Detox Day 7: End of Week One! Beet Soup!

Wednesday marked the final day of the first week of Detox-that, to me, was a huge milestone!
The first week was definitely a challenge and I wanted to give up many times, but didn't. The other really great thing about finishing the first week, was that during the second week, we can eat PROTEIN! YES!

I went shopping Wednesday night and got ingredients for the second week's meals, although I tried to have a better plan this time. I looked over all the meals for weeks 1 & 2 carefully, highlighting ingredients that we didn't have and making a list of what to get, based on the meals we liked and would want to repeat from week 1, and the ones we want to try from week 2. Fortunately, we still had a decent amount of leftovers veggies and fruits and herbs, which helped ease the new grocery load a bit. I also decided not to get ingredients for too many meals all at once.

Wednesday morning we had the Antioxidant smoothie, which we really like (and it's really easy!), and Mike added a banana too, which made it a little more substantial. =)

{Antioxidant Smoothie = 2 c. frozen berries + 1 c. pomegranate juice + 1 c. water.}

For Lunch we had leftovers: the rest of the Butternut Squash Soup (about half a bowl each) and a salad made from leftover broccoli florets, red cabbage, a few leftover cherry tomatoes, parsley, and a lemon juice/olive oil dressing.

For dinner, I had planned on making Roasted Beet and Garlic Soup, because it was the only dinner we hadn't made yet, and we had bough beets. However, I am not really a beet fan, so I had pretty low expectations. Also, I had never made beet soup before.

I was still grocery shopping when the beets and garlic needed to go in the oven to roast, so Mike kindly put them in for me. The beets take an hour to roast, which I thought was a long time, but  it gave me time to get other things done, like slice up an onion to sautee.

Also, they came out perfectly done!

The next step was to peel and quarter the beets.

So pretty!

Next, I added the three peeled and quartered beets, and the roasted garlic to the pot with the sauteeing onions (the recipe called for leeks, but one leek costs nearly $3, so I went with an onion), and added 3 cups water. To that, I added a bay leaf, and some dried herbs (I thought I had Thyme, but I didn't). 

Once the soup is brought to a boil and then simmers 5 minutes, it just needs to cool a few minutes and then you can blend it up! (take the bay leaf out first, though!)

I really was amazed at the beauty of the rich red color that this soup blended into!

Once it was all blended evenly, I carefully poured it back into the pot and stirred in 2 Tablespoons of fresh lemon juice, and a little coarse salt. 

Soup's on! =)

It really was so pretty! And, to top it off, it tasted delicious, too! The roasted garlic really made it easy to love, and the lemon juice was a nice fresh taste too. Mmm!

Mikey likes it!

After dinner, we went to our community group, where they had fresh fruits and herbal teas for us--what a great end to the most challenging week!

We are looking forward to our meal of Grilled Salmon tomorrow!!!