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.

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.

Cold Cantaloupe Soup with Mint

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This is a great summer recipe.  Feels light and creamy, but packs a hell of a nutritional wallop.  Remember, there is 10% of your needed protein in 1/2 a melon, along with tons of vitamin A, vitamin C, and much more.

Ingredients

1.  1/4 cantalope melon, cut into chunks

2.  1/4 cup cold water or cold coconut water

3.  1 teaspoon dried mint, bloomed in the water (this means, pour your water into a small container and then put the mint in it, and let it sit for 5 minutes).

4.  1 pinch of salt, no more

Recipe

1.  Take al of your ingredients and put them in to food processor.  Blend until smooth (will be a little foamy, its supposed to be)

2.  Put into a bowl and sprinkle with more mint to look pretty.

3.  Take spoon, eat.  Yummy.

Quick and Easy – Cleanse Week Soups

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Cleanse week is an amazing period of time where you begin something new, get a headache and then wind up feeling so good that you wonder why you never did this before.  It can be intimidating however, so I have come up with an equation for soup that makes it much easier to do.  The end result of this soup math is a hearty soup that feeds 4 (or 2 dinners and 2 work lunches) and is great for cleanse week.  Remember, though, you want to eat as many raw veggies as you can in order to maximize results on the cleanse week.

Step 1:  16 ounces + 2 tablespoons of vegetable broth.  Check your ingredients list for sugar, you don’t want it.

Step 2:  Three of the following in edible chunks – 1 can of diced tomatoes, 4 stalks of celery, 4 large carrots, 1 leek, 1 sweet potato, 1 turnip, 1 rutabaga, 8 brussels sprouts, 1/4 head of cabbage, 1 cup green beans, 2 medium onions,  3 parsnips, etc.

Step 3:  1 tablespoon of one of the following dry spices:  basil, thyme, coriander, cumin, oregano, marjoram, ginger, allspice, clove, fennel.

Step 4:  2 tablespoons of one of the following:  salt, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, rice wine vinegar.

Step 5: (optional) for sweetness: 5 diced pitted dates, 5 diced figs, 1 diced beet,

Recipe:

1.  Put your soup pan over medium heat and add your vegetables and 2 tablespoons vegetable broth.

2.  When the veggies begin to steam in the pan, crank the heat to medium high, add the step 3 and step 4.

3.  Move these around often to prevent burning but you will begin to notice the smell nearly immediately of something delightful.

4.  Add your vegetable broth, stir well, reduce heat to medium low and cover.

5.  You can now cook this as long as you want but it will be ready to eat in about 15-20 minutes.

Literally, any of the item above can be mixed for a decent flavor.  Some, obviously will go together better than others, so feel free to try new things.

Clean Cinnamon Apple Soup wit Turnips

Posted on by Sam Boyd

A lot of times we neglect breakfast in this world.  On this site we tend to post recipes that in my opinion work in many different meal times, like pretty much anything with sweet potatoes, so it was nice to actually prepare something totally clean intended solely for breakfast.

Ingredients

1.  3 medium apples of any sort (we used pink lady’s for this one), peeled and cubed

2.  1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

3.  1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

4.  1/2 cup water

5.  1 small turnip peeled and cubed

6.  1 teaspoon dried mint

Recipe

1.  Put the water, cubed apple and spices into a small pot and simmer on medium for about 20 minutes

2.  Take a hand mixer to it or put into a food processor and blend until smooth

3.  It wil be a brownish color.

4.  Add 1/2 of the turnips on top.

This recipe is good either hot or cold, and the turnips have such a mild flavor that they the whole soup should taste like cinnamon apples.  It should keep about a week in the fridge.

Sweet Potato Chili Sweetness

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Ingredients

1.  8 tablespoons of organic tomato paste

2.  2 medium onions, cut into 1″ sections

3.  4 stalks of celery, cut into 1″ sections

4.  1 cup of sweet peppers cut into rings/slices

5.  1/8 cup minced garlic

6.  4 tablespoons of Arizona Dreaming spice mix from Penzey’s (ordinarily I would break it down for you, but its awesome, you should go to their website and buy some just for this recipe.  I get nothing for saying this, but maybe if a ton of people buy it I might, you never know).

7.  2 cups vegetable stock

8.  Enough salt to taste it.  You decide how much you want in there during the last step.  It will vary depending upon how much salt is in your vegetable stock.

9.  2 large, peeled and cubed into 1″ sections sweet potatoes.  Boil these with salt and set aside when finished.

Recipe

1. Put the onions, celery, peppers and garlic into a pan and sweat until soft.

2.  Add the spice, stir well, put heat to medium and lid for 10 minutes.

3.  Position self directly over the pot, remove lid, be in heaven for 8-12 seconds, then add the vegetable stock, relid for 20 minutes.  Here is where you add the salt, after the 20 minutes.  You want it to seem slightly too salty.  If you think it’s too salty, its perfect.  If you are not sure, add more salt.  Keep in mind that most tomato paste is not salted, so you want to have enough to carry over.  If you try to add it afterwards, it will not be as good.

4.  Add the tomato paste, stir well, it will be thick.

5.  Pour this over the sweet potatoes.  You can add cheese, but you won’t need it.  You can add yogurt, but you won’t need it either.

The picture is what my wife and I took to work last night separately.  Questions, email me or comment below.

Curried Carrots with Sweet Potatoes

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Ingredients

  1. 8 large carrots cut into 1/2” chunks
  2. 1 medium onion, cut into pieces
  3. 1 celery stalk, cut into ½” chunks
  4. 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1” chunks
  5. 1 quart of vegetable broth
  6. Salt and Pepper
  7. 1 teaspoon cumin
  8. 3 tablespoons of curry powder mix (kind of depends upon what mix you use or if you use a mix)
  9. ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
  10.   3 pitted dates
  11.   1teaspoon cilantro

Recipe

  1. Put onion, celery, dates and carrots into a large saucepan on medium heat and sweat until soft.
  2. Add Vegetable broth and bring to a boil
  3. Turn off heat and take a hand mixer to it till it is pureed and smooth
  4. Add spices and chunked sweet potatoes, lid and turn heat to medium high, stirring about every 2 minutes or so
  5. The potatoes should be soft and done after about 10-12 minutes.
  6. Cut the heat and serve.
  7. Enjoy and then pat self on back for eating so clean.
  8. Add Cilantro for an extra flavor and some green.

This recipe is cleanse friendly and features no oils, meats or sugars. Make sure that whatever curry powder you use has no sugar in it, and avoid paste as it will have some extra ingredients outside of the spices that you do not need. If you want to spice it up more add more cayenne pepper. To sweeten, add more dates (1-3) or add raisins with the potatoes.

Detox Smoothies

Posted on by Sam Boyd
The "Shut up and Drink it"
The “Shut up and Choke it Down” Smoothie

As we move into another Detox cycle (for those of you playing at home, please email Emily before you use these recipes) these will be some of the ways that I will be accomplishing my goal. I will be trying to eat/drink 10 cups of the 14 cups of veggies that I will be consuming every day during the week of 1/5/15 to 1/11/15. So I have come up with the following to make things easier on myself.

Green Dream (adjusted)

  1. 1 medium banana
  2. 1 cup cucumber
  3. 6 small stalks of celery
  4. 1 cup spinach
  5. 1 tablespoon ground ginger
  6. ½ teaspoon mint extract
  7. Enough water to make it smooth, probably about 8 ounces.

The total for this smoothie ends up being 3 cups veg, 1 cup fruit, best to drink in the AM or early in the day. Fruits are best early in the day due to glycemic control.

Breakfast Smoothie

  1. 1 medium banana
  2. 1 cup diced radish
  3. 1 cup cucumber
  4. 1 cup spinach
  5. ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  6. ½ tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa
  7. Enough water to make it smooth, probably about 4 ounces

The total for this smoothie ends up being 3 cups of veg, 1 cup fruit and contains cocoa which is known to be a metabolic mood stabilizer. However, there is not enough in this replace any kind of pharmaceutical mood stabilizer. In fact, the research is incomplete as to whether the amount you would have to take to noticeably increase mood would outweigh the negative of having an acidotic body environment.

“Shut up and Choke it down” Smoothie

  1. 2 cups spinach
  2. 1 cup cucumber slices (peeled, but not seeded)
  3. 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
  4. 2 ounces aloe vera juice
  5. 6 small stalks of celery
  6. 1 tablespoon of probiotic-filled fiber powder

This smoothie does not taste good, but the taste will grow on you if you like vegetables. However, it will provide a ton of benefits in the middle of the day and you can eat a piece of fruit (1/2 banana or 1 whole peeled orange) immediately afterward to get the taste out of your mouth. It contains 4 cups of veg, 2 bowel assisting agents, and enough fiber to correct any problem you might be having in your colon that fiber can fix. The benefits of this smoothie are huge and bowel centered. Please try it and tell me what you think. I will be drinking this once per day during the entire week.

Clean Butternut Squash & Pumpkin Soup

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This one is a warm hug when it comes to fall.  I was very happy we could adapt a typical recipe for Phase I.

Ingredients 

  1. 1 large butternut squash peeled, halved lengthwise and seeds removed
  2. 2 small baking pumpkins peeled, halved, and seeds removed
  3. 1 medium apple (we used an organic honeycrisp) peeled and diced. (about 8 ounces)
  4. 1 medium yellow onion
  5. 2 cups vegetable stock
  6. 1 bay leaf
  7. 1 tablespoon basil
  8. 1 tablespoon parsley
  9. 1 tablespoon chives
  10. 1 teaspoon celery seed
  11.  1 tablespoon chiffonated fresh basil
  12. 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, plus more as needed
  13. 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
  14. Immersion Blender

Recipe

  1. Roast the squash and pumpkin, we used 350 and for about 45 minutes.
  2. When done, cube and put in a pan with the veggie stock and all the dried herbs. You will not be cooking this anymore but you want all at the same temperature, plus the dried herbs will wake up a little bit.
  3. When simmering, or boiling grab your immersion blender and put in too fast spraying yourself with scalding hot soup and ruining your shirt.
  4. Get new shirt.
  5. Begin immersing at the correct speed until it comes together. It will have a consistency of runny baby food, but yummier.
  6. Sprinkle some fresh basil on it and there you go.   We ate this for dinner and for a hot breakfast.

 

 

Sweet Potato w/Date Sauce

Posted on by Sam Boyd

This started out as a breakfast today, but I think it is more of a dessert.  Hard to tell.

sweetpotatoesdaresauce

Ingredients

1.  1 medium sweet potato

2.  8 pitted dates chopped fine

3.  Salt n Pepper

Recipe

1.  Cut your sweet potato into smallish (1 to 1-1/2 inch sections) the thinner the better

2.  Pit your dates and chop them as fine as you can.

3.  Begin to boil both (as little water as you can in both, the more water you put with the dates, the more you will have to reduce it later.  I just covered them)

4.  When the dates begin to bubble up and potentially over, reduce heat to medium and take a mix-wand-thing to it.  Do this, spraying yourself in the hand and cursing, until it is smooth.  Put back on the heat to reduce.

5.  The date sauce should have a kind of caramelly color to it and be the consistency of soup or stew.

6.  Take your sweet potatoes out and salt very liberally.  A couple of grinds of pepper will do nicely as well.