An Early Valentine's Day Celebration.....

This will be my last post until the end of the month, because my husband and I are leaving for our whirlwind adventure in Costa Rica! I can’t wait to get out of this cold and dreary Midwest winter and into the warm and soothing rays of the sun! This trip will be more a trip of solitude and adventure then trips previous, we’ll largely be on our own outside of major cities. There will be a lot of time spent hiking in the National Parks, Visiting Ecological Reserves and Lazing on the Beach. Exactly what we need.

Since we’ll be in Costa Rica for February 14th I decided I’d make us a special Valentine’s Dinner before we left so that we wouldn’t miss out on the opportunity to have a big decadent meal. Unfortunately since we were quite busy on Monday, we ended up eating quite late, which meant I was a bit neglectful with my photo taking. Rather then photograph each individual dish as I normally do I just took a picture of the plate. Sorry, but C’est la vie!

For the main Pièce de résistance I decided to try something new, and so I made the Seitan Mignon from “The Gentle Chef Cookbook” by Skye Michael Conroy. This was a book I was eager to get my hands on, but it seems I never have the time to actually cook from it. What better time then a holiday right? This was a bit of work to prepare. First you need to make your own beef broth which was actually pretty easy just time-consuming, but man it sure smelled good when it was simmering! Then you make the seitan dough, then you simmer the dough in the broth for an hour. Then the seitan needs to be refrigerated for eight hours. So I made the broth last Wednesday, the Seitan last Thursday and finally seared it up red-wine and Earth Balance style for our dinner Monday night.

Now, I’ve never had actually Filet Mignon in my life - and I’m proud of that! - so I have no idea what it’s suppose to be like, but as far as seitan goes this one was very mild. Not much aftertaste, and it was super juicy, and very tender. My twin brother E says he always hated Filet because it would crisp on the outside and be bland and mushy on the inside. If that’s how filet actually is then textually I think this version comes very, very close to that description - albeit with better flavor.

My husband really loved it, especially since I served it with sauteed onions and mushrooms! Flavor-wise I thought it was great, and I loved the seared outside, but I’m just not sure I was thrilled with the texture.  Overall it was worth trying though, and I always enjoy trying new things.

Since I’ve never eaten Filet before I wasn’t really sure what was appropriate to serve with it, but judging from all the steak commercials on t.v. people typically serve meat with potatoes and a token green, and that sounded good to me. I was really in the mood for asparagus and so I steamed some up and dressed it in a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sea salt, garlic and black pepper.

Then I made the Papet Vaudois recipe from Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman’s book “The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions.” I love this little book and I’ve actually had my eye on this recipe for a while. It’s super simple, and yet super delicious. Potatoes, onions and leeks sauteed until brown and crispy then add veg broth, white wine, non-dairy milk, salt, white pepper, nutmeg, and liquid smoke - cook until creamy, So good!

We also had some toasty warm French bread and downed the whole thing with a couple of bottles of wine. One bottle of Riesling brought back from our trip to Wurzburg, Germany - I actually opened this by accident - oops! - happy accident though because it was AMAZING! And then a bottle of Italian Red that was quite a bitter contrast to the Riesling, but it did the trick.

For dessert, because I didn’t have the time to do any baking of my own, my wonderful husband picked us up a couple of slices of cake from The Chicago Diner. Once slice of Triple chocolate for him, and one slice of Chocolate Peanut butter for me. Which we enjoyed with entirely too much Coconut Bliss. I think out of the two flavors I picked up the Salted Carmel Chocolate was our favorite but the Ginger Cookie Crunch was pretty darn good too!

I hope you all have a lovely Valentine’s Day - See you when I return!

January Cleanse Part 5...

I’m gearing up to go on vacation again, and so things have been kind of hectic around here. Lots of running around to get last minute things done, and lots of pressure to ger work on my final project for school squared away before I leave. Not to mention work, and all the regular duties of life. So this past week was slightly more slack in terms of the cleanse - meaning, we had some dessert, we ate a burrito from Chipotle, and I allowed myself another latte while I was bathing suit shopping Monday. All in all the week went pretty well, although despite originally wanting to continue the cleanse up until the day we left, I decided to end the cleanse Sunday. I’ll continue to eat healthfully until we leave, but I won’t be posting about it because A) I haven’t got the time, and B) We need to use up all the food we have in the fridge so the meals won’t be all that exciting. Probably a lot of salad, ha.

So in part 4 I left off on Friday. The next day started the same with a 12oz green juice, and then instead of a smoothie I decided to go for something a little different. I was really in the mood for cereal for some reason and my husband had just picked up a bag of unsweetened, rice puffs. The only ingredient is rice! They’re kind of bland to be honest, but I also kind of love that, call me crazy. To the puffs I added 1 tbsp of chia seeds, 2 tbsp of ground flax, some dried cranberries, and some dried golden raisins, then I topped it off with plain almond milk. Super delicious and surprisingly filling.

Lunch was a mixed green salad that I threw together with some of that artichoke aioli for dressing.

Dinner was leftover Chickpea and Root Veggie Tagine from Crazy Sexy Kitchen.

Sunday breakfast was the same, juice, and rice puffs cereal. Salad for lunch. Dinner was an entirely new dish though, and it was super amazing. Right now I’m doing some recipe testing for Richa of Vegan Richa and so for dinner I made her Simple Mung Dal Tadka. This dal was so flavorul despite it being very simple and we enjoyed it so much. I really loved the flavor of the mustard seeds and the asafetida.

Monday we spent a good hour or so juicing in the morning. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of our creations. I made the grapefruit/orange mix again, but this time I also added some apple and ginger and it was simply divine. Then I made some very green juice of celery, cucumber, kale, collards, lemon, lime, and spirulina. Then I made some beet juice. One batch had beets, oranges, carrots, and ginger. The other hand beets, apple, ginger, tomato, and lemon. Both excellent and perhaps my favorite mixes after the grapefruit/orange. Over the course of the week I just rotated these juices in the morning. Then followed the same pattern for the rest of the day, rice puffs cereal, salad or leftovers for lunch. Dinners were always new.

Except Monday while we were out we decided to grab an impromptu Sushi Lunch at a place called MoonSun Sushi. We’d never been there before but we were driving by and it just looked so inviting. We ordered green tea, hot plum saki, miso soup and then Avocado rolls, cucumber rolls, shiitake mushroom rolls and vegetable tempura rolls. It was delicious, and really hit the spot. We enjoyed our self so much, and enjoyed the atmosphere of MoonSun Sushi so much that we’re thinking of making Monday Sushi Lunch a regular thing.

Monday we enjoyed the Coconut Cauliflower Curry with Mustard Greens and Spinach from Wild About Greens by Nava Atlas. I was super excited to try this because I don’t know of a lot of recipes that utilize mustard greens. Overall though I thought the dish was just so-so, I felt it was missing something but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Still I really applaud the use of mustard greens, a seriously under utilized green!

Tuesday for dinner I made the Indian Chickpea Blinis with Cashew Coconut Chutney from Crazy Sexy Kitchen. These little chickpea pancakes were delicious! And the chutney was to die for. The picture I’ll admit looks a little brown, but don’t let that fool you. This is probably one of the best things I’ve made out of CSK, I’m sure I’ll be making this regularly now.

Wednesday night for dinner we had the simple yet wonderfully flavored Asian Noodles with Black Vinaigrette from Crazy Sexy Kitchen. This is like a Soba noodle salad full of delicious raw veggies like cabbage, red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, snow peas, carrots, sprouts and I added green onions. The vinaigrette was a basic Asian style dressing with sesame, rice vinegar and agave. Very tasty!

Also on Wednesday I just couldn’t help myself. I wanted dessert, and so I made the Black Eyed Pea-nut Butter Pie from Kathy Hester’s wonderful book The Great Vegan Bean Book. This pie sounded so unique I had to give it a shot, and so I picked up some frozen whole wheat pie crusts - didn’t feel like making my own - and whipped this together in now time. It’s super simple, all it is is black eyed peas, peanut butter, agave, almond milk and chocolate chips. It’s practically guilt-free and so I didn’t feel to bad about enjoying this throughout the week. At less then 200 calories per slice how can you go wrong?

Since my husband doesn’t like peanut butter I decided to make him a treat as well, and so I also whipped up a batch of Kathy Hester’s Double Chocolate Devil’s Food Cookies also from The Great Vegan Bean Book these were super cakey, and super moist, and the fun part is that they’re made with black beans! I also used date sugar in place of the regular sugar called for and added a few drops of stevia for added sweetness. I think in the end they turned out phenomenal and again, practically guilt-free. It’s nice to be able to enjoy a ‘decadent’ dessert without having to feel too badly about it. Most of these my husband ate in no time at all, but I did sample a few over the week. How could I not?

Thursday’s dinner was another dish that I was testing for Richa. It’s Cauliflower, Carrots and Peas in a Coconut Poppy Seed Curry. This was amazing, My husband nearly devoured the entire pot. It had such great flavor and such a great aroma, we just adored it. I served it with a side of some jasmine rice I’ve had in the pantry for way to long. I jazzed it up a bit with some cumin seeds and garlic and it was really a perfect accompaniment to the curry.

Friday was the night we ate Chipotle. I was tired, and stressed, didn’t feel that great and didn’t feel all that much like cooking. Plus I just really, really wanted a burrito you know? So my wonderful husband picked us up some dinner, we got the new Tofu Sofritos Burrito and I’m not gonna lie, it was delicious!

Saturday I made dinner. A new dish also from Kathy Hester’s book The Great Vegan Bean Book. Another curry - I know, we ate a lot of curry this week, so sue me, - I have actually had my eye on this particular dish since I first purchased the book, but for some reason or other I just never got around to making it. The Kalpana’s Black Eyed Pea Curry was really worth the wait though. I loved the flavors a bit tangy, a bit spicy, everything you could want in a curry. I was kind of burnt out on rice though and so instead I steamed kale to serve with it, and it was a great way to enjoy this yummy curry.

Sunday nights dinner was pretty basic. It was just a big bowl or rice, steamed sweet potatoes, steamed kale, red cabbage, avocado, green onions and yellow bell pepper dressed in an Asian Ginger Sesame sauce. Very tasty, and exactly the kind of thing I enjoy eating, only I was kind of in a rush when I got home from work and forgot to take a photo.

So that wraps it up. The cleanse has been fun, I’ve felt really good eating so clean over the past month, and I’ve really enjoyed sharing it all with you. I didn’t loose weight as most people do on cleanses but I think that has more to do with the fact that I hardly exercised at all this month. The best feeling for me is just the satisfaction of knowing Im doing something good, and you know, I didn’t miss sugar as much as I thought I would. I allowed a little here and there on the cleanse but it’s nowhere near the amount I’m used to consuming and somehow it ended up being a perfect amount. I think I’ll continue the juicing trend when I get back from vacation because I really enjoyed that a lot, and I definitely need to incorporate more big salads into my daily routine, I loved that about the past month. So many salads. I also really love the idea of finding new ways to satisfy sweet cravings and I think I’ll probably make Kathy Hester’s desserts more frequently rather then go for the bad stuff.

So I hope you enjoyed this experiment as much as I did.

Cumin Is The Spice of Life...

Long time readers of this blog may remember that there was a time when I did a series entitled “The Spice of Life” in which I featured a different spice and told you about it’s cultural history, as well as it’s healing properties or potential. It’s been a few years since I did the last one, I got side-tracked with other things and school took up so much of my time that I didn’t have any time leftover to really do personal - non-school-related - research, but I really miss doing those posts, and I think it’s great information to share and so my goal for the year is to start doing them again.  Starting today, with one of my favorite spices of all time - Cumin! I absolutely love cumin, I adore it, I use it liberally in a lot of my cooking, it is fantastic and wonderful, and makes food taste great, but that’s not even the best part.

Cumin -

History/Cultivation 

Cumin is a flowering plant in the Apiaceae family, native from the East Mediterranean all the way to India. For millennia it has been used as both a spice and as a medicine. In fact there’s evidence of cumins use in Indian archaeological sites that date back to the second millennium BC and some New Kingdom Archaeological sites in Egypt that date as far back as the 11th century BC, where it was used - at least in part - in the mummification process of the Pharaohs. Cumin is even mentioned in the Bible, both as a culinary spice, as well as a form of currency! All this is to say that Cumin has been around for a very long time, and was once highly prized.

It’s hard to say exactly where it was originally cultivated, some say Iran, some say Egypt, some say the Mediterranean.  The ancient Greeks and Romans used cumin widely in their cooking, and the Greeks actually kept jars of it on their kitchen tables as we would do with pepper today. During the Middle Ages cumin was one of the most common spices used in Europe, where somehow it became a symbol of love and fidelity. It was carried in the pockets of wedding attendees, and women would commonly bake it into bread to give to their soldier husbands as they left for war. Certain Arabic traditions also consider cumin a symbol of love and fidelity and even consider it to have aphrodisiac properties.

From Europe Cumin was introduced to the Americas by Spanish and Portuguese colonists. Though popularity of the spice dropped off in Europe after the Middle Ages it still remains an widely used and extremely important spice in the Middle East, and India. Interestingly today India produced 70% of the world cumin supply, and consumed 90% of it’s own supply! (63% of the world production) Other producers of Cumin are Syria, Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Morocco, China, and Chile.

Health Benefits 

Cumin has long been used in Ayurvedic medicine as a digestive aid. In fact in Sanskrit Cumin is known as Jiraka, Jira meaning “That which helps digestion.”Ayurvedic medicine also uses Cumin as a way to enhance appetite, taste perception, vision, strength, and lactation. It’s also used to treat ailments such as fever, loss of appetite, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal distension, and edema. Though it has been used for centuries as a digestive aid medical science is just starting to prove it. Recent research has shown that cumin may stimulate the secretion of pancreatic enzymes which are compounds necessary for proper digestion and nutrient assimilation.

Recent research has also suggested that Cumin may have anti-carcinogenic properties. In animal studies cumin was shown to protect laboratory animals from developing stomach or liver tumors.  It’s thought that this is due to cumins potent free-radical scavenging abilities as well as the ability it has shown to enhance the liver’s detoxification enzymes. Since free radical scavenging and detoxification are important for the general maintenance of wellness, cumin’s contribution to our overall health may reach even further then that, only time will tell.

Cumin is also a significant source of iron which helps to boost our energy and is integral to enhancing our immune system. Iron is particularly important to children and menstruating women. 2tsp of Cumin contains 15% iron, 7% manganese, 4% copper, 3% Calcium, 3% magnesium, 2% Phosphorus, and 2% B1.

Preparation 

There are many ways to enjoy cumin. It’s typically used most in North African, Middle Eastern, Spanish, and Indian cuisine. So use it in curries, korma’s, and dal’s. You can use it to flavor chili, stews, and soups. It’s often used in hummus, and chili as well as other Spanish or Tex-Mex dishes. You can add cumin to a black bean salad or a black bean dip or even a black bean salsa. Add cumin seeds to bread, or flatbread, or incorporate them into homemade pizza dough. You can rub vegetables with a little olive oil and sprinkle cumin over them and roast them for a delicious side dish. It makes a great compliment to any hearty bean or lentil dish, and adding cumin seeds into brown rice gives the rice a really nice aromatic flavor, add some dried apricots and almonds for extra pizzazz. You can even saute vegetables in a little oil and cumin along with other spices you might like and serve it atop a plate of rice or cous cous for a North African flavor.

If you’re interested in a more medicinal use you can make cumin tea by boiling cumin seeds in water and then letting them steep for 10 minutes. This concoction is reported to be both warming and soothing.

Lastly the combination of black pepper, cumin and honey is considered an aphrodisiac in certain Middle Eastern countries, whether or not it actually works is anyone’s guess , but it is a tasty way to dress vegetables, tofu or tempeh. Only I’d urge you to replace the honey with agave instead, for a cruelty-free option.

May your life be rich in spice! And as always happy and health eating to you!

If you enjoyed this post check out -

Close Is The Spice of Life
Sage Is The Spice of Life
Thyme Is The Spice of Life
Dill Is The Spice of Life
Black Pepper Is The Spice of Life

January Cleanse Part 4...

I really love everything I’ve been eating this month. I love clean meals, and whole foods prepared simply, but I also love decadence, and I have a bit of a sweet tooth, so this week was kind of weird for me. I feel entirely satisfied by everything I’m eating but my brain keeps day-dreaming about things like pizza and dessert. Unfortunately I had a few ‘slips’ this week but in the grand scheme of things it wasn’t all that bad.

Monday started off the same as all the other days, water and a orange/grapefruit juice. - Definitely a favorite combo of mine. I followed that up with this Luscious Fruit and Flax Smoothie that I talked about earlier this week. Seriously it’s so good! And that actually kept me going right until dinner. Monday was kind of busy for us, we were out and about and so there wasn’t a lot of time to stop and make lunch, plus we ate dinner earlier then normal so it kind of worked out.

Fruit and Flax Smoothie 

For dinner I made these delicious Black Bean and Roasted Sweet Potato Burgers from Kris Carr’s “Crazy Sexy Kitchen” they’re full of black beans, sweet potato, onion, brown rice, garlic, cumin, chili powder, tamari, and cornmeal, and they are amazing! No lie, I could probably eat these everyday. Instead of eating them on a burger bun with all the fixin’s though I opted for a healthier approach and served them atop a green salad that had romaine, spinach, diced tomato, green onion, and avocado. The greens were lightly dressed in the leftover Organic Green Garlic Dressing I bought the night before.

Black Bean Sweet Potato Burgers 

On a salad 

Monday night I was also feeling something of a sweet craving. After being so good all month I really just wanted something that felt decadent, but I didn’t want to fall completely off the wagon and so I made these Chocolate Chip Chickpea Cookies from Kathy Hester’s book “The Great Vegan Bean Book” Now. I know what you’re thinking, “Chickpeas in a cookie?” it sounds wrong, and maybe even a little bit disgusting but they are AMAZING! Even my husband loved them and he’s skeptical always skeptical about beans. What’s really great about these cookies is that they’re simple and not all that terrible for you. There are only 81 calories per cookie, and they’re made with whole wheat pastry flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, chickpeas, non-dairy milk, vanilla extract, sugar, and chocolate chips. I only used ½ Cup of sugar instead of the recommended 1 cup so they were even better! The cookies are also suppose to have chopped pecans which I love, but my husband doesn’t like nuts and so I opted to leave those out. I was truly amazed at how moist and fluffy these cookies were, and I’m super excited to try some of Kathy’s other beany desserts. Of course I probably ate one or two more then I should have but I also started going back to the gym Monday - FINALLY - so I think it works itself out.

Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies 

Throughout this cleanse I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not going to be very realistic for me to train my body/tastebuds to not want sugar or sweets ever, but I think re-training myself to be satisfied with only a little - rather then gorge myself on a lot - is doable for the long term.

Tuesday I stared with a green juice and then another Fruit and Flax smoothie. For lunch I made a big green salad. It was kind of like a coleslaw only it was full of collard greens, green cabbage, shredded carrots, green onions, sunflower seeds and cranberries. As a dressing I made Kris Carr’s Artichoke Cashew Aioli which is made with cashews, water, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, agave, garlic, salt, artichokes, tarragon, parsley, shallot and lemon zest. I thinned it out with a bit of water so it was more like a dressing and it tasted amazing over my salad.

Collard Green Cabbage Salad
With Cashew Artichoke Aioli

Dinner was left over Black Bean and Sweet Potato Burgers atop another salad. The salad was basically the same this time except it had corn instead of avocado and was dressed with chipotle olive oil and pineapple vinegar. Delicious!

Wednesday started off with another green juice, but instead of following it up with a smoothie I decided to have some home-made cereal. I felt like something chewable, and I wanted something fiber-rich and filling. So I made my favorite cereal. It’s a bowl of rolled oats, flax seed, chia seed, sunflower seeds, sliced almonds, dried cranberries, dried blueberries, raisins, fresh banana and almond milk with a few drops of vanilla stevia. I also added in some fresh diced pineapple since I had some. It’s so good, and kept me full all day.

Home-made Cereal 

Dinner was new, and it was kind of a feast. First we had Zucchini Carpaccio from Kris Carr’s “Crazy Sexy Kitchen” which is raw thin sliced zucchini drizzled with olive oil and garnished with parsley, sea salt and black pepper. Super simple and yet so flavorful.

Zucchini Carpaccio

With it we had the Sauteed Chard from CSK which was super simple too. Just chard, garlic, shallot, tamari, olive oil, and nutritional yeast.

Sauteed Chard 

I also made the Pastrami-Spiced Carrots with White Bean Sauerkraut Puree from CSK which was AMAZING! Truly the standout dish, I mean this may be my new favorite recipe for carrots. All you do is rub them in a little olive oil, then some Montreal Steak Seasoning - Quebec Beef Seasoning in my case - and roast them for about 25 minutes until they’re tender but still crisp. Then you pari them with a deliciously flavored white bean puree. Kind of like a hummus but it’s got that tangy umami flavor thanks to Dijon Mustard and Sauerkraut. What an inventive way to use kraut by the way, I never would have thought about it!

Pastrami-Spiced Carrots 

White Bean Sauerkraut Dip

Lastly we had the Polenta Squares with Marinara from Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s book “The 30 Day Vegan Challenge” I like polenta well enough, but I’d never had these fried - or you can grill them - polenta squares before. Since I was really craving fries I thought why not go for a healthier option, and it was magical.

Polenta Squares with Marinara 

Later for dessert I had 1 square of Endangered Species Dark Chocolate. Just one square! Do you know what an accomplishment that is for me?

Thursday was pretty much the same as Wednesday except I started with orange/grapefruit juice. I had the same cereal and that kept me full all day.

For Dinner I was feeling like noodles and so I decided to make the Double Mushroom Jap Chae from Terry Hope Romero’s “Vegan Eats World” Her recipe is pretty simple and still tastes really traditional. It uses Sweet potato noodles, sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic, brown sugar, gochuchang, shiitake mushrooms, black cloud mushrooms, bok choy, onion, carrot, green onion, and sesame seeds. Only I didn’t have shiitake or black cloud mushrooms and so I subbed in Woodear Mushrooms and Chinese Black Fungus. I also didn’t have bok choy but she says you can sub in spinach if you prefer so that’s what I did. I also took her suggestion and added some diced baked tofu. The end result was incredible, and so satisfying.

Double Mushroom Jap Chae

Friday began the same again. Orange/Grapefruit Juice, and a small glass of green juice as well. I had a small bowl of cereal, and then in late afternoon I had some leftover polenta squares with marinara and the remainder of the Pastrami-Spiced Carrots and white bean sauerkraut dip.

Around six I grabbed a Suja Mango-Feugo Juice which was incredible.

And when I got home from work that night I enjoyed a nice steaming bowl of this delicious Chickpea and Root Vegetable Tagine from Crazy Sexy Kitchen. It’s got chickpeas, carrots, sweet potatoes, russet potatoes, lemon, raisins and olives. Along with red pepper flakes, turmeric, cumin and cinnamon. It was suppose to be green olives but I didn’t have any and so I used kalamata instead. I served it with couscous and it made a wonderful hearty meal for a cold winter night.

Chickpea and Root Vegetable Tagine 

Overall Aside from a few cravings I felt pretty good. Good energy level, felt pretty accomplished, was in a positive mood etc... but the biggest thing was I started back at the gym. Weights, and swimming how I missed thee! Due to schedule conflicts I only got to go 3 nights out of the week, but 2 nights I did some exercise - light weights, sit ups, pushups - at home, and now that I’m no longer sick I started walking again. Each day I went out for a thirty minute walk in the afternoon. Though I’d like to have gone longer I think 30 minutes in this arctic temperature is about as much as my dog can handle.

Until next time.

Luscious Fruit and Flax Smoothie...

I thought I would take a moment to share with you my favorite smoothie of late. I’ve made it quite a few times now and it’s everything you could want in a smoothie. Dense, satisfying, filling, sweet - but not too sweet, and nutritious. I’ll admit that as much as I love flax, I’m not always so diligent about eating it, but I just recently watched a fascinating video with Michael Gregor about the importance of Omega-3 Fatty Acids that’s got me thinking up new ways to include this vital powerhouse food into my diet daily.

Smoothies are the easiest way for me to consume flaxseed. I feel like if I do it all in one go right in the morning then it’s done and I don’t have to worry about it. If I leave it until later the truth is I’ll probably forget to sprinkle it on my salad or my pasta or my broccoli or what have you. Best to do it first thing, and why not have it in a delicious smoothie? The addition of flax to a smoothie gives the drink a really luscious texture reminiscent of a milkshake, and with the great flavor bursts in this particular concoction you’ll feel like you’re having something decadent when really you’re drinking tons of healthful nutrients, vitamins, and antioxidants. So give it a try, and enjoy!

Luscious Fruit and Flax Smoothie

1 Navel Orange
1 Banana
1-2 Handfuls Baby Spinach
1 Cup Frozen Blueberries
2 Tbsp Ground Flaxseed
1 Cup Unsweetened Almond Milk
4 Drops Liquid Vanilla Stevia (Optional)

- Combine all ingredients in a high-speed blender and blend on high for 60-90 seconds until completely smooth.

*** Note - If you can't find liquid Stevia or don't wish to use it you can use another sweetener of choice and add in 1/2-1 tsp of vanilla extract instead.***

January Cleanse Part 3...

Wild Mushroom and Minted Brussels Pho Show

Last Tuesday began much the same as any other day I’ve had on this cleanse. A glass of water, a bottle of Immune Me Juice, and a little later on a bowl of oatmeal. Since I was rather busy on Tuesday and we had a ton of leftovers I decided that Tuesday night would be a ‘leftovers’ night. I ate the leftover Coconut Red Lentil Soup, My husband ate the left over Crazy Sexy Chili, and we each had a nice bowl of Garlic and Greens Soup since there wasn’t much left of either of the other two.

Garlic and Greens Soup

Wild Mushroom/Brussels Pho

Wednesday brought a new day and a new dinner. The morning was the same, juice, and then a green smoothie of spinach, banana, wheatgrass, water, and stevia. Which I forgot to photograph. I ate the last bowl of Garlic and Greens Soup for lunch and then dinner was this luscious and delicious Wild Mushroom Ginger, and Minted Brussels Pho Show from Crazy Sexy Kitchen. I’d been dying to make this soup ever since I got the book but somehow I just never got around to it. I have to say it doesn’t exactly taste like a traditional pho - one of my favorite ever soups - but it is damn delicious. There are so many mushrooms in it - portobello, shiitake, maitake, and button! It has baby corn, water chestnuts, mint, onion, bok choy, anise, lime, soy sauce and brussels sprouts. I love the idea of using brussels sprouts in this soup. I love them, and I think they’re a really under utilized vegetable. Everyone always roasts them, which is great and all, but it’s nice to have a little sprout creativity once in a while. You can eat this soup as is or serve it with your choice of noodles, I picked rice noodles because pho just isn’t pho without some rice noodles you know?

Thursday started off with more juice, and then a smoothie. I wanted something a little different from my usual green smoothie and so I decided to go with the Aztec Spirit from Crazy Sexy Kitchen. This smoothie has almond milk, cacao powder, vanilla, cayenne, maple syrup and kale. It also calls for espresso but that’s listed as optional and so I opted out since I’m staying away from coffee on this cleanse. The flavor of this was really crazy, you could definitely taste the ‘greenness’ but it was almost masked by the sweetness and the chocolate. The strange combination really appealed to me, and I found it really satisfying. Since chocolate is something I’m trying to stay away from on the cleanse I cut the amount of cacao powder to a 1/4 cup. I’ve definitely had a few chocolate cravings in the past week, and this smoothie really satisfied that need without turning me into a choc-o-holic.

Woodstock Peace Salad 

Lunch was another giant Woodstock Peace Salad - this one had romaine, spinach, red cabbage, sunflower seeds, green onion, tomato, chickpeas and black olives. Super delicious.

Lentil and Chard Ragout Over Wild Rice 

For dinner we had another meal from Crazy Sexy Kitchen - the Lentil and Chard Ragout. Honestly when I looked over the recipe I didn’t think it was going to be that fantastic. I feared it might be bland but it turned out to be super delicious, I was really amazed/ I love how simple it is too - just Beluga Lentils, Swiss Chard, shallots, garlic, peas, nutritional yeast, red pepper flakes, parsley, lemon zest, salt, pepper, thyme, broth and sherry. It also calls for Earth Balance but I left that out. I took Carr’s advice and paired it with a plate of wild rice, which was a delicious suggestion but doesn’t make for a very lovely or cheerful photo - sorry.

Friday started off with more juice and then an Aztec Spirt. For lunch I made a big batch of the Greensicle Smoothie from Carr’s Crazy Sexy Kitchen to take with me to work. It’s got almond milk, oranges, vanilla, agave, spinach, and romaine leaves. Very tasty. I also ended up drinking a Suja Mango Juice that had mango, Serrano chili, and some other tasty fruits in it.

Aztec Spirit Smoothie 

Dinner was leftover Pho and leftover Ragout.

Saturday I had no more juice left and no time to make anymore before work. Instead I started my day with another Greensicle smoothie, and then I made a batch of the Strawberry Fields Smoothie also from Crazy Sexy Kitchen to take to lunch. This one had Almond milk, strawberries, lemon zest, orange, banana, and spinach, and it was amazing!

Greensicle Smoothie 

The smoothie kept me mostly full throughout the day but I did get hungry around 7pm or so and so I ate 2 packets of Justin’s Vanilla Almond Butter. I find that when I’m working, and I get hungry something small and protein rich gets me through.

Curried Nada-Egg Salad Wrap

For dinner we had the Curried Nada-Egg Salad with Watercress Wraps from Crazy Sexy Kitchen except I didn’t have watercress and so I used Arugula instead. This was a really good tofu ‘egg’ salad. I love a good curried tofu salad, and this one had tofu, green onions, carrot, parsley, cilantro, nutritional yeast, Dijon mustard, curry, sea salt - I opted to use black salt instead, - and black pepper. I didn’t have gluten-free tortillas and so we used sprouted tortillas which is better then just eating the regular wheat kind anyway. The salad also uses a home-made cashew aioli but I didn’t have the time to make it before work so the recipe says you can use Vegenaise instead which I had, so I used that despite not wanting to eat processed foods on the cleanse. These were really good and filling wraps though I think next time I’ll do it with the gluten-free or regular tortillas. Sprouted tortillas are great, but they’re a bit tough.

Sunday I started with another Greensicle Smoothie because I didn’t have time to make juice that day either. Then I made a big batch of smoothie to take for lunch with me. This time it was my own concoction of almond milk, blueberry, orange, banana, spinach, flaxseed, and vanilla. Very tasty, and a very lovely shade of blue but I forgot to take a picture.

Again this smoothie kept me satisfied most of the day but around 6:30pm my stomach began rumbling and I started craving something solid. I knew I had a nice dinner waiting for me at home and I didn’t want to ruin it but I needed something. I wanted sweets, and I wanted chocolate and I craved pizza and all the bad things I can’t eat right now but instead I opted for a quarter pound of maple roasted cashews and surprise, surprise that did the trick. No more hunger, no more cravings. They weren’t overly sweet, nor were they overly salty, just enough of each to stave off the crazy cravings and give me the satisfaction mastication.

Rice Bowl - Brown Rice, Red Cabbage, Broccoli and Green Onion
With Annie's Organic Green Garlic Dressing 

Dinner was a big hearty rice bowl. Full of brown rice, red cabbage, green onions, and broccoli. Super simple, but delicious. Originally I intended to make a dressing of my own but was so tired by the time I got home I decided ‘to hell with it’ and used Annie’s Organic Green Garlic Dressing instead. This was a super tasty and satisfying meal and I quite liked the dressing which I’d never had before.

And that about brings us up to speed. Overall I still feel great, though I experienced more cravings this past week then I did before. I’m not sure why, but I find the days I have the worst cravings are the days I’m working, and particularly seem to hit at night, around the 7pm mark. It’s all mental I’m sure, and probably related to my soaring stress levels at work but I was happy I had the control and the willpower to recognize this and reject the cravings instead of falling prey to them.

Also since I’m feeling much better today will be my first day getting back into an exercise routine! I’m quite excited about that because it’s been far too long.