Playin’ The Edge

I have a friend who actually sits down to a bowl of pumpkin.  When I saw her do it I was shocked in an impressed why-didn’t-i-think-of-that kind of way.  I make a pumpkin loaf that i love and of course pie has its honoured place on our table once per year but why just relegate pumpkin to baked things? Pumpkin is supposed to be really good for us and we eat squash which is similiar.   Then I ran across this detox-friendly soup recipe from Oxygen magazine and thought, aha here’s my chance.

Pumpkin Pear Soup

2 T olive oil

1 chopped onion

1/2 c minced fresh ginger (they must mean 1/2 tablespoon)

3 pears, peeled, cored and sliced thin

2 cans pumpkin puree (must be the smaller size cans, they don’t say)

1/4 t nutmeg

1/2 t cinnamon

1/2 t salt

4 c chicken broth

Put the first 4 ingredients in a large soup pot and saute until tender, about 10 minutes.  Stir in the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.  Puree in batches in a blend or use a stick blender to blend until soup is smooth.

They say the recipe makes 4 servings and that pumpkin and pears are a powerful immune boosting combo.   If you try it leave a comment about whether you liked it or not!

I’ve been loving avocado during my detox.  I’m working on an Avocado Salad Dressing recipe that I’ll including in a Volume 2 recipe book, if I get one done.  It’s such a change to have a detox-friendly *creamy* salad dressing.  I used too much lemon juice though so I’m going to try it again with less but hopefully still enough that the avocado in it doesn’t turn brown before it’s time.  Recipe testing is hard!  But lucky for me, avocado salad dressing is good ;-).

I noticed a detox-friendly avocado recipe in March’s Real Simple magazine that I want to try on fish or chicken.  Here it is:

Avocado Relish

Toss diced avocado and cucumber with lime juice*, chopped cilantro, and crushed red pepper; season with salt and pepper.  Serve over fish, chicken or beef.

*Lime juice isn’t technically on the Wild Rose food lists, just lemon, however I have seen it in recipes in the official Wild Rose cookbook so I use it.  But use lemon juice if you’re going by the book.

When I was doing my gung-ho planning for my detox I bought buckwheat.  I hadn’t tried it in a long time, couldn’t remember what it tasted like but thought, maybe this time I’ll make it work. 

I guess since I’ve been publishing recipes here on this blog and here, I feel a responsibility to get out front and try things that aren’t mainstream instantly likeable foods.  Call me crazy but I’m just not big on basic hippy food and would rather eat yummy things, yes, even with I’m detoxing. 

I really want to like buckwheat because it’s one of the grains you can eat silly on the Wild Rose D-Tox, along with millet and brown rice.  Since I’m not a huge fan of millet  I wanted to see if buckwheat and I could be friends.

So I fried up some onions and garlic  (everything is better with onions and garlic right?), put in the water and buckwheat, let it simmer until the water was gone, took a taste and BLUCK!  The stuff is HORRIBLE! 

And then I took a deep breath.  I thought maybe there was a chance though that I wasn’t seeing it’s positive qualities.  So I gave a taste to HoneyBunny and he said, YUCK, that stuff is HORRIBLE!  Good to know it wasn’t just me.

Later he was still cursing me because he couldn’t get the taste out of his mouth.  I guess I”ll stick with brown rice after all.  (sigh)  So the buckwheat became a contribution to the composter.

Luckily there are yummy detox-friendly things to eat.  I saw this recipe in January’s Shape magazine, and it’s a good one that won’t leave a bad taste in your mouth:

Bean Topping

Saute 1/2 c chopped onion in 2 T oil.  Add 1 t rosemary, 1/2 c broth and 15 oz of white beans.  Cook for 5 minutes until the broth is reduced and/or thickened.  Add salt, pepper, some chopped parsley (I used cilantro) and lemon zest to your taste.

The recipe says to slice some tomatoes, place on top of crostini bread and top with pine nuts.  I don’t see a mention of pine nuts in the official detox cookbook (hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts do appear.  Pecans and pistashios are on the 80% food list in the cookbook, but I see they’ve taken those off of the recent food list in my detox box).  So anyhoo, you could use any of those, I didn’t, but I did eat the bean thing on rice cakes and again later on brown rice.  Much tastier than buckwheat.

I’m on day 5 of detoxing with the Wild Rose kit for the first time in two years.  It’s been a while thanks to being busy growing, having and nursing a baby.  Leo’s nine months now.  He can hold his own bottle, say “Mama” at 3:00 a.m. and meanwhile I’m eating a lot of brown rice.

My latest detox news is that I finally self-published a cookbook of recipes that I’ve posted here on my blog as well as new ones.  I’ve been referring to it a lot and am glad to have it in a handy readable format (you can too for the low low price of $4.95, at wildrosecookbook.com - ok that’s it for the plug).  

The crazy thing is that I’m enjoying detoxing so much more than i have before.  Previously, doing a detox was pretty much like being in food purgatory, which is why i started developing and posting recipes in the first place.  If i can keep anyone from what-the-heck-am-i-going-to-eat hell then I’m a happy camper. 

I’m trying some new food this time around.  I figured out a roasted garlic salad dressing that isn’t too bad.  It’s tough to get the right flavouring though when you can’t use stuff like balsamic vinegar, worscheshire sauce, the things that add the depth to the flavour.  I’m still working on it.

I also bought a bunch of kale because I know it’s ridiculously good for you and if Alannis can love kale then dammit so can I.   It’s still sitting in the fridge.

Detoxing is different his time around. Instead of feeling deprived I’m feeling like I’m really taking care of myself with food.  Like all this brown rice is nurturing for me instead of boring me to tears. 

Last evening there was a time somewhere around Angus the five-year old’s second time out that I would have given my left arm for a glass of wine.  But then after the kids were asleep I really grooved on the herbal tea I had while HoneyBunny and I watched a movie.   I’m not sure I’d watched a craving pass with that much clarity before.   I need to try that more often.

And maybe it’s because I’m having a tough time losing the last few pounds after having a baby that my perspective is different.  The pounds slid off after my first pregnancy, but not so much this time around.  And I seem to have even less grace period with the ol’ bod than i did before.  Before I could mess around for a weekend and get back on the wagon before anything dire happened.  On Easter weekend, i should have just schmeared the chocolate and cupcakes on my body in a cellulite pattern rather than bother eating it. 

But I don’t bother feeling bummed out about it.  I’m being a realist.  I pulled out my summer clothes and the bottom line is, if I don’t do something I’ll be wearing a barrel when the weather is warm.  Because I’m sure not buying a new wardrobe in another size.

And it’s made me think about what people are willing to do for their health and their weight and all that.  I have a friend who gets in the habit of not eating all day and sitting at her desk and then she’s brain dead by 3:00 and eats all evening to make up.  So she’s trying to bring food to snack on at work and get out at lunch even if it’s just for 10 minutes to clear her head.  Not hard right?  That’s all good stuff and she’ll probably feel better in lots of ways.

Then I have another friend who’s gone through menopause and it’s supposed to be a major pain trying to lose weight at that stage of life.  She looks awesome to me but she says she’s got a few extra pounds that are driving her nuts.  She’s read the menopause books and is basically living on veggies and protein and fruit.  Her lovely husband has even been making homemade bread and she hasn’t been having any.  How is that humanly possible?  But her comment is, “I really hate being heavy”.  So wow, it makes me ask myself - what are you willing to do to get what you want?

My friend’s Dad weighs around 300 pounds and he made the herculean effort of losing a bunch weight a while back.  Now he loves food and obviously didn’t eat as much of it but he learned to also love that he was more mobile and his joints bugged him less and he was more comfortable.  All that started to become as important as food.   

Because the funny thing about food is that we can’t be all or nothing about it.  We gotta eat to live.  But the good news is that we have 3 meals a day to get it right.  And to manage our cravings and get in lots of fruits and veggies.  And to detox every once in a while to remind ourselves that we don’t need processed foods to be happy.  And that fitting into our jeans and being able to breath while doing it is pretty important to us too.

And with all that in mind, I’m off to my date with a bunch of kale.

I haven’t started my Wild Rose Detox for the year, it’s too early.  I just can’t dig into chilly salads while the temps are low so I’m practicing until March or so when I open the box, dig out the food lists and bottles and start up again.  Last year I was pregnant and I didn’t detox, so this year I’m excited, or at least as excited as you can be about eating a diet of brown rice.   I’m convinced that it really helps my body and re-educates my taste buds.

I know that there is a lot of medical advice out there that says your body doesn’t need to detox, but my gut says that if I eat sugar, junk fats and alcohol, my poor liver is working pretty hard.  I figure bad gunky has got to get stored up in my liver and it makes sense that I need to clean it out. 

But even if that’s not the case (as some experts say) giving my hard-working liver a rest while I eat real single-ingredient foods has got to help it.  Because afterwards I will at times consume food that’s less than ideal for me, as surely as the Wild Rose laxatives will overperform within a dayor two of starting the program. 

What is it with those laxatives?  By day 2 or 3 I feel like a 16 year old bulemic doing penance for a Dream Whip and Count Chocula binge.  I figure the thinking behind it is that there are people doing the program who have never seen a whole grain before.  And when they go from a diet of Wonder Bread to the uber-fiber meals that make up this detox they’re guaranteed to get as locked up as the Hoover Dam.  The laxatives are for them.  But for me the moment they start working their magic I cut the dosage back to half or less.  I figure that living in my bathroom just can’t be good for me. 

But enough about that, let’s talk oatmeal, which may not be an improvement in topic for some, but stick with me.  Breakfasts can be challenging and repetitious on the Wild Rose Detox program.  Eggs are only 20% and you can’t have toast with them anyways.  There just aren’t that many cereal type options and unsweetened soy milk is not that tasty. 

I wanted to try steel cut oats because I heard they have a more rough texture, they’re less like the usual mushy oatmeal.  The challenge is that they take 30-40 minutes to cook on the stove.  While I have that kind of time in the a.m., I don’t have the flexibility to stand over the stove. 

So I thought I would try the rice cooker.  My handy instruction manual said it would do cereals too.  The rice cooker generally takes an hour to do its thing but at least I don’t have to stand over it.  The other bonus is that mine has a timer, so I could conceivably set it up the night before and wake up to a tasty hot belly-filling breakfast.  Here’s the detox friendly recipe, and in brackets are the ingredients I used yesterday since I’m not detoxing:

Steel Cut Oats Breakfast

 1 cup steel cut oats

3 cups water

1 cup unsweetened soy milk (milk if I’m not detoxing)

a sprinkle of cinnamon

3-4 chopped up prunes (raisins if I’m not detoxing)

a handful of coarsely chopped almonds (any nut or seed if I’m not detoxing, I used sunflower seeds)

a sprinkle of salt

I put it all in the rice cooker and simply turned it on, then gave it a stir when it beeped that it was finished.  How does the rice cooker know it’s done?  Those little machines are magic. 

When I served it, I added a bit more milk in my bowl and a sprinkle of brown sugar (again, because I’m *not* detoxing).  It was thick and creamy and tasty.  It also stuck with me all morning which I can’t usually say about my breakfasts.  A winner all around.

 I’m going to work on a few other new detox recipes which I’ll post, as well as try the old standbys while I “practice” for my detox.  There have also been good suggestions in the comments to this post that are worth reviewing.  Hopefully some practice time will make the real thing much easier, and my liver will hardly notice the difference.

I like a good bean dip when I’m detoxing because it’s filling and tasty and a detoxer cannot live on carrot sticks alone, as fun as that sounds.  The dip is great on rice cakes and for dipping your carrot sticks, pepper slices and cuke spears into. 

Black Bean Dip

Ingredients:

1 garlic clove squished

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 T lime juice

2 T olive oil

1/2 t salt

1/4 t cumin

1/4 jalapeno pepper chopped fine

19 oz can of rinced and drained black beans

Directions:

Have a food processor?  You don’t have to bother chopping as fine as described above, throw it all into your food processor and let ‘er rip.  Scrape down the sides with a spatula and continue until it’s pureed, then put it in a bowl.

Don’t have a food processor?  Or if you like a chunky dip, mash up the beans with a potato masher or fork in a bowl first, and then add all the other ingredients and mix it up well.

Try to give your bean dip some fridge time before eating to let the flavours mingle.

If you’re anything like me the pasta withdrawl when you’re detoxing is a whole withdrawl within a withdrawl because it’s the hardest thing to live without.  The good news is you can fake it.  The weird news is that it means eating squash, but really, it’s a decent fake.  Anything that’s the right shape and color and covered in butter and garlic and has gotta be close enough, right?  I know, the glass of wine and garlic bread would really complete the picture.  Oh well, instead you’re healthy and beautiful.

Here’s how to do it:

If you’re a squash newbie - go to the produce section where they hang out (usually with the potatoes and onions and stuff).  Spaghetti squashes are not the squat warty green ones, or the light brown pear-shaped ones (those are butternut, my fave).  They’re the big oval yellow ones.  Adopt it and bring it home.

With a big chef’s knife hack your squash lengthwise in two and scoop out the guts and seeds with a spoon.  Find a flat-bottomed microwave-friendly dish it will fit cut-side down in.  Add an inch of water.  As the wise popcorn bags tell you, all microwaves’ wattage vary  so I usually start with 10 minutes.  You want the inside of the oven to be steamy when it’s done, so add more time if needed.  Let your squash sit in the microwave for another 10 minutes to thoroughly steam.

If you don’t use a microwave oven, set your oven-oven to 350 degrees and put the squash in for a 30-45 minutes to get it going.

Take your squash out of the pan with an oven mitt.  It will be hot and wet and steamy so be careful.  I’ve used a tea towel and advise it.  Silicon mitts and potholders are great for this part.  Put your squash bottom-down on a plate and with a fork, run the tines lengthwise down the inside of the squash and your spaghetti will be freed from it’s squash prison.

If your squash was big you might still have some uncooked spaghettis inside.  Just add more water if needed and put it back in the microwave for another 5-8 to cook the rest.

Toss your spaghetti with butter, squished garlic, lots of salt and pepper and your favourite herbs like oregano, basil and thyme. 

Alternatively chop up some fresh ripe tomatoes and throw them in a bowl minus the seeds with a slosh of olive oil, salt and pepper, herbs, and garlic.  Let it sit and mingle while you steam your squash.  Toss it with your spaghetti when it’s done.

A friend gave me this recipe in the summer and I looked at it and thought - hey if you take out the feta and olives, it’s detox friendly!  One of the challenges with detoxing with Wild Rose is that you need to *a lot* of veggies to stay within the 80% allottment.  So that means cooking veggies (thats work) or eating a lot of green salads (which don’t thrill me when it’s not summer-hot out).  And when you’re detoxing you’re guaranteed to be hungry again on a green salad lunch in a half hour. 

This salad, on the other hand, has a bit more heft shall we say, has great flavour *and* it’s big and it’ll keep in the fridge for 2-3 days.  It’s a winner all around:

Greek Chickpea Salad

• 1 can (19 oz/540 mL) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 red or yellow pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 green pepper, seeded and chopped
• 1 cup chopped red onion
• 3/4 of an English cucumber, unpeeled, halved, seeded, and chopped
• 10-15 grape tomatoes
• 1/4 cup minced fresh basil
• 2 Tbsp minced fresh dill
• 1 clove garlic minced
• Juice of 1 lemon (about 3 Tbsp)
• 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

(add 1/2 cup of pitted chopped black olives and 1/2 cup of crumbled feta cheese when you’re not detoxing)

Directions
1. Put the drained chickpeas in a large bowl. Add the peppers, onion, cucumber, tomato, basil, dill, and garlic - mix well. Add the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste.  Toss to mix. Cover and chill before serving.
2. When you’re ready to serve, adjust seasonings and drain off any excess liquid.
Makes 8 servings.