Soooo remember that time I promised I would blog every day of a 7-day detox plan and then the lovely folks at Time Warner Cable had an Internet outage in my neighborhood on Day 1? Yes, I’m posting from my cellphone right now. I had a great post lined up, but since typing on a 4-inch screen is not exactly helping me find inner peace (in fact, it’s doing quite the opposite adjfa;sdjf;ask), I’ll keep it brief for now and update once the Internet is back on.
Today wasn’t too bad — I didn’t feel overly hungry at any point, nor did I get any cravings or feel sick. My lunch was green beans with crispy shallots and quinoa, and I’ll share the recipe as soon as I can use a real computer. Dinner was ratatouille with mashed white beans, which was delicious BUT kind of more time-consuming to make than desirable on a weeknight, especially my first post-work night in 10 days. As you can imagine, cooking this dinner didn’t help my already kind of grumpy attitude.
On the bright side, no Internet means a chance to read before bed, go to sleep early and maybe even meditate. I’ve never done that before (sitting still / quietly is not my strong suit), but it can’t hurt to clear my mind every now and then, I guess?
Here’s hoping your Monday was better! I’ll add more as soon as I can.
Update from 7/9: Woo-hoo Internet’s back! Of course the outage ended as soon as I turned off the lights to go to bed, and in my newfound zen-ness, I decided to take the extra hour of sleep instead of fleshing out this post … bad blogger, bad!
I had been planning to write a post on the importance of planning (ha.) when starting a detox. I’m a planner by nature, at least when it comes to food, and I usually use the weekend to cook my lunches and dinners for the following week. (It doesn’t hurt that I literally look at recipes all day, so I generally have an idea of what I want to make.)
Making a shopping list ahead of time, cooking a few meals in advance, stocking your fridge/pantry with healthy “approved” snacks, mapping out an eating schedule for the day — all of these things help ensure that when hunger strikes, you’re well-equipped to deal with it. When you’re hungry and tired and that bag of chips looks so.friggin.good, it’s so much easier to reach for the cucumber slices if they’re already cut and there’s no work involved in eating them.
I kind of didn’t follow my own rules last night, as I ended up cooking dinner even though I was exhausted. Snacking on cucumbers did help assuage my craving for something crunchy though, and I may or may not have snuck a few green peppers while chopping.
But before I share the ratatouille recipe, let’s talk about these green beans. Sauteed until just tender, then tossed with crispy shallots and toasted walnuts, I almost forgot how good a wee bit of cheese would be on top. To bulk it out a bit, I added some quinoa, which makes a delicious lunch or dinner salad. I know the point of the detox is to eat more raw vegetables, but when they’re this good cooked, how can I say no?
Quinoa with Green Beans and Shallots
Adapted from Mark Bittman
– 1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed thoroughly*
– 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon olive oil, divided
– 1 + 1/4 cups water, divided
– 1 pound green beans, trimmed
– 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
– 1 teaspoon Italian seasonings (or a mix of dried rosemary, thyme, oregano and basil)
– 1/4 cup roughly chopped walnuts
– 1 medium shallot, thinly sliced
– salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
*Rinsing the quinoa gets rid of the saponins, a bitter-tasting chemical that naturally coats each seed. To do this, use a fine-mesh strainer and run the quinoa under cold water, shaking and stirring vigorously, for 2 minutes. Drain and use.
1) Make the quinoa: Add 1 teaspoon of olive oil to a small saucepan. Toast the rinsed quinoa in the saucepan until it starts to turn golden, then add the water. Bring to a boil, then simmer, covered, for 15 minutes, until all of the water has been absorbed and the white curly rings on the seeds have opened. Set aside to cool.
2) Toast the walnuts: In a medium, dry skillet, toast the walnuts on medium heat until they begin to smell nutty and brown, about 5-7 minutes. Set aside.
3) Cook the shallots: In the same skillet that you toasted the walnuts, add a tablespoon of oil. Cook the shallots on medium-high heat until they start to crisp up, 5-10 minutes. Once they are crisp, turn off the heat and add the quinoa, so that the quinoa and shallot mixture incorporates some of the oil used to fry the shallots.
4) Cook the green beans: In a large saute pan or wok, add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Saute the green beans for a few minutes on medium, then add the remaining 1/4 cup of water, crushed red pepper, Italian seasonings, salt and pepper. Cover and cook for 10-15 minutes, until the green beans have just started to become tender. Remove the cover, raise the heat and saute for an additional 5-7 minutes, until the water has evaporated and the beans have started to brown in spots.
5) Stir the green beans into the quinoa and shallots, then taste and adjust seasonings. Top with the toasted walnuts and serve.
Also in the 7-Day Detox:
7-Day Detox: Kickoff
7-Day Detox: Day 2
7-Day Detox: Day 3
7-Day Detox: Day 4 + Alice Waters’ Ratatouille
7-Day Detox: Day 5
7-Day Detox: Day 6
7-Day Detox: Day 7
Leave a Reply