Three Days Clean

Today was a day. Peg baked a pie. I made gluten-free tabouli (posting recipe tomorrow). We made a chopped salad. Pegs & I even indulged in a decadent chocolate smoothie for our mid-afternoon snack. And I must say, I felt like a cleansing cheater even though it was completely Clean—check proof below. Overall, I have noticed more energy with a great mood and it has only been three days!

Breakfast Smoothie

1 C mixed raspberries and blackberries

½ C shredded coconut

10oz. coconut water

3 tbsp hemp seeds (or suggested amount of another protein powder)

3 kale leaves

1½ tbsp almond butter

1 tbsp ground chia seeds

1tbsp aloe vera

½ tsp vanilla

½ tsp cinnamon

Chopped Salad (2 servings)

2-3 C lettuce chopped

½ C radishes diced

½ C cucumber diced

½ C cauliflower chopped

½ C red cabbage chopped

½ avocado sliced

¼ C carrots shredded

¼ C sunflower seeds

¼ C dried currants 

¼ C leftover salmon OR roasted chicken

1 tbsp fresh dill

1 tbsp fresh parsley

¼ C lemon juice whisked with ¼ C olive oil for dressing

Celtic salt to taste

 **Mine with Salmon**

 **Peg's with Chicken**

**Salmon Heart: Food is Love**

 

 Can’t Believe it’s Clean Chocolate Smoothie

(makes 2 small servings) 

8oz. coconut water

3 dates, chopped and pitted

2 tbsp raw almond butter

1½ tbsp flax seeds ground

1 tbsp coconut shreds OR coconutmana/coconut butter

1 tbsp raw cocoa

1 tbsp hemp seeds

1 tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp vanilla

3 dates chopped

 

 Split Pea Soup (4 servings)

1 onion chopped

2 carrots chopped

1 stalk celery chopped

2 C green split peas

6 C chicken or vegetable stock or water

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp smoked paprika

2-3 freshly minced garlic

1 Bay leaf

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

-Sweat onion, carrot and celery in olive oil and cook for 3- 5 minutes covered. Add seasonings and fresh garlic.

-Add stock and peas, bring to boil over medium heat, cover and cook over low heat stirring occasionally until peas are very soft approx 1hr

-Remove Bay Leaf, and puree in food processor, return to pot thin with more stock if desired and taste for seasoning

-Salt and pepper to taste

 **Cinnamon Sugar Apples.. Wish they were Clean**

**Peg's Beautiful Pie**

Clean Program

Today was our first day on the Clean program, and honestly, I don’t even feel like we are cleansing. I feel like I am cheating compared to all the other fasts and detoxes I have done… I never felt hungry today! Our eating schedule looks a bit like this:

• 9:00am            Smoothie
• 11:15ish           Snack (nuts, seeds & raisins OR apple with almond/sunflower butter)
• 1:30-2pm         “Dinner” our solid meal of the day
• 4:00pm            Snack (carrots, radish & celery with homemade hummus)
• 7:00pm            Juices or pureed Soup

Pegs and I had a fruit smoothie for breakfast that was delicious, wild rice and chicken salad for our “Linner” (which is a recipe in our book), and a very green smoothie for dinner. If I keep feeling like this, these next three weeks are going to be a wheat-dairy-egg-sugar-free piece of cake!

Breakfast Smoothie

½ a peach

½ a pear (OR ½ -1 C blueberries)

10oz. coconut water

1 tbsp ground chia seeds

4 tbsp hemp protein (or suggested amount of another protein powder)

3 kale leaves

½ tsp cinnamon

 Wild Rice Chicken Salad

2 C red and curly leaf lettuce mixture

½ C wild rice

½ avocado

¼ C roasted chicken

¼ C sliced red onion

4 green beans

2 tbsp pepita seeds

2 tbsp dried currants

¼- 1/3 C peg’s house dressing

Peg’s House Dressing

2-3 cloves garlic

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

½ tsp Celtic sea salt

1 lemon juiced (Meyer lemon = the best!)

½ C olive oil

 Very Green Dinner Smoothie (2 servings)

10 mint leaves

4-5 kale leaves

4 stalks celery

2 carrots

1 cucumber

1 green apple

1 lemon juiced

1 handful of parsley

1 C purified water (after drinking it, I would recommend 3-4 cups)

**It looked nice; however, this smoothie came out of the Vitamix too thick for Pegs and me… But hey, we are learning! I would stick to juicing my greens.

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**