Clean Food even if I don't have a Clean House

(photo)

I think I mentioned that I meal planned every meal for the whole month this month. For maybe the first time ever. Well, I have planned before. It's the follow-through that gets me every time. And I'm a little worried I'm not going to make it this time either.

You know how I go crazy over library cookbooks? This time it was this cookbook called Clean Food. I totally judged a book by it's cover. What can I say? It did look...clean. Everybody needs a little clean somewhere.

I'm going to go ahead and blame Clean Food for my meal plan attempt because everything looked fantastic and fresh, and since the book is split seasonally, I was dying to make a bunch of the Spring recipes. (Even if the weather still thinks it's Winter, at least our bellies will think it's Spring. Take that, rain.)

I picked out a ton of recipes from Clean Food for our meal plan because they were all sounding amazing. They reminded me of the stuff I would make when we were part of a CSA and got a bunch of weird veggies every week. That kind of cooking really gets me excited.

Somewhere round about the Cashew Cream and the Flax Egg (say what?) I got to thinking that there was something strange about this here cookbook.

Oh, and where'd all the meat go?

Turns out, Clean Food means Vegan Food. (Is this something everyone else already knows and I am just late to the game?)

So the other day I whipped out my meal plan. I had been avoiding it since I had no groceries, but after (finally) successfully making it to the grocery store, it was time to get down to business. It had been another one of those days, and I was hoping the Meal Plan said that bacon and eggs with lots of cheese was for dinner.

But...it seems that I was delirious when I planned those meals.

Sweet Potato, Corn, and Kale Chowder?
Swiss Chard with Roasted Golden Beets?

The Black Bean Burgers with Pineapple Guacamole we ate last night really was delicious. And I love a good beet. Truly, all the food does (still) sound wonderful.

But when dinner time rolls around and you are starving and the little people are screaming and you have been chopping this veggie and that veggie and then you plop a mound of greens on the table...oh, the silence.

I mean the kids do not care that the beets are special, non-purple beets. Or that the greens (swiss chard) we had last night are totally different from the greens (kale) we are having tonight.

They are all, Where is our dinner, mama? This looks like weeds.