Clean Dinners- A Week In

I came back from Fitbloggin ready to clean up my meals. I was home for 2 days and then we left for the Ocean. Well, that's not going to work. I checked out Clean Eating for Families and Kids and devoured it while at the ocean. I was committed to clean eating. This is where I want my family to be. I came home and it is hard!!! It's a lot easier to read about clean eating than to implement. 

Breakfast is already pretty clean for me. Eggs, oatmeal (not instant), cheese, peanut butter, bread. Do they make clean bread? Is peanut butter clean? It has 5 ingredients. Most of what I read says that I should be looking for 5 or fewer ingredients. 

I decided to first tackle cleaning up our dinners. We use eMeals (did you see my giveaway?) for meal planning and they have a Clean Eating plan. Honestly, not everything is clean, but it's a lot closer than we were getting before. For example, we had Pitas (not clean), but they were whole wheat instead of white. It's a definite step in the right direction. I am going on vacation again today and I wanted to share initial impression a week in to cleaning up our diets. 

Pros

~ My digestive system thanks me. I can see a significant difference in my, uh, bathroom habits. Things are moving along nicely.
~ Husband is totally open to trying new foods. I really appreciate his support. 
~ We have tried some new veggies this week.
~ I thought I hated Mango. I tried it again this week and don't hate it. :)
~ I feel stronger in my workouts. This may be in my head since it's only a week, but I'll take it. 
~ I am fuller at night and don't feel the need for a nighttime snack. I'm still having one out of habit, but don't NEED one.

Cons

~ Way more dishes! Seriously! Husband pointed out that going to Jack in the Box requires O dishes to wash. The pots! This will be an adjustment.

~ Multiple grocery store trips. I usually go to one store once a week. I had to go to two different stores because the 1st didn't carry all the stuff on the list (eggplant, pine nuts, and fresh green beans were at WinCo and not at Safeway)

~ Expired produce! When I get back from vacation I am going to try and find a handy checklist that shows how to store produce. I don't have want to make the time to go grocery shopping every day for fresh produce. This week a few things went bad before I could use them. 

~ My children are going to bed hungry because they are not into this change at all. They usually eat some fruit for dinner, but nothing else. Ugh! This did eat noodles one night. *sigh*

Next Clean Eating steps....

1. Finish off my creamer and then figure out something else for my morning coffee.

2. Find some breakfast recipes that I can make. I didn't love the ones in the clean eating book.

3. I don't know....any suggestions????

~Kari

PS- No one 1 person (Hi Katrina!!!) has entered my DietBet. :( If you are planning to enter do it soon!