This is the FIRST Wife of the Month for 2013. Somehow it slipped away from me for the past four months. How did I manage that? I loved doing this series last year. I loved getting to know other wives and mamas in the blogging world.

It seemed only fitting that I re-feature someone you met in 2012! (This also fits in for "Throw Back Thursday"!) Do you guys remember Sarah? She's pretty awesome. Her blog was just featured in Skirt! Charleston. For her post about that amazing bit, click here.

Lately I've been struggling with diet fads and all the craziness surrounding "clean eating". So I thought I'd ask some other bloggers to share their thoughts on the matters.

Who better than to share some thoughts on clean eating from someone who is all about it?

As you guys may know, I am not vegetarian/vegan. There are, however, definite health benefits if you decide to make the choice to go either which way.

I'll stop babbling now. Here's Sarah!

Photograph by Alice Keeney Photography.

Hey y’all! Sarah from What I Vegan here.

I’m excited Emily has asked me to guest post about clean eating today!
I think most everybody agrees that we want to give ourselves and our families healthy food that will nourish and sustain us.

But grocery stores out there are practically minefields of chemicals, GMOs (genetically modified organisms), MSG, bacteria, and hormones. These have known and (even scarier) unknown effects on our health.

Seriously, how’s a gal supposed to navigate that minefield and find a way to avoid giving herself and her kids all those terrifying ingredients?

By eating a clean diet full of plant-based, whole foods.

Hang on a sec; did your eyes just glaze over as you pictured bland, brown “health food”?

Snap back with me here, sister.

I’m not talking beans for dinner every night (though I DO love me some beans ‘n’ greens; check out a delectable recipe here). I’m talking about a whole WORLD full of amazing food possibilities opening up to you that are not only healthy, but downright delicious.

Eyebrows still raised? I would have been skeptical too. Before I went vegan, I was (self-proclaimed) Miss Cheese living off of pasta, pizza, and you guessed it, cheese. I wasn’t exactly a health nut.

And I’m still not one. But I do recognize that certain foods and their dangerous ingredients are best avoided, and it’s really not that hard to do.

Don’t believe me? Check out a few healthy, veggie-centered dishes I made at home (and trust me, I’m no chef):

Quinoa noodles with avocado pesto pasta and squash.

This is what I call “Everything in the Fridge Salad” – just throw together a salad, with whatever toppings you have on hand. Get creative!

Vegan crab cakes with tangy rémoulade and sautéed spinach from Kris Carr’s Crazy Sexy Kitchen.

Twelve-grain bread with hummus, organic tomatoes, avocado, arugula, and salt and pepper. Easy, healthy, and delish!

Red and black chili with cashew sour cream.

Check out more pictures of what I eat on my blog’s Facebook page! You’ll be amazed at what all you can do with plant-based foods!

Now that you see how yummy it can be, I’m going to give you some easy tips on how to add more of these healthful plant-based foods to your family’s table.

•Eat more veggies! Pick a few to take the spotlight on your dinner plate. Be adventurous; buy a veggie you don’t recognize, and then look online for a recipe. A great site is VegWeb.com.

•Buy organic produce as much as possible. It’s a little pricier but your body will thank you for saying no to those pesticides! Can’t buy all organic? That’s ok; just avoid these dirty dozen.

•Check those ingredients. The less processed, the better. Try to buy items that have fewer than 5 or so ingredients and make sure you can pronounce them! Your body doesn’t want that azodicarbonamide (whatever that is)!

•Skip the meat, dairy, and eggs. They’re full of hormones, antibiotic resistant bacteria, cholesterol, and other nasty stuff. Switching to organic won’t help either. Not to mention, animals are treated in unspeakable ways to make these products. Best to skip out as often as possible (or altogether!). Start a Meatless Monday tradition and work on it from there!

•Look for the Non-GMO Project symbol. This guarantees that the food doesn’t contain harmful GMOs, which have never been suitably tested for long-term health impacts. To learn more about them, click here.


Want to learn more?

Watch the movie Forks Over Knives (it’s on Netflix!). It’s entertaining, informative, and could save your life!

Check out the book Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr, who I consider to be the queen of clean eating. Her follow up book, Crazy Sexy Kitchen, has amazing, clean recipes!

Can we eat 100% clean 100% of the time? Or course not. That’s not realistic. But we can try to eat healthfully the majority of the time for the sake of our bodies and our kids.

Try the tips above to take the first step!

To Healthy and Tasty Food!
Sarah