Roasted Chickpeas

Where was this snack last year when we did the Clean Program?! The team over at the Clean Program website released a bunch of holiday recipes and one of them was Roasted Chickpeas. Kinda makes me wish we had started this before the holidays....okay, maybe not. Who can resist cheesy potatoes, spinach dip and chocolate, lots of chocolate.

Roasted Chickpeas

1 lb chickpeas
2 tbs olive oil
your choice of seasoning, I used sea salt, onion powder, garlic powder and red pepper powder

I used a 1 lb bag of dried chickpeas and soaked them overnight in enough water to cover them, with a few inches of water above them. I then drained and rinsed the chickpeas before adding them to a pot with, again, enough water to cover them with a few inches above. After it starts boiling, you lower the temp and let it simmer for 40-60 minutes or until they're tender. Then you drain them, pat them dry and put them on an ungreased cookie sheet, as evenly as possible. Put in a pre-heated oven at 400 degrees for 20-40 minutes or until golden and crunchy (this took almost an hour for me). Immediately add the roasted chickpeas to a bowl with your olive oil and seasonings and mix throughly.

Delicious, nutritious and clean friendly!


**UPDATE** After eating these the next day, I noticed that they did not stay crunchy!! I think next time I'll try making a half batch or quarter batch that can be eaten immediately. If you have a dehydrator, that might help too, but we don't have one so I'll just have to eat fast :)

Gluten-Free Pasta with Butternut Squash

In my last post, I talked about making this pasta later in the week. Well, later in the week turned out to be a day later...

A few things I learned from this dish:

1. The brown rice pasta I used smells funny when you cook it but tastes just like pasta when mixed with sauce. I used Tinkyada brown rice fettuccine.

2. If you accidentally buy frozen cooked squash instead of the cubes, you get to skip a few steps like cooking and running through food processor. Also, I probably used too much squash after looking at the photo on the Chefuality blog.

3. You can add extra garlic and scallions to ANYTHING and it will be awesome. Ditto for red pepper powder and garlic and onion powder.

4. If you add chicken, it's a bit heartier. We added 1 humanely raised breast and it added a nice flavor but it would have been fine without it too if you're trying to have a meatless day.

5. This dish is okay but it's not as good as the broccoli tahini :) I think I didn't like this dish as much because I don't really like butternut squash. I keep trying to eat it in different recipes and convince myself otherwise, but it's a little sweet and doesn't work for me as a savory dish. If it was a pie, that might be a different story! ***UPDATE*** The reheated leftovers tasted a lot better than it did right after it was cooked. The flavors settled and it was pretty darn good!

6. Again, really impressed that this rice pasta tasted like regular pasta! For those of you who are intolerant of gluten, you do not have to miss out on pasta because this stuff is just the best. Make sure to rinse it off after it has cooked, like it suggests on the package.

To accompany my pasta dinner, I also made some fresh squeezed lemonade with half a lemon, a bit of Stevia in the Raw and some filtered tap water. This really helped my craving for a sugary drink like soda.

Getting ready for the Clean Program, Year 2

Okay everyone! It's that time of year again: the time to make resolutions for the new year and then promptly forget about them on January 2 :) Last January, Ryan and I did pretty well during our 21 day cleanse and I'm confident that we'll do even better this year and get the same great feeling we did from eating so healthy during that time (we're also hoping to continue many of the habits throughout the year).

Last year, we did not do the suggested 3-5 days of the Elimination Diet before the cleanse. This year we are trying to do better so when we got back in to town today, I went grocery shopping and only purchased "clean" ingredients using the shopping list found here.

About a week ago, I joined every woman's new favorite addiction: Pinterest and started collecting "Clean" recipes in addition to ideas for crafts I'll never make, but have every intention of doing so :) One recipe in particular, Broccoli and Tahini, caught my eye and so tonight I set about making it (pictured above). It so so good!! At first it tasted a bit bland, but with each bite, I discovered new flavors like the tang of the lemon and the creaminess of the tahini. My taste buds just needed to adjust to the lack of sodium, fat and sugar that usually accompanies all of the junk food I have been eating lately! The blogger who posted this recipe also told me of another Clean recipe she has on her blog, Gluten-free Butternut Squash Pasta, which I am hoping to try later this week (later than I originally thought, the broccoli and tahini makes a TON of food, not complaining!).


Another thing I made today came directly from the Clean Program page on snacking, which is going to be crucial for me to get through the cleanse this year. I think my biggest problem in the past was that I was not eating enough and felt deprived. The website clearly states that you can snack on approved foods but that you need to have 12 hours of fasting each night. I misunderstood that last time and I was miserable more than a few days! Anyway, these balls are made up of dates, almonds, sunflower kernels, sesame seeds, a bit of stevia, coconut oil and unsweetened coconut flakes. If you have ever had a Lara bar, they are pretty similar to that. If you have a food processor, you can make these lil snack balls and they are delicious!

Things I learned from the Clean Program last year that I'll use this year:

- Don't get carried away and buy a bajillion different ingredients for a million different recipes. We got carried away last year and bought way too much stuff and spent more money than we needed to. This year, we know to keep it simple!
-Prepare, prepare prepare! The more food you have ready to eat, the less temptation you'll have! We learned last year to make lunch in advance so we could just grab and go.
-Eat snacks! If you're eating healthy snacks and feeling full, you will not be tempted by the office donuts, the popcorn and soda deal at Target or the gingerbread pancakes that IHOP is advertising right now.
-Avoid the weird recipes that include items that you KNOW FOR A FACT you do not like. If you don't eat it, it doesn't do you any good OR if you eat it and hate every bite, you just may be tempted to hit up Pizza Hut the next day to compensate for the torture food.
-ANYONE can do this cleanse. I don't exactly have discipline, it's one of the reasons I can never be a runner (unless half a block counts) but I still managed to complete this cleanse last year with only a few lapses (did not resist the gingerbread pancakes).
-Cleanses don't have to be the scary, dangerous diets that you hear about. If you're only eating lemon and cayenne pepper, THAT'S A BAD IDEA. If you're eating a wide variety of food and receiving more nutrients than you probably ate the entire year before, that's probably okay! When people ask, "don't you miss real food", remind yourself that a McValue meal or Easy Mac is not real food and that during this cleanse, you're finally eating "real" food.