I made it through week 2!!! If you missed it, I’m participating in Bridal Cleanse courtesy of Jen Newell ND and Blush Pretty. See my week 1 post here.
This second week wasn’t bad. I was a little worried with Thanksgiving this past weekend as it’s one of my favorite holidays. I love turkey, stuffing, mac and cheese casserole and all the lovely fall desserts that are mandatory with Thanksgiving. Jen did give us a pass to enjoy Thanksgiving however she did warn us that we would probably feel really crappy the next day. I was fully set on enjoying my food coma when news came that no one wanted to prepare a turkey this year so they were going to order in Swiss Chalet. Swiss Chalet?!? For Thanksgiving? Now I love me some Swiss Chalet but I can get that any time of the week any time of the year so as luck would have it I didn’t really have to miss out on Thanksgiving at all. It was easy to continue on the cleanse path (sort of…I’ll explain later) without the temptation. My sister in law and cousin in law (if that’s a term) are both vegetarian for the most part so they brought me lentil burgers and vegetarian chili to feast on. Now I’m not going to lie and say it was a good substitute for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner but it was definitely yummy and filling!
I however DID indulge in some treats. I had heard about Bunners Bakery but had never walked in. It’s a vegan and gluten free bake shop! I thought Thanksgiving weekend was the perfect time to indulge in some treats so I treated myself to a cinnamon bun and a brownie! The cinnamon bun was good…but the real deal is still better. The brownie however was incredibly rich and chocolaty – I would definitely go back to satisfy my chocolate craving!
So while these treats aren’t healthy by any means I’m hoping they were a cleanse friendly way to enjoy my long weekend 🙂 I also indulged in a decaf latte made with almond milk. That’s allowed right?
After my baking incident I’ve also learned I’m not great at following recipes. I much prefer learning a cooking process or method (à la Rachel Ray) and I need to spend max 30 minutes actually cooking. (Baking things in the oven like chicken for longer than 30 minutes is fine – as long as I don’t have to watch it!)
So here are few things I’ve been making during the cleanse:
Roasted Sweet potato, roasted cauliflower and broccoli soup.
Pumpkin spice smoothie. I altered the recipe Jen gave us as I kept forgetting to do one step where you need to prepare something the night before so where this is supposed to a pumpkin pie smoothie I just called it pumpkin spice ;). In my vitamix I threw in pumpkin puree, a banana (to thicken), almond milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, flax seed oil and a touch of maple syrup. Really yummy!
Quinoa porridge. I saw a few recipes for eating quinoa for breakfast so I took some leftover quinoa, added almond milk, cinnamon, dried cranberries, apple sauce and a maple syrup. I then warmed it all up in the microwave. This is a new favorite! I could even bring this to work, just warm up when I get there!
This one I just made up but it’s pretty easy LOL. Creamy hot chocolate! In a sauce pan I warmed up some almond milk, added raw cocoa powder, coconut sugar (this stuff is amazing, reminds me of the sponge toffee part of a crunchie bar!) and cinnamon. I kept tasting as I went. Probably not the healthiest snack but satisfied my chocolate craving and my craving for warm hot chocolate.
So what’s next for week 3? I’m in between phase 2 and 3 right now. Trying to eliminate soy and meat while still eating a lot of fruits and vegetables and still staying away from gluten and processed foods. So far I’m doing well. Since the weekend I’ve only had a piece of salmon which Jen said is ok during this phase if I feel like I need meat.
Not noticing a significant change physically but I haven’t had any new breakouts on my skin (old breakouts still there and still not healed!) so that is at least a nice change :). I’m enjoying cooking more since I have a plan in hand and as long as the ingredients I’m using are good quality just about anything goes!
Remember if you’re on twitter you can follow my cleanse journey (along with the other ladies participating) by searching #BridalCleanse.
If you have any QUICK and EASY recipes to share with me I’m all for it! I should warn you I’m not a big salad fan. Besides smoothies I much prefer warm foods to cold!