Muir Family Menu #1

Having a busy little guy crawling and destroying my house makes for some pretty busy days! After cleaning up blocks for the 200th time, wiping a boogey nose, changing a bum, sweeping up peas and scrubbing down the highchair, this mom tends to get a little hungry/tired/irritable :) It happens to the even the best moms out there, I'm sure! Well on a crazy day filled with all this fun stuff, the LAST thing I want to do is come up with dinner ideas. And how frustrating is it when you do decide on a delicious dish only to find that you don't have 3 of the key ingredients?! I'm sure there are a few of you that totally understand my frustration at a time like this.

What to do, what to do?!

Well....in my most recent attempt to return to my Clean Eating lifestyle, (if you want to learn more about what Clean Eating is all about, go here or here) I have decided that the only way I can keep on track and avoid those Carl's Jr. quick-trips, is to plan out my menu in ADVANCE!

Genius. I know.

In chattin' with my family, I've found they are all struggling with the same thing here lately. Everyone seems to be stuck in a rut with their recipes and are looking to try something new. Kyle and I love to try new recipes and I have found quite a few blogs or websites that have TONS of recipes, complete with pictures. (I'm a picture girl...what can I say.) And I have collected a bunch of delicious looking pictures/recipes on my Pinterest. Follow me on Pinterest, or click HERE to check out my collection, although almost NONE of those recipes are Clean. However, I haven't found a recipe yet that I couldn't make clean by swapping out a few ingredients.

So, to make things easier for my family, I have decided to post our family Menus here on the blog. The menu will be for a 2 week period. I try to include some of the same ingredients making grocery shopping a little easier. These posts will be the Menu laid out with links to the pages that have the recipes on them. If it is a family favorite recipe, I'll write it out.

Keep in mind, these recipes are Clean for my family. I highly recommend trying the Eat Clean lifestyle for a couple weeks and see how much better you feel. The basics of Eating Clean include avoiding processed food (ie. white sugar, white flour, etc.) and include eating plenty of protein, fresh fruits and veggies. It's Healthy eating at it's finest. If you choose not to Eat Clean, however, these recipes may give you some ideas.

Also, if the recipe calls for fresh ginger, or a clove of garlic and you have powdered....USE IT! Just season to taste with it. Fresh is tasty but there is nothing wrong with using what you have on hand.

I hope you enjoy!

Muir Family Menu - #1

TUES:Cheesy Chicken Rice Bake from Tasty Kitchen

WED:Tosca's Keep-It-Tight Tilapia from Tosca Reno @ the Eat Clean Diet w/ veggies

THURS: BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches w/ Crunchy Sweet Potato Fries from Farr Cleaner Life  Crockpot for 6 hours: 1 Pork Roast, diced onion, BBQ sauce of choice
   Shred pork roast, add to whole wheat buns, Enjoy :)

FRI: Eat Clean Pizza, Crust and Sauce from The Gracious Pantry, Top with veggies of choice & cheese. *We put green bell pepper, tomato, red onion, turkey sausage, and mozz cheese on ours :) YUM!

SAT: Sweet Pork Tacos  - whole wheat tortillas, black beans, diced tomato, lettuce, cilantro, cheese, Fat Free sour cream, salsa
Crockpot for 6 hours: 1 Pork Roast, 1 Lg can Green Enchilada Sauce, 1 can green chiles, 1 cup Brown Sugar
Shred pork roast in juice, Enjoy! *We always put half of the roast in a freezer bag for a quickie meal later on or lunches.

SUN: Fettucine Alfredo w/ Grilled Chicken, Sauce from The Gracious Pantry, 2 grilled chicken breasts seasoned, whole wheat fettucine noodles.

MON: Fajitas!!! Cut into strips and Saute: 1 Red/Yellow/Orange/Green bell pepper (each), 1/2 red onion. Grill 2 chicken breasts cut into strips. Season with garlic, onion, chili powder, and cumin. Enjoy on whole wheat tortillas. (for more step-by-step directions, check out Eat Clean Fajitas over at The Gracious Pantry)

TUES: Stir Fry from ECD Kitchen Table

WED: Crockpot Lasagna Kraft Foods ** To make this recipe clean, make the following adjustments: Fat Free cottage cheese, and whole wheat lasagna noodles (they do NOT need to be no-bake. Regular whole wheat noodles will work fine) We also use ground turkey instead of beef seasoned with salt and pepper.

THURS: Salmon Patties and Green Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette.- This is a super easy quickie meal I got from my mother :) 
Blend up 1 piece of whole wheat bread. Spread on jellyroll pan and broil in oven until crispy. 
Mix 1 can salmon, bread crumbs, and 2 egg whites. Add 1/2 tsp lemon juice or lemon pepper. 
Shape into small patties and cook in frying pan with 1/2 TBSP olive oil until well done.
*I always squirt more lemon juice on my patty before serving. I heart Salmon :)

FRI: Turkey Burgers with Ranch Sauce from Clean Eating Magazine.
Ground turkey - shape into patties. Season with garlic, onion, salt, pepper. Grill until done.
Rance Sauce: 1/3 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt, 2 TBSP low-fat olive oil mayonnaise, 2 TBSP fat free milk, onion powder, garlic powder, pepper. Combine and refrigerate. 
Dress burger with red onion, lettuce, tomato, sauce on whole wheat buns. Enjoy!!

SAT: Sweet Pork Salad -using basically the same ingredients from Sweet Pork Tacos, make a delicious Sweet Pork Salad just like Cafe Rio :) If you want to add the Cafe Rio Creamy Tomatillo dressing, go HERE for the recipe. 
*To clean this up, I would use olive oil mayo,  and plain Greek yogurt instead of buttermilk.

SUN: Kabobs! 2 chicken breasts, cubed. 1 Green bell pepper cut into 1" squares, 1/2 Red Onion cut into 1" squares, 1 Lg can pineapple chunks.
Skewer, grill, enjoy!!  For more flavor, add soy sauce or pineapple juice marinade to chicken.