Clean and Basic Fruit Muffin Recipe (Just add any fruit)
Easy Clean Muffin Recipe – Just add Fruit
I use this base muffin recipe for all my sweet muffins. In this picture, I have carrot and apple muffins.
I mentioned before that I like to memorize a couple of recipes by heart so I can get them in the oven super fast – often done while I am making breakfast or lunches in the mornings. This is one of those recipes.
Step 1. Put together basic muffin mix.
Step 2. Add fruit, depending on what you have in the fridge 🙂
Step 1. Basic Muffin Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 cups Wholemeal Self Raising Flour
1/4 cup of melted butter (or mild tasting vegetable oil). I use Organic butter.
2 Eggs
1 Teaspoon of vanilla extract (this is optional, I just like the vanilla taste)
2 tablespoons of honey or raw sugar
Step 2.
Banana Muffins – Add 1 cup of mashed banana
Carrot and Apple muffins – Add 1 cup of grated carrot, 1/2 cup of apple sauce and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon (Optional 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts – for crunch:)
Blueberry Muffins – Add 1 cup of frozen or fresh blueberries and 1/2 cup apple sauce
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
Mix all ingredients together until just combined.
Spoon into greased muffin tray and bake for around 10-15 min or until golden brown on top and firm to touch. Makes 12 large or 24 small muffins.
Clean Lasagne (beef and spinach)
Clean Lasagna (Beef and Spinach)
I make no apologies for this one. This is my ‘go to’ beef and spinach lasagna. I cheat and use organic and, what I would consider, clean pasta sauce and lasagna sheets.
Please check ingredients. My pasta sauce is simply: tomatoes, onion, garlic and basil. My lasagna is 100% organic drum wheat. I do use standard organic milk in my cheese sauce as ‘raw, clean’ milk is not allowed where I am.
The entire lasagna takes about 15 min to pull together then I pop in oven for exactly 40 minutes. So easy and tastes even better the next day. And, it can hide an enormous amount of hidden veggies if you need to.
So, Clean lasagna……
Ingredients
- 500g minced beef (or turkey, or chicken)
- 3 cups of pasta sauce (750ml)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion
- Bunch of spinach (or any other veggie you want to add). No need to cook.
- 2 cups of milk
- 3/4 cup of cheese (I use Parmesan as I can use less due to stronger flavour)
- Lasagna pasta sheets
- 2 tablespoons plain flour
- fine Sea salt
Method: I make it in 3 parts:
1. Meat and pasta sauce: Heat olive oil and onion in large saucepan. When onions are soft, add minced meat and brown. Add salt to taste. Add pasta sauce and heat to boil. Remove from heat. Cover and leave aside.
2. White, cheese sauce: Mix about 1/3 cup of milk with flour to make smooth paste. Add remaining milk. Heat on stove, stirring ALL THE TIME. The sauce will thicken as soon as it starts to boil. Stir to avoid lumps. Take off the heat. Add salt to taste and 1/2 cup of cheese
3. Layering it together is the fun part and I do three layers, but this is totally up to you (and the size of your bowl). First put down a layer of lasagna sheets, then 1/3 of your meat mix. Add a layer of spinach leaves (or any other sliced vegetables). Repeat twice more with lasagna, mince and spinach layers. End with a layer of lasagna sheets. Pour your cheese sauce over the top of the lasagna and sprinkle with remaining cheese.
4. Bake at 170’C for 40min.
Layerin of your Lasagna is the fun part. I like to use spinach, but you can add any thinly sliced vegetables.
Lasagna ready for the oven.
Clean Eating Pizza Dough (And my favourite Spinach, Feta and Mushroom Variation)
Clean Eating Pizza that rocks!!
This is a recipe that came together after I tried so many other healthy variations. I am all about healthy, but I still want it to taste good.
This is also the first time we have ever made pizza dough at home.
I say ‘we’ because there were a lot of little helping hands – the best bit about making pizza.
In our home, everyone is allocated half a pizza to ‘decorate’ at will.
So thank you for waiting, here is my pizza dough recipe as promised:
Ingredients
2 cups wholemeal flour
2 teaspoons dried yeast (one 7g sachet)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 cup of warm water
1 teaspoon of fine sea salt
1 teaspoon of honey
1. Mix the yeast, olive oil, water and honey together in a bowl.
2. Tip flour and salt onto a clean flat surface, and make a little hole in the middle. pour the yeast mixture bit by bit into the hole and mix together with a fork. Gradually add more liquid and until all flour in mixed in. Knead the dough together until it is smooth, even and almost like play dough.
3. Place ball of dough into a flour dusted bowl. Cover the bowl with a clean damp cloth and leave in a warm room for about half an hour. The dough will double in size.
4. Dust your surface with flour and knead the dough again. It will shrink a bit as you push the air out of it.
5. I divide my dough into 3 even little balls. Each ball will make one pizza. We like a thin crust, so if you like a thicker crust, divide into two balls only.
6. Roll out your dough. I like the dough to be about 1/2 cm thick as it will rise when in the oven.
7. You can either roll out all of your pizza dough bases at this time and wrap them in cling film to freeze or refrigerate OR cook them all now.
Clean Pizza Dough Ingredients: Wholemeal flour, salt, yeast, oil, honey and warm water
Mix water, yeast, honey and olive oil together.
On a clean surface, pile the flour and salt mix. Make a little hole in the middle and slowly add the liquid mix.
Keep mixing until all the flour and liquid comes together
You get a beautiful ball of pizza dough. Oh yeah!
Divide into three even balls (Two if you want your pizza to have a thicker crust)
You can store extra dough in fridge or freezer or cook them all now (Can you ever have too much pizza??)
Roll out you pizza and place on a flour dusted tray. I use tin foil to help with clean up.
You can get adventurous from here. We add a tablespoon of organic tomato paste and sprinkle with parmeson cheese.
In this pizza we have added spinach, mushrooms, garlic, oregano and feta cheese.
Pop in the oven (180 degrees Celsius for about 15 min). This will depend on thickness of crust and also how crispy you want it.
Crust is crispy and light.
Oh yeah….. ENJOY!
Clean Beef Stroganoff (with my covert vegetable trick)
Clean Beef Stroganoff
Beef Stroganoff. I like the sound of it. The name makes a simple beef stew sound special.
This is one of favourite meals to serve when I have family visiting. A small amount goes a long way and you cannot mess it up – Seriously!
Now I know many mums out there with fussy eaters are going to be thinking: “There is no way my child is going to eat it with all that red/green pepper in it”. Well, this is where the covert veggie trick comes in. I break the cardinal rule of ‘eat what’s in front of you’ and let my two fussy eaters pick out their peppers (the other two happily munch through it all). They are so busy looking for the big red bits, that they fail to notice the chopped mushroom, onion (or whatever else I choose to put in it).
Ingredients
- 1 finely chopped Onion
- 1 crushed garlic clove
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup mushrooms finely chopped
- 1 cup sliced peppers (green or red)
- 500g beef strips (I use rump, but any meat will do as long as you cook tougher cuts for longer)
- 2 cups vegetable stock
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 100ml of sour cream
Method 1. In a large frying pan, place olive oil, onion and garlic. Fry until soft.2. Add chopped mushrooms and sliced peppers. Fry until soft and any liquid has totally reduced.3. Place this mixture aside.4. Reheat frying pan, add olive oil and beef strips. Fry until browned.5. Stir in tomato paste and pour in vegetable stock.6. Allow to simmer for about 15 minutes (you may need to test that meat is tender. Allow longer if needed).7. Once liquid has reduced to about half, add your onion and mushroom mixture to meat.8. Reduce liquid a bit more until the mixture starts to thicken (about 5 min)9. Remove from the heat and stir in sour cream.
Serve with rice or pasta and steamed vegetables.
Chocolate Coconut Milk Ice Cream
Chocolate Coconut Milk Ice Cream
This beautiful recipe is from The Nourishing Gourmet. It is a super yummy, creamy chocolate ice cream. I did not want to mess with the recipe at all. It is so good. I use this as a base for chocolate milkshakes too. A couple spoons of this and a cup of milk (almond milk works well).
Chocolate Coconut Milk Ice Cream
3 cups of unsweetened coconut milk (about two cans)
2/3 cup of cocoa powder
6 tablespoons agave syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Whisk cocoa powder in a small amount of coconut milk, until smooth. Then add the rest of the ingredients and whisk until well combined. Or dump all ingredients together and blend with a stick blender. Can use an ice cream making machine if you have one (I just use my blender).
Clean Muesli Bars (Perfect for lunch boxes and after school snacks)
Muesli bars (or granola if you break it up)
This is a very versatile recipe. You can replace the nuts with pretty much any type of nut, sunflower seed, raisins or diced dried fruit such as apricots. Choc Chips can be added as a special treat. I make these regularly as they are perfect for kids and mum (with a hot cup of tea).
Ingredients:
1/2 cup flour (any flour, but I use wholemeal. Self raising if you want them to rise slightly, other wise plain for a ‘flatter’ bar)
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup peanuts or other nuts
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 cup oats
Method
- Preheat oven to around 170 degree Celsius.
- Mix all ingredients together.
- Place in greased or baking paper lined tray.
- Press down flat (around 1-2 cm thickness is good).
- Bake for around 15-20 min until slightly brown in top.
- Take out if oven and cut into squares while hot.
NOTE: Muesli bars will get crispy on cooling.
School Lunches for all age groups
Yes, they are a bit of a pain to make, but preparing lunches for school is a lot easier than weekend lunches. You pack them once – all at the same time – and that’s it. Done. No “I’m hungry” or “I don’t like it” from anyone. I don’t know what it is, but no matter what I put in the lunchbox it tends to get eaten. Hungry school kids are not fussy.
I pack 2 snacks with lunch. One for morning and one for afternoon and I increase quantities or double up on snacks depending on age or whether they have an afternoon sport activity.
Here is a picture of today’s lunch – the first is for my 5 and 7 year old children, while the second is a larger serving for my 10 and 12 year old’s. For my son, I also throw in another apple for him to eat at the end of school.
The little kids each get half a wrap, apple slinky, small popcorn and serve of melon.
Little Kids Lunchbox
And Here is my big kids lunch box. They each get a full wrap and double popcorn and melon serve. Plus I pop an extra apple in my son’s school bag (He’s a growing boy 🙂
Big Kids Lunch box
7 Day Clean Eating Meal Plan
When we started on this journey, I decided to do a ‘Clean makeover’ of our usual meals as a place to start. Like most families at the moment, we are Clean eating on a budget. My meals include planned leftovers and simple ingredients that don’t require a specialized shopping trip or unfamiliar ingredients.
So, this week I’m cooking a couple of ‘classics’ like lasagne, beef stroganoff, spaghetti bolognaise.
The lunches are all ‘lunchbox friendly’ and I just adjust quantities depending on my child’s age.
I will upload recipes daily starting today with :
* Clean Beef Stroganoff & Perfect Basmati Rice
* Clean Chocolate Coconut Ice cream (Dairy Free)
Here is our 7 day clean eating meal plan 7 Day Week
If you want to make your own eating plan, here is template to use 7 Day Meal Plan Template
Chargrilled Capsicum Pesto
Use this as a dip or topping to spice up a dish, stir through pasta or spoon on top of a baked potato. Well worth adding to your clean eating recipe file.
Thank you to Food Ideas for this fantastic recipe. I love it.
Clean Eating With Kids 