Make It Monday: Worth-It Fast and Fabulous Recipes for Clean Eating

Achieve wealth with health! Start here with a holiday gift to yourself and/or loved one.

How is clean-eating worth it? As an investment in your health, your long-term healthcare savings account and health of our planet! As an advocate of clean-eating and frugal, sustainable living, I got chosen to be one of Lisa Leake’s new cookbook ambassadors 🙂. In the New 100 Days of Real Food: Fast & Fabulous cookbook, released last Tuesday, learn how clean-eating with real food can be budget-friendly and doable with easy-to-find ingredients. Scroll down to get another sample recipe, in addition to last week’s here.

Not Just Make It Monday: Real Food “Fast and Fabulous” Everyday!

Fast and Fabulous: White Chicken Chili. See below for link to recipe and how to make it vegetarian-friendly

I have been a fan of Lisa Leake and her 100 Days of Real Food Blog since 2011, shortly after she started it. “Real Food on a Budget” was how I connected with her. In her first best-selling cookbook, Lisa succinctly maps out the reasons why and how she and her family cut out highly processed food. Through a series of small-steps of mini-pledges, shopping tips, and easy-to-follow recipes with beautiful color photos, she shows you how doable it is. This became one of our family fave staple recipes: Budget-Friendly Pesto. Now, Lisa is back with another cookbook, 100 Days of Real Food: Fast and Fabulous, the Easy and Delicious Way to Cut Out Processed Food. 

Make It Monday Recipe Week 15: Easy Vegetarian Creamy Tomato Soup

Ingredients of Trader Joe’s Organic Creamy Tomato Soup. Xanthan gum isn’t one of the most sinister ingredients, but highly industrially processed.

My Make It Monday recipe doubles as a Meatless Monday one for this week. This is also a shout-out to my sister, sister-in-law, and daughter who have all gone vegetarian. Though I am not ready to give up my omnivore status, I enjoy many veggie and vegan dishes. This creamy tomato soup goes well with grilled cheese sandwiches. 

Make It Monday (or for Mother’s Day) Week 11: Yummy Wholesome Pancakes

I have been making this recipe for over 20 years! (I was a child prodigy, heh heh!)  In all seriousness, I have tweaked this recipe so many times, I can claim it as mine!

The original called for all-purpose white flour. I tried substituting whole wheat flour but it made the pancakes dense.

Make It Monday Recipe Week 7: Kale Chips

Here is my daughter making kale chips for her cooking class project when she was in 7th grade

The challenge of making homemade kale chips is knowing the right recipe for your oven. I have tried recipes that called for the oven temperature set at 400, 375, and 325 degrees Fahrenheit. All of these temps caused an unpleasant, smoky odor. That’s no way to get your family eating their dark leafy greens! 

10 Ways Amy Dacyczyn Inspired Me – Aimee’s Take

Not too long after becoming a stay-at-home mom when my second child was born, I discovered this book at the library, a compilation of Amy Dacyczyn’s widely distributed newsletter from the 1990’s called, The Tightwad Gazette. It was nearly 10 years after she stopped writing that I discovered her stuff.