28 Days of Clean Eating

Sugar prevents the hormone in your brain from telling you to stop eating, and so there’s a tendency to feel hungry, even if you really aren’t.

f the label includes more than five ingredients, it’s probably not clean

We take a break, and start again later, take another break, start again later, and so on.

The next time you make these waffles, why not double the recipe and keep the prepared waffles on hand. They freeze well and can be thawed by popping them in the toaster.

2 eggs

1¾ cups unsweetened almond milk

¼ cup butter, melted, plus 1 tablespoon

2 tablespoons honey

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1½ cups 100% whole-wheat pastry flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

Pinch salt

½ cup chopped pecans, toasted

¾ cup pure maple syrup

1. Preheat a waffle iron.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, almond milk, ¼ cup of butter, honey, cinnamon, and baking soda.

3. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, and pecans. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture, whisking until combined.

4. Brush the hot waffle iron with the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter. Ladle batter onto the waffle iron. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes or according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Repeat with the remaining batter.

5. Serve warm. Top each serving with maple syrup.

Serves 4. Prep time: 10 minutes. Cook time: 5 minutes (per batch).

Total time: 15 minutes.

Ingredient Tip: Be sure to buy unsweetened canned pumpkin instead of pumpkin pie filling. They are usually on the market shelf together, and the pie filling is loaded with extra sugar.

1½ cups uncooked old-fashioned rolled oats

cup unsweetened canned pumpkin

1 cup Slow Cooker Applesauce (see here) or store-bought unsweetened applesauce

cup chopped pecans, toasted

¼ cup dried unsweetened cranberries

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

3. In a large bowl, stir together the oats, canned pumpkin, apple-sauce, pecans, cranberries, and vanilla; let the mixture stand for 10 minutes. Drop the dough in 12 rounds onto the baking sheet, spacing them 2 inches apart. Flatten the dough mounds.

4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes

cup plain Greek yogurt

1 tablespoon honey

8 tablespoons Spiced Pecan-Almond Granola with Dried Fruit (see here)

½ cup sliced strawberries

½ cup blueberries

1. In a medium bowl, stir together the yogurt and honey.

2. Spoon ¼ cup of the yogurt mixture into each of the two serving bowls.

3. On top of the yogurt, sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the granola and top with ¼ cup of the strawberries. Repeat

Ingredient Tip: Because you are using the lime zest in this recipe, buy organic limes if they are available.

1 avocado

1½ cups unsweetened almond milk

1½ teaspoons lime juice

¼ teaspoon lime zest

1½ teaspoons honey

¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Time-Saving Tip: A cherry pitter makes easy work of removing the pits from the cherries in the recipe. If you don’t have a cherry pitter or don’t want to make the investment, a pastry tip or chopstick works well, too.

1½ cups unsweetened almond milk

2 cups pitted cherries

¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

teaspoon almond extract

1½ teaspoons flaxseed

½ cup ice

Make-Ahead Tip: Brew and chill the green tea the day before, so it’s ready to go in the morning on your way out the door.

1½ cups strong, brewed green tea, chilled

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1½ teaspoons grated peeled fresh ginger

½ small cucumber, peeled and coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons fresh mint leaves

½ cup ice

Combine the tea, lemon juice, ginger, cucumber, mint leaves, and ice in a blender. Cover and blend to the desired smoothness. Serve immediately.

Serves 2

Clean eating is more of a food philosophy, grounded in the notion that meals should contain all sorts of foods—fruits, vegetables, meats, grains, beans, nuts, and so on. The only restriction is that these foods should be as close as possible to their natural, unadulterated state. Foods should be made of, well, food, rather than combinations of food and chemicals.