3-Day Mini Cleanse: Day 2

My sixteen year old son, Zack, decided he wanted to join me on the 3-Day Mini Cleanse - I am so excited! He's doing a modified version that looks something like this:

Breakfast: Green Smoothie
Snack: Fresh Fruit and/or Superfood Fruits (Goji Berries, Golden Berries)
Lunch: Avocado & Veggies Sandwich on Sprouted Grain Bread. Raw Veggies.
Snack: More Raw Veggies or Fruit, as desired
Dinner: Large Raw Salad with choice of seed cheese, raw goat cheese, baked sweet potato, sprouted grain toast, flax crackers
After Dinner: water, herb tea, fruit if desired
All Day: plenty of water or herb tea

So basically, he's just having more food than me, plus the sprouted grain bread for school lunches (providing ease and normalcy). So far, he's doing great, despite reporting feeling more hungry than usual. (He is a teenage boy, after all, which is just one step removed from a bottomless pit when it comes to food.)

Here's the skinny on Day 2.

My green juice was extra yummy thanks to this fresh pineapple I happen to be working on. I cut fresh pineapple from the bottom up in big round slices, trim off the skin and store the remainder standing up on a plate in the fridge. I like to see its sturdy, cactus-like plume top descending towards the plate with each subsequent slice.

Pineapple Green Juice
one inch thick slice fresh pineapple, skin removed
one crisp red apple (honeycrisp, fuji, braeburn)
one bunch celery
one bunch collard greens
one lime, peeled

This recipe makes a quart of juice. In the photo, the jar is not full because I already drank one glass before I took the picture! Isn't the color completely gorgeous?
A few hours after the juice it was smoothie time. Today's smoothie was grapefruit-blueberry-banana-kale with acai, stevia, bee pollen, chia gel and maca. I made enough so that Zack could have his for breakfast and I could have mine at lunch. I stirred some cayenne into mine, also. Very filling.

Truth be told, I hardly get hungry at all on these mini-cleanses. I find the food so tasty and satisfying. It's so nice to simplify my intake...and not have to give up enjoyment, since I do love making and eating yummy food.

To that end, I got creative at dinner and made a Creamy Cabbage Salad using Pumpkin Seed Cheese, thinned down with a little water, for the dressing. This was served on a bed of red and green oak leaf lettuce. Zack proclaimed it tasted like chicken salad, which I guess is a good thing. I thought it was divine. Here's the basic recipe with some photos that I'm afraid, don't do the living colors justice.

Creamy Cabbage Salad with Cilantro Pumpkin Seed Cheese Dressing
1/2 green cabbage
1/8 red onion
1/2 lemon
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
generous pinches of thyme, sage, celery seed
1/2 box cherry tomatoes
1 package white button mushrooms
1 clove garlic
teaspoon or so wheat-free tamari or nama shoyu
about one third cup pumpkin seed cheese (click here for recipe, but substitute cilantro for the parsley.)
water
small handful dulse seaweed

Juice lemon into a large bowl and add sea salt. Slice cabbage thinly, add to bowl and toss well. Mince red onion and add this to cabbage along with thyme, sage and celery seed. Stir well and allow to marinate for one to two hours, tossing occasionally.

Mince garlic and combine in a medium bowl with tamari. Slice mushrooms and add to garlic-tamari. Stir well and allow to marinate for fifteen minutes or longer.

When ready to assemble salad, add marinated mushrooms and cherry tomatoes to cabbage and toss. Combine pumpkin seed cheese with a little warm water and stir into a thick paste, the consistency of blue cheese dressing. Add this to the salad and toss well. Tear dulse into small pieces and mix in. Let salad sit a while so flavors can marry. Serve on a bed of fresh crisp greens.

So that is Day 2 of the 3-Day Mini Cleanse. Oh - I had dessert: 2 dates dipped in maybe 2 tablespoons of raw almond butter. (What a splurge!) Followed by a nice mug of medicinal herbal tea - an echinacea blend from Traditional Medicinals, one of my favorite packaged tea companies.

I'm feeling pretty energetic - had a great yoga class today with snow falling outside the studio window...tomorrow I plan on rebounding to help move any released matter through my lymphatic system for elimination. (Always remember, a cleanse requires that the waste leaves the body - otherwise it's just a potential cleanse!)