Any of you who have followed me for a while know that I have a bit of a thing for food.

Thing sounds so much better than preoccupation, doesn’t it?

Hardy har har.

But really.  This girl likes to eat but also wants to mainly consume foods that are wholesome fuel.

My quest has lead me from Weight Watchers to Atkins to South Beach to Weight Watchers to Vegan to Paleo to here.

I think I’ve finally come to a place where I feel confident about what I’m going to eat and what I’m going to generally pass on.

What I’m going to eat…

• quality lean meats (i.e. grass-fed beef, Amish/organically raised chicken and turkey)
• fish (preferably not farm-raised)
• lots and lots of veggies
• fruit
• nuts and seeds
• sweet potatoes
• healthy fats (i.e. olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, etc)
• coffee, tea, water and home-made juice
• occasional whole grains
• occasional legumes (i.e. peanuts, beans, etc)

What I’m going to usually pass on…

• conventionally raised and highly processed meats
• refined carbohydrates (i.e crackers, bread, cereal, pretzels, chips, etc)
• white potatoes and white rice
• dairy (i.e. milk, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, etc)
• sugar
• juice, pop (soda) and sugary drinks

It may sound like this new plan is no fun, but to be totally honest, I haven’t felt this good since I was a teenager so I hardly care about all of those “pass on” foods!

Seriously, I have energy like whoa.

And it kind of sneaked up on me…

Yes it’s “sneaked” not “snuck”.  Trust me on this.

I started noticing that I wasn’t experiencing my usual “afternoon crash” anymore.  I had energy to dance in the living room with Grace and take walks before dinner.  I wasn’t ready to crawl into bed the minute the girls were asleep.

Instead, I generally maintain a steady level of energy until bedtime when I fall asleep quickly.

It’s wonderful!

I’ve been joking with my sister that I feel like I could go climb a mountain at 9pm!

I’ve been kind of flirting with this way of eating on and off for a few years now.  Mainly since Lent 2011 when I gave up dairy, grains and sugar for 40 days.  But after recently reading the book Made to Crave and an inspiring post written by a fellow blogger (Molly), I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to think about it anymore, I was just going to start doing it.

The positive changes that Molly has experienced are incredible!  Be sure to check out her post and leave her some love :)

All that being said, I’m eating clean and I’m starting a new series on the blog!

Eat.Clean.Quick.

I’m still passionate about cooking and eating good food, but I don’t want to spend my whole summer in the kitchen making extravagant meals.

I want to be more creative in making things up on my own.

I want to be able to shop the markets for what looks fresh and awesome and make meals around those items rather than choosing all my recipes for the week and then scraping the bottom of a produce bin for the last straggling, bruised veggies that I need for my particular recipe.

I want to be able to pull these meals together quick.

It was thoughts like these that inspired this series!

I still plan to post more traditional recipes from time to time because I love a good cheesy comfort food and ooey gooey dessert as much as the next person.  Those recipes can still be found on my Recipes tab.

I’ve created a new tab for this Eat.Clean.Quick. series, and you can find it right up at the top next to the Recipes tab.

So that’s it!

I’m super excited to share these breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack ideas with you :)