Cleanse Day 1: Detox Vegetable Soup

Hello 2016. I knew it was inevitable. It’s CLEANSE TIME. After enjoying ourselves (maybe too much?!?!) over the holidays, our entire Wadley household has embarked on a 21-day cleanse. We are looking forward to having more energy and getting back to healthy habits. Had a few crazy recipes there for a while…but I’m hoping to finally get this blog back to it’s intended purpose: a healthified recipe source!

Rules of our cleanse: No dairy, no wheat, no processed food, no meats, no added sugars, no coffee 😦

Cleanse Day 1

Breakfast: 1 bowl of steel cut oats with cinnamon and one chopped clementine.

Lunch: Chris Wark’s Anti-Cancer Coconut Smoothie (http://www.chrisbeatcancer.com/the-anti-cancer-smoothie/). For the coconuts, The Mr. and I made a special trip to the Asian market in Birmingham, where I was reunited with my people!!! Just kidding 😉 But truly, Asian markets are usually awesome for special types of produce (though it’s really hard to find organic options) at affordable prices. We got a 9 pack of coconuts for $16 (usually they are $2 or more each, so decent deal, but we want to try haggling next time!). We did 1 cup of frozen berries, 2 bananas, and 1 coconut and split it between the two of us.

Snack: 1 cup of fresh carrot juice (juicing is so much fun!).

Dinner: 1 bowl of Detox Vegetable Soup (http://drcolbert.com/detox-vegetable-soup/). This soup was wonderful, and I’m happy we have plenty of leftovers (I doubled the recipe). Since we had a TON of carrot pulp left over from juicing this afternoon, I added about a cup of it to this soup and it thickened it up nicely, giving it almost a chili-like appearance. Very filling, and bursting with nutrients!

Detox Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

• 1 T olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cups green beans, trimmed and chopped
• 1 28-ounce can of diced tomatoes
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 4 cups of kale, stemmed and chopped
• 2 T fresh parsley, chopped

Instructions

1. Heat up a large pot over med-high heat and add olive oil.
2. Throw in onion, carrot and celery and cook for 3-5 minutes or until onions are translucent.
3. Add in garlic and bell pepper and cook for 1 minute.
4. Add in green beans and cook for another minute.
5. Top with diced tomatoes, vegetable stock and spices and give it a stir.
6. Bring to a boil and then let simmer, uncovered over med-low heat for 25 minutes (this is where I added the carrot pulp).
7. Add in kale and cook for 5 more minutes (it will wilt).
8. Top with fresh parsley and serve warm.

We also added a cap-full of Bragg’s apple cider vinegar and some avocado after dishing up. Already feeling like I’ve got better energy and I really wasn’t as hungry today as I would have expected. I’m currently trying to down a huge glass of water because I don’t think I’ve had nearly enough today to amplify the detox effects. Here’s to the next 20 days!