The Case for Supplementation

Posted on by Sam Boyd

When people think of supplements, they think of vitamins.  And rightfully so because the vitamin industry has been forcing the idea of taking a daily multivitamin down our throats for about 50 years or so.  And you know what?

THEY ARE RIGHT!!!

In fact, they are righter now than they were then.  Soil mineral depletion, lack of vegetables in daily diets, lack of daily fruits, and longer travel times for perishables are meaning that the food you are consuming is more bulk than it is nutritious.  Think of that, it means that when you eat an apple, you are getting an apple that is thought to be rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber, phytochemicals and natural sugars.  It is slightly acidic and was part of the mantra “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”.  All of this is still true, but mostly it is about 37% true now.  You read that right, apples are approximately 63% less nutritious than they were in the past.  Or, maybe you could read it like the apple you eat is 1/3 of what an apple used to be.  The positive part of this is that you are eating an apple and not a Ho-Ho.  It’s still good for you.  Let’s examine some stuff related to what I am saying.

Soil is a buildup of dead material that has built up over eons from natural life and death cycles of plants in a polyculture of ecological renewal.  This means that soil is basically made up of eons upon eons of multiple species of dead plants constantly growing, seeding, dying, regrowing etc in the same area.  (Quick question, does that sound like a farm to you? No, good, you are on board).  Farming over the ages has made up for this because technology did not really let you mess with the ecology of a wheat field until about 50 years ago.  If you grew wheat, you had one big yield for the year and then your farm was fallow over the course of the winter.  You did not have access to pesticides, nitrogen fertilizers, or GMO’s.  As a result of these changes, soil began to be depleted of its natural enrichments.  So, multiply this by 50 years and add in modern farming, where a farmer is using accelerated growing practices and getting 3 crops of wheat out of the same farmland because of modern technology.  I do not bring this up to say that what we are doing is wrong, I am not a horticultural botanist or chemist, but it is not under debate.

With a growing population and a more sedentary population in America, the food supply runs into two major issues.  First, it has to travel across the world to provide people with access to things that are typically not available in their area due to seasons or climate.  Second, the national advertisers glorify and edify processed foods that have little or no nutritional value, but do have the flavor profile of Awesome!!  These two factors mean that we eat less vegetables and fruits daily anyway.  Sure, we might grab an apple or banana in the morning, but when was the last time you snacked on 2 cups of celery stalks at your desk for a couple of hours.  Nope, we eat a granola bar and drink a bottled water and pride ourselves on making good choices.  Keep in mind, the best of terrible choices is not a good choice, and the worst of good choices is not a bad choice.  That means that just because you pick a low-fat granola bar filled with Aspartame and HFCS with a couple of raisins in it, does not mean that you made a good choice.  A better choice will always be an apple or banana or something else that did not come from a box.

This is depressing.  But the good news is that Nutraceuticals (Supplements, if you will) have come a long way and are now better than ever.  It is possible to get all of the fun phytochemicals, vitamins and minerals from supplementation.  Taking a high quality multivitamin in the morning (especially one that’s isotonic in derivation and delivery) really does have an impact on your health.  Aside from just a multivitamin, there are supplements that offer nearly pharmaceutical dosage equivalents of hard to get vitamins like D, B and K.  Antioxidants and Minerals are also available in dosages that are extremely hard to find in naturally occurring foods.  For example, Resveratrol, a supercharged antioxidant that comes mostly from dark grape skins (red wine) is available in a supplement that is equivalent to drinking 10 cups of wine, which is not good for you.

At the end of the day, the best thing you can do for your health is to mix the two.  Eat more vegetables and fruits daily while also supplementing in your daily life.  The arguments against supplementation do not ring true anymore.  It is unrealistic to expect normal, everyday people to take in enough plants to make up for the deficiencies in the modern Western Diet.  Supplementation is the best option to increase health.  In addition, it is widely (albeit anecdotally) known that an increase in vitamins and minerals directly correlates with an accelerated metabolism and weight loss.  Think about that for a minute, then call someone who knows more than you do to get their opinion about supplementation.  Better yet, call a Health and Wellness coach and see what they can do to help you today.

Italian Veggie Stew with Portobello Mushrooms

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This is a basic italian stew that is super hearty while being great for cleanse week!  Cleanse away!!

Ingredients

  1.     1 can of organic tomatoes, drained and rinsed
  2.     6 medium stalks of celery, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
  3.     2 medium onions, one diced fine, the other chopped into 1/2 inch chunks
  4.     2 Portobello caps, cut into 1/2 inch strips, set aside
  5.     2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar and another 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
  6.     1.5 cups organic vegetable broth
  7.     1 teaspoon each of the following:  thyme, oregano, basil (i used 2 teaspoons), minced garlic, celery flake
  8.     1 bay leaf
  9.     1 pinch of dried chives or dried scallions (for garnish, gotta look pretty!)

Recipe

  1. Preheat an oven to 450 degrees.
  2. Combine vegetable broth, onions, celery and spices into a medium pan and put on medium heat for about 5 minutes
  3.  While that is coming to temp, place your mushrooms on a pan and drizzle with 2 tablespoons balsamic and put in a hot, hot, hot oven to roast.
  4.  The soup base should be warmed at this point, but not boiling yet.  Add the tomatoes and crank the heat to high to bring to boil!
  5.  Add the spices and bay leaf and cover for about 10 minutes.
  6.  Pull out the mushrooms (which should be roasted) and se aside to cool a little.
  7.  Check on your stew, it should be boiling.  Pull the lid off and add the vinegar.  Stir briskly until you cannot smell the vinegary smell anymore.  (A lot of times I treat Balsamic like wine, you cook it to get the alcohol/vinegar out.  What you are left is a less acidic version of the flavor you wanted).
  8.  Pull it off the heat and set aside for 5 minutes, lidded.  It should come together.  If you want it thicker, leave the lid off.
  9. Put in a bowl, put the mushrooms on top, real pretty like, and add the chives/scallions

Different than usual, this recipe really only makes 2 servings (because I hate reheating Portobellos) but it’s pretty true to multiply out if you want more servings.  I like this one and its pretty easy.  Please give me feedback and let me know what you think of this one.  We enjoyed it and it was hearty and filling, which is sometimes missing in a detox or cleanse week.

Rice’d Cauliflower and Why Is It Awesome?

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Anyone who has looked at any of our recipes, especially in the last few months, have been seeing a lot of riced cauliflower.  I found myself, in our semi-paleo, mostly gluten-free cooking lives missing a couple of things that were staples only a few short years ago.  To put it mildly, there are some things that quinoa cannot replace (and for me that list is long).  We wanted to find something that could go with cheese, be under chili, be used in asian food, be used as a main dish if it required it…all of the things that I missed about rice.  I am not saying that you should not eat rice, except white rice, don’t eat that, but whole brown rice is fine.  So here is how it happened:

One night, we were cooking in our tiny kitchen and were trying to figure out what to put with some salmon that had a soy sauce and maple flavored glaze on it (trust me it’s awesome, I will post that the next time we make it).  We wanted rice, but we were trying to be good, and quinoa was a bad choice here because of awfulness.

“What about using the cauliflower from the cauliflower crust pizza?”, his beautiful wife asked?

“You mean, like rice or something?”, replied the spectacular bald (by choice) man.

“Sure”, she said sweetly, with musicality not usually found in a voice.

“I don’t know, that’s kind of weird”, said the dashing handsome fellow.

Or something like that.

At any rate, we thought we had come up with something.  We were wrong, and very late to the party.  But, I know that we are not the only ones, simply based on the emails I have gotten about this.  So here is some info.

1 cup of cauliflower rice contains:  0.6g fat (0%), 45mg sodium (1.5%), 459mg Potassium (12%), 3g Dietary Fiber (8%, again we use higher fiber standards here at THU), 3.8g protein (6% – please see my post about trace protein in vegetables), and approximately 3% of daily calcium, 100% daily Vitamin C, 6% daily Iron, 18% daily Vitamin B-6, 6% daily Magnesium, 20% daily Vitamin K, 6% daily Phosphorous, 12% daily Manganese and a Glycemic Load of 2 (a typical daily target is 100).  These are all based on a traditional 2000 calorie diet, we typically use higher nutritional standards here, but this is for the normal people out there.  It also helps to cut down cytokine production and reduces inflammation because of the high amount of antioxidants (Vitamin C, beta-cryptoxanthin, cinnamic acid, ferulic acid, kaempferol) and is known to be a great source of hard to pronounce phytochemicals that can provide health benefits for people who suffer from Crohn’s Disease, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, Rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis and inflammatory bowel disease.

White rice does not do any of that.

The other awesome part of cauliflower rice is that it is very friendly texture wise based on what you want.  I typically do not even cook it but put it on the bottom of anything that is sauce-rich, because the heat from the sauce with warm and soften it without destroying all the benefits.  If mush is your preference, then you can microwave it easily.  It stir-fries nicely and in about the same amount of time that regular cooked rice does.  It packs such a nutritional wallop that I feel like anything I add it to becomes healthier, which it does.  Plus, you are adding a cup of nutrient rich vegetables and removing a cup of nutrient poor random carbs.  It only makes sense.

Here is how I make it. Take notes, because this is complex as all get out.

Ingredients

  1.  1 head of cauliflower

Recipe

  1.  Remove the big stemmy part and all of the green leaves.
  2.  Break into small enough parts to fit into a food processor.
  3.  Turn food processor on and run until there are no pieces larger than a pencil eraser.
  4. Put into a bowl and use however

A normal head of cauliflower should make 3-4 cups of “rice”.  Quick note:  Cauliflower will typically keep 2-3 weeks in the not destroyed form.  But it will only keep for 3-4 days once you rice it, so keep that it in mind.

Enjoy.  If you have any awesome ideas that you are using it for, let me know.  Also let me know what you think of this article in the comments below or on Facebook.

Why Should I go without protein for a week?

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This question is a red-flag for most personal trainers, nutritionists, and general health types who claim that the proper amount of protein to eat per day is some sort of crazy equation involving body mass, body weight, basal metabolism and the ratio to starch and….hey wait, come back, I wasn’t done talking yet…

Seriously though, you will hear many people talk about a reset, detox, cleanse, or whatever.  This is simply the process that some of us go through to jumpstart ourselves in our health again.  The reason it is misleading is that it is nearly impossible to go without protein, and if you try, you may end up in the hospital.  So, you can forego eggs, meats, beans, etc for a week and be perfectly safe.  The reason, wait for it, is that there is protein in everything, in trace amounts.  And in some vegetables, that trace amount can be quite the significant amount.  For example, there is only 1g in 1 cup of raw spinach.  However, when you make a salad with 1 cup of raw spinach, 1 medium tomato sliced, 1/4 cup broccoli, 1/4 cup of cauliflower with some balsamic vinegar, you end up with a salad that has about 6g of protein in it.  That ends up being a ratio of 3g of protein per cup of vegetables that you eat.  This may not sound like a lot, but it is enough.  That is the important thing.  You are not trying to pack on pounds of muscle during a reset, detox or cleanse.  In fact,  if you work out, you are doing it wrong.

The simple fact is that during a “cleanse” week for us, we are averaging about 18-25g of protein per day, or about 35% of the average that is required for a sedentary lifestyle.  Look at that sentence again.   When you cleanse, you are trying to reset yourself.  You are super charging your body with nutrients and phytochemicals and micronutrients to jumpstart your metabolism.  You are going to put about 1200 calories of vegetables and fruits (about 10 cups or so, give or take) into your body and get yourself ready to jumpstart back into fitness and health acquisition.  That is why we do it.  That is why we go without protein for a week.

“But how can I work out?”  Easy, you don’t.  During “Cleanse” week you are not working out.  You are resetting.  And, you are sleeping.  A lot more than usual.  Sleep is a much more active process than people realize.  While you sleep, your body is going through a set of tasks that include: cleaning, detoxifying, mineral redistribution, rest, filtration and more.  The result, is that you will end up urinating first thing in the morning and you start your day again.  During a cleanse, you are giving your body all the things it needs to do all of this and more.  As a result, you will need more sleep as your body is working overtime since you gave it so many resources to use.  See, your body is kind of dumb in the way it works.  If you give it something, it will use all of it and not stop until its gone.  When you fill it with sugar, it will use all of it, including turning it into fat for later use.  But all the sugar is gone, so its happy.  When you fill it with vegetables and fruits, you are giving it vitamins to use, minerals to use, nutrients to use, phytochemicals to use, antioxidants to use, and so forth.  These are the things that your body uses to detoxify, so that is what it will do.  That is what eating clean is all about.

Why only 7 days?

Because you don’t need more than 7 days.  The body is very efficient at eliminating things and repairing itself.  But mainly, it is hard on your body to make it work this hard for longer than 7 days.  The laws of diminishing returns also tell us that the impact goes down drastically after 7 days.  People will lose weight and feel awesome a few days into the cleanse, and there is no reason positive benefit to extending it.  However, keep in mind, you can cleanse about every 3 months for renewed vigor and impact in your health.  Resetting is always a good idea.  There more reasons to only cleanse for 7 days.  There is something called Ketosis that occurs when you eliminate certain things from your diet, wholesale.  For example, if you were to eat only protein with limited fats and absolutely no carbohydrates, you enter what is called a ketogenic state.  I will not go into that for the sake of this post, but it is a state that can be beneficial to you if you shoot for it.

Most people don’t know what they are doing and enter into a sub-ketogenic state and this is not the same and is not really benefitting them.  In fact, a sub-ketogenic state is what happens when you eat a lot of protein and just enough carbohydrates to ruin ketosis.  This is great for quick weight loss when you are in your 20’s, but it is not good for overall health in the long run.  Take this unscientific case study as an example:  A 53 year-old woman is trying to lose 25 pounds in about 6 weeks.  This is doable, safely, actually.  But she chooses to eat 6 ounces of chicken and 1/2 cup of brown rice 5 times per day and work out four times per week.  Does this look familiar?  So, she does this and about 3-4 weeks in has lost 16-18 pounds and plateaus, and additionally she begins to be tired, maybe a little depressed and starts having to drag herself to the gym.  She begins to lose motivation.  So to make herself feel better she goes out with some friends and has a couple of drinks and a nice italian dinner, after all, she has earned it, right?  The result, was a loss of motivation to keep going, a shift in diet back to old habits,  a rapid weight change back to the original weight in a couple of weeks and an actually slower metabolism.  Where did she go wrong?  “Well, she should have stayed on track and not gone out blah blah blah…”  WRONG!  Actually she started off track by limiting her diet so much that her body had to use up so many nutritional stores that she was actually nutritionally starving herself.  A protein and carb based diet like that is not enough for people over 30.  She needed to greatly increase her vegetable intake to reset her body.  With a healthy diet and clean eating, there is no plateau until your body has righted itself.  There are stories of people who have lost hundreds of pounds just by shifting their diet a little to eating clean.

Comment below with questions, hit us up on FB with questions, email me, whatever.

Egg Muffins

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Egg Muffins are great.  More importantly outside of being awesome and tasty, they make people want to measure everything happy in their warm place.  Basically, egg muffins, like soup, is an equation.

Take the ones pictured for instance, to make twelve of them.

Ingredients

  1.  12 eggs, beaten till liquid and slightly frothy, the main thing is you don’t want anything to make them harder to pour
  2. 4 ounces of diced orange pepper, measured with a scale
  3. 2 cups cooked spinach (yields far less)
  4. 4 ounces of Feta cheese, measured with a scale
  5. KEEP EVERYTHING SEPARATE

Look at them, do you see anything in common.  Yup they are divisible easily into 12.  For example, each muffin will consist of 1 egg, 1/3 ounce diced orange pepper, 4 ounces of uncooked spinach, and 1/3 feta cheese.  But it would be a superb pain in the but to make that one muffin, so you batch cook.

Recipe (there will be some things in this that look weird)

  1.  Spray a muffin pan with non-stick spray.  Don’t worry it won’t touch your food, it’s for heat conductivity.
  2.  Put a muffin cup in each space.  I prefer to get the pretty awesome aluminum foil ones like these so that the heat conducts well and you get some crunchy edges.  Sounds weird, but hey it’s my recipe.
  3. Pour roughly 1/12 of your egg mix into the cups.  You may have to practice to get it right.  I say add a little bit at the beginning, you can always go back.
  4. Add 1/3 ounce diced turkey, 1/3 feta cheese and about , 1/12 of the spinach.  The spinach is the weird one, I actually spread it out on a cutting board after its cooked and divide it into 12 piles.  You may not be this anal or weird about it, but I am.   I suggest adding the cheese last (I should have said that earlier).
  5. Bake in the oven at 350 for about 20 minutes or so.
  6. Take out and let rest until you can easily get the cups out without burning yourself, about 20 minutes
  7. Before packaging them, two things:  remove the cups (don’t reuse them) and let them come to room temperature before attempting to store them.  They become a condensation making mess in the container they are in if you put them in there too hot.

These are good and pretty easy to make.  1 of them goes well with a bunch of veggies, 2 of them is a meal (with a bunch of veggies on the side).  They travel well, reheat well and are quite tasty.

Now, you can substitute anything in these.  I like 2 veggies with feta, or 1 veggie and turkey with cheddar, the point is you can do whatever you want with them.  They are quite versatile.

Creole Shrimp and “Rice”

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This is quite the uncomplicated recipe, but it ends up being awesome due to a simple trick of resting it.

Ingredients

  1. 20 ounces of raw and peeled jumbo shrimp
  2. 1 medium green pepper chopped
  3. 1 medium onion chopped
  4. 3 8″ stalks of celery chopped
  5. 1 tablespoon of coconut oil
  6. 2 tablespoons dried lemon peel
  7. 1 large cauliflower, riced
  8. 2 tablespoons salt, yes it seems like a lot, but wait for it
  9. 2 tablespoons minced garlic
  10. 1 tablespoon “Penzey’s Cajun” spice mix.  (Now, we use pretty much only stuff from Penzey’s, but I assume that any Cajun spice would work for this.  You can get this particular spice here.  It’s delightful.  We do not receive any compensation for hawking their stuff by the way.)

Recipe

  1. Take the onion, pepper, and celery and put in a skillet with the salt and oil.  Sweat this on medium heat until the onions are translucent, should take about 10 minutes or so.  (This is why you are using so much salt, when you cook salt without water, the lack of alkilinity in the mixture causes the salt to break down into its component minerals, thus seems less salty.)
  2. Add the lemon peel and garlic at this point and turn to medium high heat.
  3. Add the shrimp and remaining spices.  Give a couple of good tosses to coat it all and cover for about 2 minutes.  Repeat this process until the stuff is all cooked through, mainly the shrimp.
  4. Remove all of this from the pan and put into a bowl or dish and cover with foil for about 15 minutes.  Everything should come down to room temperature.  This is a good secret in a lot of shrimp cooking.  It will finish cooking and not be rubbery.
  5. While that is happening, take the entire riced cauliflower and put in the same skillet (hope you used a big enough one, if not you have an extra pan to wash, huh.) Increase the heat to high stirring often, the goal is to heat the cauliflower without losing the crunch and without it becoming soggy, this should not really take more than 5 or so minutes.
  6. Take of the heat and combine the shrimp mixture with the cauliflower.
  7. Now, you have two choices and they depend upon how big your dish and skillet are.  I did not mix it all together in the skillet because I had a really big bowl.  I mixed it in that.  If your skillet is big enough, you can mix it there.

We made this for a dinner for a couple of friends and it was a big hit.  The amazing thing about it is that it needs 2 tablespoons of oil and 20 ounces of shrimp and amply fed 5 people (counting myself twice).  That means that each person took in 1/2 tablespoon of oil, 4-5 ounces of shrimp, and 2-2.5 cups of veggies here.  That’s awesome.  And I do not want to hear about how it’s not “Creole” it’s Cajun blah blah blah.  There is citrus and slight caramelization on the veggies, not cajun things.  Don’t give me any crap people   🙂  Please try it out and let me know what you think of it.

Southwest Chicken Chili

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This is a milder and tangier chili recipe meant to be better for summer.  I find that a robust chili is better in the winter, this one feels more summery to me.

Ingredients:

  1.  16 ounce of chicken breasts cooked off and set aside to rest completely (reserve any liquid that came off)
  2. 3 cans of diced tomatoes washed and drained
  3. 2 cans of light red kidney beans, washed and drained.
  4. 3 medium onions chopped into 1/2 inch chunks
  5. 6 cloves of garlic, minced
  6. 10-12 mini peppers sliced into 1/4 slices
  7. 1 teaspoon of the following:  celery seed, coriander, cumin, white pepper, lemon peel
  8. 1 tablespoon of the following:  paprika, dried chives, black pepper
  9. 2 tablespoons of the following:  tomato paste, salt, lime juice
  10. 3 cups of veggie broth
  11. 1 cup of water

Recipe:

  1.  Put all the veggies in the pot:  onions, tomatoes, peppers, garlic.  Sweat for about 10 minutes on medium heat, stirring often.  If you hear sizzling, turn your heat down a little.
  2. Add the liquid:  veggie broth, water, bring to a boil over medium high heat.  Cover to speed up the process.
  3. When boiling, add the beans and the chicken liquid (yummy, chicken liquid, let’s call it stock instead).
  4. Uncover and keep uncovered until boiling again.  Add the chicken and spices into the liquid and stir vigorously to get the paste all mixed in.
  5. Reduce heat to low, cover and let cook like this for about 30 minutes or so, stirring every so often to keep it from sticking, but not too often as you don’t want to lose your heat.
  6. Turn off the heat and let come to above room temperature.  We use a dutch oven for most soups so it keeps heat for a long time.  I let it sit for about 4 hours, then it’s cool enough to eat.  You know your cookware, so you should do it how you see fit.
  7. I am notorious for undersalting my food, this one is good for me, but you may want more salt in yours.  Do as you wish.

Cajun Chicken with “Rice”

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Ingredients:
1. 8 drumsticks (I use drumsticks or dark meat for this recipe because it provides a stronger chicken flavor. If you are really looking to go lighter, use chicken breasts)
2. 1 head of cauliflower “riced” (this means break it into chunks and put in a food processor until about the same size as rice)
3. 1 can of diced tomatos well rinsed.
4. 3 cloves of garlic, minced.
5. 1 medium onion, minced.
6. 1 teaspoon of the following: paprika, salt, celery seed, garlic powder, black pepper, onion powder, oregano, red pepper, caraway, dill, turmeric, cumin, bay, cardamon, basil, marjoram, rosemary and thyme. (Looks like a lot, right. That’s cause it is. Use any decent cajun seasoning that has no sugar in it, that’s what I did. We use Cajun Seasoning from Penzey’s: https://www.penzeys.com/online-catalog/cajun-style-seasoning/c-24/p-351/pd-s)
7. 1 tablespoon dried cilantro
8. 3 tablespoons vegetable broth/chicken broth

Recipe:
1. Clean and wash your chicken, put the 3/4 of the rub on it generously, then put in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes, or until done. Drain off the liquid into a pan, then cover with foil.
2. In the saucepan, add the tomatos to the chicken liquid, bring to a simmer, cover for 10 minutes.
3. Toss the cauliflower in the remainder of the rub and add to the pan with the vegetable broth and recover for another 10 minutes.
4. Take lid off, smell, say yummy.
5. Stir the mixture around until well mixed, then leave uncovered for abot 10 minutes on medium heat.
6. Unwrap your chicken and pour whatever liquid is left onto your “rice”.
7. Put on plate, sprinkle with cilantro, eat.
8. Say yummy again.
This recipe will make approximately 4 servings, each having 2 cups of veggies each with about 3.5-5 ounces of chicken. We ate, two, then packed the other two up for work lunches.

Mango Chicken with Grilled Carrots

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Ingredients:

1.  Between 8-12 chicken drumsticks or breasts

2.  4 Mangoes

3.  1lb carrots, halved, cut into 4 inch pieces

4.  1/2 teaspoon of the following dried seasonings:  pepper, thyme, dill, basil, sage, mustard seed, clove, allspice, star anise, chives and 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard, red wine vinegar, veggie broth

5.  1 tablespoon salt

6.  1 cup hot water

7.  2 teaspoons red wine vinegar, lime juice

8.  10 mini sweet peppers

Recipe:

1.  Combine water, all dried spices and all wet ingredients into a blender/ninja cup and blend until all the spices are shredded

2.  Split this mixture into 1/2 cup batches

3.  Combine 1/2 cup spice mixture and drumsticks into a Ziploc bag to marinade for a few minutes

4.  Take the other half of the spice mix and combine in a new blender cup/ninja cup/whatever will blend with the mangoes, blend until smooth.

5.  Liberally salt your carrots and peppers then  place on indirect heat on the grill, come back inside

6.  Move your Chicken to a bowl, throw away this marinade, you don’t want salmonella

7.  Put chicken on the grill and grill until done (mine took about 18 minutes on medium fire)

8.  Pull your peppers off when you put the chicken on, they will burn otherwise

9.  Cut your peppers into 1/4 inch slices

10.  The carrots should be done about the same time as your chicken.

11.  I pulled the chicken off and put in a bowl with the mango sauce while I got my plates ready

12.  I plated in this order (bottom to top):  carrots, sauce, chicken, sauce, peppers, chives over the top to make it purty.

13.  This made enough to take 2 extras to work.  Enjoy.

 

Cauliflower Soup

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This is a perfect soup for cleanse week.  It is super easy and is ridiculously good.

Ingredients

1.  1 whole head of cauliflower, stem removed, greenery removed, cut/broken into chunks

2.  1 medium onion, diced fine

3.  5 stalks of celery, diced fine

4.  32 ounces of Vegetable Broth (low sodium is best, but whatever, as long as no sugar)

5.  1 teaspoon each of:  minced garlic, salt, pepper, dried marjoram, dried basil

Recipe:

1.  Combine all ingredients in a pot big enough to hold it all

2.  Boil/Cook on high until all is soft.

3.  Either use a wand-mixer or pour it all into a food processor.  Blend it till it is smooth and creamy.  (Yes, creamy, there is no cream in this dish, but the dish ends up being super creamy and butter tasting, don’t ask me).

4.  Eat this in as many or few portions as you want, we usually get about 4 good size portions out of it, but I think I could eat the whole thing and not feel bad at all about it.