend time in the gym. Even though it is clean food you can still overeat! Remember, this is a lifestyle and not a diet.

Good luck with your journey and keep eating clean!

- Scott & Whitney

Red Beans and Rice

My mother is from Louisiana, so she is Cajun. Being her daughter, she is especially hard on me when I veer off the course of the traditional ingredients for your typical Cajun dish, but oh well... this tastes phenomenal and is clean and healthy!

This is a guest post written by Tiffany.

Clean Red Beans and Rice

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups Brown Rice (or my favorite, Bob's Red Mill Whole Grain Wild and Brown Rice Blend - it's SO yummy!)
• 3 cups water
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 lb Organic Turkey Sausage, sliced approximately 1/2 inch rounds
  • You can typically find a kielbasa in your natural foods section or natural foods store. If you can't find this, try the Bruce Aidells brand - it only has a few ingredients and is "all natural". To make Gluten Free, just add Gluten-Free Sausage!
• 3 cans of red beans, rinsed (you may substitute dried beans that are pre-soaked overnight)
• 1 1/2 c Organic, Low-Sodium Chicken Broth
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp sea salt

Directions:

1. Bring 3 cups of water and 1 1/2 cups Brown Rice to boil in a pot over medium high heat. Once boiling, reduce heat to low, place a lid on pot and let cook for approximately 45 minutes.

2. In a large saute pan, heat 1 tbsp olive oil over medium heat. Once oil is warm, add onion, garlic and organic turkey sausage. Saute until onions brown and become clear.

3. In saute pan, add red beans, organic low-sodium chicken broth, cayenne pepper, chili powder, black pepper and sea salt. Stir together. Cook on medium for 30-45 minutes.

Serve bean/sausage combo over the brown rice and enjoy! Let me know how it turns out!