Detox Wrap-up: Finishing Strong

Before I begin this post, I really need to mention one thing. Thinking about "finishing strong" with this cleanse makes me think of the verse that says "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." (1 Timothy 4:7). In light of that, I am reminded that finishing this cleanse well is only a shadow in comparison to my desire to finish my life well, keeping the faith and standing firm in the hope that we have in Christ. I want to fight the good fight til the end!

So, my last post was on Saturday, and now it's Saturday again. I'm trying to think back to what we had on Sunday....

Oh, yes. Sunday was Football day.

Sunday, January 22
I don't remember what we had for breakfast...probably the Toasted Coconut Muesli (because I LOVE it),
but after church I made a batch of Kale, White Bean, and Potato Stew to bring to a friend's house to watch the Pats beat the Ravens(!).

I forgot to take pictures of it. Oops.
It looked kind of like this though:

We also brought apple rings, almonds, carrot sticks, and cherry tomatoes to munch on while our friends had their chips and chicken wings.

The stew was ok, although it was a little bland. If I make it again, I'll add more spices and garlic.

The stew recipe made enough to be our lunch for Monday, and half of our dinner on Tuesday. (It claimed to make 6 servings, but I must have served us generous bowl-fuls, because it was more like 5 servings)

Monday, January 23
Monday night we had the Quinoa with Poached Egg, Spinach, and Cucumber, because 1.) we hadn't made it yet, and 2.) it looked quick and easy to make.

I had a meeting at 7, and I also wanted to get a quick 15-minute run in (we had a soccer game coming up on Wednesday, and we hadn't played since the day before we began the detox--so I wanted to get my heart-rate up once before Wed.).

All you can see in the pictures are the spinach, egg, and carrots (I forgot to add the sliced cucumbers!), but somewhere under all that is the quinoa...

Mike's (left) was way better than mine-he's a poaching genius!

We really liked the Quinoa dinner--it was simple, filling, and tasty! Neither of us had ever poached an egg before, and we decided that they're really good in a dish like this, where the runny yolk can get mixed in with the grains like a sauce.

*Note: For egg-poaching beginner, like us, here are some tips for how to make them. =)


After my meeting on Monday, I made lunch for Tuesday and Wednesday, along with dinner for at least Tuesday.

Tuesday & Wednesday's lunches were going to be Chickpea-Brown Rice Veggie Burgers (one batch makes 4 patties). I was surprised at how easy they were to make, and I appreciated the fact that they produced nicely-sized patties. (I was a little afraid they'd be wimpy...)

I will definitely make these again!

Mash 2c. cooked chick peas with 1c. cooked brown rice until pasty. I used a food processor, because my chick peas weren't mushy enough.

Stir in 1-2 minced garlic cloves, 1 minced shallot, and 2 Tbsp fresh chopped parsley.

Season with salt & pepper

Mix in 1 egg, beaten, to bind it all together.
Form the mixture into four patties (to do this, I smoothed out the mixture in the bowl, cut it into quadrants, and made a ball out of each quadrant, trying to keep them as equal as possible.) 

In a large skillet, heat 2 Tbsp. olive oil, and cook patties for 4 minutes on each side. 

Top with whole grain dijon mustard, roasted red pepper, and sliced red onion (I also added sliced cucumber, because I forgot to put them on the Quinoa dinner)

I'm guessing that you could use this same method using any type of bean.

In fact, I am envisioning many black-bean burgers in our future! Oh, the possibilities!

mmmmmm.... =)

Since these are gluten-free, we couldn't use buns, so the recipe calls for wrapping them in lettuce. This proved to be a difficult way to eat them, so I ended up breaking off chunks and wrapping the chunks in lettuce.

On the second day, I came up with a new strategy:
I cut the the burger in half, and wrapped each half in lettuce. Much easier!

This method was much easier to handle -- kind of like a lettuce wrap.

The flavors and textures were really nice-the Dijon kicked up the flavor, and the red pepper added a nice sweet and creamy quality. For the future, I think that these would be great in a pita pocket or on Bagel Thins.

The other meal that I made on Monday night was the roasted beets and edamame salad. This recipe supposedly served 4, but I thought that it seemed fairly unsubstantial. The plan was to have it for dinner at school on Tuesday, but since it seemed pretty dinky for a dinner, I also packed us the leftover White Bean-Kale-Potato Stew (we had enough left for half a serving each).

I wanted to take pictures of the beets for the salad, because they were so pretty and yellow =)

Pre-roasting:

Post-roasting and peeling:

Sliced up...so pretty!

better picture of the avo-vanilla smoothie
 than the first time we made it!

Tuesday, January 24
Breakfast: Avocado Vanilla Smoothie (because we love them)
Lunch: the first round of veggie burgers
Dinner: Beet/edamame/arugula salad plus the leftover soup (we also had fried plantains that were served for dinner at school, because they looked SO good, and they were just cooked in vegetable oil, so I figured they were ok...)

Wednesday, January 25 (final day of cleanse!!!)
Breakfast: Antioxidant Smoothie (I think...)
Lunch: round two of veggie burgers
Dinner: For our final meal of the cleanse, we needed an energizing (but not weighty) meal because we had a soccer game, so I saved the Baked Haddock with Sweet Potato Fries and Lime dinner for Wednesday.

It was perfect!

I also divided up one of the two leftover Beet & Edamame Salads, using lettuce we had gotten for wrapping the veggie burgers, and we had that on the side. Delish!

Super easy dinner:
1. Scrub two sweet potatoes and cut them into 1-in. wedges. Toss with olive oil and salt & pepper on a baking sheet, and bake for 20 min. at 425 degrees.
2. Place fish on a second baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt & pepper. When the potatoes have 10 minutes left to cook, put the fish in the oven too, and they'll both be done at the same time!

Now you can see what the roasted edamame salad looked like too!

This dinner was super easy, tasty, filling, and gave us plenty of energy for our game! We will definitely make dinners like this again in the future.

Thus ends our three-week adventure in detoxing. *Whew*! 

Now comes my biggest question: what now??? I will continue posting a few more posts about how things go transitioning back into the world of no food rules, so you can get a feel for what that process was like for us.

I have to say, I do feel really good at this point--I feel healthy, I have energy, and I feel very motivated to continue eating more healthily. I am curious to see how things go from here on out. Some of my biggest questions are:

• How will my body react when I eat foods that I haven't eaten for three weeks? 
• What parts of the cleanse should I maintain, and what should I not worry about?

So, hopefully some of these questions will be answered soon! Thanks for reading!