Eats on the Detox Part 3: Suppers

A quick round-up of our suppers on the detox.

{Catch up on the detox breakfast post here, and the snacks and smoothies post here.}

~Dairy-Free, Wheat-Free, Sugar-Free Vegetarian Meals~

Cauliflower tortillas stuffed with black beans, cooked quinoa, avocado, tomato, and cilantro pesto.  (I stuffed mine with so much stuff that it wouldn't fold up and so I ate it open-face!)

Cilantro Pesto

2 cups fresh cilantro (a couple big handfuls)

2/3 cup slivered almonds

1-2 cloves of garlic

1 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup vegetable broth

Pulse it in your food processor until it becomes a paste.

This. was. delicious.  Highly recommend it.  Even the girls all ate it eventually despite having a few initial complaints.  It was that good.  Although the cauliflower tortillas tasted amazing and consistency-wise behaved surprisingly like regular tortillas, they were extremely labor-intensive and took me almost half the day to make.  So if we were to do this again I might just purchase some minimally processed corn tortillas and save the cauliflower ones for someday when my kids are all grown up and I've got time on my hands. :)

Bell peppers, broccoli, mushrooms, green beans, onions and garlic sauteed in coconut oil topped with peanut sauce and served over brown rice.  (I've read some things since I made this about brown rice being difficult to digest, and so if you're sensitive you might want to soak it before consuming.  We didn't.)

The kid version-- rice and veggies separately, no peanut sauce (my kids don't like it... go figure!), and some high-protien flax and almond bread.  It looks like a brick (or poop, as L was so kind to point out), but it was delicious.  The kids ate a whole loaf in 24 hours.

Mushroom stroganoff served over spaghetti squash.

Mushrooms being one of my favorite foods, I was really excited about this one, but it turned out to not be my favorite.  I think it was because I realized at the last minute that I was out of rosemary, and the stroganoff was somewhat bland without it.  Also, our spaghetti squash had a hint of sweetness that our tongues really picked up on because we were on our fourth day without sugar by this point.  The sweetness didn't pair well with the savory stroganoff.  Next time I would maybe use rice or quinoa or maybe some brown rice pasta instead.  Two out of three girls enjoyed the spaghetti squash plain with a little parmesan cheese though... win!

Cauliflower crust pizza.

(Not my picture.  Wish I was better at photographing food.)

The flavor of this was amazing.  The texture of the crust, however, was somewhat rubbery and eggy.  Next time we make a wheat-free pizza I might just try making my own crust with an alternate whole grain, like millet.

Sweet potato chili.

This was really really really good.  I won't be making it ever again, or maybe not for a loooong time... let's just say I had a bad experience with this meal and the stomach flu.  But I had to share it with you because it really was delicious.  I recommend it if you're a fan of chili especially.

Teriyaki Tofu

1/2 cup soy sauce

1 garlic clove, minced

1/8 to 1/4 cup stevia

1/2 Tablespoon red wine vinegar

2 teaspoons sesame oil or olive oil

3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1 14-oz package extra-firm tofu

Stir all ingredients except tofu together in a casserole dish.  Chop tofu into chunks, throw it into the marinade, cover and put in the fridge for 1 hour minimum, up to 8 hours.  Cook in the covered casserole dish at 350 for 15 minutes or until warm.  Serve over rice or quinoa with steamed veggies.

Usually we do chicken in this marinade, but we tried the tofu while on the detox and loved it.  Use chicken if you like; it's equally delicious... you'll just want to cook the chicken for 30 minutes.

And the winner is..........

Thai Chicken Enchiladas!

(NOT a vegetarian meal... we did this in week 3 of the detox when meat was okay.  But you could probably sub in tofu or tempeh or whatever you desire to make it vegetarian.)

This was hands down our favorite meal of the detox.  Ooooohhh I want some right now.  You gotta try this especially if you're a fan of Thai food.

Oh P.S. I was going to use corn tortillas for this, but I think mine were old because they fell apart when I tried to roll them.  So I ended up using some wheat tortillas we had on hand from before the detox, since in week 3 wheat was okay in moderation.  I'm sure that one could find wheat-free tortillas, though, if one looked hard enough.

And the winner in the kid category is...

Healthy corn dog bites!

Yes that is my husband's hand reaching for seconds... Or thirds... Or fourths.

(I'm not sure if the Bob's Red Mill cornbread mix she talks about is wheat free, but we subbed 1 1/2 cups cornmeal, 1 cup millet flour, and 1 T baking powder.  We also used nitrate-free chicken sausage instead of hot dogs.)

And oven fries (potatoes wedged, tossed with olive oil, salted, and roasted in the oven at 400 for 35-40 minutes)

L ate six of these.  SIX.

We did do these after the detox was officially over, so we used ketchup, which as you know has sugar and often high-fructose corn syrup.  Anybody have recommendations for a healthier alternative to ketchup?

~A Quick Word about Lunches~

So I didn't do a lunch post because our lunches were pretty much the same as what we normally do, with any wheat or sugary ingredients removed, as well as dairy in the first week.  We also used a lot of our snacks and smoothies to double as lunch foods.

I will share one of N's favorite lunches that I sent to school with her quite a bit, starting in the latter part of week 1 when we added back cultured dairy:

Plain yogurt with a pinch of stevia and vanilla extract mixed in, topped with raisins, dried pineapple, slivered almonds and chia seeds.

I had salads for lunch mostly, dressed with a simple mixture of half balsamic vinegar and half olive oil.  I made them really gigantic and threw everything in my fridge on them...

Greens, cucumbers, tomato, carrots, bell pepper, mushrooms, avocado, tomato basil hummus...

{Not pictured are the other zany but delicious things I put on my salads... clementines, Craisins, goat cheese, boiled egg, ham from the deli after we added meat}

I'm still doing these salads daily because they're so delicious and make me feel good through the afternoon.  They take a minute to make, and it can be hard to find the energy to chop vegetables when we've had a busy morning and I'm super hungry, but I'm really forcing myself to do it because I'm a better person for the rest of the day.  Sometimes I have to wait until the little ones are napping when lunch time gets really crazy preparing food for them, but this is totally worth the wait.

~And that's the end of A Quick Word about Lunches~

Thanks for sticking with me through my ramblings about food!

I'm thinking I want to keep up last year's tradition of a short post-- even just a picture-- every day for the month of Feburary, and that would start tomorrow, so... stay tuned!