What Does Clean Eating Look Like For Your Family?

Let’s start with a question: What does clean eating actually look like for your family?

Because if we’re being honest, it can sound a little intimidating.

“Clean eating” can bring to mind perfectly organized refrigerators, beautifully prepped meals in matching glass containers, a kitchen that somehow always looks spotless, and a mom who has already made seven days of meals before breakfast.

I don’t know about you, but that mom does not live at my house.

I’m busy.

Really busy.

I don’t remember the last time our family was simply home with absolutely nothing on the calendar.

For the past seven years, we’ve homeschooled our girls. That means planning, teaching, learning, projects, activities, driving, more activities, and the occasional moment of wondering what day it actually is.

Then there’s Pastorey Pasta.

I’m building a pasta business, creating new recipes, making pasta, packing pasta, selling pasta, talking about pasta...

Basically, I have become the woman who thinks about pasta a lot.

We’re also building our little farm, taking care of animals.

I know what it feels like to get to 5:30 p.m. and realize nobody has actually thought about dinner yet.

And if there is a chef hiding in my house somewhere, I would really appreciate it if he would introduce himself!

I LOVE the idea of meal prepping.

I have Pinterest boards dedicated to it.

I save recipes constantly.

I see those beautiful pictures of a week's worth of meals all lined up in perfectly labeled containers and think:

“Yes! This is going to be the week I get my life together.”

And then Monday happens.

Then Tuesday.

Then someone has an appointment.

Someone else has an activity.

The animals need something.

The business needs something.

The children need something.

And suddenly it's Thursday and I'm standing in my kitchen wondering where the week went.

The truth is, I don't struggle because I don't want to eat well.

I struggle because life is busy.

And when I finally have an hour with absolutely nothing demanding my attention, sometimes I don't want to meal prep.

I want a nap.

Anyone else?

So I've started thinking about clean eating a little differently.

Maybe clean eating doesn't have to mean doing more.

Maybe it can mean making better choices within the life we already have.

I think most of us want something pretty simple.

We want food that tastes good.

We want convenience.

We want simple meals.

We want to know what's in our food.

And we want to feel good about feeding it to our families.

We've lived through the era of “just open the box,” “heat and serve,” and “this came in a can or wrapper, so dinner is basically done.”

And while convenience absolutely has its place, I think many of us are ready to bring a little more intention back into our kitchens.

I'd love to spend hours making everything from scratch.

I'd love to have a garden overflowing with food, spend my days preserving, canning, fermenting, freezing and filling shelves for winter.

But here's the thing...

I don't currently have that kind of time.

And maybe you don't either.

So I started asking:

How can we bring the good stuff back without making our lives harder? 

I want convenient food.

I just want convenient food made with ingredients I actually feel good about putting on my family's plates.

And that is a huge part of why Pastorey Pasta exists.

I'll tell you a little story about my youngest.

She's nine years old.

And she has never met a vegetable she wasn't suspicious of.

Actually, that's not entirely true.

She'll eat vegetables if they're cooked a very particular way.

Fruit?

Preferably blended into a smoothie where she can't see, smell or identify it.

I've finally figured out that a lot of it is probably texture, and I'm holding onto hope that one day she will wake up and announce:

“Mom! I LOVE vegetables!”

I'm waiting.

But this girl loves meat.

She loves carbs.

And she LOVES pasta.

Pasta was always an easy win when she was little. But I didn't love the idea of letting her fill up on store bought pasta simply because it was the one food she would happily eat.

I wanted the food she already loved to bring more to the table.

And that got me thinking.

What if pasta could be more?

That's where Pastorey Pasta comes in.

I wanted to create pasta that was:

Quick.
Convenient.
Wholesome.
Flavourful.
Fun.
Intentional.

And made with ingredients I actually wanted my family eating.

Pastorey Pasta starts with organic Canadian ancient grains that are non-GMO and sourced with care.

We use a sourdough fermentation process, bringing traditional fermentation into a food that families already love.

And then I started having a little fun.

I began incorporating ingredients like vegetable powders, root powders, mushrooms, turmeric, sea vegetables, berries and adaptogenic botanicals into different varieties.

Why?

Because I wanted to find a way to add more interesting, purposeful ingredients to a food my kids were already asking for.

Instead of trying to convince my children to eat another plate of vegetables...

I put some vegetables in the pasta.

Mom trick.

I'll take it.

This is one of my favourite things about pasta.

You don't need a complicated recipe.

You don't need 14 ingredients.

You don't even need to know exactly what you're making.

Grab a package of Pastorey Pasta.

Add butter and parmesan.

Make a simple tomato sauce.

Toss in leftover chicken.

Add some vegetables.

Turn it into a cold pasta salad.

Put it in a lunchbox.

Make mac and cheese.

Or stand over the pot eating it directly from the spoon while telling yourself you're “just checking if it's done.”

We've all done it.

Pasta works with almost anything.

And that's exactly what busy families need.

One of the pastas I'm especially proud of is my Rae a Sunshine Macaroni.

It has dulse seaweed, acai berry and spinach blended right into the flour!

And here's the part that makes me ridiculously happy:

You don't taste the dulse.

No fishy seaweed flavour.

Just fun, colourful macaroni.

And I've come to realize that I am pretty good at the mom trick of putting ingredients into food that my kids might otherwise turn their noses up at.

They see fun macaroni.

I see spinach, seaweed and acai.

Everybody wins.

And honestly, who doesn't love macaroni?

You can turn it into a warm dinner, a cold pasta salad, a creamy dish, a lunchbox meal, or pretty much whatever your refrigerator happens to offer that day.

I'm learning that clean eating doesn't have to be perfect.

It doesn't mean every meal is made from scratch.

It doesn't mean you have to spend your Sunday chopping vegetables into 47 little containers.

It doesn't mean your kitchen has to look like a magazine.

And it definitely doesn't mean you can't occasionally order pizza because life happened.

Clean eating, to me, is about being intentional.

It's about looking at the food we bring into our homes and asking:

Can I make a better choice here?

Can I choose ingredients I recognize?

Can I choose traditionally made foods?

Can I find ways to add more nourishing ingredients without adding more work?

Can I make healthy choices that actually fit into my family's crazy schedule?

I think the answer is yes.

I don't want Pastorey Pasta to be another food that gives moms one more thing to do.

Quite the opposite.

I want it to make your life easier.

I want you to open your pantry and know you have an easy option waiting for you.

I want you to be able to make dinner in minutes without feeling like you've completely abandoned your desire to feed your family well.

I want you to be able to take one package of pasta and turn it into an entire meal.

And maybe even sneak a few extra good ingredients into the kids while you're at it.

Because let's be honest...

Sometimes motherhood is just figuring out how to get the good stuff into them without them noticing.

And I'm okay with that.

So the next time it's 5:30 p.m., everyone is hungry, the day has gotten away from you, and you're staring into the refrigerator hoping dinner will magically appear...

Don't panic.

Open the pantry.

Grab the pasta.

Add whatever you've got.

Make it simple.

Make it delicious.

And call it dinner.

Because clean eating doesn't have to be complicated.

It just has to fit into real life.

Pastorey Pasta

Organic Canadian ancient grains.
Sourdough fermented.
Thoughtfully crafted.
Naturally air dried.
Made with purposeful ingredients.
Made for real families and real life.

Simple food. Thoughtfully made. Convenient enough for Tuesday night. Special enough to be excited about.

And from one busy mom to another...

I see you.

Now go put the pasta on.