Food Lover's Cleanse

A couple of days into the New Year I started feeling like the holiday indulgences were catching up with me and that it was time for a cleanse. Not one of those crazy juice cleanses where you feel like you’re starving all day long, just a nutritional reboot of sorts. My first thought, however, was can I do this with my soon-to-be three-year old? More importantly, will my skeptical husband eat this? Enter Food Lover’s Cleanse by Bon Appetit. So far I’m digging the recipes, they were created by a chef and a nutritionist – and even my I-don’t-remember-agreeing-to-this-cleanse husband has played along. For the most part. We’re talking about a guy who gets really excited when there’s three types of pork on his breakfast plate. So the fact that he’s on board with this at all has got this girl pretty excited. Here’s a few things we have tried so far:

Oatmeal topped with toasted walnuts, pears, pomegranate and cinnamon. * cheat: I added the tiniest bit of maple syrup. I know, I know, my willpower is questionable. p.s. My husband did not agree that oatmeal constitutes as breakfast – but us girls, we thought it was delicious!

White Bean Chili with Winter  Vegetables and Avocado * We really enjoyed this, it’s a keeper for sure. I added some chili powder to amp up the flavour.

This yogurt chicken was super tender and the ginger coriander chutney was crazy flavourful. Can’t wait to do this dish again (photo from Bon Appetit)

Last night (since He was out) we had this seared salmon with quinoa, wilted spinach and garlic mushrooms – yes that’s white wine, you’re allowed up to four bevies a week – Hmmm… I will try harder next week.

And I can’t wait to try this Winter Citrus Salad…yum! (photo from Bon Appetit)

This all looks pretty tasty, right?!  I don’t really feel like I’m depriving myself of anything. Well, except maybe the coffee. Oh, and (confession) I haven’t exactly ditched that yet. Baby steps, baby steps.

There. Now that I have shared my cleanse ambitions here on the blog, It will help to hold me accountable.  And really, if I’m being honest, it’s not that hard at all. To see the guidelines for the cleanse, click here.  More photos will be posted as we work our way through these tasty recipes.

*top image: Celery sticks with almond butter and smoked paprika (photo from Bon Appetit)

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