To ask for you best, easiest, fastest clean eating meal ideas?

[OverdressedtobeDepressed]

I’ve been in the process of dramatically cutting down on highly processed foods. I’ve almost put myself on a Mediterranean diet, but not specifically.

I’m really struggling for meal ideas so far I have had:
~ wholemeal toast, avocado with a poached egg.
~ Vine ripened tomatoes, mozzarella with balsamic dressing (in its own for lunch, add a grilled chicken breast or salmon for dinner)
~ Greek yoghurt, berries and honey, with toasted almonds.
~ pitta bread with cottage cheese, chicken breast, rocket and tomatoes.
~ roasted cauliflower, chick peas, tomato, green leafy salad for lunch - add chicken/salmon if not meat free night for dinner.
~ cucumber with tuna and sesame seeds

for snacks I’ll have veggie sticks, olives, nuts ect. I do a lot of just meat and veg dinners when I’m feeling lazy.

But this is about all I eat now, I vary things up a bit switch things about.. but it feels a bit repetitive - maybe it’s supposed to? I’m so used to eating anything and everything maybe I’m just not used to having a smaller variation of things to eat.

Can anyone share what clean/unprocessed meals they’ve enjoyed that are super easy and relatively budget friendly 😇

I've made this bean salad today: https://www.inspiredtaste.net/46546/easy-bean-salad/

Plenty of fiber to keep you full, and works well with tofu, chicken, fish etc if you want to add extra protein

Your list is great. I might try some of those.

I quite like roast chicken with roast vegetables like sweet potato, butternut squash, parsnip, carrot with some hummus on the side.

Il keep an eye on this thread for other ideas.

For quick meals, I think what you're doing is right - salad/greens, potatoes/rice, grilled chicken/fish, maybe a quick sauce. Beyond that, you still can eat anything and everything, you just batch cook or prepare components of it the night before, or during your lunch break if you WFH, etc.

There is a cookbook called Unprocess Your Life that might be useful?

Maybe think about making your own bread/pitta - shop bought breads are very processed. Having said that its not advice I follow myself. The very concept of 'clean eating' sounds restricted and therefore difficult to follow long-term. I would just cut back on the obviously bad stuff, cook from scratch as much as you can.

I'm a bit obsessed with this dish at the moment:

Easy Chickpea Shawarma Bowl with Roasted Vegetables - The Plant Based School

I do a lot of egg dishes -

Egg fried rice with vegetables/prawns/chicken/salmon

Shakshuka - can do with most vegetables

Omelettes/fritattas

And also a lot of fish - salmon/trout with salad/rice

And soups - with beans/potatoes added to make filling

https://wwwfamilycookbookcom.blogspot.com/2008/05/my-new-favourite-chickpea-salad-in-fact.html
This chickpea salad is probably the recipe I makes most often- it's barely a recipe, takes about 2 minutes.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rice_bowl_with_ginger_58307

This brown rice bowl- can add extra protein if you like.

https://annajonesfood.substack.com/p/proper-chilli

The best veggie chilli- not that quick but it makes enough to feed an army and freezes brilliantly.

Came here to say egg too.

Fry up almost any veg with chill / garlic / herbs / evoo. Dump in a few eggs. Stir. Take off heat and sprinkle feta on top.

some of the healthiest diets in the world (e.g. older Japanese in Okinawa) are very repetitive (in their case 80% purple sweet potato). So repetitive can be healthy and cheap. Think lentil soup, homemade humous, large vat of soup.

My absolute go to snack that is cheap, filling and so so satisfying because of the umami burst is as follows. Tin of sardines, drain off oil, lightly chunk up. Mix in some finely chopped capers, parsley, shallot/red onion, tomato, tsp of mustard. You can also add a boiled egg. Have on some crisp bread.

Mix a tablespoon of honey or or honey/Cocoa powder into the plain yoghurt to change up the flavours.

Plain Greek yoghurt plus flour flattened out and 'fryed' (no oil) makes a quick and tasty flatbread, mini pizza base, etc.

If you've got a waffle maker these with some grated cheese added make a lovely (& high protein) meal component: https://fromscratchfast.com/chickpea-waffles/#recipe

For another meal component make 'baked beans' at home - Chickpeas, chopped tomatoes, dash of tomato puree & maple syrup.

Look up egg muffin recipes for a breakfast/snack alternative.

If you get onto a low/no processed website there are hundreds of recipes to try (and once it's on your algorithm you'll keep seeing more).

Not at all fancy but… when I want a really easy, cheap non-UPF meal I normally do a baked potato with something like tuna, beans, lentils, veg on top.

I also have eggs a lot for dinner, I don’t know why people feel they should be reserved for breakfast. .Omelettes with whatever meat or veg is leftover in the fridge, or scrambled eggs on toast.

And I make a lot of homemade soups.

I too was going to say shakshuka. I often add a tin of chickpeas for extra fibre/protein.

I recently changed to wholemeal pasta and didn't notice much difference. Puttanesca, pasta con le sarde, pasta alla norma etc are very quick, healthy and tasty.

This is good. It makes a large quantity so I'd put in the time to make a batch and then it would keep in the fridge for several lunches. https://cookieandkate.com/greek-kale-salad-recipe/

We enjoyed this too. Again, not that quick to make given you need to roast the cauliflower, but that's something that can be done in advance. There's not a huge amount of preparation time. https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/cauliflower_lentils_57820

What were you eating before?
I home cook 99% of my meals so unless you relied on eating ready meals up to now, I am sure you can still eat "normally".
Some of the meal I cook on a regular basis:
Stuffed peppers
Stews of various kinds
Indian curries (mix my own spices rather than using jars of sauces)
Simple grilled fish/meat with a salad, rice/potatoes
Soups
Whatever I can make out of minced meat - burgers, meatballs, kufta, stuffed cabbage leaves
Liver, onion and sour cream with mashed potatoes
Homemade pizza
Homemade pancakes
Homemade hummus
Can, if necessary make my own tofu (a bit of a faff with making soy milk first but can be done) for stir-fries.
Mushroom stroganoff

For lunch, I quite happily eat dinner leftovers from the night before.

To be fair I used to do a lot of home cooking from scratch but after my second was born I fell out of love with cooking and then became what can I make the easiest and fastest. Lots of pasta with jarred sauces, bacon, sausages, and quite a lot of red meat. Regularly having ready meals for convenience, frozen pizza occasionally ect. It doesn’t help that DH doesn’t really like the foods I like, he hates chicken, prawns, wont eat food that I make ‘differently’ to how he’s used to (for example, he won’t eat spagbol make with pork mince rather than beef mince, won’t eat hot dogs make with chicken sausages ect)

he’s not very experimental and hasn’t got much interest to try anything different so eventually it was easier to just cook what I know everyone likes 🤣

but now we’ve decided that I’ll cook for me, he cooks for him and DC can decide to have what either of us are having. So far I’m loving it and so is he 🤣

I eat quite a lot of fish, eg salmon with a homemade teriyaki style sauce rice and veg (soy, honey, chilli, lemon juice and garlic). Prawn Thai curry, I do use a jar of curry paste, but everything else is fresh eg veg, coconut milk. Also veggie dishes I like are Creamy mushroom pasta with fresh rocket on top, veg chilli, cauliflower and potato curry, feta and chickpea skillet is delicious and so easy.

Ratatouille, with beans
Omolettes
Turkey bol, wholewheat pasta
Stuffed peppers
Chicken breasts stuffed with mozz, sundried toms and basil - with spinach, roast toms and sliced potatoes cooked with the chicken
Smoked haddock on spinach with poached eggs
Roast chicken dinner
Turkey fillets, mushrooms, chopped shallot, cranberry or redcurrant - homemade gravy - do a double lot when you do a roast chicken dinner
Sea bass and roasted veg
stir fries
salmon steaks, asparagus, new potatoes
Only good quality sourdough

This is really tasty. I did add feta to it so not so vegan/ UPF free 😃
www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegan/madfuneh/

Cook and cool brown rice. Add chopped raw spring onions, chopped raw red peppers, and a handful of raw cashew nuts. Stir through a dressing made with 2 parts olive oil, 1 part lemon juice or wine vinegar, and 1 part soy sauce. Sorry about lack of measurements, just experiment a bit. You can also add more nuts, cooked chickpeas, chopped cooked chicken or canned tuna if you want to up the protein.

That sounds amazing. I don't really like brown rice served with a hot dish like curry but it stands up well as a cold salad.

It's summer here in Australia (40 degrees today!) and I'm loving this pasta bean salad. Again wholemeal pasta stands up well

This light and veggie-filled pasta salad is perfect for hot nights - ABC News

My go to quick dinner is a baked/microwaved sweet potato with whatever topping feels lucky

If you think you're not getting enough variety in your diet, you could try for 30 plants a week? Depends if you find it a pita to track, but I find 1) I'm often doing better than I think and 2) it encourages me to quickly chuck on some broccoli, peas, whatever, to make up my numbers

Tin of sardines or anchovies mixed through lightly cooked zucchini pasta. Add finely chopped dill, red peppers and shavings of Parmesan.

Two cucumbers peeled and chopped. Add leaves of rocket and spinach, pecans, cranberries, cherry tomatoes, finely sliced red onion and fennel, handful of basil and mandarin segments. Dress with a creamy mayo. Can also add soft poached chicken breast.

Toasted sourdough spread with peanut butter and slices of tomato.
Toasted sourdough spread with smashed avocado and topped with cottage cheese and black pepper.

Toasted sourdough with butter and Jarlsberg.

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