#25 Paleo & Whole30 Meal Prepping with Erica Winn of Real Simple Good

03/12/18 • 37 min

Clean Eating for Women with Carrie Forrest, MPH in Nutrition

Erica Winn of Real Simple Good a wonderful website for inspired paleo cooking and living is here today. Erica offers all kinds of healthy tips and tricks for cooking and eating including paleo and whole30 meal prepping.In this episode of the Clean Eating for Women podcast, we talk about:

Erica’s health story and starting Real Simple Good
Eating paleo and cooking at home with real ingredients
Meal prepping to make healthy eating easier

Some highlights of this episode on paleo & whole30 meal prepping with erica winn of real simple good:

Erica and her husband started Real Simple Good a couple of years ago. It stemmed from making lifestyle changes and Erica having MS. It was time to take her health story into her own hands. She began researching diets and lifestyles that reduce inflammation. Which led her to the paleo lifestyle. [02:25]
Erica's recipes are mostly paleo. She doesn't use any processed foods. They don't use grains, gluten, dairy, or soy. They also leave out the legumes and refined sugar. This is the template that all of the recipes stem from. They may have an occasional white rice or pastured cheese. [09:29]
Erica and Justin wanted to live on their own terms. They decided to make paleo cooking and living a lifestyle. They also decided to make the blog a full-time job. [13:02]
Before they quit their accountant jobs they were really stressed for time, so they started meal planning out of a necessity. There is no way to get through a busy work week without doing some sort of meal prep over the weekend. [14:06]
Erica and Justin sell meal plans to help people who aren't sure what recipes to make and what to shop for. These are for people who really like to cook and just need a little extra help. They also offer simple recipes with minimal ingredients for people who don't like to cook but need help with eating healthier. [17:50]
They currently offer seasonal meal plans that are bundled together. There is 13 weeks in each bundle. They are also doing challenges like the whole 30 challenge. People sign up for the challenge on their website. Then everything was delivered through email which included helpful tips and meal plans. They also posted on their Facebook group. They were also available to answer questions. [22:23]
A whole30 diet is like a Paleo diet but more strict. There's no Paleo baking and no sugars and alcohol of any kind. [25:11]
One of Erica's favorite recipes and also one of their most popular recipes is the crock pot chicken enchiladas. Another popular recipe is their creamy spaghetti squash casserole. [27:35]
An instapot is like a pressure cooker with pre programmed functions. The pressure cooker cooks faster and the instapot has more functions. You can brown ground beef and then cook it and make a one pot meal. [31:58]

Links mentioned in this episode:

Show sponsors (affiliate link included):

Otto’s Naturals Cassava Flour (use code CLEANEATING for 10% discount + free shipping over $35 during checkout)

Join the Clean Eating for Women Community!

Clean Eating Challenge
Clean Eating for Women episode index
Clean Eating for Women Podcast private Facebook Group (great for asking questions and connecting with me personally)

Don’t miss new blog posts! Join my weekly newsletter list to get all the latest news and recipe links delivered directly to your inbox.

Erica’s health story and starting Real Simple Good
Eating paleo and cooking at home with real ingredients
Meal prepping to make healthy eating easier

Some highlights of this episode on paleo & whole30 meal prepping with erica winn of real simple good:

Erica and her husband started Real Simple Good a couple of years ago. It stemmed from making lifestyle changes and Erica having MS. It was time to take her health story into her own hands. She began researching diets and lifestyles that reduce inflammation. Which led her to the paleo lifestyle. [02:25]
Erica's recipes are mostly paleo. She doesn't use any processed foods. They don't use grains, gluten, dairy, or soy. They also leave out the legumes and refined sugar. This is the template that all of the recipes stem from. They may have an occasional white rice or pastured cheese. [09:29]
Erica and Justin wanted to live on their own terms. They decided to make paleo cooking and living a lifestyle. They also decided to make the blog a full-time job. [13:02]
Before they quit their accountant jobs they were really stressed for time, so they started meal planning out of a necessity. There is no way to get through a busy work week without doing some sort of meal prep over the weekend. [14:06]
Erica and Justin sell meal plans to help people who aren't sure what recipes to make and what to shop for. These are for people who really like to cook and just need a little extra help. They also offer simple recipes with minimal ingredients for people who don't like to cook but need help with eating healthier. [17:50]
They currently offer seasonal meal plans that are bundled together. There is 13 weeks in each bundle. They are also doing challenges like the whole 30 challenge. People sign up for the challenge on their website. Then everything was delivered through email which included helpful tips and meal plans. They also posted on their Facebook group. They were also available to answer questions. [22:23]
A whole30 diet is like a Paleo diet but more strict. There's no Paleo baking and no sugars and alcohol of any kind. [25:11]
One of Erica's favorite recipes and also one of their most popular recipes is the crock pot chicken enchiladas. Another popular recipe is their creamy spaghetti squash casserole. [27:35]
An instapot is like a pressure cooker with pre programmed functions. The pressure cooker cooks faster and the instapot has more functions. You can brown ground beef and then cook it and make a one pot meal. [31:58]

Links mentioned in this episode:

Show sponsors (affiliate link included):

Otto’s Naturals Cassava Flour (use code CLEANEATING for 10% discount + free shipping over $35 during checkout)

Join the Clean Eating for Women Community!

Clean Eating Challenge
Clean Eating for Women episode index
Clean Eating for Women Podcast private Facebook Group (great for asking questions and connecting with me personally)

Don’t miss new blog posts! Join my weekly newsletter list to get all the latest news and recipe links delivered directly to your inbox.

Previous Episode

#24 Meal Prepping 101 with Single Parent & Fitness Pro Marek Strojvus

Marek from Marek Fitness is here today to talk about meal prepping. Eating healthy can take extra work and meal prepping can solve the temptation to cheat for convenience. Marek is a single parent and shares some of his great meal prepping tips.In this episode of the Clean Eating for Women podcast, we talk about:

Marek’s fitness story
How Marek’s son is involved in the kitchen
The basics of meal prepping

Some highlights of this episode:

Marek is from Slovakia, but he has been in the states for 12 years. Meal prepping has been part of his life for a long time. Getting a divorced and becoming a single-parent gave Marek a chance to start fresh and prepare his own food. It also brought him back to his Slovakian roots and nutritious homemade meals. [01:55]
Marek is an electrical engineer with a demanding job and a single-parent. He also competes in men's physique competitions and plays competitive volleyball. At first, cooking seemed almost impossible. Meal prepping for Marek was the missing piece of the puzzle. [04:14]
Meal prepping means prepping food for 4 to 5 days at one time. Meal prepping Sunday means prepping dishes for 4 to 5 meals and measuring them up and storing them for the week. [04:56]
He Googled and watched YouTube videos and watched people cooked ten pounds of chicken at once and really tried to figure out how to incorporate this into having a healthy diet. He started small just making his lunches. Then he started figuring out ways to make it easier, more efficient, cheaper, and better. [07:37]
Budget is a huge benefit of meal prepping. Time is the number one benefit, but saving money is the number two benefit. Cooking in bulk saves time, and time equals money eventually. Buying in bulk and in season also makes the food better. It also costs less. [09:27]
He uses vegetarian chocolate protein powder and organic cocoa and oat flour to make healthy muffins. He also uses fruit like bananas. Then he lets his son cook with him and add dark chocolate. This is one way to keep his son involved and encourage him to eat healthy also. [14:18]
Meal prepping for beginners. Start small you can't change your whole life that wants. It's a marathon not a sprint. Prepare foods and ingredients you enjoy. Get proper containers. The air around your food affects how long it can keep. Eliminate as much air as possible. Try getting glass or plastic containers from Rubbermaid or Pyrex. [17:10]
Utilize your oven for multiple items at a time. Also start with the item that takes the longest. While the potatoes are baking you can get your chicken and veggies cooked at the same time. Also jazz up your meal with spices. Split your chicken into three different groups and use three different types of spices. This will give you variety. Know what you like and always have your staples on hand. [26:54]
Make avocado ice cream with organic chocolate, frozen banana, and frozen avocado. This is going to be Marek's new ice cream recipe. Once he finds the ratios, he is going to make it in the food processor. [32:15]

Links mentioned in this episode:

Show sponsor (affiliate link included):

Otto’s Naturals Cassava Flour (use code CLEANEATING for 10% discount + free shipping over $35 during checkout)

Join the Clean Eating for Women Community!

Clean Eating for Women episode index
Clean Eating for Women Podcast private Facebook Group (great for asking questions and connecting with me personally)

Don’t miss new blog posts! Join my weekly newsletter list to get all the latest news and recipe links delivered directly to your inbox.

Next Episode

#26 The Paleo Instant Pot Cookbook with 40 Aprons Blogger Cheryl Malik

Cheryl Malik is the creator of the 40 Aprons website. She is an amazing recipe developer and food photographer. Today, we are going to talk about healthy clean eating and her new book The Paleo Instant Pot Cookbook.In this episode of the Clean Eating for Women podcast, we talk about:

Cheryl’s health journey
Healthy clean eating
The Instant Pot Cookbook

Some highlights of this episode on how to make veggies taste delicious:

40 Aprons is actually the fourth name of Cheryl's blog. She finally decided on this name, because she didn't want a blog that wasn't tied down to a specific type of eating. Plus, whenever her friends traveled they would bring her a new apron, and she had at least 40. [02:01]
Cheryl tells her story of how being vegan stopped working for her. Cheryl and her husband were thinking about having children, and she got a blood test and found out that she had hypothyroidism. She also noticed that healthy fat might be a solution and started eating coconut oil. She finally discovered she was missing nutrients from not eating animal products. She switched to non vegetarian clean eating and started getting healthy right away. [15:26]
Carrie shares how when she was vegan, and she was eating a lot of soy she eventually developed Hashimoto's and had to have her thyroid removed. She also talks about the Weston A. Price foundation and the importance of eating a more rounded diet. [23:41]
Transitioning from vegan to Paleo. Cheryl had no problem eating meat again. Even when she was vegan she craved steak. The hardest part for her was the ethics. She decided that eating meat wasn't the hard part it was the factory farming that she wanted to avoid. She spends her money at very deliberate places. [25:31]
Cheryl explains how she got involved with The Whole30 diet. Some friends of hers tried it, and they lost weight and felt amazing and we're even sleeping better. Cheryl and her husband also tried it and they ended up feeling a lot better. It also made her TMJ go away and she lost all of her baby weight. [29:49]
Then they transitioned into a Paleo diet and it was very doable. After time, they transitioned into more of a primal diet. They had already spent a lot of time healing the gut and eating nutritious food, so now they just eat what works for them. [34:36]
The Instant Pot changed Cheryl's life forever. Her first recipes were horrible, but then she decided to start thinking like a pressure cooker. When you're on the Paleo diet or the whole30 diet, you spend so much time in the kitchen that having something like an Instant Pot makes things a lot easier. [38:09]
All of the recipes in her book are whole30 compliant. She also tries to optimize the Instant Pot cooking to cut down on the time spent in the kitchen. Everyone should have an Instant Pot. One of her favorite recipes is Zuppa Toscana - an Instant Pot take on her super popular Whole30 Zuppa Toscana recipe. [39:59]

Links mentioned in this episode: