A Recipe From N. Channel Dr.

it has been a long time since i blogged, but a dear friend of mine told me i should do it more often. so...

i really enjoy cooking and have been coming up with some crazy good dishes lately. some of them are a bit strange, but none lack flavor. i'm compelled to document them.

some of the ingredients are not specific in these recipes because cooking is a personal thing. modify or omit any ingredient or measurement to suit your taste.


Broccoli & Black Eyed Pea Slaw

3 large broccoli stalks peeled & grated
1 can or 15.5oz black eyes peas (or dried ones that have been soaked, cooked & cooled)
1/3 medium sized onion finely diced
1 medium sized clove garlic finely diced
2 T Veganaise® or mayo
1/2 t. apple cider vinager
1/4 t. sea salt
1/4 t. fresh ground black pepper
1 dash of your favorite hot sauce

mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and chill until served

Pesto & Soysage Bruschetta

Pesto

3 big bunches of fresh basil
3 cloves of garlic
1 c. olive oil
1/2 t. sea salt
2 T. nutritional yeast (traditional pesto would have finely ground Parmesan cheese)
fresh dill & oregano to taste or not

mix all ingredients in the blender on the lowest setting. put into storage containers and store in the refrigerator.

Easy Delicious Bread

3 c. all purpose flour
1 T. sea salt
1 t. active dry yeast
1 1/2 c. purified water

in a large mixing bowl mix the dry ingredients and slowly begin to whisk in the water. when water and flour are completely mixed, turn mixture onto a floured cutting board. begin to fold and kneed dough until texture is smooth and forms a ball.

cover with a tea towel and allow the dough to rise for 1 hour.

to maintain moisture while cooking your bread, bake in a stoneware dish with a lid. prepare the dish by smoothing on a little olive oil to prevent sticking. place the risen dough into the dish, paint on olive oil and sprinkle on a pinch of salt to give your bread a crusty brown top.

preheat oven to 450ºF

cook dough for a half hour with the lid on and another half hour with the lid off. during the last 15 minutes turn oven up to 500ºF.

allow bread to cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing to desired width. place slices into warm oven.

Soysage Ragu

1/2 a package of Gimmie Lean® Soy "Sausage"
2 small ripe tomatoes diced
1/2 medium onion diced
1/3 T. olive oil
2 dashes cayenne pepper
1/4 c. Jarlsberg Norweigen Swiss Cheese (or your favorite or none)

in a sauce pan saute the soysage on medium-low heat. you will have to break the soysage up and it is sticky. wet your fingers with water or olive oil before you handle it to make it easier to work with. use a spatula to break it into small pieces.

throw in the onions and saute until translucent, tomatoes go in last along with the cayenne pepper and cheese. allow the mixture to simmer for about 5 minutes then reduce the heat to it's lowest setting.

take the bread slices out of the oven and spoon a thin layer of pesto on each slice. top with the soysage ragu and garnish with crumbled ricotta and parsley.

serve with a scoop of Broccoli & Black Eyed Pea Slaw immediately and enjoy.

good night Master Cleanser

Dear Reader,
i hope you will not think me a failure. It came time to give in and have some solid sustenance. Day 5 was going pretty well, even at work. When i ran out of lemonade around 4:45 i was still feeling good. By the time i got home from work around 5:30 i was weak and MOODY. The hunger pangs were overwhelming and i cried and cried. Not because of the hunger necessarily, but the thought of not eating solid food for another 5 days was extremely depressing. After having a few glasses of the juice, things were back to normal and i was happy again. Talk about mood swings.

It should be noted that these mood swings were due, in part, to PMS. That ugly dragon most females are host to at least once in a while. When i went to bed that night, after having our mint and laxative teas, i did not sleep well, due to a nasty mix of menstrual and abdominal cramps. Needless to say (especially if you are a woman and know what i am talking about), when the sun came up i was not a happy camper. More mood swings and i almost, really wanted to, throw my glass of luke warm sea salt water in the street and watch it shatter.

Struggling with the idea of failure and crying about it for a good hour, i finally got up the nerve to go to the health food store and buy some orange juice, a banana and a vegan fruit and nut bar. That was the best tasting stuff i have ever put in my mouth. i ate small bits, slowly and got full fast. The digestion process took all my energy, i assume, as i am not a medical professional and i had a head ache. It was hard to tell if i was feeling bad because of menstruation or digestion.

After work John, the saint (because he dealt well with the mood swings he has now reached sainthood) and i went to the grocery store and bought lots of food. We made guacamole, which i had been craving for days, and fresh berries with coconut milk and chocolate syrup. i went to sleep very very happy and feel very very happy this morning, as i drink my coffee with almond milk. Yes, we are back on caffeine too.

i am not considering this failure. Five days is a long time to go without eating solid food for a foodie. Maybe fasting is not for everyone. John felt fantastic yesterday and would have kept fasting and gone jogging yesterday morning, had he not been talking me down from the proverbial ledge. Of course he is no stranger to fasting and he doesn't get to experience the monthly miracle. Cleansing obviously affects everyone differently. Maybe the negative emotions were the toxins swirling around inside me, seeping into my brain.

In short i am glad i tried the cleanse and plan to try for the full ten days at some point in the future. Today, however, it's time to EAT!

Thank you for reading and good luck with your cleansing endeavors.

Master Cleanse: Day #5

Wow. I was worried about being around people and food for a reason. Yesterday when i got to work there was a bag of Flaming Amy's burritos, salsa and chips on my desk. This is my favorite restaurant and it smelled really good. i looked around wondering who was playing this cruel joke and just about had an old fashioned temper tantrum. Had to exit the room until the food was gone and was consequently crabby for the rest of the work day.

A word to the wise: if you are going to do this cleanse, attempt to stay away from television, news papers, grocery stores, people eating, regular daily life, etc. Avoid anything that is going to give you a craving for food, especially in the first four days! It will only make you angry, sad or depressed. Maybe you are the type of person who doesn't eat much or are a very picky eater or maybe you are used to fasting? If that is the case for you, please disregard the last few sentences.

Stanley Borroughs said that you could go along your daily life with no interruption. Well i am guessing ol' Stanley might not have had a very rich social life or work with the public. The first four days (in my humble opinion) should be spent in seclusion or with as little contact with the outside world as possible. Getting out in nature is a good idea. Walks on the beach or in the woods, away from people who might walk by with delicious smelling street vendor foods. You get the picture.

Obviously the end of the fourth day was pretty darn rough for me. i was still VERY hungry. Around eight o'clock i started to feel like Eve trying to lure Adam (John) to eat the apple, except the apple was a Mexican restaurant.

Before bed we took the recommended dose of a helper tea for the third time in the last week. i felt the worst abdominal cramps and was generally unhappy. Now ladies, we can tolerate some cramps, right? So it wasn't all bad. Men, this will give you an excellent idea of what women go through every month. Enjoy;)

This morning like yesterday morning, drinking my luke warm sea salt water, i feel optimistic. Not as hunger crazed and praying i can make it through another day of temptation at work. Hoping i don't kill anyone. Didn't make it to yoga because we got behind late in the day and i was running late. So i did some yoga just now and the strangest thing happened. Vigorous physical activity made my head itch! My scalp! Not itch like when you have dirty hair, but deep in the skin itch. It happened after being upside down. Wonder if the blood rushing there and staying there did something different. Surely there is a scientific explanation. That has never happened before and i do a lot of yoga. Interesting.

Thanks for reading.

How to make master cleanse lemonade

Master Cleanse: Day #4

Since starting this thing, i have gotten a lot of questions about why i am doing it. The simple answer is to feel better. About four months ago i just noticed this heavy, lethargic feeling. After talking my symptoms over with friends, who are not doctors, i thought maybe it was a thyroid problem. My thyroid, cholesterol and blood pressure all turned out to be normal and perfect (as good as it gets for my age). So what does one do when one feels off? The doctor says nothing is wrong. Should you chalk it up to age? Hell no. If i start giving up now, how will i feel at 120? Let's face it, the way medical science is going, my generation will probably be pushing 130.

Have you ever just wanted to do something just to see if you could do it? Like a marathon, which sounds like torture, but (i am told) is very rewarding. This is the same sort of thing. Just to see if it can be done. Do i have the hutzbah, the balls, the discipline? Turns out, so far, yes! Yesterday was the hardest day. The hunger pangs were quite loud. My stomach literally growled. i had to take Spence to the grocery store and it seemed really unfair that all i could contribute to the cart was lemons and wood soap. (not eating the wood soap it is for furniture)

i spent a few hours on the beach after my yoga class, just to get my mind off of it. Every cloud in the sky looked like pizza, guacamole, chocolate, you get the idea. Today, however, as i am typing, i'm having a hard time thinking about what it was i was craving yesterday. It is not nearly as bad as it was. i made it through the night! If i made it through the third night, can't i do it again...seven more times? At this point failure is not an option. Our refridgerator is full of $120 worth of syrup and lemons. If we give up now, what the hell am i going to do with all that syrup and all those lemons. John took a photo of the fridge this morning: http://img5.imageshack.us/my.php?image=2yk.jpg&via=tfrog

Feeling good today and hoping that it lasts when i have to go to work with the public at the Ivy Cottage selling jewelry this afternoon. Praying that none of my customers are rude, because i don't estimate having a long fuse. One never knows until one is faced with the situation. It is a damn good thing i practice yoga. Since starting this thing, i have been nervous about attending my regular classes for fear of lightheadedness or worse. Today i am feeling brave and plan to go to a Jivamukti class. Laura, the teacher of the class, was the one who inspired me to try the cleanse. My assumption is that she will understand if i keel over. Wish me luck.

Thanks for the support you have shown me. i feel like i'm not so much on my own, but doing it for ya'll too. Just to see if we can!

The Master Clenser and Blogging

It makes sense that my first blog should start with something very interesting to document. The master cleanser (http://www.mastercleanser.com/) is a ten day juice fast. Although it is not literally a fast as you do consume calories by drinking a concoction of purified water, organic lemons, organic grade B maple syrup and cayenne pepper. Luckily the lemonade tastes good....of course i say that now because i'm only on day two and i'm not sick of it yet.

It is recommended that in conjunction with the juice fast one should cleanse internally, or internal salt water bathing. Which means drinking two quarts of warm sea salt water for breakfast. Something about the gravity of the salt water being the same as the blood keeps the salt from going into the bloodstream and the water not absorbing. This ends up cleansing the entire digestive tract. i just pretended that i was drinking warm soup and gulped it down...and yes, it works very well.

Yesterday there were constant hunger pangs and i was pretty miserable thinking about what i was not going to have for dinner. i was actually pretty angry about the thought of not eating, but today feels much easier. Everyone i have talked to who has tried this cleanse says that the hardest days are the second and third. We shall see. My boyfriend, John, is doing it with me and that makes it much easier. Misery loves company after all. We have been taking it easy.

There is not much to do when you are trying to avoid eating and drinking. It makes being social impossible because most everyone likes to eat and drink. When you think about it, most social interaction revolves around meals. I am realizing how much time i spend cooking, eating or thinking about cooking and eating. Hence extra time to blog. I started a new book yesterday: Ishmael. Chapter one was fantastic and that is usually the test. If someone with ADD can make it through chapter one you know it is going to be a good read. i wonder if there is a list somewhere created by and for people with ADD of books and movies that are appropriate? That is something to research.

Speaking of things to research, John and i were debating whether or not eggs cause an over production of mucus like milk does. We are trying to decide what foods we will try to eliminate when we come off this cleanse. Obviously if you torture yourself for thirteen days (you can't jump right back into eating solid foods even after the ten day part) the goal is to stay as clean and healthy as possible. My friend Laura did the fast and then went vegan. Don't know about giving up imported cheeses or Ben & Jerry's yet, but we will see how it goes.

So ends my first ever real posted blog on blogger. Thanks for reading.