Eating on a Detox

I’m currently doing a 21-day group detox: no alcohol, no caffeine (which I don’t do anyway), no dairy, no soy, no corn and no eggs. The last one is the hardest for me. I LOVE eggs! One of the things that’s coming up for the group is how to avoid social suicide. That part’s pretty hard. We are not going to be the life and soul of any party right now so I’m glad it’s January, but if you tune in, you can quickly become adept at scanning a menu and figuring out the white-listed foods.

Another tip a friend gave me for eating out was to call ahead and let the restaurant know what your food requirements are. To me, a sign of a good restaurant is the ability to rise to this challenge and ensure you are just as happy as a diner who can eat everything on the menu. Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc went above and beyond when I dined there last April, even making gluten-free cookies with sorbet as a sub for the ice cream sandwiches that were on the menu that day. Yum!

Mostly though, I have been eating at home because it’s simply easier. Want to know what was on this week’s menu? Read on.

• On Saturday I recreated a yummy soup (pictured above) that I had at Rosso the day before. The ingredients were parsnip, celery root and fennel, flavored with ground cumin and coriander seeds. I basically simmered the diced veggies and seasoning with a cup or so of homemade chicken broth until tender (about 10 minutes), threw the results in my Vitamix and added extra broth until it wasn’t too thick or too thin. To serve, I added a dash of truffle oil – wonderful.
• Sunday I made a detox-friendly pesto with a bunch of cilantro, olive oil, minced garlic and a spoonful of ground flax (instead of parmesan). I whizzed this all up in the blender and added enough olive oil to get the consistency I wanted. It keeps in the fridge for over a week in one of my beloved Weck jars. I added a spoonful to liven up baked chicken, trumpet mushrooms and salmon this week.

• On Monday I made grass-fed ground beef sauce with crushed tomatoes and delicata squash. Bonus: this lasted a couple of days and I added black beans and put it in Monkey’s Star Wars flask for lunch one day.
• Last night I made a soup with celery root, some acorn squash and a whole red pepper. I simmered all the diced ingredients with a cup of homemade broth until tender and then I put them in the blender until I had the consistency I wanted. I also added a teaspoon of tumeric for its health benefits and color. If you wanted it to be creamy you could add some coconut milk.
• Tonight we ate wild salmon baked in the oven for about 10ish minutes, pureed cauliflower with homemade chicken broth (a nice substitute for mashed potatoes); and a bit of roasted squash with pomegranate molasses. (I just put the whole squash in the oven for about 40 mins and then cut it up and scooped out the seeds).

In general, I’m trying to avoid grains, and instead focus on healthy fats like coconut oil, olive oil, avocado, tahini, etc, and high quality protein like grass-fed meat and wild cold water fish.  And of course, lots of fresh veggies.

And I have to admit, it’s just not possible to give up EVERYTHING or be “good” all the time, so I have been self-medicating with 82% dark chocolate every now and again.  Roll on the end of January – I’m looking forward to a nice glass of Pinot! – but in the meantime it’s awesome to enjoy deep sleep every night and enjoy life “fuzzy” free.