Three Day Juice Cleanse - Spring cleansing

 Howdy yall... this post has been haunting me. I've been trying to finish it for the last week and a half but between the Jewish holidays and finishing up my taxes and dealing with the barrage of hideous noises coming from the construction on my balcony, this post has been continuously tossed onto the back burner. Well today it all ends. I really want to tell you all about my experience on a three day juice cleanse, so here goes...
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I've spent the better part of last week starving... I kid I was actually on a juice cleanse and I'm happy
to report while it was challenging, it was very doable.

There are many variations of a juice "fast" or cleanse. I would say that they key to motivating yourself and staying on track is to find the cleanse that works for you. I based mine on one from Dr. Oz with some desperately needed modifications I found after the first day of trying to choke down my "lunch" for almost two hours. I was warned by my best friend before hand that he and his gf had tried the same cleanse and that there were some pretty disgusting "meals" ahead of me.

I was actually advised by someone who shall remain nameless to stay home and take it easy while doing the cleanse, as they experienced extreme explosive diarrhea when doing a similar cleanse and suffered from terrible head aches. I will not confirm or deny said side effects as it really depends on your own body. I will admit to some strangely coloured stool, and a mild pre bed time head ache but it really wasn't as bad as I expected, mind you I'm not addicted to coffee or sugar, which can make your cleanse much more physically challenging.

Some of you are probably asking why a juice cleanse? Well, it's a great way to give your digestive system a break, to help eliminate toxins from your body and restore your immune system. As some of you loyal readers know I've done a bunch of food based cleanses in the past however this is the first time I've done a juice cleanse. Any cleanse takes some effort and a lot of prepping in advance. This cleanse was fairly easy as long as you are diligent about drinking your next "meal" within three hours of the last one.

In the week following the cleanse I ate a vegan, gluten free diet. Its important to start slow so you don't shock the system with eating too much food or foods that are too difficult to digest. As much as I love eating meat I really enjoyed eating a vegan diet. I never felt sick after a meal and had absolutely  no stomach aches - which is something I felt a lot before doing the cleanse.  Since then I have started to incorporate meat a few times a week and dairy in the form of Greek yogurt and goats milk cheeses, but in very small amounts. The only time I've had a stomach ache was Monday night, which was the first night of Passover - I ate a few bites of a matzo ball soup which I'm positive had some sort of bullion powder or cube, since I felt bloated and awful very shortly after eating it. That stuff just kills my stomach and contains MGS which is terrible for you. One of the benefits to doing the cleanse is being able to to reintroduce food slowly so you can have a better understanding of what foods effect you negatively.

Some of the modifications I made were combining juicing with blending, adding/replacing some creamy/fatty fruits, and instead of the additional snack smoothy I made a fresh vegetable/ fruit juice using  fruits and vegetables not listed on the sheet below. I did not work out during the cleanse but in retrospect I could have easily included a work out in the afternoon. You will need a good blender or magic bullet to complete this cleanse, a juicer is a bonus.
TIP: juice your celery, kale stems and cucumber.
TIP: add 1/2 an avocado or banana to your lunch smoothy and heat you coconut oil before blending.
TIP: Replace one of your daily servings of flax seeds with chia seeds.
TIP: snack juice using beets, carrots, apple, ginger etc...

Happy cleansing, Passover & Easter to you all. xo

Spring Has Sprung-ish Pasta - Detox diet

Good day mates. Hope you all enjoyed the beautiful taste of spring we had in Ontario last week. Almost felt like summer for a hot minute, but at last it seems winter is still upon us judging by the major drop in temperature we've seen over the last few days. After an extremely long weekend (I had a cocktail event for 70 followed by a lunch cooking demo) I finally have some down time to blog about my culinary adventures in detoxing. Eating gluten and dairy free has been challenging but you really do start to get the hang of it after a few weeks. Pasta is just one of those things that needs cheese, or meat or something with fair amount of fat or richness, or so I thought until I concocted this delicious combination. They key is to fold a raw egg into the hot pasta to create a creamy carbonara type texture. This pasta is filled with lots fiber and yummy nutrients. Definitely a dish to try.

INGREDIENTS: 

TruRoots gluten free organic spaghetti 

fresh or frozen green peas 

frozen edamame - blanched 

hearts of palm (canned) - rinsed & chopped

artichoke (canned) - rinsed & chopped 

French beans - blanched & chopped 

infused olive oil (herbs, zest, garlic etc...)

apple cider vinegar - splash

garlic - minced 

lemon - zested & juiced 

egg

s & p 

fresh copped parsley 

PREP: Marinate canned veg in minced garlic, infused oil, lemon, vinegar, parsley, s & p. 

COOK: Blanch veg in pasta water after pasta is cooked until al dente. Toss a raw egg into the hot cooked pasta as well as all the veg and toss quickly to insure that it creates a creamy coating. Adjust seasoning.

Spring Cleansing - A pre birthday detox diet

For the past few years I've suffered from psoriasis. A fairly common skin condition that causes your body to over produce new skin cells at an accelerated rate. To the naked eye psoriasis looks like a red splotchy rash or patches of dry shiny skin. In the past I've seen Dermatologists and psoriasis specialist who always just prescribe me with gross sticky, oily, creams and ointments filled with nasty steroids that will probably lead to me growing a third eye or nipple or maybe even worse.  My amazing chiropractor Dr. Karen Zelinkovsky for months has been trying to convince me to get the food sensitivity test - she has a strong inkling that the psoriasis may be being triggered by an allergy. After kicking and screaming I finally agreed that it might just be a good idea to see what the Naturopath had to say. In the back of my mind I've always had a feeling I may be allergic to something but have always been too lazy, nervous, hesitant etc to look in to it further. Well now that I'm approaching 30 (shreek) I'm thinking it's the time to figure it all out. After seeing  Dr. Danielle Sinclaire I went ahead and booked an appointment to have a food sensitivity test. The Doc is 97% positive that I'm allergic to milk. Which is sad because I'm the kind of person that can't have any sort of baked good without a tall cold glass of 1%. I love milk, but it may just be my cryptonite.  My husband thinks it's the most hilarious thing, calling me a little baby every time I sit down to a cookie, or piece of cake with a glass of the white liquid devil. I think i'd take a crisp glass of organic milk over chardonnay any time. When I fist started to think about what my food allergy might be I was dreading the thought that it could possibly be tomatoes. Can you imagine The Tomato Snob being allergic to sweet succulent tomatoes. I'm really hoping it's milk and not tomatoes because the artichoke snob just doesn't have the same ring.  Anyhoo the test takes three to four weeks for the results to come in, so in the mean time my Doc has put me on a cleanse diet to clean out the pipes or something. So for the next three weeks I'm on the no dairy, no gluten, no anything fermented including balsamic, soy or any Asian condiments, no mushrooms, truffle salt, no beef or pork or shellfish and pretty much no fun. The positive side of all this is that I'm really being pushed to cook differently and I'm learning new things every day which for a self taught chef is wonderful. I'm taking lots of photos and mental notes of what I'm eating and doing, and will give you all some tips along the way if you're interested in a spring cleanse for yourself.  Sorry for the late in the week post, but business has been buzzing. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. 

- chow for now.

Detoxing for the food obsessed

Yesterday on twitter there was much talk about the best way to do a cleanse.  My advice straight from my fabulous doctor - Dr. Marla Shapiro recommends simply staying away from heavy dairy, eliminating yeast or fermented products, increasing water, fiber from whole grains, fruits and veg obviously and limiting your intake of fatty meat such as beef, lamb and going for lean protein like fish, chicken and turkey. Nuts and seeds are great too and an excellent source of healthy fat. I remember years ago I did a master cleanse - you wouldn't believe what I put myself through for six weeks. Just to give you an idea it involved eating only seeds, nuts and veggies, and drinking clay, psyllium husk and castor oil three times a day. To say the experience was hell is a complete understatement.  Giving your body a  cleanse is a great idea, but it needs to be assessable and somewhat satisfying. Leave it to Bon Appetit online to publish an amazing two week planned cleanse to make things easy. Remember to stock up on the thing on your safe list, and designate time on weekends and after work to prep so you don't find your self in the take out line at McDonald's if you forget your healthy snacks. Check out the wicked Food Lovers Cleanse and start the new year off right. * With any cleanse or new regime your body will react in some way. Expect to feel low energy or tired at first, you're body is detoxing from processed foods, or sugar so don't push yourself. You may also get headaches at first. You'll find by the end of the week to have more energy and begin to feel great!