Clean DAY 7

Today didn’t go exactly like the other days. It started off just fine, with a nice green smoothie, one of my own creation:

Dalai’s Green Smoothie

• 1 cup almond milk
• 5 medium strawberries
• 1/4 medium orange
• 2 medium lucinato Kale leaves
• pinch of stevia
• Ice

Then I was off to Hot Yoga. I felt really good in it today, as opposed to Thursday, when I felt like a weakling. When I came home, however, I was STARVING at 11:00. I didn’t have anything to make Junger Clean lunch, so I decided to make myself a veggie scramble:

Zucchini and Swiss Chard Veggie Scramble

• 2 organic eggs, beaten with salt and pepper
• 1 small zucchini, sliced
• 1 large swiss chard leaf, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, pressed

I sauted the zucchini and swiss chard in olive oil and added the pressed garlic. I threw some spices on the veggies, and when they were soft, I added the eggs and tossed until cooked through. It isn’t pretty, but tastes great.

This eleven o’clock meal was good and gone by 2:00. At 3:00 I was ready to eat lick the scraps out of my dog’s bowl. So, I decided to make myself a proper lunch: 4 ounces of sushi grade yellow fin tuna over cabbage. I seared the tuna in a little olive oil and organic tamarin and sauted the cabbage in tamarin, cardamon and a little turmeric. Here is my second lunch:

I really wasn’t hungry at 7:00, but I knew I would regret not eating, so dinner was cold cucumber soup, a recipe from the Junger CLEAN book:

Cold Cucumber Soup

• 1 1/2 cucumbers, peeled and seeded
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 lemon (not just juice)
• 2 T pine nuts
• 2 T mint leaves
• 1/2 t sea salt

Blend until smooth.

I added a little hot sauce for a little zip. This soup had a great taste. Since it is customary to eat cucumber soup cold, it worked great. Eating his other soups room temperature that normally should be hot just doesn’t work for me.  Cold butternut squash – Yuck.

While I was at home sipping my cold soup, Dalai Dan took the kids for Mexican and ice cream. Cruel.  He knows my last meal would be chips and queso….

Read Full Post »

Clean DAY 6 (and some basketball…)

I was looking through my photos to write this post and all my meals looked exactly the same. I flipping can’t recall one smoothie from the next. So, here’s how I think it shook out:

Breakfast was Junger’s Green Smoothie:

• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 1/4 cup coconut water
• 2 kale leaves
• 1/4 avocado
• 1/4 cup strawberries
• pinch of stevia
• ice

We had a crazy day with kids sports and in the middle of it I had to play a fundraiser basketball game.  I HAD NOT PLAYED BASKETBALL SINCE 8th GRADE.  And I sucked at it then.  These rare photos are the only evidence that the Dalai Lina ever wore knee high basketball socks.

Look at that vertical jump.

Number 23’s at it again with her wicked guarding.

That’s going to be all net, baby.

I was completely frightened I would make an ass of myself, or at the very least dislocate my knee (which I have done no less than 5 times).  And I sure as hell wasn’t going to let myself to pass out on the court do to lack of nutrients, so I allowed myself to have an apple and almond butter for a snack .  They were one of these apples…

When I got home I was starving and scarfed this down:

This is Junger’s spiced rubbed lamb chops that I LOVED.  I ate it with the last of my quinoa and some sauted zucchini.

Dinner was the rest of the mushroom and miso soup:

I’m still feeling good. The evening are still the hardest. Especially around 8 or 9 0’clock when my measly dinner has long been digested.

Oh, and that fundraiser basketball game? I threw two interceptions (can you throw an interception in basketball?), went for three shots that never even touched the rim, and had a left breast injury from my opponent’s elbow. All and all I would say it was a great success 🙂

Read Full Post »

Clean DAY 5

Are you guys getting tired of this? I’m getting tired of eating like this, so I imagine you are. I’m not the kind of blogger that thinks my life is overly exciting and needs to post inane details of my existence…

But, I will continue to use the internet for my benefit and force you all to be my group support.

This smoothie really sucked. I had to choke it down. Too healthy.

Coconut Milk Tropical Smoothie (don’t let the title fool you – it tasted like crap)

• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/3 cup Mango and Pineapple combined
• 2 Kale leaves
• 1/4 avocado
• 1 T chia seeds
• Ice
• Pinch stevia

Blend until smooth.

I think since I had not soaked my chia seeds before, they absorbed all of the liquid and it was too gelatinous.

Lunch, as you may recall, was eaten with Thomas at school for his Star of the Week. Since I didn’t have tome to cook anything, I picked up a chicken breast and steamed veggies. I added some of my tabouli quinoa. At this point, my taste buds have reassimilated and the sweetness of carrots never tasted to good….

This dinner smoothie tasted MUCH better. I know I need to juice more, but it has been hard for me to agree to a cup of beet juice for dinner over a smidge of sweetness from some berries.

Strawberry, Blueberry and Kale Smoothie

• 1 cup homemade almond milk (someday I’ll teach you)
• 1/4 cup blueberries
• 4 medium strawberries
• 2 kale leaves
• Pinch of stevia
• Ice

Blend until smooth. (Do I really need to keep reminding you this essential step? I feel like I am assuming you are dumb)

I was very proud of myself – I went to two little parties last night and managed to stay away from the wine and appetizers. I had a couple of asparagus stalks and 3 grape. Well done, if I do say so myself!

Read Full Post »

Clean DAY 2

If you are keeping up with my daily cleanse journal (God knows it is going to get boring for you. How many different ways can green smoothies look like?) you will remember that my first day I ate approximately the amount for 2 people. Fab. And I was still ready to eat my pinky toe by 7pm.

Today, I made the correct amount, but still managed to cheat a little.

For breakfast I had another Green Smoothie. I was running out the door so no new pictures, but, it essentially looked like yesterdays…

All good so far. No headaches, which I attribute to not being a coffee drinker. Then it was lunchtime. THANK THE LORD, because I was famished. Today I ate:

• Pan seared wild salmon with himalayan salt and pepper
• Sauted cabbage with coriander, turmeric (good detox spices) and a dash of salt
• Curried quinoa

I am brilliant for making a big batch of quinoa ahead of time.  It keeps forever and is one less thing to make.  Since fish and vegetables cook so quickly, it hasn’t been too much of a drag to make lunch.  That being said, by the time it is done cooking I WANT TO SHOVE IT IN MY MOUTH AS FAST AS I CAN.  Which means, you get mediocre photos.  My detox brain tells me they are beautiful because it just wants to flippin’ eat the shiz.

This is when things get a little sketchy. Mid afternoon I need to start making dinner for the rest of the family. A dinner I will not be eating. Tonight it was chili (still working though my cow) and homemade cornbread. Chili is just one of those things that you HAVE to taste along the way to make sure you got it right. At first I took a bite and spit it out, but that didn’t last for long. I’m sure Junger would be disappointed, but I probably have a couple tablespoons of offensive chili disrupting my intestinal detoxing.

Then, starting about 4:00 (about 30 minutes after my kids got home – what a coincidence) the Dalai turned into the Devil.  I now have the acute senses of Superman and any sound, smell, or touch sends me into orbit.  I exude an obvious feeling of hate disgust for my children – especially loud ones that want me to make them snacks I can’t eat. Jerks. Can’t they tell I’m fragile?

Oh, but don’t worry, because I had this filling meal coming my way:

Pineapple Chia Seed Green Smoothie

• 1 cup almond milk
• 1/4 cup pineapple
• 1 T soaked chia seeds
• 3 Laciniato kale leaves
• pinch of stevia
• ice

Blend until smooth

Miso Soup

• 2 cups water
• 1 heaping T white miso
• 4 shitake mushrooms
• handful of cabbage
• dash of gluten free Tamari

Cook until soft

Read Full Post »

Clean DAY 1

I started the Junger Clean detox yesterday. I decided that I would post about it everyday (in addition to other, more interesting things) purely to use you readers for accountability. And to vet out any frustrations or odd occurrences.

The detox calls for two liquid meals a day (breakfast and dinner) and a solid meal at lunch. There is a whole list of good recipes and ideas to choose from. You can pick from those, tweak them a bit, and repeat favorite meals. It is relatively flexible (within the confines of “clean” foods). But, I’m still scared. Yikes, two liquid meals a day!!?? I’m not sure if I could make it without you watchdogs…

So today I had a Green Smoothie

• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 1/4 cup coconut water
• bunch of dandelion greens
• 1/8 avacado
• 1/4 cup mango
• ice

Honestly, I actually made the entire recipe in the book (which doubled the ingredients above) and drank the whole thing. I thought it seemed like a butt load of smoothie, but there was no mention of serving size next to the recipe. It wasn’t until the end of the day that I noticed the disclaimer at the beginning of the recipe section: “The following recipes make two servings each.” Does Junger think I live in a sorority house? Who is going to drink this other serving? Dalai Dan sure as heck isn’t…

Next was lunch, which consisted of:

• 4 ounces seared tuna lightly marinated in organic, gluten-free Tamari
• Broccoli Rabe steamed with garlic
• Curried quinoa

Does this look like a lot of food?  Well, that is because, yet again, I made the amount the recipe called for, not realizing it was for TWO PEOPLE.  This detox is coming off of a great start.  (read the fine print, Dalai.  Jeeze)

Then came dinner, which was a disappointing, luke warm soup/smoothie:

Zucchini and Basil Soup

• 1 diced succini
• 1 stalk celery
• 1 T red onion
• 1 T olive oil
• 5 Basil leaves
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 avacado
• 4 cups water
• (I added spinach)

Blended until smooth

Guess what?  The above recipe is for two people!  Thankfully, I didn’t like it enough to drink the 6 cups of zucchini soup and put the leftovers in an old spaghetti sauce jar below.  This is the point I started questioning the quantity and got on the CLEAN website to confirm that I have over eaten the entire day.  No wonder it hasn’t been that bad….

Read Full Post »