Potluck time!

Do you remember the Best (only) Cleanse Potluck You've Ever Been To? Well we're bringing it back! 

Hope you can come!

Sunday, February 16, 2014
4:00pm-? (Who's got Monday off work??)
at our house (email me if you need the address)

You know the rules:
Bring a dish that does not have any of the following

• gluten
• dairy
• added sugars
• processed foods
• alcohol
• caffein

Feel free to bring a friend!

-colleen

Ohmmm. Done.

I did end up meeting my physical fitness goals for the week, but right at the last minute.  I just got back from yoga and yesterday I finally went to the gym.  I have shoveled my car in and out of parking spots at least 5 times this week, so I'll consider that at least two full extra workouts.  Right?

and my Sunday at 4pm is pretty wide open right now.  Ladies?  Who's down for some Dance Dance Party Party?

and now that my yoga groupon is over, thanks to the wonderful Charlotte for giving me the Chicago Park District yoga scoop, I'm signed up for Tuesday night yoga near my house.  If I go every week, that'll be 6 classes for only $20.  Deal!

How are YOU doing?

We're almost done with the first week!  I feel like I've been so busy with work this week that I haven't even had time to focus on stressing about being on the cleanse.  That being said, I've done pretty good.  I've stuck to it except for a couple of beers at the Lagunitas party and after a day and a half without coffee, the headache came through.  So I've had about 3 cups of coffee total this week so far.  There was even a day that I was supposed to have a meeting at Heartland Cafe, where I figured I'd find a cleanse-worthy salad.  The meeting got cancelled and I was without a lunch.  I ended up going to Chipotle and getting veggie tacos with corn tortillas.  Cleanse success!

I think the best meal we (Matt) made was this veggie stir fry. CleansePro tip:  grate a head of cauliflower and saute it in a pan with a bit of olive oil for about 15 minutes.  It's a great substitute for rice.  We've done it twice now.

I made the slaw and it's good, but I wouldn't put the avocado in until ready to eat next time.  And I made that butternut squash apple soup, but subbed in pumpkin and it just wasn't good.  Didn't even bother taking a pic.  Made this simple veggie soup and it was pretty mediocre.

Looking forward to adding beans back into my diet next week!  Tell me how your week has been!

-colleen

1st Day Success!

Random thoughts that I'd like some feedback on:

1. Anyone else the only one in their house doing the Cleanse? 

Bfast & Lunch & snacks will be fine, but I plan our Dinner menu and Matt won't eat Cleanse friendly. We alternate nights cooking, too, adding a little frustration to my end now as I'll be prepping mostly. I've been planning Week 1 dinner for the past 2 weeks, and did settle on a few Dinners that will be similar to our usual menu items. But there are a few nights where I need to just make mine separately. Tonight's dinner was a surprising success though- we had Curry. I made vegan curry and this as a naan substitute, and Matt made chicken korma, had store-bought naan- whatevs. Mine was better so the extra work on my end paid off. Friday will be pizza night, and i'm excited to try this cauliflower crust with lots of veggies.

2. Cleanse grocery shopping at Super Target is possible.

I was all "i don't want to visit 3 different grocery stores today, so let's do this Target". BAM. Success. $11 for 30oz of raw mixed unsalted nuts? I'll take it. $3.12 for 1 head of cauliflower? Not so much. Brought my coups so I saved like $14 combined with my RedCard %. (sidebar: saw today they put a Piggly Wiggly near me. I will need to stop in, I don't think I've ever been to one.) I really wish the price of cherries would go down. $5.99/lb almost everywhere, and that's just to rich for my blood. 

3. Where does honey fit in?

It's not really added sugar, or sugar at all really. I've thought about incorporating it. Because making this faux strawberry jam, could help create a seriously good pb&j sandwich on this bread. 

4. Don't really like drinking water. 

Honestly I don't drink much throughout the day. I have 1 cup of coffee in the morning, and usually go all day without drinking anything else. Then have water with dinner. (I know this is a horrible habit. I'm just not thirsty though).Thinking about making some of this flavored water.Colleen & Matt let me borrow their juicer, but dang it's expen$ive to juice stuff. What am I going to drink? I did buy almond milk, so I'll do some banana & pb smoothies with that. Straight, blegh.

Here's my plan. Just so you know...

Okey dokey.

So here's what I'm thinking about the cleanse.  It starts Monday (who wants to start a cleanse on the weekend?).  That gives us the weekend to gather our groceries and cook some soups.  I am planning on doing the original Week 1 of the 2012 Whole Living Cleanse.  Nowadays, it doesn't seem all that extreme.  It's fruits & vegetables, nuts, seeds, and plant-based oils.  You have to think about what in those categories will actually fill you up.  Things like avocados, mushrooms, squash, and nuts nuts nuts.  If you try to only do salads and slaws, you're bound to be hungry.  And seriously, it's only one week.  Next week we bring back seafood, beans, lentils, and tofu.  Smooth sailing from there on out.

Here are some soup recipes I'm hoping to make this weekend:

Butternut Squash Soup (but I've already got pureed pumpkin in my freezer so I'm using that instead of B-nut Squash.

or maybe this one instead.  I remember it being good.

Vegetable Soup (Thanks, Jennifer, for posting this one on your board!)

All of these seem like they'd be fine to freeze so they'll be good grab and go lunches.

Here are some of the dinner recipes I'm thinking we'll make:

Avocado Arugula Salad.  This is my favorite salad, so if I see arugula at the store, I'm doin it.

Spaghetti Squash with peanut sauce. We've made this one twice now and it was really delicious.  I think both times we subbed brussel sprouts instead of broccoli because that's what we had.

and this salad also looks pretty tasty, so I'll try to make that too.

Ok, what else?  Breakfast, I'll make smoothies.  Ooh, coffee! Am I going to stop drinking coffee?  Well...the first year I did and I was fine.  But then last year, I stopped for a couple of days and then got headaches and said forget that.  So I drank about a half cup or so of black coffee on most days.  This year too, I'm pretty addicted to the stuff, so I'm going to try again, but it's not worth it for me to give it up completely if my head is pounding.  I don't feel like it's all that bad for me.  What about alcohol?  I think that'll be fine.  Although we're supposed to go to the Lagunitas opening on the 4th, so I may make an exception for that.  Maybe a glass of wine on a weekend here or there.

Exercise goals.  I'm back on yoga (a groupon).  But I only have one more class for that. And my yoga goal is to go at least once per week.  oh yeah, I'm also cheap so it pains me to pay $16+ for a single class.  So I need to do some shopping around to figure out what I'll do next week.  And then I want to get to the gym at least once per week.  Finally, I want to DDPP at least twice during the month.  Ladies, who's in?

So, as you can see, after the first cleanse, I've been a bit more flexible with the rules for myself.  You have to do what works for you and not fret or stress.  This thing is all about making you feel good.

Leave a comment or post on what your cleanse plan is going to be!

First Things First

Ok people, two things to prepare yourself for if you're gonna do the cleanse:

1.  You're going to have to cook.  A Lot.  There's no two ways around it.  As much as I love eating out at many of our wonderful restaurants, it's really difficult to go somewhere and pass up all of the good stuff you'd rather eat.  You can likely find something to order in a pinch, but you're probably not going to be happy about it.  Especially if you're eating with non-cleansing folks.  However, when you stay at home and cook up a nice cleanse-worthy meal, you'll feel really proud of yourself and you'll probably think it's super delicious.  Because it is.

2.  Snacks.  Your meals are not going to be real heavy, so you're gonna need to do some snacking so you don't feel hungry.  My favorite go-to snacking option is chickpeas!  These roasted spiced chickpeas in particular.  Super easy and I could eat an entire can in one sitting.

There are just some little nuggets for today.  Enjoy!

FebCleanse2014 coming soon!

Whoa!  Year THREE of FebCleanse is happening!  Who'd have thought that we'd be interested in this still?  I surely didn't.  But yes, we're planning on doing the cleanse again during the whole month of February.  So keep an eye out here for recipes, stories, and hopefully some support.  Let me know if you're going to be cleansing too because we can eat meals together.  

For those who might be new to this.  Here are the basic rules...  

Don't eat/drink:
1.  Gluten
2.  Dairy
3.  Alcohol
4.  Caffein
5.  Added sugars
6.  Processed foods

Easy peasy right?  Trust me, it's gotten easier over the years.  We've definitely changed the way we eat since we started doing this in 2012.  If you need some help getting started, I've been saving lots of recipes here:
http://www.pinterest.com/colleennorton/cleanse-friendly-recipes/

Save the date for this year's Cleanse Potluck at my house on Sunday, February 16th!