If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram it's no news to you that I have been on a whole food kick.The idea first came to me from my bestie Lori, who after a weekend of [Truly Whorish Chocolate Processed Carb and Fattttttttty Food Debauchery] over-indulgence decided that she needed a routine "Whole Foods Cleanse." It was a new concept to me, kind of, and I was intrigued. I am SO not an expert but what I took away from our conversation was the willingness to try a whole food experiment that consisted of: Smoothie in the morning, big salad for lunch or dinner, grain & veggie dish for lunch or dinner. No processed, refined food and no added sugar.
I didn't quit caffeine (black tea) because I wanted a cleanse, not a homicide charge.
I am happy to talk about this more in-depth if it's something that [doesn't bore you to tears] you want to discuss. After an initial adjustment, I found it to be not as difficult as I'd envisioned but I should add these caveats: I haven't eaten meat in almost 20 years. I also had recently cut out lots of dairy from my diet, so, it wasn't a toooooootal departure from the kinds of foods I eat anyway. By FAR, the biggest issue for me is added sugar and refined flour. I am surely addicted to sugar (chocolate, really) and pastas, Italian breads, pastries etc. And when I get going, I'm like a goldfish or a Cocker Spaniel. Or a carp. You know what I'm saying right?
Anyway.
The cleanse was designed to sort of [put me into rapid chocolate/sugar withdrawls] reset my eating. I found that I like it, overall, and have made some flexible but longer term changes. There are a few things I find helpful when eating this way. One of them is batch cooking. I make a batch of one or two grains and keep my fridge stocked for putting together meals with the quickness. I regularly make quinoa, farro (unprocessed wheat) and brown rice.
One of my favorite things to eat is this quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) salad.
It's simple if you batch cook, it's basically just building it.
Here's how I make it: (P.S. I don't even need all these pictures because basically? It's just LAYERING A SALAD but I like pictures with food posts and I took them, so HERE THEY ARE YOU'RE WELCOME.)
I measure out 1/2 -3/4 cup of quinoa. This is 3/4 of a cup because I was pretty hungry.
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I also open a couple cans of beans and keep them in the fridge for use in lots of things. Here I scooped about 1/2 c of black beans on top of the quinoa.
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Grape tomatoes. Obviously. See? CRAZY TO HAVE THESE PICTURES! HO, HEY THERE! WE ARE TOMATOES!
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I didn't get an action photo of me grating the carrot. (You: thankthesweetbabyjesus.) It was a little carrot and I prefer them grated so there aren't some random super crunchy hard carrot chunks but if you want to get right to the eating, you don't need to slice the tomatoes or grate the carrots like my finicky, fancy ass.
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I seed the cucumber. SEEEE?!
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Avocaaaaaaaaahdo. I love it so much. This is 1/4 of an avocado. Okay, it's really more like 1/3 of an avocado. But whatever.
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I also love cilantro. I'd like to tear up my whole lawn and replant the front yard with cilantro and my back yard with basil. I rip off a handful, run it under water, squeeze it in a paper towel, chop it up and throw it on. Everything.
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When I think about it, I'll make a simple dressing for these kinds of salads and keep it in a jelly jar in my fridge. I was all out but I put 1 tsp olive oil and about 1 TBS lemon juice, salt and peper. I enjoy the tangy lemon, the creamy avocado and the zippy cilantro. I ENJOY IT VERY MUCH.
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This picture isn't as artful as the one I took the day before on Instagram.
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I mix it all up with a spoon and then just shovel it into my mouth hole with that same spoon. Totally yummy.
Enjoy!
