PCOS Meal Planning – Clean Eating Recipes

I am crazy about Tosca Reno’s series of “Eat-Clean” books. She was a self-described “40 and frumpy housewife” who went from 200 lbs to 130 lbs and became a cover model for Oxygen Magazine. Before she lost weight she suffered from some of the same things we women with PCOS suffer from – namely fatigue and blood sugar problems. Reno adopted what she calls a “Clean Eating Lifestyle.” It is basically the type of eating plan that those of us PCOS should be following. The Clean Eating Lifestyle is a nutritional plan that maximizes your intake of protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants by incorporating “whole foods” from every group. Some of the Clean Eating Principles include things such as: eat 5-6 small meals a day, eat every 2-3 hours, avoid saturated fats, sugar and simple carbs and stick to proper portion sizes. As you can see, it’s healthy and sensible.

Tosca Reno has three books and each have wonderful recipes to add to your menu plan. The original book is The Eat-Clean Diet. She also has written two follow-up cookbooks entitled The Eat-Clean Diet Cookbook and The Eat Clean Diet Family & Kids. Dinner dishes like Turkey Breast with Leek and Oatmeal Stuffing, White Chicken Chili, and Slow-Cooker Chicken Cassoulet have me ready to hit the stores to buy the proper ingredients.

Last year the publishers of Oxygen Magazine introduced a new magazine called Clean Eating which promotes the Clean Eating Lifestyle that Tosca Reno outlines in her books. The magazine is fantastic! It is now published six times a year and you can go to the website to sign up for a free issue (you can find the magazine at Barnes & Noble too!) as well as take a peek at recipes from the latest issue. I typically tear out the recipes that I want to try over the next couple of months and add one or two to my menu plan each week. The recipes typically receive rave reviews from my family.

Now that I have shared my menu planning secrets, I want to address staying on track with your eating plan by planning for snacks. My eating plan includes 3 mini-meal/snacks every day. In my next blog, I will share some ideas for healthy snacks.