Millet Bread is Great!

Ok so Dr. Jones turned Scot and I onto this fabulous bread over the weekend. It can be found in the freezer section of the concord coop, Millet Bread by Deland Bakery. We have toasted it with a drizzle of oil and garlic powder to make great croutons for salads, also cut into triangles for chili dipping, or toasted with a smear of nut butter is yummy too!

Thanks

Thanks to everyone for the recipes. I am loving them and so is my husband who isn't officially doing the cleanse but loving the food. We made the red lentil and chard stew (even my 9 year old liked it!) and we made the Quinoa Vegetable soup which was my favorite.

I have decided to continue the cleanse until Thanksgiving as well! I feel great and to be honest, really am not missing any of the food (except coffee.)

I won't be there Thursday so please post, Laura, and tell me anything crucial. I am going out of town.

Thanks all!

Spicy Black Beans...

This recipe called for bacon (3 slices) ..which we omitted for the cleanse however, after the cleanse it may be interesting to try as originally written.

2 cups black beans (soaked 24 hrs. and rinsed)
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp. sea salt
2 cups chopped peppers (red, yellow, or green)
2 onions
3 garlic cloves (or more if you choose)
1-2 tsp dried thyme (dependent of taste)
1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper
black pepper to taste

1). In a pan, combine beans, bay leaves, and salt with 6 Cups of water. Bring to a boil: reduce heat, cover and simmer for 45-60 min. until beans are tender. Drain and discard bay leaves.
2). Meanwhile, in a large skillet cook bacon until crisp. Drain, crumple and place on paper towel.
3). In skillet with (1T bacon oil) or olive oil, saute sweet peppers, onion, garlic, thyme, cayenne, until veggies are tender.
4). Combine all ingredients, heat through. Serve Hot with favorite grain.

We used the left overs as a salad topping and also combined with homemade salsa for a great snack with rice cakes.

Vegetable Fried Rice Recipe

My 6 yr. old daughter has watched me prepare foods all week for Scot and I and she asked if she could chose a recipe from her "Cooking with Friends 2010" cookbook from a summer cooking camp that she attended. We found a recipe that was cleanse friendly(except the egg) and one of her favorites too! The entire family was able to sit down to dinner and enjoy her recipe together, she was very proud of her contribution and very aware of the lessons of balanced nutrition.

3T oils (we used light olive and sesame)
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1cup of green peas
1 carrot, chopped
2 cups of cooked brown rice
2 eggs
3T soy free-Tamari or soy sauce

1). Heat 2 T of oil in wok over med. heat. Add onion, pepper and garlic. Cook, stirring constantly, until veggies are softened, about 3 min.
2). Add rice, peas, carrots. Cook, stirring constantly, until veggies are tender, about 4 min.
3). Push the cooked ingredients to the side of the wok. Add the remaining 1T of oil to the middle of the wok. Pour the eggs and stir until scrambled. Stir the rice and egg together in the wok.
4). Add Tamari or Soy Sauce, stir to blend. Serve Hot.

Day 7 and 7lbs. lighter

Well a pleasant surprise to take a morning weight and realize that I not only felt lighter but that I actually was down 7 lbs. Scot and I have decided to extend our cleanse right up to Thanksgiving and then to enjoy the Thanksgiving meal with family, avoiding high sugar desserts. We have incorporated many cleanse freindly meals into our immediate and extended family dinners so far this week. Many people are surprised that the meals taste so good and are so good for you. Yes, it is more time comsuming but well worth the investment of time. It has really illustrated for us how realiant we have become on processed foods, due to our over scheduling of events and lack of scheduling for food preparation. We have good intentions to keep up with many of the lessons learned from this cleanse class!

Week 2

Some of you are heading into the second week of your cleanse and others will finish this Friday! As long as you are past day 5, you should be noticing more energy, a lighter feeling after meals, better quality sleep and (hopefully) regular, more substantial bowel movements.  I'll look forward to following up with you all this Thursday night!

Day 10 of Cleanse. This is the second time I've done one, and this has been much easier. This is, likely, because I had a better sense of what to expect. The first day was definitely the most challenging. The other more challenging time was having a dinner I needed to attend in a restaurant. There was little on the menu that was compatible with the cleanse. I ended up ordering roasted veggies with rice (would have preferred brown which they didn't have). There were hardly any salad offerings, so that didn't provide much of an alternative to what I ordered. It was difficult to know how things were prepared. I easily passed on the wine, and the restaurant did offer caffeine free herbal teas which I enjoyed while others had dessert. At this weeks session, Thursday night, I hope to hear more suggestions about how to handle dining out. Have a good week everyone!

Quinoa and Grilled Red Pepper Salad

1 1/4 cups quinoa
3 yellow, orange or red peppers, quartered
2 tsp olive oil
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4-1/2 cup fresh cilantro

Broil peppers on well oiled broiler pan until slightly softened and blackened. Remove and place in bowl-cover with plastic wrap until cool to handle. Remove skins, if desired and cut peppers cross wise into thin strips.

Cook quinoa according to package directions.

Whisk together oil, lime juice and cumin in large bowl and stir in quinoa, bell peppers, cilantro and pepper and salt to taste. Right before serving I added some sliced avocado to individual servings. Don't add avocado to the entire batch of salad prior to serving as the avocado will turn brown. This dish keeps well in fridge and actually tastes better the second day.

Adapted from Epicurious.

BokChoy-Apple Salad

Whisk 2-3 TBSP apple cider vinegar with pinch of sea salt, 1/4 tsp ground pepper in large bowl. Add 4 cups thinly sliced bok choy (trim head), 1 large granny smith apple, julienned or shredded, 1 large carrot, julienned or shredded, 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion. Toss to coat with dressing. Garnish with slivered almonds.

Roasted Squash and Kale Salad

Preheat Oven to 400. Peel seen and cut 1 butternut squash into 1 " chunks. Toss with 2 TBSP olive oil, 1/3 tsp pepper, and pinch of sea salt. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and cool. Toss with 1 lb thinly sliced kale, 1 peeled, julienned cucumber, and 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion. In blender puree 2 tsps sesame oil, 2 Tbsp nut butter (I used almond), 2 tsp fresh ginger and 1 1/2 Tbsp water. Drizzle salad with dressing.