Cooking Machines

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Pegs and I have been on a mission. Since arriving in Steamboat Monday evening, we have made and photographed fourteen recipes for the GrowingGreat Families cookbook with no stop in sight! (Ok, so we are going on a hike tomorrow… but its Saturday!!)

  **Breakfast Burrito with Potato Hash**

**Simple Green Rice**

**Vegetable Ribbons**

With the amount of food we are making, it is a good thing we are doing a detox. A few ladies and I started the Clean program this week. Clean is a fabulous lifestyle approach I am all about! Peg has had our family eating healthy for as long as I can remember. And back when we thought it couldn’t get any better, six years ago, our diet became even healthier (for our genetic composition) once we went gluten-free.

Every year around this time I do some sort of detox. This year it’s Clean. I am a strong believer in cleansing my insides after days, weeks, and especially months of food overload. Obesity is an epidemic in the United States for a reason—we eat waaaayyy too much food. I recently began to read Clean by the brilliant Dr. Alejandro Junger.  The genius behind his Clean program are the foolproof easy guidelines he has written. In the book, he meticulously maps out the cleanse from eliminating specific foods to grocery lists, recipes, times of day to eat, suggestions on what to eat when, detailed explanations of the amazing benefits each week has on your body, and more! I have done my fair share of cleanses-fasts-detoxes, but Clean appears to be most informative and seemingly easy to adhere to, but I will confirm this once I start following the mealtime schedule.

I am not even concerned about cooking recipes for our book while on this cleanse, because of how much we are allowed to eat. And just to show you what I mean here is a GrowingGreat Families recipe we made Clean! 

Spinach Patties or Balls

1 bunch of spinach washed, chopped
1-2 garlic cloves minced
2 green onions finely chopped
½ C finely chopped shitake mushrooms
2 tbsp ground chia seeds soaked in 3 tbsp water (can keep adding water until a thick paste)
½ Cup leftover cooked brown, white basmati, wild rice, or quinoa
¼ Cup toasted and ground sunflower seeds
1 tsp Italian Seasoning (Spice Hunter)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Coconut or olive oil
Other seasoning choices: Thyme, cumin, Pesto, Curry powder, whatever sounds good to you! 

Sauté mushrooms, minced garlic and scallions in 2 tsp.olive oil. Add spinach, and cover until wilted. Drain and press off excess liquid, a little is ok. Set aside to cool.  In a medium bowl, add the rest of the ingredients, and then add spinach mixture. Mix thoroughly.

In the same pan, heat 2 TBL coconut oil until hot.  Form spinach mixture into patties or into balls and sauté until browned on both sides, approx. 5 minutes per side.  Serve warm as a meal, or makes a great appetizer. Also can Bake 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until nicely browned.

 **our beloved taste-tester, Kathy**