Super easy, super clean, super gooooood Apple Crisp

What you need:

1 9inch baking pan or pie plate

2-3 peeled and sliced gala apples (You can honestly use any kind of apple, but since this is sugar free - I'd avoid a granny smith since they're usually really tart)
1/2 cup of rolled oats (gluten free/organic/instant will all work)
2 tablespoons of coconut oil
2 tablespoons of honey (organic is best)
1 small pinch of salt
2 tablespoons of coconut flour
1/2 tablespoon of nutmeg
1 1/2 tablespoon of cinnamon


Directions:
Preheat yo oven yo! 375!
I got everything together BEFORE peeling and slicing my apples, because I'm an apple snob and I hate when they go even the slightest bit brown. But if you give no fucks about your brown ass apples, then by all means - start with peeling and slicing them. Otherwise - start by melting the 2 tablespoons of coconut oil in the microwave - about 30 seconds on medium is good. Mix in the honey and stir. In a separate bowl mix together the oats, 1 tablespoon of the flour and half of the nutmeg and cinnamon.
Note: nutmeg and cinnamon are to taste - I like my apples to be on the super cinnamon side. but OBVI you can change it to suite your own needs. This is just a guideline people!
Now for you brown apple haters like me - go ahead and peel and slice your apples. Place them in the baking dish. Pour in 2 tablespoons of the honey and coconut oil mixture along with 1 tablespoon of flour and the rest of the nutmeg/cinnamon. Stir around to coat those little fuckers in all that tasty goodness.
Put the rest of the coconut oil/honey mixture into the oat/flour/spice mixture and mix it up until it becomes a bit clumpy.
Crumble that beautiful mess of awesome all over the top of the apples. Place in the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes or until the top is a nice lovely brown colour - OR until it smells so fucking good you can't wait any longer and pull that shit out. But more likely - 20-30 minutes.

PRO TIP - I also cut up 1/3 cup of pecans and put it into the oat mixture before covering the apples in it because I really dig pecans. You could also use walnuts. Or none of those things. It's super versatile. So do whatever you want.

Nutritional information is as follows - Note - this is based on adding the pecans in.
Also - keep in mind that coconut oil and pecans are GOOD fats and honey is a natural sugar - vs processed.
And that's what clean is all about!

ENJOY!

Clean eating basics and why you're here - Reading about me.

I only recently got into the idea of "clean eating" and what it means for my lifestyle. I got to a point in my life where I was fed up with feeling like shit all the time, being tired all the time and most importantly - being a fatass.
I bit the bullet and tucked my fears about public embarrassment into my pocket and made an appointment with a nutritionist. She was great right from the start. Giving me helpful tips about how to load up on green veggies to help keep my energy levels up, how to effectively give up pop and caffeine without murder death killing anyone and the most important piece of information she gave me was - how to read and really understand the labels of the food I'm putting into my body and what that means for clean eating.
Let's get one thing straight here first and foremost though - I'm 32 and overweight by a lot. I spent most of my adult life abusing refined sugar and not giving a shit about my health. Even after going through a cancer scare and being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease didn't snap me into shape. I just didn't care.
I can't tell you exactly what turned my thinking around. Whether it was just the idea of being fat for the rest of my life (which would likely be cut short due to my growing list of health concerns). Or if it was my new friendships with people who made changes in their lives perviously and I saw first hand how capable I could be if I just told myself to shut the fuck up and get on a treadmill once and awhile.
So in came the nutritionist and in came the understanding that processed foods are not only killing ME, but they're killing you too.
After coming home from my appointment I did a lot of important research about this "clean eating" - and by important research I mean I went on google and read pretty much every single opinion I could about it.
I came the conclusion that it would probably suck for the first little while. Detoxing from sugar is NOT pleasant. I've done it before and just went right back to it. The old on again off again bullshit.
But this time I was determined. I'm STILL determined, to fix my lifestyle, to fix my body and to love myself enough to really care about living.
Clean eating is a really simple concept. Don't put anything into your body that you can't pronounce, nothing processed or refined. Organic when possible and tons and tons and TONS of veggies. I mean tons. I can blow through like a full pound of kale in two days.
If you do buy things that are processed, like frozen veggies or chicken stock etc etc, just be mindful of the label. Reading the label on things is the single most important thing you can do when purchasing food. It literally tells you what you're about to consume. I bet you'll be incredibly surprised (as I was) when you realize how many canned things have tons of sugar in them. Even unassuming things like canned peas = full of sugar. Or how much salt is in things like chicken stock or taco seasoning mix. And then, once that surprise wears off you can spend an ungodly amount of time googling how to make your own mixes and stocks, so you can really really control what goes into your body and how.
The basis of this blog is to kind of track my journey through things. I'll be making another post soon about how I've had to really focus on my meals and the timing of them since being diagnosed with a super lazy thyroid. I'm hoping that in the long run that I can control most of my health concerns through diet alone. But until then - I'm taking everything one day at a time. I'm aware of everything I put in my body. I drink a ton of water. I eat balanced clean meals. I get at least an hour of solid excerise in a day (cardio/weight trianing/strength and flexibility training) and I'm Extremely diligent about keeping a food diary - Which I will also be creating a post about later on.
being accountable to everything you consume sounds like the biggest pile of shit ever, but it's changed my life. It's changed how I look at things and honestly how I function on a day to day basis.
I can honestly say that this is the best I've ever felt. Including how I felt in my teens and twenties. So even though it sounds like a pile of shit - it actually isn't. It's actually going to save me.

Slow cooker chicken quinoa sweet potatoe soup

This recipe was adapted from another recipe I found online for Sante fe chicken stew. I decided to mix it up to fit more what I like and use up some stuff I had kicking around. No prep photos unfortunately because I didn't start writing this recipe until after the fact.
This is 95% clean eating (I'll be writing a dedicated blog post with details about what that means later, in the meantime you can always Google) with the only processed part coming from the chicken stock.

What you'll need:
1 large crockpot. I got mine at Walmart for 25 bucks.  It's a 6 quart with low/high/keep warm settings.
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts. 
2 medium sweet potatoes peeled and cubed
1 package of quinoa/ancient grains mix (or 1 cup quinoa if ancient grains aren't your bag)
1 1/2 cup black beans (I use non canned beans which require soaking overnight. But you can use canned too if you want. Just check your labels to make sure there are no hidden sugars in them!)
5 cups chicken stock (I buy the low sodium organic stuff to keep it as close to clean as possible.) 1 carton is roughly 5 cups but you can add water to top it up if needed.
*pro tip. Stock is very easily frozen if you have left overs. I put mine in a ziplock bag and freeze it flat. You can then defrost it over night in the fridge or submerge it in luke warm water for half an hour before using it.
1 small onion chopped
1 clove of garlic minced
3 medium peppers chopped.  I used yellow, orange and red. I don't like green peppers cooked but you can use whatever you want.
2 cups of kale chopped
1 1/2 cup of corn. I stay away from canned veggies because they are LOADED with hidden sugar. So if you can't get fresh corn then go for frozen - organic is best but read the label and make sure the only ingredient is corn.
Taco seasoning to taste - I make my own because I'm all about controlling flavors but you could easily use a prepackaged one. Though I highly recommend getting the low sodium variety.
To make your own just combine garlic powder, chili powder, cumin, oregano, paprika and red pepper flakes. This is all to taste. If you want it spicy - add more red pepper flakes. More warm mexi flavored - add more cumin and chili powder. Experiment and see what you like best :)

Assembly:
In the crockpot lay your chicken breast (thawed!) On the bottom. Next put in the quinoa, onions, garlic and beans. Then layer on the peeled and cubed sweet potatoe and peppers.
Mix your taco seasoning in with your 5 cups of stock and pour over the top. Set it and forget it! For 4 hours. On high.
After 4 hours dig around and pull out the chicken. Using 2 forks or your hands if your brave and don't care about being burned and shred the chicken up.
Put it back in the crockpot along with the kale and corn. Don't worry if the corn is still frozen. It's a resistant little veggie and can handle it.
Stir all that shit together and marvel at how amazeballs it smells!
Keep on high for another hour. At this point I went ahead and added another cup of water to mine because it wasn't soupy enough for me. But it's all about what you like.

*alternatively you can cook this on low as well,  if you won't be home to check on it. 5-6 hours on low then remove the chicken etc etc and back on low for 2 hours.

The beauty of crockpot cooking is that it's pretty forgiving. You can always play with the cooking times to fit your schedule.

Serve this with a wedge of lime and some Greek yogurt. You can also add cilantro if you like that kind of thing. I'm not a fan. But you're the boss of your own destiny ok? So have fun with it.

Try it! Let me know how it turns out in the comments!