Gearing Up For The Detox!

I am getting so excited! But also biting my nails because my detox kit hasn't arrived yet.  To be fair, I waited awhile before I ordered so if it's not here by May 2, that is totally my fault. Nevertheless, I really need to just be patient.  Hopefully it will arrive tomorrow because I sent it to my office. So if it doesn't get here until Monday then that means that I will have to begin all on my own, without the berry drink.  Ce la vie right?

So in order to gear up, I have been following some of the regimen.  For instance, I started having Amazing Grass Green Super Powder in my water bottle, juicing in the morning and taking digestive enzymes.  Becca noticed that she often had to go to the bathroom after taking the enzymes but I haven't noticed any real changes.  What has been interesting for me is seeing that I crave less food at lunch and dinner.  I get full faster.  Perhaps this has something to do with the green drink or maybe just maybe I'm starting to listen to my body.   I have tried to stop eating once I feel full or rather fullish.  Of course when I'm in the throes of a vegan pizza binge, I can override these senses at will. But for the most part I think I've done a pretty good job of keeping my shiz together.  So I wanted to post the daily schedule for my detox, partly because I'm excited and partly to show everyone what I will be doing:


Daily Schedule for – 21 Pounds in 21 Days: The Martha’s Vineyard Diet Detox

(On the Odd hours: 1 glass - 4 to 6oz of water)

8AM

Inner Cleanse Daytime formula - 3 tablets (14 days only)
1oz of liquid Berry or 1oz of liquid Berry with 6oz of water
1 cup of hot/iced Herbal Tea - (add stevia optional)

10AM

1 8oz glass of water mixed or blended with 1 scoop of Essential Greens

12PM

1 8oz glass of “live” fresh juiced vegetables
If you’re not juicing -mix or blend 8oz of water with 1 scoop of VegeSplash

Fresh juiced vegetables are highly recommended

1 Digestive Enzyme
Inner Cleanse Daytime formula - 3 tablets (14 days only)

2PM

1 8oz glass of water mixed or blended with 1 scoop of VegeSplash

4PM

1 8oz glass of water mixed or blended with 1 scoop of Essential Greens

5-6PM

1 cup of homemade puree soup
1 cup of broth from soup mix - optional add Braggs Amino Acid
1 Digestive Enzyme
Inner Cleanse Daytime formula - 3 tablets (14 days only)
1 cup of hot/iced Herbal Tea - (add stevia optional)

Bedtime
Inner Cleanse Night time formula - 3 tablets (14 days only)
1oz of Aloe –OPTIONAL: if not able to tolerate the Inner Cleanse Formulas.
1 teaspoon of CALM mixed with 6oz of warm water - optional if you are having a hard time sleeping.

Good Night Congratulations you completed another day towards the new you…
Have a healthy night sleep — Dr. Roni and James

Note: Day 22 starts your 9 days of Maintenance. Follow the above schedule and at 8AM have 2 scoops of protein
shake blended with 8oz of water.

Martha's Vineyard Detox

So I'm soooo very excited because I'm going to detox.  This is something I've been passionate about for awhile but never found the time to do.  Partly this is because Becca does not love the idea of me not cooking for her and partly because I never made it a must rather than a should (obviously I've been listening to Tony Robbins!)  I discussed it with Becca and informed her that she would either have to fend for herself for dinner for a week or eat much pureed soup with me. I think even if she only detoxes partially, that's still a win for her!

So basically the detox is all about fresh, live juices and pureed soup.  No chewing!  I'm excited to get started even if it's not the most comfortable thing in the world.  While I'm excited to possibly lose some weight, I mostly want to detox my body and realize what it feels like to be 100% healthy and clean.  There are several ways to do the detox.  The hardcore go for 21 days but I just didn't think that felt reasonable. Instead I am doing the 7 day detox with 3 day comedown as you have to break the fast in a very specific manner.  I started on the Superfoods Green Drink supplement already just to add some nutrients to my day and it's surprisingly ok.  Obviously I'm still eating solid food so I don't know what kind of hunger I will face, but I am definitely starting to practice.  I dusted off my juicer and have been concocting all sorts of potions.

I guess I'm writing about it now because I'm excited to begin, though not until after my sister's wedding on April 30, but also to hold myself accountable.  I don't know if anyone really reads this blog, but if you do, I promise to start my detox on May 2nd and blog about each day.  How I feel, what's going on, etc.  Can't wait for this journey, especially since it means no alcohol or anything.  Yikes! Let's see how it goes.

Catch Up

Hey there, to all those in Blogger world, sorry I've been MIA.  Life got in the way as it's often want to do.  Anyway, I have some fun things going on.  First, on Saturday I volunteered at the North Central Animal Shelter.  Because I was on that side of town, I decided to hit up Figueroa Produce to try some of these sandwiches that Quarry Girl talks about.  The man behind the counter didn't speak excellent English and mumbled a lot, so I'm not entirely sure what I did order except vegan sub.

Nevertheless, it was amazing.  The bread, which is vegan (I checked) was outstanding. Just the right amount of flakiness.  I loved that it had lettuce and sprouts, Daiya cheese, spicy peppers, pickles and Veganaise.  Soooo good.  I wish that it was located closer to my house. I would be there all the time, alternating between that and Locali!

Then I made a butternut squash kale casserole. I am not a huge butternut squash fan.  Something about the texture often creeps me out.  So more often than not, I roast it in the oven, usually too long so that it becomes mush, and force feed it to myself.  I found the recipe on VegWeb and it was perfect!
Butternut Squash, Spinach and Kale Gratin

Ingredients (use vegan versions):

   2 teaspoons olive oil
   3/4 cup onion, chopped
   3 garlic cloves, minced
   1 1/2 pounds fresh spinach, chopped 
   1 1/2 pounds kale, chopped 
   1 cup plain nondairy milk (I use soy milk or soy creamer)
   4 tablespoons vegan butter, divided
   1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
   salt and pepper, to taste
   nonstick spray
   1 large butternut squash, sliced into 1/8" slices
   vegan parmesan

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a large saucepan, heat  olive oil and saute the onions and garlic. Before the garlic turns brown, add the spinach and kale and cook until they are both wilted and fairly soft. 

2. Add the milk or creamer, 2 tablespoons of the vegan buttery spread, the nutmeg and salt and pepper. Cook on a medium flame until creamy and heated through.

3. Spray a casserole dish with oil and layer the squash then the spinach-kale mixture alternately until you end up with the squash layer on top. Sprinkle the top with vegan parmesan and dot with the remaining 2 tablespoon of vegan butter.  

4. Cover dish tightly with foil and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until bubbly. Remove foil and bake for another 5-10 minutes until the top is browned.

This goes great as a side dish or stuffed into a baked potato!

Makes: 8 servings, Preparation time: 10 minutes, Cooking time: 25-30 minutes

Seriously the butternut squash was cooked perfectly and made the kale taste like roasted, buttery perfection.  I may have gone a bit overboard on the Daiya cheese but Becca loves it so that's ok.  I just scraped some of it off.  We fought over the leftovers the next day!

My big fat vegan weekend!

This last weekend was so full of awesomeness that I can hardly contain it all. So I will do a play-by-play of the weekend.  On Friday night, we headed to Doomies in Hollywood because they offer breadbowls on Fridays.  I had intended to go in and get the vegan clam chowder because I had to know what that tastes like.  Luckily, our waitress gave us samples and I realized how epic the chili is.  The clam chowder tastes more like potato soup so I chose the chili breadbowl.   Becca went with the country fried steak with mashed potatoes.  Once again as I reported before the potatoes left something to be desired.  They taste like they come from a box.  Also, her country fried steak was a bit dry, though the outer breading is so delish that it really didn't matter.  As for my breadbowl, I was hoping for some vegan sourdough which didn't happen.  However, the bread bowl tasted like delicious toast and was HUGE.  You really can't tell from the picture but seriously it was gigantic.  We also ordered some buffalo chicken wings.  We ate them so quickly that we didn't even get a picture.  They were amazing.  So yes I would recommend Doomies to veggies in the area but just know that this is comfort food, no doubt about it so go there on a very empty stomach when you have a bunch of calories to use.

Saturday morning I woke up early for Animal Acres Chore Orientation Day!!! It was so amazing and fun.  The clouds were glaring at me in Los Feliz when I woke up but as I made the 45 minute trek to the farm, sun burst out from the clouds and the day looked be-yooo-tiful.  The birds made me feel right at home as they played a round of tag.  The turkeys, which are only 8 months old, have gotten ginormous.  Part of me feels so badly that their genetics have caused these birds to grow so rapidly, but then I remember that they are going to live the rest of their lives happily doing what they love.  I also finally got to meet Peeta and Maria, the goats Becca and I sponsor.  They were both sooo sweet, though neither of them really wanted to pose much for a picture.

 I "totalled" out the goat enclosure, ie cleaned up all the straw and goat poop from the pens and around their feeding area.  It was actually a lot more fun than I expected. The goats made the process much like a dance because you'd have to rake up the straw around them while they continued to eat as much as possible.  The work has made me very sore but in that great way that lets you know you've been burning cals.  And this was even better because I got the opportunity to make a difference.  I was able to put into practice my beliefs.  By helping Animal Acres, I was truly helping make the animals' lives better.

After I helped clean up after the goats, I joined a crew of people stuffing envelopes for donations.  That was mindless work but again helpful and necessary to keep Animal Acres the amazing place that it is!  Plus I was able to sit down for a bit and chat with some very nice folks.  It's always so great to meet like-minded individuals that just want to help farmed animals.  I felt very connected out there and seriously feel like it's a slice of heaven on earth. I badly wish that I had considered throwing my wedding there because it would have been GLORIOUS.  Perhaps I will have my next birthday party out on the farm :).

After volunteering with Animal Acres, I did my second favorite thing and attended a Spork Foods class!

Jenny and Heather were amazing as always.  They have a cookbook coming out this fall so they are cutting back the number of classes they do, but I was lucky enough to attend the South American Cuisine class.  We made feijoada (black bean soup), Columbian style rice, Venezualan chopped salad with cashews and avocado and pineapple coconut empanadas.  Sadly I only snapped a pic of the empanadas, but this was due to the fact that it was so awesome that I immediately stuffed my face rather than take pictures.  Seriously this was one of my favorite classes by far because everything turned out so well and actually seemed like something I can make without huge effort.  Some of the Sporkie recipes can feel complicated to a newbie cook like me so it's inspiring when I find things I know I can make.  Check out how perfect the desert empanadas came out!

For dinner, we had to go downtown for a birthday party.  The restaurant chosen was very heavy on the meat so we decided to meet for drinks and eat alone.  We went to Mac and Cheeza, a fun eatery in downtown LA that caters to vegans and omni's alike.  The menu is only mac and cheese but you get to choose the side, base (soy or cheese), additions and finally topping.  I went with the Baby Daddy (smallest size though still pretty big) with soy cheese, collard greens and jalapenos with a spicy walnut topping.  Becca chose the soy cheese with broccoli and crushed Doritos on top.  I didn't take a pic of hers since it wasn't wholly vegan.  I must say I wasn't really impressed with the quality of the mac and cheese.  The cheese was bland and the additions made it super salty.  I think maybe I will try this again but I will definitely get mac and cheese plain with perhaps a side of collard greens?

Now we're to Sunday in which I promised Becca that I would do Sunday Funday with her because I spent most of Saturday away. Becca was using the Living Social I gave her for Valentine's Day to get a facial.  We started the morning at Savyon Cafe on Pico. They had a vegan all-you-can-eat brunch for $8.99.  The mini vegetable wonton-y wrap-ups and stuffed pizza were incredible. Other highlights were the roasted potatoes and curry.  So YUM.

Then we headed to Santa Monica for the facial.  I stopped in at O'Brien's to have a mimosa and read a book while Becca was busy.  For dinner we decided to go back to Native Foods.  I ordered the meatball sub, which was awesome.  Chef Tanya is just amazing.