Detox Day 6: Thinking About Days 8, 9, & 10….

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Mmm! A half-plate of veggies

Happy Day 6! What’s the latest? Still feeling good? Sleeping well and feeling energized? Now is a perfect time to start thinking about what happens the day after tomorrow. Will you go back to your pre-Detox eating? A modified version? Take today and tomorrow and make a plan for what you’d like to do long-term. Here are some popular, healthy, and realistic post-Detox modifications to consider:

1. Go back to drinking the morning cup of coffee you missed, but with vanilla almond milk instead of cream and sugar. Try this creamy, dairy-free concoction. Or, enjoy green, white, or black tea as your morning caffeinated beverage.

2. Continue eating the level of fruits and veggies with a giant heaping of cooked veggies at either lunch or dinner, and a giant serving of raw veggies at the other meal. Shoot for HALF your plate being veggies (either raw or cooked) at mealtime.

3. Continue with shakes or smoothies in the morning, but add a protein powder such as this hemp seed one from Trader Joe’s or Planet Fusion’s Vanilla Plant Fusion. High in protein, fiber, and essential amino acids, and makes your morning drink more filling.

4. Add a more substantial morning meal such as gluten-free oatmeal (Trader Joe’s has amazing gluten-free oats that seem exactly like traditional rolled oats) with a handful of dried cranberries for sweetness, raw cashews, cinnamon, and cooled down with a dash of unsweetened non-dairy milk. Or heat up a cup of cooked quinoa from the previous night’s dinner with dried fruit, nuts, cinnamon, and non-dairy milk.

5. Enjoy a raw food bar in the afternoon to satisfy your sweet tooth–they’re easy to keep on hand, easily survive life in the bottom of bags, and can be stepped on without changing shape. Examples: Larabar, Pure Energy, and KIND. These can all be found in any old grocery store, TJ’s, or Whole Foods.

6. Continue with the Detox as your constant (developing your own menus using the guidelines), and veer from the Detox for special weekend days, when you go out to eat (trying your best to keep with the guidelines, but allowing yourself those treats you may have been missing), have potlucks, or attend parties.

7. Do the Detox 1-2 days per week or 7 days a month, and a modified version on the other days.

What else will you do to carry on the healthy changes you made once the Detox is done? Hopefully you’ll all continue drinking all those energizing fluids!

Enjoy this day and the new, healthy you! XOXO

Detox Day 5: Alkaline is Super Fine

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Tahini Dressing for Veggies, in SKINNY DISH!

Woohoo to Day 5! Can you see the bread at the end of the tunnel? You’re so close!

Since it’s so so so important, here’s a recycled post on alkalinity from last year’s detox. pHabulous!:

You may or may not have caught the acid/alkaline breeze info in the Detox wind. Well, here it is again: Our blood and tissues love to be at a pH (measure of acidity/alkalinity) of about 7.35-7.45, which is slightly basic/alkaline. This is where your immune system is an immediate bad-guy destroyer and your overall health is sky high. As you loved learning in high school chemistry, the pH scale ranges from 0 to 14 with 0 to 6.9 being acidic, 7 being neutral, and 7.1 to 14 being basic (alkaline).

Contrary to what you may think, foods that are more acidic do not make your blood and tissues more acidic. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Oranges, tomatoes = acidic. But shocker, they make your blood and tissues more alkaline. As you could have guessed, pretty much all veggies, fruits, dark leafies, unprocessed grains, and other healthy foods help to make your blood and tissues more alkaline, while meats, dairy, eggs, sugary goods, highly processed foods, coffee and alcohol make your blood and tissues more acidic. One reason loading up on healthy fluids, fruits, and veggies, and avoiding all the other foods is so good at helping you detox, is because you’re working the alkalinity. For more on pH, check here and here and here.

Now for some extra credit: Want to check your very own pH? Using your SECOND urine of the day, pee on one of these test strips (or ones similar). Is the Detox working? Hurrrahh!

You never thought this would be so much fun! Keep truckin’ and Happy Weekend! XOXO

Detox Day 4: Treat Yourself with a Raw Dessert

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No doubt you’re feeling pretty excited that it’s Day 4. You’re now officially a detoxing professional!

To celebrate, treat yourself with this yummy chocolate pudding. You may not have appreciated or tasted all it’s wonderfulness on Monday, but today you definitely will! Add a splash of agave nectar on a non-detox day for more sweetness. Mmm mmm mmm!!

Chocolate Chia Pudding

Chocolate Chia Pudding

Chocolate Chia Pudding
Serves 1

1/2 of a banana, mashed
2 Tbsp chia seeds
1/4 cup non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened soy)*
1/2 teaspoon raw cacao powder or unsweetened cocoa powder

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Let sit for 5 minutes to let the pudding thicken. Enjoy!

Nutrition Info: 196 calories, 9.5 g fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 23.5 g carbohydrate, 10 g fiber, 7.5 g sugar, 6.5 g protein, 9% vitamin C, 7.5% vitamin D, 22% calcium, 11% iron, 8% zinc.

*Non-dairy milk is really truly only raw if you make it yourself from raw nuts or seeds. Cocoa powder isn’t raw, but it works well here and is more readily available.

Many of you have asked about calories. Check last year’s Day 4 post all about calories. Each Detox day has about 1500 calories at a minimum, 60-80 grams of protein, and around 50 grams of fiber. Adding extra servings of nuts, seeds, avocado, fruit, etc. increases all those numbers.

Today’s Plan including a 2-cup serving of Purple Nurple, a 2-cup serving of Curried Lentil Stew, and all the other recommended serving sizes has 1459 calories, 61 grams of protein, and 49 grams of fiber. The average American gets about 12 grams of fiber a day. You may or may not have been the average American prior to this Detox. Regardless, you are moving some serious crud out of your system. Cheers to crud movement!!

So, March On!, and clean, cleanse, and recharge your core some more. Just a few days left!

Detox Day 3: The Skin in the Skinny

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Morning, Sunshines! We’re almost at the hump, folks! Enter, Day 3. Howzit going?

Speaking of, anyone have pimples? If so, congrats! Another wonderful sign that your body is getting rid of toxins. Woo hoo!

Your skin will be amazingly healthier by the end of the week, but may be extra dry or oily at this point. One fantastic outer body detox thing to get in the habit of doing now, is DRY BRUSHING. Read all about it here. Before you get in the shower, use a coarse ‘dry brush’ to slough off the dead cells that are clogging your pores and keeping toxins in. Your skin will be softer and much healthier after each shower, and it’s also a great way to get rid of cellulite. Here’s a video that helped me learn how. It may not be Oscar-winning material, but it’s better than I could do!:

The fun never ends, does it?! Enjoy every sip of the green smoothie today. One of my all-time faves!!

Detox Day 2: Groovin’ Along, My Day 1, and Juice Pulp Crackers

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Ladies of the Lettuce and Gentlemen of the Greens! Ah, it’s Day 2.

How did you sleep last night with less caffeine and more delicious water during the day? Better, I hope. And your willpower and “groovin’ it” mentality are improving, right? Hurrah.

For a fun read, check out last year’s Day 2 post on Why Detox, and Why SO MUCH Raw.

So here was my Day 1. I veer from the exact plan and make meals based on the guidelines. You can too!:

MORNING
Water with cayenne
Peppermint tea
Green juice (kale, celery, green apple)
Cucumber white tea (mild caffeine)

LUNCH (STARVING!!! Didn’t have time for morning fruit)
Dried green beans
Organic mixed green salad
1/4 cup raw almonds
1/2 block tempeh
rice vinegar, salt, olive oil dressing
Lots of water

SNACK
Hummus
Bell peppers
Juice pulp crackers (recipe below)
Peppermint tea
Water
More green juice (in hopes of arresting the mild headache)

DINNER
Lots and lots of sauteed Brussels sprouts
(olive oil, garlic powder, sea salt)
1/2 cup cooked lentils
Raw celery
Rice cake with raw almond butter
2 large glasses water

SNACK
Apple slices
Chamomile tea

Crashed out at 10pm.

Juice Pulp Crackers

Juice Pulp Crackers

Now, if you juiced yesterday, chances are you had a whole lot of weird vegetable waste. Nothing pains me more than throwing out anything even remotely resembling vegetables. In the past, I’ve tossed that into the garden, saved it in the freezer (and later tossed it in the garden), and one time I had a tremendously horrible experience turning it into crackers.

Yesterday, however, because one of the Detox benefits is that you develop a superhuman chef sense, I SUCCESSFULLY made juice pulp crackers. The recipe:

Pulp Crax
1 cup juice pulp, stems & other large chunks discarded
1/4 cup flaxseed meal
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 Tablespoon raw sesame seeds
1/2 cup water

Combine all ingredients and then smoosh out onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 200 degrees for 4-6 hours with oven door opened a crack. (Or put in your food dehydrator for 4-6 hours).

Surprisingly good! Surprisingly UNBELIEVABLY good dipped in hummus.

Keep up the fun and enthusiasm, and let me know how you’re doing! xoxo

And….Go! Detox Day 1: Be Mindful, Set Goals

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Kale Celery Green Apple Juice

Kale Celery Green Apple Juice

Feeling fantastic already?!?

Hope you got completely sick and tired of gluten yesterday and stocked up on all those raw foods. It’s game day!

To start out Day 1, here’s last year’s video of the Green-Apple Juice in a juicer (ignore my daughter who thinks she’s Inspector Gadget). I prefer this concoction juiced vs. blended, but blending is perfectly wonderful too. If you’re blending and you don’t have a Vitamix or a Blendtec, consider using a food processor for the veggies and apples, and then blending that concoction with the water and ice. It’s likely to slide down easier. And, you can also substitute one of this week’s smoothies for today’s green juice. Surprise!

Juice vs. Blend? What’s the difference and why the extra appliance? Check this quick info by my pal Kris Carr. She talks chlorophyll and alkalinity–it’s worth a read. My juicer is the Jack Lalanne Classic Juicer –a brand new hand-me-down gift, and it works just fine. It costs around $100 if you buy it from their website. Just an FYI. I tend to use my Vitamix daily (green smoothies, soups, hummus, dips), and my juicer weekly. Not saying that’s perfect, just what I do.

So, TODAY. Be mindful of every tea sip and food morsel — believe you me, that morning fruit is going to be the BEST FRUIT you ever ate! This day is by far the hardest, but you can absolutely do it. Don’t forget, however, that you can increase your serving sizes of detox food if you’re feeling like you’re really low on calories (starving, hunger pangs, spacey-ness). Add fresh fruit, raw nuts and seeds, or an avocado for quick, extra energy, and carry those with you just in case. If the detox meal plan is very different from your typical, then Day 1 is going to be a big eye opener. Embrace the change!

And think about your Detox Goals today. What do you want out of this? To ditch sugar cravings, increase veggie cravings, or lose weight? Are you hoping to grow wings and fly by Day 7? Keep me posted!

And finally finally, you should have more energy today than you’re used to. Laugh louder, smile harder, and type more. I want updates in the Comments section.

Green juice cheers!

xoxo

7-Day Detox: Alternate Recipes

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Photo by: Green Plate Studios

Photo by: Green Plate Studios

Detoxers! If the recipes look amazing except for that ONE… here a couple substitutes. Easy, and you likely already have the ingredients:

JUICE:  BEET CARROT APPLE 

SMOOTHIE:  PUMPKIN SMOOTHIE: Use unsweetened non-dairy milk, and keep the agave (lucky you!)

SOUP:  SPICED RED LENTIL, TOMATO, and KALE SOUP

SALAD:  FULLY LOADED KALE SALAD: Use rice vinegar as a simple dressing

MAIN DISH:  CHICKPEA RATATOUILLE (or the Cannellini Ratatouille from Skinny Dish! if you have a copy (sans bulgur))

Looking forward to eating and drinking with you all!

The Biggest Detox Question: What About My Morning Coffee?

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5 AM LatteLots and lots and lots of people love their morning cup ‘o Joe. Like 90% of Americans. (I may or may not be in that 90%.) AND, if you’re going to truly detox your body, you need to skip the java.

A true detox is coffee-free because coffee (and it’s high caffeine content) decreases nutrient absorption (which is EEEsential for an effective detox), dulls the tastebuds making detox food (and all food) less satisfying, makes the body more acidic, taxes the detox organs (the lovely liver and the kidneys), fires up your adrenal gland in a not-so-pretty detox way, and often contains other naturopath no-no’s like sugar and creamer. Brutal, right?!

BUT!! Eventhough doing the 7-Day Detox starting on Monday *should* be coffee and caffeine-free, and you *should* take the next 3 days to wean off of caffeine, you can still do a world of detox good without a world of caffeine withdrawal headaches if you have to cheat ever so slightly…

Instead of coffee, have caffeinated tea (in order of detox diet supremacy preference):

1. White Tea: With the least caffeine and the most antioxidants, do it up. Also known as the supersonic tea supertonic. My favorite is Tazo’s Cucumber White. It’s no Joe, but it’s certainly someone!

2. Green Tea: It’s got a mediocre amount of caffeine so you shouldn’t get that knife-in-the-back-of-the-head headache (I may or may not know about that first-hand), but it also has a ton of healthy antioxidants, and tastes gross with milk & sugar (a good thing!). If you don’t like green tea, try ROASTED green tea like the Haiku brand found at Whole Foods Market. Tastes like a campfire!

3.Green Tea Latte: The one at Starbucks is amazing, but even a tall size without syrup has 31 grams of sugar. Might as well have coffee with coffeemate! Make your own:

matcha

Homemade Green Tea Latte
Makes 1 serving

1 Tbsp green tea matcha powder* (extra credit if it’s unsweetened)
8 ounces unsweetened soymilk
1/2 tsp stevia, or 1 tsp sugar (if you must)

Whisk ingredients together over medium-high heat until bubbly.

*The sweet matcha powder has 12g sugar per tablespoon, which is ok as long as you use unsweetened non-dairy milk

And there you have it! THREE ways to not NOT detox because you fear the lack of caffeine. Day 1 is the hardest — have the Green Tea Latte on that day and then sip through some plain green and white tea after that. See you in a few days!

7-Day Detox Starts January 7th!

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Green juice
Join in on the fun! Whatever your reason: holiday recovery, German potato salad detox, or because 2013 is YOUR year. Starting on Monday, January 7th, I’ll be doing it, leading it, and cheerleading you through my mild 7-day detox. New recipe alternatives and juice and smoothie concoctions. Are you in?!

Farinata: Italian Chickpea Flatbread That’ll Knock Your Glutens Off

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IMG_1738

Farinata Batch #2: Less Salt, More Crisp

A close friend and closet gourmet chef—we’ll call him “Joe”—served this bread at his last food fest. He had eaten it in Italy, and then miraculously saw a recipe for it in the New York Times (the next best thing to Italian cuisine itself).

I wanted to recreate Joe’s recreation, and thought I found that very recipe in a 2005 NYTimes post. My first attempt was nothing like Joe’s. Super salty, floppy not crispy, and looked like cracked, dehydrated dessert groundcover. Disgustoso!

Thankfully, Joe then disclosed his gourmet chef fine-tunings: 1. let the batter sit for a few hours rather than a few minutes, 2. bake it longer (like, double the time), 3. sprinkle salt and pepper over the top instead of mixing it into the batter. Uffa.

Version due was tested on some friends who went to Italy one time a few years ago (so obviously had the credentials). Here is the result, a Bitchin’-Joe-Times collaboration.

Farinata (Gluten-Free)
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Batter Sitting Time: 2 hours (or overnight)
Baking Time: 25 minutes

Makes 6 appetizer-size portions

1 cup chickpea flour (or garbanzo bean flour; same thing)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
5 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves, or in my variety: 1 tsp dried basil + 1 tsp. dried oregano

1. Sift chickpea flour into a bowl; add salt and pepper (or reserve to sprinkle on final product); then slowly add 1 cup lukewarm water, whisking to eliminate lumps.

2. Stir in 3 tablespoons olive oil. Cover, and let sit for at least 2 hours, or up to 12 hours. Go organize your workshop or take a nap. Batter should be about the consistency of heavy cream.

3. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Pour 2 tablespoons oil into a 12-inch pizza pan or cast-iron skillet. Place it in the heated oven for 15 min. 

3. Stir herb(s) into batter. Take pan out of the oven and pour batter into it. Bake 25 minutes, or until “pancake” is firm and edges set. 

4. Cut it into wedges, and serve hot, or at least warm.

Nutrition Info Per Wedge (1/6th of recipe): 159 calories, 12.3 g fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 8.8 g carbohydrate, 1.7 g fiber, 3.5 g protein, 206 mg sodium, 4.4% iron. 

While this bread doesn’t get you out of eating beans for the day, it does give you a gold star with your dietitian and gluten-free enthusiasts. Enjoy it as is, or as a bean dip vehicle. Figo. Fantastico. Delicioso!