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Food Lover’s Cleanse Day 1

Today (Sunday, January 2) was the first day of Bon Appétit’s “Food Lover’s Cleanse“, which I’ve decided to follow (more or less) for the next couple of weeks. And while I’m pretty psyched about this program, I have created some ground rules that make the dishes more compatible with my way of eating:

  1. Raw, grass-fed milk in place of almond milk. I do not believe that raw milk has deleterious effects on the digestive tract, and I believe it’s extremely nutritious, so I’m keeping the milk.  If I can’t get ahold of raw milk, there are some good options in my area for grass-fed, lightly pasteurized milk.
  2. No unfermented soy. Fermented soy – like miso and tempeh – are ok.  I feel better since I’ve kicked out the fresh soy from my diet, since I don’t seem to digest it very well.
  3. Grass-fed butter in place of olive oil, when appropriate.  This would include recipes that use eggs (omelet) or dairy.  If extra virgin olive oil is appropriate, I’ll use that.
  4. No refined industrial vegetable oils. I’ll use extra virgin olive oil, unrefined coconut oil, or grass-fed butter.  I’ll use expeller-pressed nut/seed oils for flavor, which means I’ll use only a small amount each time.

Here are my notes for Day 1:

Breakfast: 2-egg omelet with mushrooms, thyme, and caramelized onions; 1 piece of whole grain toast. This was delicious!  I think it’s the second time I’ve been able to actually make an omelet look like an omelet (usually it devolves into a scramble).  The use of 2 eggs over 3, along with a well lubricated cast iron pan seems to have made a difference.  Instead of simple whole grain toast, I had a slice of real sourdough from my buying club.

Lunch: avocado tartine; winter vegetable crudités: raw endive, cauliflower, and carrots with basic citrus-shallot vinaigrette as dip. I’m not a fan of raw cauliflower, so I replaced it with celery.  I also couldn’t get ahold of a ripe avocado soon enough, so I made a cheese toasty (toasted bread topped with cheese, open face) with local raw smoked cheddar on sourdough, which was so tasty.  I found the shallot vinaigrette to be a delightful dipping sauce for the vegetables.

Snack: vanilla-date smoothie. I delayed this until after dinner, essentially eating it as dessert. Anyway, I loved it so much!!!  Absolutely delicious – sweet (but not too sweet), a bit tangy from the yogurt, with a lovely vanilla-date flavor.

Dinner: The Ultimate Winter Couscous; green salad with basic citrus-shallot vinaigrette. Wow, what a stunning dish! Beautifully spiced roasted vegetables and chickpeas over couscous and topped with cilantro.  Especially notable were the flavors of star anise, harissa, and preserved lemon (I had preserved some lemons last winter, so it was great to have them so easily on hand).  I have a lot left over and will eat it for lunch tomorrow, in place of the canned tuna (which I’m not that fond of). I have a large amount of mache, so that served as my salad green tonight.

An evening snack of oranges with pomegranate molasses and honey is on the menu, but I opted out of that because I simply wasn’t hungry enough to justify eating anything else.

I’ve got preparations for tomorrow sitting out on the counter – black quinoa is soaking in water and whey, and black eyed peas are soaking as well.  I bought the black quinoa – which I’d never seen before – in Washington in November and I’m very curious to see what they taste like.  They smelled slightly spicy when I opened the bag and took a whiff.

So, I would say that the first day was a success!

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Food Lover’s Cleanse Is On

Happy new year, everyone!  I hope you had a lovely New Year’s Eve and that your start to 2011 has been a beautiful one.  I spent my NYE with some good friends at a local gastropub (grass-fed burgers, yum), then relaxed at home til midnight – no heavy partying for me.  We started the morning with sprouted wheat pancakes – pastured eggs and raw sour milk added extra goodness to them – and real maple syrup. Coffee, yes.  I expect to take a walk later today, and other than that, I plan listen to music, watch movies, fiddle around online, in no particular order.

So, I’ve decided to take on this “food lover’s cleanse“, which starts tomorrow!  On that first day, I’ll be enjoying an omelette, a date shake, sourdough cheese toasty (with raw smoked cheddar cheese), crudités with shallot vinaigrette, and an amazing sounding couscous dish.  I’ll write more extensively about it after tomorrow.  Really looking forward to learning a bunch of new dishes and flavor combinations that I hope will inspire me for later times during the year.

Speaking of date shakes, they always remind me of the now gone Santa Claus Lane in Carpinteria, which advertised their famous date shakes, visible from the freeway.  I lament that I never had one, to be honest, so I’m especially looking forward to trying the one I’ll make tomorrow.

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Food-Lover’s Cleanse

While on twitter the other day, I came across a link (via @glutenfreegirl) about a “food lover’s cleanse.”  There was something about it that intrigued me – a cleanse that focuses on actual food, rather than just juice or some strange concoction of disparate ingredients. Sounds like it has potential.

I took a look and was really pleased with what I saw – 14 days of essentially whole foods eating, with lots of variety.  Makes sense to create something like that, as the holidays often focus on fractured foods – sugar, white flour, an excess in caffeine and/or alcohol.  I’ll admit I boarded that train from time to time during the holidays.  Time to hop back on the real foods wagon!

This cleanse has been put together by Bon Appétit (aside: I adore how easy it is to type accents on a Mac!)  magazine and the introduction is as follows:

Forget juice fasts and calorie counting. Start the year with a resolution you’ll actually want to keep: a fresh, healthful approach to cooking.

Amen!  Although my idea of healthful and their idea of healthful does diverge at certain points – the use of soy and low fat dairy, which I don’t partake in.  Still, I am encouraged by the use of whole grains, seasonal vegetables, grass fed meats, and eggs.  Apparently most of the dishes are gluten-free, too.  There’s even one recipe where they acknowledge that one might actually want to eat the chicken skin!  Nice.

I’m seriously considering trying this out, as I mentioned on twitter, but adjusting some of the recipes to be NT-friendly: use of raw, full fat dairy, and soaking grains (I handle grains ok), to start.  Oh, and eschewing all that canola oil.

I’d also probably not do everything in order – one of the dinner recipes takes hours to prepare (close to 4) and is slated for a weekday evening.  With my work schedule, that’s just not practical.  Dinner on one of the following days looks like it takes much less time, so I’d likely switch them.  I also have meetings some nights where I just won’t be able to cook; though one of those nights I’ll be at a chicken carving and bone broth making workshop!

What are some of the recipes?  Here are some examples (breakfast, lunch, dinner), which sound delicious:

  • Breakfast: omelet with mushrooms, thyme, and caramelized onions
  • Lunch: black-eyed pea curry; spinach salad with apples, sunflower seeds and vinaigrette
  • Dinner: five spice beets soup; seared grass-fed hanger steak; warm escarole salad with mustard vinaigrette

I’ll need to put in my orders with my CSA and buying club in the next day or so if I want to do this.  Thankfully, BA put together a shopping list (warning: pdf) with all ingredients on it, so that part is easy – just print and go.

I’ll definitely chronicle my experience with this cleanse if I decide to follow it!  But I’d love to know, have you ever done a cleanse before?