Hello friends.

I hope you are having a fantastic start to your weekend.  I simply cannot believe how fast time in flying.  I really can’t believe Evan is 10 weeks – he is totally growing like a weed.  As a breastfeeding mom, who wants to loose a couple post-pregnancy pounds eating has been a challenge.  While pregnant, I had no cravings (well, maybe watermelon, but I have always been a huge summer watermelon person, so I really can’t tell) but while breastfeeding I can tell my body isn’t getting something because I CRAVE things.  I crave dark chocolate (this could be because of a slight case of sleep deprivation, my body wants a quick fix) and I crave eggs and protein filled foods – quinoa is like the best thing on the planet to me these days (did you know that it is a good source of protein?).

But I also go for simple eats, and I was once a portion control freak… now not so much.

I consider my little family to be clean eaters.  We do not buy much processed, anything.  We have bread (we are not a gluten free family), we have some easy cereals (Barbara’s Puffins, Quaker oatmeal squares), and my hubby likes his processed goodies (scones, baked goods… the devil in disguise, whatever 😉 ) – But we really do make an effort to buy healthy items for the house some must haves are:

1. Organic baby greens:  Usually spinach but now my new kick is TJ’s (Trader Joe’s) power green mix with chard, baby kale and baby spinach. Oh m gee. Awesome.  I’m big on it being cooked and like to pair it with the quinoa and an egg for an extra protein boost:

Quinoa, Tj’s power greens (steamed) and one egg – yum.

2.  Fresh Fruits:  You will always, always find bananas in my house.  I have one every morning.  We also buy in-season fruits so right now you’ll find apples – lots of apples.  We also will pick up pears around this time of year. I’m a huge berry person so if I can’t find them fresh, you bet I’m picking up some frozen.  Berries are so easy, throw them in a smoothie, some yogurt or eaten alone – they are my FAVS.

3. Veggies!  We are big on veggies but we are also big on letting them go bad 😦 – I HATE throwing out food so I’m trying to be better about this and not buy so much at one time (this is wear that meal planning comes in handy!).  Again, we buy frozen here too and then it doesn’t go bad 😉 – The great thing about buying frozen is you can get anything even when it is not in season.

Salad bar at Whole Foods – I’m sharing because I love all the veggies 😉 the more colorful the better in my book!

4. Whole grains:  Brown rice, wild rice, quinoa (huge right now) and oats.  We LOVE these things.  As I am breast feeding I do get a LOT of oats I try to throw them in wherever I can (smoothies, fun fitnessista recipes).  — Suggestion buy out of bulk bins and save a ton!

5.  Eggs: Hector and I go through eggs like CRAZY.  We are huge egg people.  We have them in the morning, and I could eat them for lunch and dinner.  I don’t care about the cholesterol debate and don’t mind just egg whites but love the whole egg ;).

6.  Chicken – Organic.  Can you tell we have a large budget for food?  We do what we can with what we have but what goes in our bodies are important to us.  We usually focus on chicken but Hector loves his red meats.  We do not have all our meals with meat, so that helps.  There are tons of other wonderful options for protein but we do sneak chicken the most often.

7. Nut butters:  We love nut butters in this house.  You will always find peanut butter and almond butter (sometimes raw, sometimes salted, sometimes with roasted flax seeds) we are bold – we switch it up 😉 – PS goes great with apples and bananas!  You don’t always have to put it on bread.

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Those are always in the cart when we go shopping.  We never run out of those staples above.  It helps keep our diets as clean as we can without thinking to hard.  Although, in the next few weeks Hector and I are going to challenge ourselves to a 14 days of real foods diet.  Where everything we eat will be clean and no processed anything – wish us luck.

How do you clean up your eats?  Do you wish you didn’t go for the processed stuff?  Or do you feel like you can’t live without it?

Fact: My skin has NEVER been better since eating clean.  I can tell my insides are happy.

Oh, and always make sure to get an insane amount of water in!

I hope to get in a post about tackling the bulk bins at whole foods.  They can be intimating (or at least to me they are) but they really do offer some great ways to save a bit o cash on some everyday staples.

I could babble on about this forever but have a date with the family to celebrate birthdays – my bro is coming to town.  Today is the perfect time to bust out the grill: