Clean Program-Week 3

We are on Week 3 of our Clean Program Experiment. The Clean Program is a 3 week cleanse designed to rid the body of toxins accumulated through the widespread use of preservatives and other "unnatural" elements added to our food and other items we come into contact with. For more information about the Clean Program, www.cleanprogram.com

To read how we did on Week 1 click here. To read how we did on Week 2 click here.

Day 15
Breakfast: Slept through breakfast but Ryan had juice. I skipped to mid-morning snack, which Ryan says is a no-no, but whatever. I had one of these pumpkin brownies I made last night that are: gluten free, vegan, I pureed the butternut squash (tastes just like pumpkin) and added coconut and raw walnuts....REALLY GOOD! You can find the recipe here.

Lunch: (Pictured at top of post) Mahi with zucchini, lemon and kalamata olives....We are just having delicious food today!
Dinner: Butternut squash bisque

One week from today, we'll be sipping mimosas and enjoying a regular brunch at 'Town (restaurant featuring many local foods) I can't wait! And, pizza! I can't wait for pizza. The raw cashew "cream cheese" that we got from the farmers market (Made by "Blue Planet") yesterday is amazing and a great cheese substitute for now....

Day 16
Breakfast: Juice made with carrot, beet, and mustard greens
Lunch: Chicken cooked with broccoli, garlic, onion, tamari and sesame seeds and served with quinoa
Mid-afternoon snack: I made the most delicious agave syrup/balsamic vinegar reduction with nuts and vanilla and cinnamon to pour over some cut up pieces of apple. Like caramel apples, so good!
Dinner: Raw green pea soup. (Made with frozen peas, avocado, lime juice and I think paprika)

I was home all day today because it was MLK day and I was tempted to eat everything in our house! Lucky for me, everything left by now is stuff that we are allowed to eat. After my Whoppers break down in week 1 I made sure to toss out all the candy. There is a half gallon of vanilla bean ice cream in the freezer that I started eyeing, but really, I have lost interest in ice cream. SHOCKING! I used to love ice cream, but I'm slowly steering away from dairy. When we're done with Clean, there is this delicious ice cream made from coconut milk that I will eat though :)

Also, we don't have a scale at our house, so while I was at the YMCA yesterday (first time in weeks!) I weighed myself. Even with eating and snacking all the time, I'm down to 112 lbs! Since I don't keep track of my weight, I can't really be sure, but I thought I was around 120 before we started. I wonder what would have happened if I had actually been trying to lose weight? I'm increasing my snacks during the day time to make sure I don't lose anymore. I'm not too worried, but I don't want to be a skeleton either!

Day 17
Breakfast: Juice made with carrot, celery, mustard greens, broccoli stalk, and beet
Mid-morning snack: The crackers I made with raw cashew cream cheese
Lunch: Same as yesterday
Mid-afternoon snack: The pumpkin brownies I made and smoothie made with avocado, kale, mango and coconut milk.
Dinner: Butternut squash soup...Okay, I goofed here. I thought I'd just make this soup up as I went along and so I added the following: cut up pieces of butternut squash, 1 clove garlic, some kale, some sea salt, paprika and 16 ounces of homemade nut milk (brazil, almond and cashew). I was thinking, wow, this is going to be good! As I took my first spoonful I wondered, "Why is this sweet and why does it taste like vanilla?" So WEIRD!! No, it's not. The homemade nut milk, made by my darling husband, contains AGAVE SYRUP and VANILLA EXTRACT. Damn. I didn't think of that when I added it though, I was just thinking that it would make my soup creamier. So we both choked down dinner, which wasn't bad, it just wasn't good. Imagine you made a delightful dessert with vanilla and instead of something that would be awesome with vanilla, you added garlic! Sick.

Day 18
Breakfast: Juice with broccoli stalks, beet, carrot and celery
Mid-morning snack: Homemade crackers with raw cashew cheese
Lunch: Chicken and vegetable stir fry. One of my favorites. I think I already mentioned but here is what's in it: Chicken marinated in gluten-free tamari, ginger, and garlic and then sauteed in it. Then, sauteed separately for 4 minutes, zucchini, broccoli, carrot, onion and bok choy (Added for last 2 minutes).
Mid-afternoon snack: The brownies I made
Dinner: I was in a hurry to make some gluten free biscuits before I went (for the first time) to a "knitting circle" (I'll have a post on this later) and so I just ate a biscuit and an apple for dinner. Not supposed to have solids, but I was rushed! Plus, the "knitting circle" was at a pizza place, I don't think I would have made it without the biscuit!

I find myself fantasizing about our Sunday brunch more and more as we get closer to it. I can't wait to have some coffee with cream and sugar and some OJ and french toast...mmmm...if they have croissants, even better. If not, there are plenty of bakeries in Jacksonville that I will be able to go to! Almost there!

Last night Ryan and I were reading on the Clean Program website what to do after the program ends and it brought up a very good point: Since we have eliminated the foods that most commonly cause food allergies, we will be in the unique position of being able to reintroduce these foods slowly and see how they make our bodies feel. Ryan has noticed that he is less tired after lunch and in the evenings, by like, 100% (It's very scientific) and apparently gluten can make you feel sluggish and tired. Maybe this is Ryan's chance to find out if it is really the gluten that is making him feel that way and maybe he can stop eating it for lunch if he needs to be alert in the afternoon! It could also be that he usually drinks too much coffee and all that caffeine is throwing his body out of whack!

My skin looks amazing and for the past few months it had been getting pretty sketchy....maybe I'll discover that something I was eating was the cause...or maybe it's just all the healthy foods I'm eating now that are beneficial for my skin? Only one way to find out! Experiment :)

Day 19
Breakfast: Juice made with beet, celery and carrot
Mid-morning snack: Gluten free biscuit with raw cashew cream cheese.
Lunch: Chicken and veggie stirfry, same as yesterday
Mid-afternoon snack: Feel Flawless tea (made by Allegro, really good!) and the last pumpkin brownie, puffed amaranth
Dinner: Hoping to make that pineapple, avocado, jalapeno sorbet tonight UPDATE: We did, it was delicious.

So I made biscuits last night! They're pretty good but I think I put too much water in the dough and it was too sticky to "gently pat down to 1 inch thickness and use a cookie cutter or glass to cut out biscuits" so I just blobbed pieces of it onto a cookie sheet and hoped for the best. The result? They look funny, but taste just fine :) I added sunflower seeds and chia and I used olive oil instead of coconut oil, so it's entirely possible that they're supposed to taste COMPLETELY different, but I'm okay with that!

I also puffed some amaranth, which makes for a good snack in the day too. Amaranth, for those of you who think I'm making up types of food, is a grain. It's super tiny but can be "popped" or puffed so it's similar to popcorn, just a whole lot smaller! To puff amaranth: get a pan very hot, no oil. Put 1 tablespoon of amaranth in hot pot and quickly cover with tight fitting lid. Let it pop like crazy and when it dies down a bit, swirl around to start some more popping. Then take off heat and enjoy! It can burn pretty quickly, so be very vigilant. You have to do a few tablespoons to get enough to eat, but it doesn't take very long to cook and it can be used for a treat popular in Mexico called "alegria" and it's kind of like a rice krispie treat. There are tons of recipes to make with puffed amaranth and as soon as I try them, I'll put it up here!

Day 20
Tomorrow is our LAST DAY WOOHOOOOOOOOO
Breakfast: Green smoothie with mango, avocado, and God knows what else Ryan put in here, I think I tasted broccoli and apple too? It was good either way
Lunch: Mahi with kalamata olives, zucchini, lemon and olive oil...one of my fav's
Dinner: Raw cucumber, avocado and garlic soup....very simple but fairly good.

I can't believe we're on our second to last day! I want to keep a lot of the good habits we have created, but it will be nice to be able to have pizza again :)

INGREDIENTS: Gluten-free all purpose baking flour, baking soda, baking powder, coconut oil, fresh dates, dairy free dark chocolate chips, walnuts, pecans, unsweetened coconut and topped with Chia seeds. Simple and delicious vegan, gluten-free chocolate chip cookies!

Day 21
LAST DAY

Breakfast: Juice made with beet, carrot and apple
Mid-morning snack: Made some more scones but they turned out more like chocolate chip cookies this time...so good!
Lunch: A hodgepodge of a biscuit, some apples and nuts cooked in a caramel I made out of balsamic vinegar, agave and vanilla and some prunes
Dinner:CELEBRATION DINNER AT 'TOWN :)

I can't believe we made it! Sure, I cheated a few times, but overall, I am really proud of myself! Ryan didn't cheat (except for sampling honey) but I figured that would happen, he has stronger willpower with food. We are considering ending tonight with dinner at 'town because we found out our Groupon there isn't good for brunch...so we thought ending one meal early would probably be okay....I'll let ya know! UPDATE: We are going to 'town!

Some people were asking, so here is our recipe for homemade nut milk:

1/2 cup raw almonds
1/2 cup raw cashews and raw brazil nuts mixed

Soak in filtered water for three hours
Drain
Put nuts and 4 cups of filtered water in blender. Add 2 tablespoons vanilla extract, 2 tablespoons agave nectar (You can add more or less depending on your tastes). Blend on highest setting for 1 minute. Let settle for one minute or until all pieces fall to bottom. Blend again for 1.5 minutes. Strain with fine mesh strainer. THE END...for hot cocoa, you can heat and then add cocoa powder and agave syrup...delicious!

With the nuts you strain out of the milk, you can mix with raw cashews, almonds, flax and chia to make homemade raw nut butter. We ran this through our juicer but this could probably be done with a food processor.