I bet you thought that now that I’m done with my cleanse, I’d go straight back to posting recipes for things that included a lot of cheese, cream, flour, and or/chocolate.  Well… that was the plan, it’s just that things don’t always go according to plan.  This post was supposed to be about a chocolate stout layer cake with boozy peanut butter frosting, which I made yesterday for Trevor to celebrate his newfound employment.  It was going to be delicious and towering and gorgeous.  And, well… it was delicious, but let’s just say I’ve added “learning to make attractive layer cakes” to my 2012 kitchen to-do list.  The recipe is decadent and definitely worth sharing, so I might have to try again soon, but if you see the below you’ll understand whyI’m holding off for now… not too pretty.

And so, we have my unexpectedly delicious and healthy dinner instead!  This soup was super fast to throw together, very flavorful, filling, and packed with good nutritious stuff.  It does have cheese and cream, so it’s not exactly cleanse-worthy, but it’s a good extension of my healthy eating plan.  I was originally following this recipe on Lucullian delights, but then thought of this amazing roasted broccoli recipe (which I like with toasted almonds in place of the pine nuts), and decided to add the flavor-profile of that dish to the soup.  I also added leeks, for depth, and served the soup with a few raw broccoli florets on top, which added a great textural contrast.  This one’s definitely going in the books for when I need a quick dose of good green stuff, or even for an easy and fairly elegant first course soup.  You probably have most of the ingredients on hand, so give it a try sometime!

Broccoli and Edamame Soup with Almonds and Parmesan

Inspired by this and this.  Serves 3-4.

• 2 or 3 medium heads broccoli
• 1 leek
• 3 scallions
• 2 TBS olive oil
• 1 c. frozen, shelled edamame
• 4 c. chicken stock
• 1 TBS lemon juice
• 3 TBS heavy cream
• 1/3 c. grated parmesan
• 1/4 c. toasted almonds for garnish
• freshly ground black pepper

1. Remove the stalks from the broccoli and the green parts and roots from the leeks and scallions, and rinse all vegetables, being sure to rinse inside the leek.  (How to clean leeks.)  Slice the leeks and onions into thin rounds, and roughly chop the broccoli into florets – reserve a few florets for garnishing the soup.  Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large stockpot, then add leek and scallion and sautee for 3-4 minutes, until soft.  Add broccoli and edamame and cook for another 3-4 minutes, until broccoli is fragrant and beginning to soften, then add chicken stock.  Bring to a boil, then simmer gently for 15 minutes.
2. Puree soup with an immersion or regular blender.  Stir in lemon juice, cream, and parmesan, and taste for seasoning.  Add freshly ground black pepper to taste, then garnish with toasted almonds, broccoli florets, and an extra sprinkle of parmesan.

Week 2 did not go so hot.  I just … got tired.  I stopped for a sandwich one night on the way home from work because going to the grocery store sounded unbearable.  I had a muffin at our staff meeting.  I went out for lunch to celebrate the arrival of some new coworkers, and the departure of two others.  I may or may not have had a glass of wine while making the golden beet and barley risotto.  It happens.  But, what I did not do was beat myself up over it.  Or give up entirely.  Yes, I let my standards slide a little.  But I also made some excellent new healthy dishes, like roasted fennel stuffed with cranberries, chestnuts, and mushrooms.  And meyer lemon pesto.  And toasted quinoa and kalamata salad.  So all in all, it was worth it.

The menu below does not reflect exactly what I ate last week, but it’s pretty close, and I have tried and tested all of the recipes on it.  I did let a small amount of cheese and bread sneak onto my plate, and I’ve decided to leave that reflected below, because everyone needs a treat sometimes.  I also apologize for the minimal number of pictures, (I know, I know, bad blogger move after bad blogger move!), but I’m feeling a little bit rejuvenated after taking a photography break, so hopefully I’ll have some more recipes with better pictures up soon.  I hope you find the menu useful in generating your own ideas for healthy eating!

Additional “Cleanse” Posts:

• Winter cleanse, week 1
• Cleanse preview post

The Menu – Week 2

Day 8: Breakfast – Greek Yogurt w/ Fresh Strawberries and Granola; Lunch – leftover Chicken-Chili Stew and green salad (from my work cafeteria); Dinner – Roasted Fennel with Cranberries, Chestnuts, and Mushrooms (scaled down for 1 or 2 servings)

Day 9: Breakfast – leftover Indian Potatoes with (fresh) Scrambled Eggs; Lunch – leftover Fried Chickpeas and green salad (from my work cafeteria); Dinner – Lemony Gold Beet Barley Risotto (omit the cheese)

Day 10: Breakfast – Mango-Grapefruit-Berry Smoothie (juice from 1 grapefruit, 1/2 c. frozen mango, 1/2 c. frozen berries, 1 c. soymilk) plus 1 slice whole wheat toast w/ peanut butter; Lunch – leftover Gold Beet Risotto; Dinner – Peanut-buttery Carrot and Butternut Squash Soup (double the tomato paste and don’t be shy with the cayenne!)

Day 11: Breakfast – Oatmeal w/ 1/2 c. berries and 1 TBS maple syrup; Lunch – Leftover carrot and squash soup; Dinner – Quinoa, Kalamata Olive, and Lemon Cakes (mine didn’t form cakes at all, so I just toasted the mixture for about 5 minutes, stirring once, and ate as a salad) plus green salad

Day 12: Breakfast – 2 scrambled eggs w/ 1 slice whole wheat toast; Lunch – Leftover quinoa/olive/lemon cakes; Dinner – Large green salad w/ 1 pear, 1/4 c. dried cherries, and 1/4 c. pecans

Day 13: Breakfast - Greek Yogurt with Rhubarb and Pistachios; Lunch – Fried egg on english muffin w/ Meyer Lemon Pesto and spinach; Dinner - Avocado-Mango Chicken w/ Spinach Salad

Day 14: Brunch – Pumpkin Oatmeal Pancakes; Dinner – Chickpea Dumplings in Tomato-Yogurt Sauce (one of my favorite recipes of all time)

Disclaimer: I am not a dietician, nutritionist, doctor, or medical professional of any sort.  I simply wanted to share my personal menu and goals for the past week, so please realize that I have tapered this plan to what I feel my own nutritional needs are, and carefully consider your own health needs and consult your doctor before following any diet, cleanse, or detox plan! 

Here it is.  The big one.  The one that’s been occupying an unreasonable amount of my attention all week.  The “first week of the cleanse” post.

There’s going to be a lot of information packed in here, so I’ll make my introduction brief (there’s a little more info in my preview post here).  I decided to embark on two weeks of healthier-than-regular eating for a few reasons – 1. it’s January, and everyone seems to be doing that kind of thing; and 2. I was inspired by the BA food-lover’s cleanse, as well as the “Clean” program my parents did (and liked) for a whole month last year.  I really liked the idea of dieting through discovery of new, creative, healthy meals, rather than through repetition and restriction, and I wanted to create a program tailored to my own likes, dislikes, and schedule.  I do hesitate to call this a cleanse, as it really is more of a … “health plan,” and words like diet and detox and cleanse are fairly loaded.  But, one of my goals was to get some of the junk out of my system – alcohol, caffeine, and massive amounts of gluten and dairy (not necessarily bad in and of themselves, but considering the portion of my diet they make up… probably not the best) so I stuck with the word cleanse.  This menu is very much tapered to my own life – most of the meals are scaled back to two servings, one for dinner and one for lunch the next day, and there is very little meat in the menu, as I rarely eat it at home (in fact, the two chicken recipes in this week’s menu are two of the three total recipes with meat I’ve made since moving here in August).  Some of my favorite foods show up a lot – chickpeas in particular – and on the weekends I generally only eat two full meals a day, so that’s what I included in my plan.  I was pretty flexible with myself – for example, when I discovered how shitty gluten withdrawal feels I quickly worked it back into the plan, in small amounts – and I definitely allowed myself the occasional piece of chocolate to get through the week.  No cookies though, I drew the line at baked goods :-).  I also tried to keep the recipes seasonal, as that’s how I tend to cook, and am even thinking of creating a similar plan for the other seasons.  Why be health conscious only in December?

I think the most valuable component of this cleanse for me was planning every meal out in advance.  I usually plan my dinners for the week, but not which days they go on, and never breakfasts and lunches.  It was useful when temptation had me about to run out to get pizza to have a plan to look at and know what I needed to d0/eat next.  I have been seriously craving pasta carbonara (and hamburgers, and grilled cheese, and pizza) all week, but all in all, I’m pleased with how it’s going.  Plus, I did lose two pounds, so that’s a bonus.  I hope you find the menu and recipes below useful, even if they just give you a few new ideas for dinnertime this week!

My Rules, and Why

1. No coffee (one cup of black tea a day allowed) – I don’t drink a ton of coffee, but since starting a real-person job it’s definitely gone up to about 4 cups a week.  It’s not the worst thing for you, but it’s also not the best, and I prefer to feel energized and alert on my own terms when possible.  It’s easy to feel dependent on something like coffee when you don’t really need it.  Plus, my coffee usually comes in the form of a creamy, extra-sweet latte, so avoiding those extra calories when possible has its benefits too.

2. No alcohol – Another one that isn’t too hard for me, although I do love a glass of wine now and then.  Alcohol is one of those things that can be great and fun in moderation, but you can kinda tell just from the way your body reacts that it can’t be good for you, even if you haven’t been bombarded with alcohol safety information for your whole life.  Just think about it – you live in an isolated village where no one’s ever heard of booze, you discover some fermented something or other and have a rager one night, and you wake up the next morning feeling considerably worse than you usually do.  Are you going to throw another rager that night?  Maybe, but it’s not going to be because you feel like it was good for you the first time.

3. Limited gluten – Now this one is difficult for me.  At first, I was going to go totally gluten-free, but that’s before I started feeling awful part of the way through day 2 and learned about gluten withdrawal.  That changed my mind fast.  Gluten is a natural part of our diets, and has lots of health benefits, but we do tend to eat an awful lot of gluten in an extremely processed form in this day and age.  Replacing pastas, breads, and baked goods with whole grains like quinoa and brown rice is easy and unarguably good for you.

4. Limited dairy – I love, love, love all things dairy.  Glasses of milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, cream, buttermilk, etc.  This is a good thing as a young woman – my doctor always asks me if I’m getting enough calcium to protect my bones and I can always say yes.  However, dairy is also an enormous source of fat, as well as inflammatory.  My thought was that limiting it for a few weeks could both help my system recover as well as help me kick the habit of putting cheese on most of my meals.  Note: Where recipes call for milk, I just replaced it with soymilk!

5. Limited added salt and sugar – I typically put way too much salt and sugar on my food – I always have.  And it’s a really bad habit.  Trevor says he actually worries about how much salt I sometimes add to things, and it’s just not good for you to have too much of, well, anything, but salt and sugar in particular.  My blood pressure will thank me.

6. Eat one green salad a day – I like salads, but the salads I choose typically have one of the following ingredients: blue cheese, hard-boiled eggs, bacon, or massive amounts of fruit and nuts.  And sometimes I skip the greens part.  Dark leafy vegetables are super good for you, as we all know, so having at least one serving a day in a raw form is a great way to boost your consumption of healthy vitamins and minerals.  I’ve been pretty good about sticking to this, but not perfect.

The Menu

Day 1: Breakfast – Baked Eggs with Garlicky Kale; Lunch – Kale salad with avocado, almonds and nori; Dinner – Grape and Ginger Glazed Chicken w/ Arugula Mashed Potatoes

Day 2: Breakfast – Breakfast Quinoa w/ Cinnamon, Pecans, and Berries; Lunch – Leftover Chicken and Potatoes; Dinner - Udupi Dal and Leftover Kale Salad

Day 3: Breakfast – Peach and Blueberry Smoothie, 1 piece of whole wheat toast w/ PB; Lunch – Leftover Udupi Dal + green salad (from work cafeteria); Dinner - Pan-Fried Chickpeas w/ Orange-Mint-Yogurt Dressing

Day 4: Breakfast – Arugula, Mango, and Ginger Smoothie (strain it before drinking for a better texture!) and 2 scrambled eggs; Lunch – Leftover Fried Chickpeas + green salad (from work cafeteria); Dinner – Ultimate Winter Couscous w/ Roasted Vegetables

Day 5: Breakfast – Peanut-butter and Banana Oatmeal; Lunch – Leftover Winter Couscous and Veggies; Dinner – Went out!  Had chana masala and rice

Day 6 (wknd): Brunch – Leftover Winter Couscous and Veggies; Snack – 1/2 an Avocado; Dinner – Chili-Chicken Stew w/ Black Beans and Rice

Day 7 (wknd): Breakfast – Greek Yogurt w/ Berries and Pistachios; Lunch – Pan-Fried Chickpeas (again… they’re really good!); Dinner - Indian Scrambled Eggs w/ Cilantro-Jalapeno Sauce

Week 2 Menu is now available!

Disclaimer: I am not a dietician, nutritionist, doctor, or medical professional of any sort.  I simply wanted to share my personal menu and goals for the past week, so please realize that I have tapered this plan to what I feel my own nutritional needs are, and carefully consider your own health needs and consult your doctor before following any diet, cleanse, or detox plan! 

I really wanted to call this “the fastest soup in the west.”  ’Cuz, you know, I just cut up some chicken and opened some cans and threw in some spices and BAM, there was dinner.  No pre-meditation, just a sudden flash of inspiration followed by a rush to the kitchen to create the meal I has just tasted in my imagination.  And, you know, it’s Southwestern, and it was fast, so… fastest soup in the west?  Yes?  Man, my cheesy side is just dying to get out right now.  Dying.  But I feel a little better at least having told you how kinda-funny I think I am.

Anyway, this recipe was created mostly out of laziness.  On the cleanse menu for Saturday night was Pink Parsley’s Red Chile Chicken with Black Beans and Rice, which has been on my to-make list for almost forever, but I was procrastinating making dinner because I didn’t feel like making multiple components to a meal (although on looking back at that recipe, it actually is pretty easy.  Still, one pan is better than two).  Plus, I wanted soup.  Big, hearty, spicy soup.  So I took the four ingredients in the name of that recipe (chile, chicken, black beans, and rice), and morphed them into a soup in my head.  And once I got the idea of a spicy, tomatoey chicken soup, I couldn’t shake it, so I went down to the kitchen and made the soup I was imagining.  And it turned out really good, for very, very minimal effort. So I wrote down the recipe, and here it is.  Make it when you’re feeling under the weather or lazy or bland or too tired to make anything else, and I’m pretty sure you’ll be pleased with the results.

I included this recipe as part of my winter cleanse rotation – you can find the rest of the recipes for the week here.

Chili-Chicken Stew with Black Beans and Rice

A Katie at the Kitchen Door original.  Serves 4.

• 2 TBS olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 TBS minced garlic
• 2 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
• 2 tsp sauce from canned chipotles in adobo
• 1 TBS harissa (or chili-powder, adjust amount to spiciness of your favorite brand of chili powder)
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 (28-oz.) can crushed tomatoes
• 1 (15 oz.) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 3/4 c. rice
• 3 c. chicken stock
• 1 c. water
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 c. frozen corn
• fresh cilantro, lime wedges, and jack cheese for garnish (optional)

1. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-heat, and add onion once oil is hot.  Sautee onion for 3-4 minutes, until translucent, then add garlic, and sautee for another minute.  Add chicken pieces, chipotle sauce, harissa, and oregano, and brown chicken on all sides, which should take about 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently.
2. Add tomatoes, beans, rice, stock, water, and bay leaf to pot.  Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer on low, uncovered, for about 30 minutes.  Check pot occasionally during this time, and add water if necessary to keep rice covered.  After 30 minutes, check chicken and rice for doneness, then add frozen corn and cook for another 2 minutes.  Remove from heat, and serve hot, garnished with cilantro, freshly squeezed lime juice, and jack cheese.

This is the kind of meal I make all the time, when I don’t feel like cooking for more than 15 minutes but I want something hot, hearty, and wholesome.  I almost always have all of the ingredients on-hand, so it appears frequently on weeknights when I get home late, days before I go to the grocery store, and lazy Sundays when I don’t want to leave bed for too long.  For something which takes so little effort, the flavors in this are fantastic.  When cooked properly, the chickpeas develop a crunchy, garlicky outside that give way to a soft creamy interior as you sink your teeth into them, with little hints of lemon and chili-powder spicing up the experience.  The yogurt sauce is sweet and cooling, with a refreshing hit of mint, and combined with the hot savory chickpeas, absolutely perfect.

I initially started making fried chickpeas because of this recipe on 101 cookbooks.  Later I tried these fried chickpeas, and this chickpea and spinach salad, and since then I’ve morphed all of these experiences into my own favorite way of combining these flavors, and feel safe in calling this particular recipe my own.  Isn’t that really how all recipes are created, anyway?  The final recipe definitely plays strongly off classic Middle-Eastern flavor combinations, and would make a great side dish for a Middle-Eastern lamb dish, or mixed with couscous for a more complete meal.

I included this recipe as part of my winter cleanse rotation – you can find the rest of the recipes for week one here.

Fried Chickpeas with Orange-Mint-Yogurt Sauce

A Katie at the Kitchen Door original.  Serves 2.

• 2 c. cooked chickpeas
• 2 TBS olive oil
• 1/2 red onion, sliced
• 1 1/2 tsp whole cumin seed
• 1/8 tsp cayenne powder
• 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 1/2 TBS minced garlic
• 1 6-oz. container of plain greek yogurt
• 2 small oranges or clementines
• 10 large leaves fresh mint, finely diced
• 1 TBS honey

1. Slice one of the oranges in half.  Squeeze the juice from the orange halves into the yogurt container, and stir.  Add the honey and diced mint and stir until evenly combined.  Taste for sweetness and flavoring, and add more of any ingredients you feel necessary.  Set aside.
2. Peel remaining orange and separate segments, cutting into bite sized pieces if necessary.  Set aside for topping the chickpeas.
3. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large frying pan for about 1 minute, then add the cumin seed and cook for 1-2 minutes, until fragrant and beginning to turn brown.  Add the onion, chickpeas, and cayenne powder and cook, stirring every 2-3 minutes, until onions are soft and chickpeas are golden-brown and burnt in places, with a crunchy exterior, about 15 minutes.  Add sea salt, lemon juice, and minced garlic, and cook for another minute (the lemon juice and garlic should sizzle quite a bit when added to the pan), then turn off heat and serve, hot, with dressing spooned on the top and orange segments placed on top of dressing.