Day #1 of Cleanse & Tasty Veggie Wrap

Hello all! Welcome to the first day of my cleanse. I must say so far, so good. I was up bright & early this morning (thanks to my hubby who is away and thought he'd call and say "good morning") and ready to get my 'cleanse' on. So, I got busy making my green juice.

What an amazing, healthy breakfast to feed to your body. 

In the juice, I put baby spinach, kale, celery, pear, green apple, broccoli stems and ginger. Once everything was juiced I added a shot of wheatgrass juice. It was good....but not great. I liked the juice immediately after I finished the juicing, but I had another glass with my lunch and I literally had to choke it down. It did not taste good at all. My juicer is not the best one out there, so I found that it took alot of time, had a lot of waste (I strained out a few extra ounces of juice from the pulp) and my kitchen still looks like a green veggie bomb exploded!

I have a problem when I'm in the kitchen...I am messy and this project was really messy!!

At the end of the day, I did drink about 30 oz of juice, but tomorrow I think I am going to go back to my tried and trusted green smoothies ~ for those of you who are foreign to the green smoothie movement, stay tuned; I will be posting some of my favourite recipes in the days to come. 

Even though I got an early start today, I didn't get out the door to get groceries and run some errands until 11 a.m. By the time I got home and got everything put away, I was starving. I wanted something easy and satisfying...and I wanted it fast!!  

So I pulled out something new I just bought that I was super-excited to try. Food for Life brown rice tortillas.

With wraps, there are no recipes or rules - personally, I use the following steps:

1.  Get "saucy" ;-)

Choose your favourite dressing, condiment or sauce. My all-time favourite is hummus. But, today I thought I'd step outside the box and try something different. I used 1/3 of a large avocado and mashed it in a small bowl. I added a squirt of lemon juice and some Extra Spicy Mrs. Dash.

 2. Pick your favourite filling.
I packed mine full of veggies. Any veggies will do - I used red pepper, carrots, cucumber, crimini mushrooms, alfalfa sprouts and sweet pea sprouts.

Olives also taste amazing in veggie wraps when you are using hummus!

3. Build your wrap.
I first heated my tortilla in the microwave for 5 - 10 seconds. Then you slather on your sauce.

Next, add your veggies.



I am a lover of salt, so I added a sprinkling of spicy Herbamare (sea salt) at this point. I think with the avocado it would have been bland without, but you can spice your wrap up with whatever you love.

4. Wrap and enjoy.

Mmmmm.....so good.

Now if you are a blogger and you are planning to do a post about your lunch, this is where you would insert a picture of  the final product - a gorgeous wrap with ends tucked in and veggies all snuggly inside. Well, that would have been a nice idea and I would have loved to share that with you, but I was so darn hungry that I dug in before I ever thought of getting a final shot. Oops ~ better luck next time ~ I promise next time I will practice a little self control ;-)

Well, it's now the middle of the afternoon and I've got to find some elbow grease and tackle the green beast that is my kitchen. By then it will be time for dinner and I am not sure what exciting recipe I am going to try, but I promise if it is something good, I will get a good shot of it to share with you :-) 

What are favourite sandwich/wrap fillings?

What are your favourite green smoothie combos?

I hope you're having a fun-filled Saturday!

Andrea

Friday Night Snacktime!

Happy Friday!!!

Well we have made it through another week - woo hoo!!  I think that calls for an amazing and delicious snack. I've had an eggplant sitting in my fridge for over a week and all day I have been pondering about what I should do with it ~ so I thought I would try making some Baba Ganoush. I love this dip, but I've never made it....I'm a Baba Ganoush virgin ;-)

Best Baba Ganoush
Adapted from recipe by Winky on http://www.allrecipes.com/

1 medium eggplant
1 lemon, juiced
1/4 c tahini
3 tbsp raw sesame seeds
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp Spicy Herbamare (sea salt)
1 tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 375. Wash eggplant and stab with a fork. Place on baking sheet and roast for 45 minutes or until softened.

When done roasting, dunk the eggplant in a large bowl filled with cold water. Once it is cool enough to handle, peel and cut into chunks. Put chunks into blender.

Add lemon juice, tahini, sesame seeds, garlic and sea salt to blender.

Blend until smooth.

Pour mixture into bowl and add olive oil. Mix.

Refrigerate dip for 2 to 3 hours. (for me the waiting time is excruciating....I want to eat it NOW!!)

Serve with your favourite crackers or vegetables. It would also be very tasty in a wrap! I just discovered Mary's Organic Crackers, so that's what I'm having - can you believe that they are wheat free and gluten free....& most importantly full of seedy deliciousness?!?!

Why would you fill up on fatty chips & dip when you can snack on such a divine, healthy snack?

Have I told you how much I love Friday nights :-)

You might remember that tomorrow is a big day for me....it's Day #1 of my 21 day cleanse. I have started stocking up for the coming week....check out some of my purchases so far. I've also purchased some organic fruits and veggies for my first green juice tomorrow morning. I can't tell you how excited I am ~ I am so looking forward to inspiring you & sharing my cleansing journey with you.

Make sure you check back to see how things are going - I'm going to be posting lots of awesome recipes and photos and I am hoping that after doing a bit of research, I can give you some helpful information on some of the things I am trying out over the next few weeks.

Until then....I bid you goodnight!!

Do you reward yourself with a little treat at the end of the work week??
What kind of dips are your fave???

Andrea