I'm a few days behind! Thursday was Day 4 of our Detox diet and it was actually one of the better food days. I had to modify the times because I had to be at work early.
- \6 am: Pint of room temperature water with juice of half a lemon
- 7 am: Mug of herbal tea
- 9 am: Peach and almond milk smoothi
- 11 am - 8 ounce glass of coconut water
- 1 pm - Quinoa with mushrooms, spinach, and balsamic vinaigrette
- This was based on a recipe I found on Food and Wine for a barley, mushroom, and spinach salad. Barley is a wheat product - not an option for this week - so I used quinoa instead. There were actually a few other things about this dish that were not ok for this week - tomatoes, tofu, and refined brown sugar - so I omitted those and modified the dressing to include honey and I switched out the sherry vinegar for balsamic vinegar to give the dish a little more interest. The combination of the fresh herbs (basil, mint), dressing, mushrooms, and barely-wilted spinach made this dish wonderful. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of mixing it all together and packing it for lunch, so when I reheated it, all of the spinach completely wilted. But it still tasted good.
- 4 pm: Handful of almonds
- I was supposed to have had a mug of miso soup but I was just not feeling it, so I had some almonds instead. Oh well.
- 7:30 pm: Roasted brussels sprouts with pea-basil soup
- Dinner was supposed to be just pea soup, but I didn't want to use frozen peas and I didn't feel like shelling out close to $10 for the quantity of fresh peas I would need, so I halved the soup recipe (based on the one I used for the terrible broccoli-arugula soup) and had some roasted brussels sprouts on the side (just olive oil, salt, pepper, and a hot oven). I used young garlic and mint in the soup instead of the onions that are called for in the broccoli soup, and the soup came out really great - light, refreshing, and very spring-like. I would definitely make it again.
- 8:00 pm: Tristar strawberries
- Were we supposed to let the quart of strawberries we bought go to waste? No. So we ate them for dessert.
Day 4 was, unsurprisingly, much easier than Day 3 - we really had gotten used to the minimal meals and, while I can't speak for Matt, my cravings for bread/crackers/snacks were completely gone. It's amazing how much your body and brain crave certain things without your realizing it. I had no idea I was so attached to wheat products - I literally had a showdown with a box of rosemary crackers on Day 1, and I was slightly horrified how the smell of pizza was like a siren song to me on Day 2. I wasn't tempted by anything this day, though, not even the free bagels at my morning meeting.
