i started the day off with a smoothie i’ve been dreaming of since the beginning, but only just now got around to making.  it needs a martini glass to serve it in, but this tumbler will have to do.  it’s a pina mojito smoothie!  (recipe at end of post)  i found it refreshing, but mr. happy stuff made the worst face when he tasted it and declared it, “too… tooo…. something.…”  yes, we’re getting more articulate with our likes and dislikes as this challenge progresses.  i obliged him with one of his standard fruity smoothies. (cider, pineapple, blueberries)

lunch was late today and it took awhile to fix, but i think it was worth it:

waffled felafel, hummus and (tomato-free) tabbouleh salad!  the felafel recipe came from this site, the idea to “waffle” it came from this site (which also supplied a new hummus technique which i recommend), but the actual waffling felafel from scratch instructions came from this forum.  whew!  the tabbouleh recipe i just sort of made up.  luckily, after all that work, it was quite tasty, although next time i might make my waffle iron hotter.

this afternoon/evening i developed the ouchy tummy i had on monday.  the only common factor i can think of between the two is that on both days i ate food with some baking powder in it, which has cornstarch as an ingredient, which includes corn, which is a forbidden ingredient.  do i have a corn sensitivity?  or is it just a coincidence?  i have a feeling i’ll be asking myself that same question often in the next few days.

supper was another pb&j smoothie.  i didn’t feel up to trying something else new tonight.

although at this point, i really don’t see myself trying to drag our family through another three weeks of this ever again, i could see wanting to do occasional “clean” days here and there to balance a heavy food day, or maybe even one week of clean to just clear out the system after the holidays.  to that end, i’ve put together a one-week menu of our favorites, along with a shopping list, so i don’t have to think about it quite so much.  if any of you, dear readers, would like access to my one-week menu, leave a comment or send me an e-mail and i’d be glad to forward you the link.

i’ll probably post a few more times with any results that present themselves in the next few days/weeks.  and maybe sometime i’ll also post before/after pictures, but i don’t think they’ll be all that dramatic.  thanks for reading along with us on this journey.

pina mojito smoothie

1 c. pure water

juice of one lime

5 or 6 fresh mint leaves

frozen pineapple (enough to make it thick , maybe 1 cup?)

(optional) sweetener to taste

(you could also substitute fresh pineapple and ice cubes, or you could use coconut water and have a pina colada mojito)

this morning i proved that you can hide a handful of spinach in the “pb&j smoothie” with no major effects to the flavor.  yum-o!  i also discovered that if you have three tiny slices of cucumber leftover from your child’s lunch box (and these are the skinny “baby” cucumbers) and you toss them into the blender because you don’t want to throw them away, they will flavor the whole smoothie.  beware.  cucumber is a lovely flavor, but only if that’s the flavor you’re hoping for.  mr. happy stuff described it as being a bit “too green.”

lunch was the rest of the tuna and white bean salad and more rice crackers.  no bloating from those either.  hmmm….

this evening on the way home, i made the mistake of stopping at a grocery store right beside one of those restaurants that vents their grill out into the parking lot to lure you in.  i don’t even like to eat at this restaurant, but the smell of grilled meat just about took me over the edge.  the thought of a smoothie for supper was definitely not cutting it for me.  so i thought i’d whip up another batch of black bean soup.  and just for fun, i thought i’d throw in some leftover chickpeas and the last little bit of roasted vegetables (including squash, parsnips and beets).  i didn’t really add enough broth and so it was really, really thick.  then, when i opened up the avocado for the garnish, i realized it was rather past its prime.  i salvaged a little bit out of the middle and added plenty of salt and ended up with this:

yes.  apparently the color of beets is similar to the flavor of cucumbers in that it is all pervasive.  i was only able to eat maybe half of this.  i am so ready to be done with this cleanse.  one.  more.  day.

made myself another “pb&j” smoothie for breakfast this morning (yep, it’s that good!) and experienced none of the bloating from yesterday, so although i’m still mystified by those symptoms, i’m no longer worried that it was my yummy smoothie recipe at fault.

lunch was leftover roasted delicata and quinoa salad.

dinner was red smoothies.  i made this one for mr. happy stuff:

and my darling husband got me this for valentine’s day:

but you see how there are no empty spaces?  i’m doing my best to hold out.  only two more days!  thanks, sweetie!

this morning i needed a pineapple-free smoothie.  the tip of my tongue is sore, like it sometimes gets when i eat too much pineapple,  so this one had little bits of leftover fruit from little happy dude’s snack yesterday (pear and blueberries), a plum, apple cider, almond milk, almond butter and some frozen blackberries.

lunch was a tasty tuna and white bean salad (i used tuna packed in water and great northern beans because that’s what i had on hand.  i also added some cucumber for crunch.  i recommend it!) with some rice crackers:

thank goodness i’d brought the crackers–i forgot to bring a spoon with me, so i just scooped up the salad with the crackers.

dinner was a new smoothie i invented that i love, love, love:  pb&j! (okay, really it’s “ab&j” since i use almond butter, but no one would recognize that acronym).

here’s the recipe:

1 c. almond milk

1/4 c. almond butter

1/2 c. frozen berries (not strawberries, use more if you like a thicker, more frozen smoothie)

1/2 t. vanilla

pinch of sea salt

approx. 1 tablespoon brown rice syrup (adjust to your own taste)

this recipe reminds me of one of my two favorite milkshakes from when i was a kid.  our family never made chocolate or strawberry milkshakes.  our two milkshake flavors of choice were either watermelon or peanut butter.  watermelon’s not really in season right now, so a peanut butter milkshake it is!

i had to chug the smoothie and rush off to work tonight (lego club.  my job is rough!) and when i got to work, i began noticing that my belly was a bit unhappy.  full of air and ouchy.  i thought it would pass, but even when i went to bed it was still a bit uncomfortable.  i began wondering if someone had accidentally put peanut butter in the bulk almond butter container i bought.  or if the brown rice bread i’d had a slice of secretly had egg or some other “non-clean” ingredient in it.  i also began remembering that this morning i’d had itchy, watery eyes (one of my classic allergy symptoms).  what gives?  if i were experiencing these symptoms on day 22, i’d be convinced that i was allergic to whatever “forbidden” food i’d just added back into my diet.  but i checked and double-checked and nothing was new.  point taken.  even if i have strong “symptoms” i should probably not rely on a single flare-up to diagnose myself with an allergy or sensitivity.  let’s hope i feel better tomorrow.

breakfast smoothie = coconut water,* fresh mango, frozen raspberries and blackberries

two lunches today, his and hers.  mine was the “roasted delicata with quinoa” recipe from the website (although i didn’t use the raisins.  they’re on the “no” list.  it’s this sort of inconsistency that drives mr. happy stuff up the wall.)

the verdict:  it was pretty tasty.  reminded me of the awesome chicken and everything else salad i had , but with more squash and less greens.  i think i actually preferred the green salad.  i’m finding that recipes with onion and garlic sometimes seem overpowering to me–like i’m only tasting onion and garlic, not the rest of the ingredients–and while i like onion and garlic, i also like other flavors and would enjoy tasting them as well.

mr. happy stuff’s lunch was this fantastic curried chicken recipe from everyday food. 

i made it a “clean” recipe by swapping olive oil for the butter and brown rice syrup for the honey.  this chicken is sooooooo tasty that when i asked mr. happy stuff if he’d mind eating it for lunch three days in a row, he said, “no problem.”  if i were to make it again, i might try reducing the olive oil (there were pools of it floating on top of the sauce by the end of baking).  i also stretched the recipe by adding some of our baked chicken i’d frozen last week and just letting it soak in the extra sauce for a day and a half.  we’ll see how that turns out.  i’m thinking of making it into sort of a “pulled chicken curry.”  mr. happy stuff ate it over baked brown rice and i just nibbled it straight from the pan.  seriously.  i kind of wish i’d made a double batch now.  oh well.  more recipes to try!

i took the time this afternoon to map out meals for the rest of the week and do all the pre-cooking i needed to do to make this week run more smoothly.  it really is so much simpler to plan menus when you only cook one meal a day.

supper was a pink smoothie before church.  although it was nicer to eat before church and not be completely starving by the time we got home (and having to resist the youth group bake sale on an empty stomach) it did make for a long evening with a bit of a hollow belly feeling.

only four more days.

*one of the basic ingredients for a lot of “clean” smoothies is “coconut water” for which they instruct you to soak a cup of shredded unsweetened coconut in water for 15 minutes, then strain out the coconut.  we’ve gotten lazy about it and now i just dump some coconut in a quart jar with some water and leave that in the fridge and we add the coconut water along with the soaked coconut shreds whenever we have a recipe that includes this ingredient.

breakfast was another sweet smoothie in the travel cup because i had to go to work this morning and endure one of the hardest challenges to this cleanse yet–donuts with dad.  oh. my.  i managed to withstand the siren call of fried grease in sugar with pillowy, donuty goodness inside that wrapper, but only with the help of an apple and some cashews i brought to work with me.  the amazing part was that mr. happy stuff voluntarily attended this event becasue he knew that little happy would enjoy it.  and he was tempted not only by the donuts, but also by the coffee, and he had to break off bite-sized pieces of the donut for little happy dude, which was even more challenging (can’t. lick. fingers….)

they got home before i did and mr. happy stuff ended up cooking his own lunch (turned out well, i think!):

i’d stopped by the store on the way home and picked up some brown rice tortillas, so i decided to try making a hummus and veggie wrap:

in the scheme of tortillas, this one gets a “meh.”  in the scheme of brown rice baked goods, this one gets a “hmm… this is pretty good!”

i gave that chocolate walnut scone recipe another shot with twice as much gf flour and got these.  tasty, but not nearly as melt-in-your-mouth, but then again, they almost don’t break apart when you eat them, so it’s all a bit of a trade-off.

supper was a kiwi pineapple peach smoothie and it was quite tart, but the kiwi was a nice change of pace.  i have to say that it is kind of nice to not have plan two cooked meals every day.  i’m actually finding myself with more recipes to try than days left in the cleanse, so that’s sort of nice.  we’ll have some options.  and i can continue to cook “clean-ish” for a few days afterwards while i slowly add “unclean” foods back in.

mr. happy stuff and i went on a movie date tonight to see the oscar nominated animated shorts (probably our favorite annual cinematic event).  i thought i’d struggle more with smelling popcorn, but i ended up being more distracted by what smelled like either baked goods or someone nearby wearing vanilla extract as perfume.  the popcorn itself smelled more harsh and a bit chemical (the “butter”).  friends have talked about how this cleanse changed their tastebuds, i wonder if it also alters your sense of smell?

easy pink smoothie for breakfast (getting some great use out of those raspberries i picked last summer!)

lunch was possibly my favorite clean meal so far (with a close second being that great chicken/quinoa/apple/toasted pecan/butternut squash salad i had on day 7.)–chicken sausage and sauerkraut!  i got really bummed out a few days ago when i’d planned this meal and then was double-checking the yes/no list and saw that “sausage” was on the “no” list.  but i went online to the forum and discovered that people had been raving about this exact same sausage and how it uses all “clean” ingredients and so it’s actually okay to eat.  hooray!  so for lunch, i sliced and browned up some of the “chicken + apple” variety and heated up some “bubbie’s” sauerkraut and combined them for 2/3rds of one of my very favorite quick lunches (i decided that trying to make “amish sweet rice” with brown rice and almond milk was a lost cause.  it’s the soft stickiness of the white rice that i love in that dish.  i wonder if i overcooked the brown rice if it would work?).  first of all, let me say that i’m thrilled to have found this brand of sauerkraut, it’s exactly what i’ve been looking for–simple (just cabbage, salt and water) and not weird and chemical-y tasting like most grocery store brands.  this is definitely a post-cleanse keeper.  and the sausage was good too!  although neither of the boys liked the apple version of the sausage (instead, i fed them more of the sweet italian chicken sausages we’d enjoyed so much last week.  i think those would also be good with the kraut, so i’ll probably just stick to that variety next time) i thought they were tasty in my lunch.  i also had a side of “warm winter vegetable salad” without the dressing or walnuts just because i felt like i needed some sort of colorful vegetable with my meal.

dinner was a “brown” smoothie–aka a pink smoothie with a bunch of spinach added to it (basic color mixing concepts here, people!).

so here we are, at the tippy top of week 3.  i’ve gone back to consult the book to see if it offers any “this is what you should be experiencing” sort of tips because i’m not sensing any grand results at this point.  i don’t really have a ton more energy (in fact, i was feeling downright lazy in yoga this morning), i can’t really tell if my “eyes are whiter,” i still have that weird sore throat thing going on, my weight loss can swing as much as 4 pounds either way from morning to morning, i have had less of that “i just woke up and i feel allergies coming on, better take a claritin” feeling (but then again, it did snow this morning and that tends to diminish that sensation anyway), i don’t have that “heavy belly” feeling at the end of each day, but neither would you if you only had a smoothie for supper.  so i’m curious to know if adding things back into my diet will suddenly make symptoms appear that i’d forgotten about (“i guess i did have a runnier nose than i’d remembered!”), but at this point, i’m not feeling amazingly healthy and wowie zowie or anything.  mr. happy stuff concurred.  he’s less curious about the effects of things and instead is threatening to have a beer and pizza for lunch on day 22 (after a cup of coffee and an egg for breakfast.  add in some peanut noodles for dinner and he’ll have just about covered all the bases.).  i have to agree that (other than the coffee and beer) that sounds pretty darn tasty.  here we go, week 3.  please show me some dramatic results or get over with quickly.

day 13 was all repeat foods–purple smoothie, warm winter vegetable salad & a pinkish smoothie.  the biggest thing of note that happened all day was that i had my first food-based evening outing, a youth group trip to a local rock-climbing joint, and they ordered in pizza for everyone for supper.  the worst part was the initial smells and the wanting, oh the wanting!  but after i’d been in there for a few minutes, not eating pizza and drinking my water, it somehow got better.  like, my body realized it wasn’t going to get any pizza, so it just started thinking of the pizza as being not much different than the cardboard box it came in.  the potato chips were not tempting (i’ve never really been a huge fan of potato chips, but i eat them if they’re offered to me.  hmmm… why?) and neither was the soda.  granted, the pizza might have been more of a challenge to avoid if it hadn’t been the $5 hot-n-ready pizzas from a certain pizza chain, or if the room full of teenage boys hadn’t snarfed them all down (leftovers are very tempting to me), but i survived and i even climbed some rocks.

oh, i also tried out some gluten free brown rice bread with cashew butter and a drizzle of agave syrup as part of a snack this afternoon.  i toasted the bread (it’s stored in the refrigerator!) and it was a nice, chewy texture.  maybe i’ll try a sandwich this weekend sometime.

day 14, we made another attempt at mexican food.  mr. happy stuff browned some ground turkey up into taco meat (with added black beans and onion and garlic and some spices) last night and was dismayed to read on our favorite taco seasoning that it included lactose, dried tomato, and a few other forbidden ingredients, but he did just fine making up spices from scratch.  i thought i’d attempt gluten-free tortillas using gf flour and subbing in some almond milk for the milk, but it was an enormous fail.  the dough was more like…. play-dough.  no stretch.  lightbult moment for me as i realize, “ah.  this needs gluten to make it stretchy!”  seriously, sometimes i need the hands-on experience.  i went ahead and tried cooking up these weird patties, but, as a friend who tried a bite pointed out, they tasted more like a pita made out of hummus.  very chickpea-y. ah well.  i’ll leave my gf tortillas to the professionals.

breakfast was a pink smoothie:

lunch was taco salad:

we also tried some new chips made from black beans (see them hanging out on the edge of the plate?).  they had the right crunch and a nice amount of salt, but they certainly aren’t corn.  they tasted sort of … burnt to me, but i think it was just the black bean flavor.  the taco salad was, in general, dry.  very, very dry.  mine was slightly better because of the avocado, but i can’t imagine how dry poor mr. h-s’s must have been.  we both desperately missed the salsa and sour cream.  i’m not sure if it’s better to eat familiar foods that are altered so much that they don’t really satisfy your craving, or just eat completely unfamiliar foods.

supper for me was another cinnamon roll smoothie.

my throat still feels a little weird, but….. woo hoo!  this is the end of week two!  that means, i get to order these beauties: