Black Bean Soup Freestyle Recipe

Today was a great day on "The Clean." Without thinking about it this morning I took the stairs two at a time to my office. When I got to the top I realized that I had done it without feeling winded or even a little bit of an increased heart rate. Then I thought to myself, when is the last time I had this much energy? The answer: last time I ate natural foods the way nature intended (or as you would know it, last time I was writing on this crazy blog).

Lunch was a fantastic Lentil Salad dish prepared by my fantastic Iowa Girl. It was tasty, filling and just plain good. My energy stayed consistent all day long and kept me enthusiastic.

Dinner was a treat. We are getting creative and made our own soup as we have grown weary of the recipes in the book. This creation consisted of Black Beans, Cilantro, Tomatoes, Olive Oil, Cumin, Lime Juice, Red Onion and fresh Garlic (my favorite household utensil is the garlic press :) pureed and warmed up. I took care to not let the soup come to a boil to keep the vegetables alive and nutritious. Anyway, it was fantastic!

As you can probably tell from the tone of today's blog, we have fallen into the groove of healthy eating and living. I am feeling great- words I would use to describe how I feel today: strong, vibrant, enthusiastic, and energetic. After all that, if you feel like kicking me in the head for sounding all healthy and stuff, remember that you can have a glass of wine before calling it a day today and I have committed that I won't...

Happy Cleaning!

Back to Work!

Our crazy schedules got the best of us over the weekend and we weren't able to blog as much as we like too. But, we're back for week 2 and to catch you up on our progress. Luckily the event I worked this weekend was the Gasparilla Distance Classic Health Expo and I was surrounded by healthy food including snack sized carrot packs. All the attendees were runners and it was extremely inspiring!

We are officially one week into the Clean. As we mentioned in the last post, Boat Guy and I just didn't find the zucchini soup appetizing. It's most definitely off the list. Saturday night we broke the rules and had our solid meal for dinner. It's one of our favorites, quinoa, hummus and marinated kale. It was fantastic and better than we could have gotten in a restaurant (see pic - thanks Iowa Mom for the lovely faux coral!).

As for this morning, both of us felt like green tea rather than a smoothie. For lunch Boat Guy indulged in left over quinoa and I had the rest of the hummus. With the lovely weather we're having today we both agreed that a smoothie for dinner would be a treat!

On a side note of healthy living, Boat guy is now down 7lbs. I refuse to hang out on the scale, but I am feeling the full affects of going Clean!

Until next time, happy Cleaning!

Hummus a Tune!

Hummus and carrots are a great lunch. Even on a regular day it would satisfy anyone looking for a healthy meal. Cold soup for dinner again is a different story. After careful consideration and discussion, we decided to warm up some soup. We didn't let it boil, we just warmed it up. I am pretty sure that Dr. Junger would not be disappointed in our warm soup. After all it is not a 5 Layer Burrito from Taco Bell!

We are struggling a little bit with the difference from our regular routine of making dinner (maybe a bottle of wine), setting the table and making the whole process last an hour or two. Frankly, it is difficult to make running some vegetables through the food processor and eating cold soup fill a couple hours of conversation and leisure...

Do I have you scared yet? If so, let me share this with you. For every moment I wish our food options were different this week, I feel satisfied and proud of our discipline. We are revitalizing our systems and improving our health (even though we don't feel any different yet!). I think that tomorrow will be a day of breakthrough, feeling energetic and satisfied with our health and vitality.

You've Been Slimed

Okay, not really, but this evening's dinner tasted like what I assume ectoplasma tastes like!

So we tried the Zucchini and Basil soup AGAIN tonight. Gone were the memories of tasteless green goop and instead we had visions of a nutritious, filling meal that we would rave about right here, on this very blog. We were wrong.

Fortunately, Boat Guy and I had excellent lunches today and I've prepared our favorite hummus for tomorrow's lunch. Sadly, Zucchini Basil soup still tastes like a cold, liquid celery with a hint of onion and not enough salt. I'll be eliminating this from the next 3 weeks' menu.

We were able to, with some mutual coaxing, eat enough of the soup to qualify for your mother's minimum standard for consumption. I am sure our mothers would be proud. Hopefully tomorrow night we will find the meal to be more pleasant. Also, it will be great to tell you we are feeling vibrant and healthy tomorrow. But for now, just boring dinner...

Happy Cleaning!

Day 1- A Trip to the Grocery Store

The Iowa Girl and I headed to the local organic grocery store tonight to pick up some healthy, natural victuals for the week. I prepared the list and dispatched her to decipher the crazy array of vegetables that still remain mysterious to me. There are something like 10 different kinds of plants that all look like lettuce to me. Anyway, I was in charge of the list while she put the stuff in the cart. I thought we had everything checked off the list, but missed something. Normally this would be irritating, but I am excited to go back to my new favorite health food market to look at cool stuff like wheatgrass sod. I kind of want to grow some of this stuff on my patio in case Tony Robbins stops by for a drink (he lives on the stuff, claims it gives him lots of energy). It is not on the menu for the Clean, but I think Dr. Junger would give me a hall pass if I wanted to give it a try.

Nothing exciting happening in the biology department tonight, just a day of natural raw foods. Stay tuned for the next chapter, should come out tomorrow...

Happy Cleaning!

Is it Time for Spring Cleaning?

After a very long time of being extremely Clean, kind of Clean and now not so Clean, friends we are back! We figured what better time to kick off another session of Clean than a mere month before the season of Spring. Since that crazy groundhog didn't see his shadow (insert the collective cheer of the entire USA here), we figured our beach bodies needed to be ready in record time.

So, here we are, back in the saddle on what I am now going to refer to as, Clean Eve. With my last glass of wine for 21 days in hand, I type the first entry of Clean 2. Join us on the 21 day journey of body and mind and see how we fair this time. Will we make it 21 days in our new environment of Clearwater Beach, FL? Will we see the amazing affects that we experienced in our previous journey? Will the temptations of food, wine and friends beat us? You'll read it here first!

Happy Cleaning!

Is There Life After Clean?

Life after Clean has been a bit confusing, we must admit. One tends to feel guilty when adding foods back in, afraid that all we've gained could be lost ever so quickly.

We indulged in our first glass of wine on our 22nd day. To One Iowa Girl's delight, we do still love a good glass of wine. She was a bit leery that our tastes had changed so much that we would no longer find a glass of vino delightful. Quite the contrary, we found it to be rather invigorating. We also found ourselves savoring every sip. Looking for the difference in flavor, etc. Seems a bit dramatic for a simple glass of wine, but we've realized that after 3 weeks of a very strict plan, we found our palates are much more sensitive than they have been in years. It seems as if we are tasting these wonderful things for the first time. If you are a red wine lover, then may we suggest to you the Casillero Del Diablo (yes, the house of the Devil - why not go big on our first night!) we know you will find this wine a pure delight.

As for our first weekend after the Clean, we both meandered off the beaten path a bit. Boat Guy succumbed to the pizza gods, while One Iowa Girl enjoyed a Mexican feast with her family. Neither of us over indulged, but each felt the tinge of guilt saying to ourselves, be careful, it's a slippery slope out there.

We will be sure to follow up with pictures very soon. In the mean time, stayed tuned to see how we ease back into the real world, without losing sight of our goals, yet enjoying the wonderful gastronomical world we've come to love!