21-Day Detox Day 14: Baked Wild Salmon, Swiss Chard & Pesto & New & Improved Kale Chips

I've now hit the two week mark and have only one more week to go! I've really enjoyed experimenting with different vegetables and making myself healthy, filling meals during this cleanse. Knowing now how easy it is, I know that I will continue taking the time to make healthy lunches and snacks to take with me to work. One of those snacks is Kale Chips. I've come up with a new and improved recipe that I'd like to share! The original baked Kale Chips recipe is delish, but this one really takes the cake (as long as the cake is gluten free, preferably even grain-free and vegan)

New & Improved Kale Chips
1 Bunch of Kale
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tbsp The Spice House Ukrainian Village Seasoning


Process:
1. Place sheet of unbleached parchment paper onto a baking sheet and heat oven to 350
2. Tear the leaves off of the Kale and leave the stems for juicing
3. Place leaves in a bowl and add oil and seasoning
3. Using you hands, massage the oil and salt into the leaves
4. Please Kale in one layer onto baking sheet

5. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until crispy
6. Remove and Enjoy!

I used the left over stems to make myself a juice:

Pink Tartlet

1 Lemon
2 inch ginger
2 beets
5 springs mint
10 kale stems
1/2 fennel

For lunch I made myself some Zucchini Noodles with Pesto

For dinner, I baked Wild Salmon I picked up at Whole Foods and paired that with Swiss Chard cooked with the rest of my pesto.

Baked Wild Salmon

1 large piece of salmon or a couple smaller ones
2-3 slices of lemon
1 tbsp Spice House Greek Islands Seasoning
2 tsp Celtic Salt

Process:

1. Place sheet of unbleached parchment paper onto a baking sheet and heat oven to 350
2. Put salmon on paper with skin side down
3. Sprinkle seasoning and salt on fish and place lemon slices on top
4. Bake for 20-22 minutes
5. Enjoy! 

Swiss Chard & Pesto
Ingredients:
2 tbsp Nutless Vegan Pesto
1 bunch of Swiss Chard

2 tsp Celtic salt
2 tbsp water (optional)

Process:
1. Keep pesto in pan
2. Once melted, add cut up chard
3. Cook until chard darkens (add water if it starts burning or sticking to the pan)
4. Serve with Salmon
5. Enjoy!

21-Day Detox Day 13: Kale & Avocado Salad

I had a bit of a mishap today with my meals. I had made a slaw on Saturday (recipe not posted, and rightfully so) for lunch, but when I opened the container to eat it, it smelled rank. The slaw was primarily made with Spanish black radish, which has a very peculiar smell and after standing in the fridge for 2 days, that smell was unbearable. So I was stuck being absolutely hungry with nothing else to eat! Luckily, I have a Whole Foods about 10 minutes away from my office. I knew that I would be able to find something with clean ingredients that would be satisfying and tasty. I found a kale & avocado salad and some roasted sweet potatoes. I was able to find the recipe to the salad online:


Kale & Avocado Salad (from MindbodyGreen)
Ingredients
2 lbs chopped kale (make sure thick stem is removed and discarded)
½ lb red onion, diced
½ lb red bell pepper, diced
3 avocado
3 oz lemon juice
2 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper

Process:
1. Mash the avocado pulp with the lemon juice, salt and pepper until well-combined and smooth. Or you can process together in a food processor.
2. Combine the avocado lemon mixture with the vegetables. It is actually easiest to use your hands to ensure that the kale is well-coated with the avocado dressing.
3.Taste and adjust seasonings. If you prefer a creamier texture, use more avocado.

  

The salad was pretty tasty, but I think the sweet potatoes were too sweet for me. They really spiked my blood sugar quickly and I felt jittery most of the afternoon. Normally, I wouldn't be aware of the feeling but since I'm detoxing, I'm pretty hyper-aware.

After work, I went to Dr. Melissa's office to sit in her Infrared Sauna. The sauna is part of the detox program. I was able to last about 35 minutes in there. She preferred that I do an hour, but I don't  I have the attention span to sit in a little hot room for that long without my IPhone. To meet her expectations, I needed reading material, and all I had were cookbooks that were lying on the floor of the backseat of my car. And reading cookbooks during a cleanse is torture. After the sauna, I just wanted to crawl into my bed and fall asleep, but unfortunately there was still plenty of work to be done!

For dinner, I ate the Spaghetti squash again with some salmon and sauerkraut. As you can probably tell by now, once I like something, I keep eating it until I can't stand it any more. I think that's the easiest way to get healthy: find 5-10 recipes you really love, get great at cooking them, and keep at it! You can always spice it up every once in a while, but essentially if you had that many down, you'd be set for a few months. And then you can find some new one's and start practicing some more. Do you have any favorite recipes you'd like to share or would like to see me make? Let me know!

21-Day Detox Day 12: Nutless Vegan Pesto Sauce & Zucchini Noodles

Day 12 fell on a Sunday. My pain hadn't lessened much. I spent the rest of the weekend trying to figure out what may have caused the relapse. The pain made me more irratible and easily excitable and at the same more distant and aloof. It's amazing what our psyche does to deal with discomfort. I'm sure there is some sort of lesson in all this: something about patience and acceptance perhaps, so I try to stay as positive and keep reminding myself: "This to shall pass."

For breakfast I made myself a juice with my shake:

Carrot Tops & Licorice

3 carrots with 2 cups of carrot tops

2 celery stalks

1 Granny Smith

1 Fennel with tops

2 inch ginger

I finished my collard greens from the night before as well.

For lunch, I made a home made pesto sauce to have with spaghetti squash

Nutless Vegan Pesto Sauce

3 cups of basil leaves

1 lemon

3 tsp salt

1/2 olive oil

Process:

1. Peel lemon

2. add all ingredients into a Vitamix and blend until mostly smooth 

3. Enjoy with Zuchini Noodles or Spaghetti Squash

Then for dinner, I made some Zuchini Noodles and had that with leftover Grilled Coho from last night.

Zucchini Noodles

3 zucchini

2 tsp salt

Process:

1. Using a peeler, peel zuchini into thin strips

2. Once complete, sprinkle with salt, mix by hand and let sit for 1 hour

3. After an hour or so, put a pot of water to boil 

4. Once water has boiled, drop in Zuchini and cook for no more than 2 minutes

5. Drain and Enjoy!

Every Sunday, we go to my mother's house for dinner. She usually cooks up a feast fit for a Jewish holiday even it its just Sunday. I chose to bring my own meal to dinner this week to ensure that I was eating organic, sugar-free and grain-free food. Ever since I was diagnosed with my allergies, my mother has learned to cook wheat-free and dairy-free Russian/Jewish cuisine, so usually I don't really have to fret. 

The first thing my mom said when she saw me was: "You've lost weight." I have to say, I've weighed myself and I've lost maybe 1lb since I began the cleanse, but my clothes fit looser and I do feel lighter. Our weekly get together also usually includes a Facetime session with my grandparents who live in NYC. And the moment they saw me, the riot act started. I'm not exactly sure how they can tell via the video conference, but I guess they noticed I lost weight too. I got 20+ questions about what I'm doing and why. My grandmother was extremely worried about me based on my prior history. I had to calm them down and get the hubby to confirm that I was eating plenty of food and wasn't doing anything too crazy. My grandmother wasn't really convinced.

In the past, the attention I would be receive from others when I lost weight, especially during the height of my eating disorder was a drug. The elation I would feel from the recognition that I had succeeded on my quest towards perfection could not be matched by anything else. Nowadays, I don't have the same response. I'm not getting a thrill from knowing that because of my past, my grandparents are worried about my health. I'm not happy that's it's even a topic of discussion. No one exactly asked me about how I'm actually feeling, except for my step-father. I know that I can't hide from the attention I'm going to get as I cleanse my body of the toxins, but I know that I'm not focused on that attention this time. I know I'm not doing it so I can say I lost weight, I'm doing it so that I can be proud of helping myself get healthy.

August '12

So You Want to Buy A Juicer: Hurom Slow Juicer vs. Breville Ikon **PLUS MY FIRST GIVEAWAY**

Two weeks ago, when I started the cleanse, I decided to buy a Breville Ikon. The hubby and I did some research at about 1am on a Friday night and I told him to just buy it. I was super overwhelmed by all of the choices: centrifugal, masticating, triturating. To this day, I still don't know what any of it means. 

I've been pretty happy with the Breville, being that it's the only juicer I've ever used and I've had nothing to compare it to-until today. I called the guys at Hurom Slower Juicer and asked them if they'd be willing to send me out a model to test and they gladly obliged. And so, I decided to put the two juicers to a duel!

The Hurom Slow Juicer

The Breville Ikon

I think the most important fact is how the juicers compare to one another, so I'm not going to bore you with the technical details. The one thing I will mention is how they make the juice (based on how I see it).

Breville: Has a "shredder/grater" at the bottom of a funnel and then pushes the fruit/veggie/nut through a mesh screen with teeny tiny holes

Hurom: Has a grinder that churns the fruit/veggie (similar to a traditional meat grinder) and then pushes it through a strainer with much bigger holes.

So which one should you buy?

I think there are a few things you need to consider:

1. Will prep time (peeling, cutting, cleaning) keep you from juicing?

2. Are you in a hurry when juicing?

3. Do you like a little pulp in your juice?

Below is a summary of how long it took me to make the same juice in each juicer.

Prep Time:

If you are going to juice with the Breville, the prep time is pretty minimal: all you really need to do is to peel vegetables with bitter skins like carrots or beets. On the other hand, with the Hurom, you need to cut the fruits/veggies down to two inch pieces as well. I did this by hand, but technically if you want to do it faster, you can use a food processor with the slicer add-on. 

1 Granny Smith, 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks, 2 inch piece of ginger, 4 stalks of kale

Juicing:

The Hurom takes longer to juice, because it's a slow juicer. It basically squeezes every last drop of the juice and this is noticeable in the dry pulp it expels. You do have to stand there and put the cut pieces into the funnel. The Breville is much much faster, so if you are in a hurry, it's something to consider. However, one thing to note is the quality of juice you will get. 

On the Left: Hurom, On the Right: Breville

I used 1 Granny Smith, 2 carrots, 2 celery stalks, 2 inches of ginger, and 4 stalks of kale in both juicers. The Hurom was not only significantly more green, but also yielded an additional ounce of juice. The Breville had much more froth and looked "watery" in comparison to the juice from the Slow Juicer. 

I had the hubby taste both juices blindly. Without knowing which juicer the juice came from or seeing the color, he chose the Slower Juicer's product because of its taste and texture. He said it tasted sweeter. Then when I showed him the two glasses, he said he liked the "green one" based on it's bright color.

Clean-Up

I've always found cleaning the Breville a bit cumbersome. The mesh screen collects every microscopic piece of pulp. You have to scrub until your hands hurt to get it clean. The Hurom was much easier to clean, even though it does have smaller pieces. And because you don't have to scrub the mesh so hard, it's also a bit faster.

Re-Assembly

The Hurom has more pieces and so it does take a little longer to put it back together. The Breville parts are larger, so if you have issues with holding smaller pieces then you may find the Hurom assembly a bit tricky.

Overall

By no means did I expect to like the Hurom so much, especially since I chose to buy the Breville. Honestly, I bought it for the name and the reputation. The Hurom Slow Juicer is brand new product on the market, so I was a bit weary to invest in it. It's available at Williams-Sonoma and having worked for the company, I know that they don't sell anything unless its been fully vetted. 

So back to the question: which one should you buy?

I think that if you don't have time to prep and still want to get into juicing, then the Breville is a perfect starter juicer. You will still get plenty of benefits from consuming nutritious fruits and vegetables. The Breville is also about $100 less than the Hurom, so if money is an issue, then this is a great juicer for the price. However, if you are willing to put in a bit more time and you want to truly drink "Green" juices, then the Hurom Slow Juicer is your best bet. The juice is much richer in not only flavor but also texture and color. Which ever you decide to buy, both are available for sale at my Gourmet Boutique!

Giveaway

I have a pair of Fabrikators Skrub'a Gloves to giveaway to one lucky reader.

These gloves are great for cleaning vegetables instead of peeling them and will help save you time while prepping to juice with your Hurom.

Rules:

To be entered in the contest, you must 

1. Go to my Facebook Page and Like Me: ACraftyGourmet

2. Leave me a comment on this post letting me know what you think of my review (be nice :))

3. I will pick a winner using Random.org and the winner will be announced on Tuesday August 14th.

4. You have until Monday, August 13th to enter. 

5. Good Luck!

21-Day Detox Day 11: Vegetarian Southern Style Collard Greens, Grilled Coho, and Mixed Greens Salad with Feta & Apples

This morning, I woke up in pain again. It's a huge disappointment, considering how well I've been feeling the last couple of weeks. I blame the avocado and steak and am committing to being more mindful about eating a lot of very high fat foods in one day. I'm not seeing my chiropractor or acupuncturist until Tuesday, so I'm going to have to suck it up. But honestly, it sucks! The whole point of doing this cleanse is to feel physically better and control the pain and I'm so disappointed that the pain is back. The positive is that now when the pain comes again, I can do an inventory of what I ate or did to bring it on. I also know that I've been stressing more at work than usual and that could be another factor. Louise Hay believes that lower back pain can be associated with insecurity. So if you’re feeling insecure—or unable to meet other people’s expectations—that pressure can manifest in the lower back.


I had an hour to spare before my haircut/highlight appointment this morning, so I went to the local farmer's market. I was really shocked to find that only one booth sold organic produce. When I went over to the booth, the first thing that caught my eye were some cucumbers, but half of them were already rotten. I was really disappointed, but at least now I know to steer clear of the Daly City Farmer's Market on Saturdays. I was hoping to grab something to eat at the market, but the lack of quality produce left me hungry. Instead, I picked up a bottle of Organic V to have with my shake at Whole Foods. I also brought some leftovers from dinner (Chard and Spaghetti) to eat for lunch while I was getting my hair done at Pirate Salon.


After getting my hair done, I went to pick up some snacks for the hubby to repay him for putting our daughter down for her nap. It's stressful for him, so I'm always extremely grateful when he does. One of his favorite places to snack on the weekends is Anda's Piroshki in Bernal Heights. Anda's is located inside a collective space that houses several other businesses. Each business has a small counter. There, owner Anna Tvelova delivers some amazing piroshkis according to my husband (I don't eat then since unfortunately they are not wheat free). I picked up a Chicken & Veggie and a Bunny's Surprise (mixed veggie). I completely forgot to take pictures of them, but from what I hear from him-they were delish! Feeling left out of the fun, I decided to grab a cup of the vegetarian borscht, which she makes with beets, carrots, potatoes, peppers, tomato puree, onions, garlic, dill and parsley. I make a mean borscht, but Anna's has me "beet." It was a really nice treat!

For dinner, I decided to make something lighter in comparison to the night before, so I made up some Wild Coho Salmon from Whole Foods. I paired the salmon with a Mixed Greens Salad with Feta and Apples for the hubby, while I ate it with a side of green salad and some Vegetarian Southern Style Collard Greens.

Grilled Coho

Ingredients:
2-3 4oz pieces of Wild Coho
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp Sunny Paris Salt Free Seasoning
2 tsp Celtic Salt

Process:
1. Heat oil in grill pan
2. Season fish
3. Once pan is hot, place fish on pan with skin facing up
4. Cook for 5 minutes, and flip
5. Cook for 5 minutes and remove

Mixed Greens Salad with Feta & Apples 

Ingredients:
2 cups of mixed greens (mine has edible flowers)
1/4 cup of Feta (with marinate about 1.5-2 tbsp)
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1.5 tbsp of oil
1/2 granny smith apple(thinly sliced)

Process:
1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl until feta is evenly distributed and leaves are well dressed

Vegetarian Southern Style Collard Greens

Ingredients:
1 bunch collard greens
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp ghee
2 tsp Spice House Hickory Salt


Process: 

1. Heat water to boil in a pot

2. Once water has boiled, add sliced greens
3. Cook for 8 minutes, remove and drain 

21-Day Detox Day 10: Guacamole Dip & Steak & Greens

Today, I made the mistake of eating a whole avocado. I do that every once in a while and since avocados in my mind are vegetables, even though they are technically fruits, I thought it would be a good mid-day snack. A whole avocado has about 30 grams of heart-healthy unsaturated fat and lots of Vitamin C, K, folate, and B6. Unfortunately, if you have any gall bladder issues, which I do, eating 30 grams of fat in one sitting, even if it's healthy fat, is not a good idea.


When the gall bladder is not happy, a variety of symptoms arise. You can experience a feeling of fullness, have a stomach ache, have painful gas, and be nauseous. Also, when the gall bladder is not happy, the result is often lower back and leg pain: the exact issues I've been trying to deal with in this cleanse. I'm not sure how long it's going to take my body to fully process all of the fat I have consumed today, but I hope it will be soon so I can get back to feeling better. So moral of the story: cut an avocado in quarters and don't eat them all at one time.

For breakfast, I made my shake with a juice I call, Morning Essentials.

Around 11am, I had my infamous snack.

Guacamole Dip Ingredients:


1 avocado

2 tbsp chopped cilantro
2 tsp Celtic Salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar

Process:
1. Mash avocado in a bowl

2. Add all other ingredients

3. Mix & Enjoy with Super Veggie Crackers (IN MODERATION)

I was feeling pretty rotten, so I couldn't really eat anything until dinner. For dinner, I had another wise idea. Since I was already feeling bad after the avocado, I decided to pamper (yes I'm being sarcastic), my gall bladder some pasture-raised beef. Hind-sight is 20/20 and I didn't connect the fact that I was feeling so rotten to the large amount of fat I consumed until much later. And even though, I did not feel good after, the steak was delicious!

Steak & Greens
Ingredients:
2 Steaks (ours were about 5oz each)
1 tbsp oil
1 bunch of Swiss Chard
1 cup juicer pulp with parsley & lemon
1/3 cup water




1.5 tbsp ghee
salt to taste

Process:
1. Heat grill pan and add oil
2. Season steaks with salt and pepper and place on pan
3. While steaks are cooking, heat oil in frying pan
4. Once oil is hot, saute juicer pulp

5. Add Swiss Chard and water, cover

6. After about 8 minutes, flip steaks
7. Cook on the other side for 5 minutes (makes for medium steaks)
8. Stir chard to make sure it steams well

9. Remove everything from heat
10. Serve with Vegan Veggie Spaghetti
11. Enjoy!

I was a reminded of a good lesson today: everything is good, but in moderation. It's a good lesson to be reminded of every once in a while.

21-Day Detox Day 9: Mashed Cauliflower

Last December, I was having a bit of a hard time. I was dealing with a lot of anxiety, specifically around my daughter's health. She was diagnosed with sleep apnea and at 2.5 years old, the ENT strongly recommended surgery. With every cold and tummy ache, I couldn't stop from feeling like the prognosis was dire. The stress of it made it really difficult to eat right and even take care of myself at times. Usually when I feel so undone, I contact Rachel Yellin for additional support. Rachel is a hypnotherapist who helped me while I was preparing my for my daughter's birth. During my session, Rachel suggested that much of my anxiety could be related to a chemical imbalance due to my diet and suggested that I look into the GAPS diet.

GAPS is a diet that was developed by Natasha-Campbell McBride, Russian-born neurologist and nutritionist who researched the link between nutrition and neurological illness, specifically her son's autism but also a slew of auto-immune conditions. Essentially, GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome) centers around giving your gut a break and eating only easily digestible, non-allergenic foods that heal the digestive system. The diet is grain-free, sugar-free and involves taking large doses of potent probiotics to help kill off bad gut bacteria. At the time, the idea of cutting out sugar and grain from my diet seemed ridiculous, even if it was going to reduce my anxiety. And now on Day 9, I can't believe that I haven't had grains in 6 weeks and sugar for more than two. While, I'm not committing myself to any more than 21 days, I am feeling this is much more doable than I had imagined last December.

For breakfast, I had leftover juice from yesterday that I named Scary Green Monster.

For lunch, I made mashed potatoes (minus the potatoes, plus cauliflower). Cauliflower is a great alternative to potatoes, which are part of the nightshade family of vegetables together with tomatoes, eggplant and peppers. Nightshades have been shown to aggravate inflammatory conditions, especially arthritis and psoriasis. Cauliflower, on the other hand, has cancer fighting properties.

Mashed Cauliflower
Ingredients:
1/2 Head of Cauliflower
1 tbsp Ghee
2 tsp Spice House Ukrainian Village Spice

Process:
1. Put cauliflower into a pot, bring water to boil and cook until cauliflower is cooked
2. Using a potato masher or fork, mash cauliflower
3. Add Ghee and seasoning
4. Enjoy!

 For dinner, I made an awesome juice and used the pulp to saute with kale.

Juice for Thursdays
3 carrots
1 beet
1 lemon
3 cups spinach
2 springs parsley
2 springs mint
2 inch ginger

Kale, Pulp, and BBQ Chicken
Ingredients:
1 bunch Kale
1 cup juicer pulp from Juice for Thursdays
2 tbsp olive oil
BBQ Chicken from Detox Day 8
Salt to taste

Process:
1. Heat oil and saute pulp

2. Add Kale and saute for about 8 minutes or until Kale has darkened. Add salt.

3. Serve with BBQ Chicken & Sauerkraut
4. Enjoy!