Cleanse: Day 8

Day 8:

• Breakfast: Cheerios, rice milk and banana
• 1 hour of Yoga
• Lunch: leftover steel cut oats with some veggie soup poured on top, pseudo banana pudding
• Dinner: leftover veggie soup from a few days ago
  

Banana "pudding" ?

I had a sweet craving today and made this spur of the moment banana "pudding" that turned out really good. Thought I'd share.








Banana "pudding"
Ingredients:
1 banana
2 hand fulls of raw almonds (or other nuts)
1/2 C water
1/2 C dried plums (prunes)

Directions:
Mix all ingredients in a blender until smooth, adding more water if necessary to blend.

Cleanse friendly pancakes

Cleanse Friendly Pancakes
Makes 8 small pancakes

INGREDIENTS
• 1 cup whole grain flour (WW, whole spelt or other whole grain flour should be fine)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup rice milk or other milk alternative
• 1/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS
1. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Make a well in the center, and pour in the vanilla, water, egg and rice milk. Mix until all of the dry ingredients have been absorbed, then stir in the nuts.
2. Heat a large skillet or griddle iron over medium heat, and coat with cooking spray. Pour about 1/3 cup of batter onto the hot surface, and spread out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cook until bubbles appear on the surface, then flip and brown on the other side. Serve warm with 100% maple syrup. I like to top mine with sliced banana or strawberries.

Cleanse: Day 7

Day 7:

• Breakfast: cleanse friendly pancakes with banana and 100% maple syrup and took fiber pills


• Lunch: Had the last of the corn and bean salad and the last of the rotisserie chicken leftovers from Friday


• Dinner: Made soup from the chicken carcass, cabbage, green beans, scallions, squash and broccoli from the garden. This made enough soup to put into the fridge for dinner a few nights this upcoming week. So I won't have to cook then!

Entering the last week of the cleanse I don't know that I've really paid much as much attention to what I ate this time as I have in the past. I think I've incorporate a lot of this way of eating into my regular diet. The main think I find it hard to give up during a cleanse is sugar. I love chocolate and like to have some after dinner most days. But I guess by doing these cleanses every so often, I can "make up" for eating chocolate the rest of the time. And although I find eating dried fruit a good way to take care of a sweet craving, a prune is not chocolate!

Cleanse: Day 6

Day 6:

• Breakfast: steel cut oats with rice milk, raisins and banana and fiber pills
• Lunch: 2 boiled eggs, corn and bean salad with chicken, and a couple of mini muffins with a drizzle of maple syrup
• Dinner @ Red Robin: Ordered the Simply delicious chicken sandwich, which is a grilled chicken breast on whole grain bun with lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickle. It came with fries but I substituted a side salad with balsamic vinaigrette. I had hot mint tea to drink.

Cleanse: Day 5

Day 5:

• Breakfast: cheerios with rice milk and banana and fiber pills
• Walked all around the zoo today with the kids who had the day off school
• Lunch: 2 boiled eggs, corn and bean salad, an apple and a couple of mini muffins
• Snack: several hand fulls of peanuts and raisins
• Dinner: All bought at PCC on the way home from the zoo. Leg and thigh of a rotisserie chicken, several pieces of brown rice and veggie sushi, bottle of Cha-Dao Japanese green tea

Cleanse: Day 4

Day 4:

• Breakfast: cheerios with rice milk and banana and fiber pills
• 30 minutes on stationary bike
• Lunch: 2 mini muffins, 1 boiled egg and several handfulls of peanuts and raisins
• Dinner will probably be bean salsa burritos on whole wheat tortilla with some chicken and a couple of mini muffins for dessert

I made some muffins last night using zucchini, carrot, apple, banana, dried plum puree mixed into a no-sugar whole wheat banana bread recipe. The muffins didn't have any added sweetener and they still turned out ok. I think when I make them again I'll add some maple syrup for sweetener or add more dried plums to the puree.