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.

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.

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.

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.

Emily’s Top Ten List of Things I Learned in Detox Week

Posted on by Sam Boyd

Today is the last day of detox and I’m so ready. Tomorrow brings proteins and healthy oils! How I’ve missed them!  But that said, detox wasn’t bad MOST of the time and I’ve learned some things during this first phase…

1. Eating only fruits and veggies does not make you poop all the time. It does make your poop far more tolerable, however. As in no smell.  My poop doesn’t stink (and that’s not just my ego talking).

2.  I despise baby carrots.  HATE.  THEM.  The companies that make them take the leftover part of the best parts of the carrot and then cut it to a desirable miniature size.  But they taste like dirt.

3.  I also despise artificial sweetener.  I have even yet to taste a form of stevia or food with stevia that is remotely tolerable to me.  I’d rather just have food without sugar than with fake sugars.  I’m going to try some recipes with stevia and see how that goes.  Jury is still out at this point.

4.  Squash is my everything food.  The wide variety, the buttery or nutty flavor that is just subtle enough to adhere to any food mood, the ease of cooking… SQUASH!  I love you.

5.  Dates are AMAZING.  They are amazing alone or in dishes as a natural sugar.  They have made me very happy this week.  DATES!

6.  Now this is actually a revelation:  I DON’T NEED COFFEE.  This may shock all who know me but I just don’t need it.  I still enjoy it (which I know because I may have snuck a sample at Trader Joes yesterday) but I don’t need it to wake up or to be happy or to be functional.

7.  I have done well enough eating like a vegan this week but I really missed yogurt.  And protein.  And olive oil.  And meat.  And fish.  One week is long enough for detox and I’m no vegan.  And raw food all the time just isn’t my thing.

8.  I am getting more mindful of slipping more vegetables into my kids’ diet because of the way I’ve been eating.  My boys are so picky!  But I’m figuring out ways to modify the main dish I’m making so they get some part of it.  The immersion blender is my new bff.

9.  I am more emotionally balanced without excess sugar.  I’m not saying I don’t get angry ever but I calm down more quickly and get upset less overall.

10.  This detox has affected more than just what I eat.  I’ve been keeping my house cleaner.  I’ve been getting a bit more sleep and going to sleep easier than before.  I’ve been waking up easier.  I’ve been getting enough water.  I’ve been getting along better with my husband.  I’m not saying my life is perfect– my kids have still been bouncing off the walls ALL WEEK– but I’m saying it has all been just a bit better.  And some days, that’s just enough.

And all this has just been the first week!  Can’t wait to see what comes next!  — Emily