Table of Contents
This book is dedicated to my husband Kevinchef extraordinaire, recipe tester, and always-willing taster. Thank you.
Introduction
Eating clean is more than just a diet. Its a healthy approach to eating that emphasizes whole, unprocessed, and unrefined foods.
For many people, weight loss is the main attraction to the clean eating lifestyle. Its easy to shed pounds and build lean muscle mass when youre not eating gobs of refined fats, sugars, and carbohydrates and youre working out regularly. Others want improved health and increased energytwo other benefits of eating clean. Last but not least is the fact that many people are just tired of eating highly processed foods with artificial ingredients and additives they cant even pronounce. This yearning for simple, wholesome food thats prepared with natural, healthful ingredients is the reason eating clean is becoming so popular.
Unfortunately, many people are so dependent on salty, sugary, and refined convenience foods they dont even know how to start. This book shows you what to do, from taking little steps like choosing water over soda or brown rice instead of white rice to making a clean sweep of it by purging your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer of processed foods. All the tools and techniques you need to clean up your dietincluding shopping tips and restaurant strategiesare in the following pages.
Most important is the fact that once you understand why and how to clean up your diet and get healthy, youll find dozens of recipes and cooking techniques for putting clean eating principles into practice. Ive included recipes for a wealth of breakfast foods, drinks, snacks, meals, and dessertsall clean, all natural, and all deliciousthat demonstrate just how incredibly flavorful, easy, and satisfying clean eating can be.
Turn the pages to discover the amazing health benefits of a nutritious, unprocessed, unrefined diet. Prepare to be impressed!
How This Book Is Organized
This book is divided into six parts. Each part addresses a different aspect of eating clean.
Part 1, The ABCs of Being Clean, provides you with everything you need to know about going clean. It explains what clean eating means and why this style of eating is good for your health. It also discusses the seven basic principles of eating clean and how you can turn these principles into action. Learn how to manage your time in the kitchen, be a savvy shopper, and dine out smart. Explore some of the challenges clean eaters face and strategies to overcome them. Finally, learn what it means to be clean and green, and clean and wheat-free and dairy-free.
Part 2, Jump-Start Your Morning, introduces you to clean breakfasts including hot and cold cereals, egg dishes, pancakes, and baked muffins and breads. Here is everything you need to face the morning with a smile.
Since snacks are an important part of eating clean, they deserve their own section. Part 3, Light Bites, covers all types of clean snacksfrom substantial grab-and-go finger foods and fruit salads to fruity salsas, sauces, and jams. Youll also find drink recipes featuring teas, milk, and juice.
Part 4, Lovely Lunches, presents you with a variety of interesting, unusual, and wonderfully delectable lunch options that run the gamut from soups and salads to sandwiches.
Part 5, Dinner Designs, does more than give you recipes for dozens of outstanding clean dinner entres. This part also covers techniques for managing scratch cooking, such as ideas for 30-minute meals, techniques for cooking two meals in one, and preparing large batches of long-cooking foods to pull out when you need them. Also included is an array of vegetable sides and starches, plus clean condiments, sauces, and marinades that are sure to add some spice to your life.
Part 6, Sweet Endings, tempts your taste buds with wonderfully clean desserts, including creams, parfaits, crisps, and puddings. These dreamy endings get most of their sweetness naturally from fruit. Youll also find recipes for clean cakes and cookies, using all whole grain flours and unrefined processed sugar. Who said clean eating isnt fun!
In the back of the book are appendixes where youll find helpful information on your way to exploring clean eating. This includes a five-day menu plan, which shows you how to follow a clean eating diet pattern of six small meals a day, and a glossary defining any terms you might not be familiar with.
Extras
In every chapter youll find these boxes that share important information you should know about the clean eating lifestyle, particular recipes, or specific foods.
Clean Meanings
Turn to these boxes for definitions of words or phrases you might not be familiar with.
Clean Cuts
These boxes offer tips and tricks to make your life easier in the kitchen.
Dirty Secrets
Eating clean poses certain challenges, and these boxes help you overcome them by pointing out foods to steer clear of.
Wholesome Habits
Here youll find enlightening insights about food, culinary arts, and living a healthy lifestyle.
Acknowledgments
I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to all the people who have helped make this book possible: especially Marilyn Allen of Allen OShea Agency for having blind faith in me; all the staff at Alpha Books especially Tom Stevens, Jennifer Moore, Megan Douglass, and Emily Garner; everyone who answered my endless questions, including Susan Male Smith, Sheila Weiss, Roberta Dyuff, Cynthia Harriman, and Dean Edelman; Janet Sass for her great insights and discriminating palate, and all the dietitian colleagues who supported and encouraged me.
I would also like to thank my gracious family for bearing with me through countless hours of research, typing, and cooking. This includes my ever-patient husband Kevin, and my children: Leslie, chief dish-dryer and baby-sitter; Christopher, for helping out when I needed him and tasting most of the dishes; and Sophia, for always giving me a hug when I needed it. Without their help and support this book would not have been possible.
Special Thanks to the Technical Reviewer
The Complete Idiots Guide to Eating Clean was reviewed by an expert who double-checked the accuracy of what youll learn here, to help us ensure that this book gives you everything you need to know about eating clean. Special thanks are extended to Alexandra Hart Bosshart, who has been a friend and a colleague for many years. Her insights and culinary knowledge are appreciated.
Trademarks
All terms mentioned in this book that are known to be or are suspected of being trademarks or service marks have been appropriately capitalized. Alpha Books and Penguin Group (USA) Inc. cannot attest to the accuracy of this information. Use of a term in this book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.
