Sunday night, I made my Whole Foods run for the week.  I am pretty bad about making out menus for the week, but doing this is vital to surviving the cleanse.  I was feeling rather proud of myself, I had a menu, a grocery list and had times planned out to prep and cook.  My alarm was set for a decent hour Monday morning.  I had it all planned out- plenty of time to cook before heading into the office…  Well, as often happens, babies have other plans.  In my line of work, you have to learn to roll with this.  It’s good at keeping me from being too uptight!  So, after the unexpected phone call, I rushed to drop Harper off at my mom’s, and as I am attempting to speed across town to see this baby’s grand entrance, the little red Jeep in front of me is determined to go 5 miles an hour on a two lane, no pass road.  Urgh!  I finally arrive, park, and run into the house to hear the midwife say, “You can push as soon as Cindy gets here.”  They waited on me!  Thank-you, Jesus!  A precious baby boy was born 5 minutes after I walked into the house.  That was enough excitement for one day; so, I gave myself the freedom to postpone cleansing until Tuesday.  There is my long explanation as to why today marks day 2 for me instead of day 3.  I know, you want to know what all I have been doing cooking and eating. 

We start out with our shakes; which, I am learning to make taste better and better.  Harper loves them so much he comes and dances and screams when he hears the blender going.  And, yesterday we had a precious routine that I could have enjoyed all day:  Yell for my shake, give Harper a sip, Harper smiles and hugs me with his head rested on my shoulder as he pats my back, yells for my shake, and so on and so forth.  Priceless!  And, what better way to get your kids to take their supplements than to add them to a nutritious shake?  Even the pickiest of children would enjoy it.  Yesterday’s shake was just so/so, but today’s was divine! 

Shake Recipe:  1 cup of coconut milk, 2 scoops of SP Complete, 1 tbsp of SP Whole Food Fiber, 1/4 organic banana, handful of organic fresh spinach, 1/4cup frozen organic mangos and 1/4 cup frozen organic cherries with a dash of cinnamon and nutritional yeast

For snacks, I have had celery and carrots dipped in hummus, clementines and apples.  Because I am nursing and need extra protein and do not have digestive issues (if you did you would want to avoid these), I have done some almonds and eggs too.  For lunch yesterday, we went to Jason’s Deli and enjoyed the salad bar.  For dinner, we had baked organic sweet potatoes with organic butter, sea salt and organic cinnamon with a salad.  Harper ate an entire huge sweet potatoe by himself.  Then, for lunch today, we had a big, fresh salad (organic lettuce, organic celery, organic tomatoes, organic carrots and organic avocado) and sweet potato fries.  Also, we had some leftover stir-fry from yesterday.  That was one of the best stir fries we have had- yum! 

Stir Fry Recipe:  Organic Beet Greens (cut the stems/greens off of a bunch of beets- I had red ones), organic celery, organic carrots, organic brocoli, and organic red onion.  Stir fry diced veggies in coconut oil and season with sea salt, pepper, Bragg Organic Sprinkle and nutritional yeast.  Serve over brown rice.

I haven’t decided what we are having for dinner yet.  But, I am so thankful we got a co-op delivery yesterday.  Again, I highly recommend a co-op like the Healthsource Group.  They make my life so much healthier and easier!!  I feel like we have already gone through half of our share in just one day.  Of course, that is taking into account that Harper is addicted to the clementines!

Yesterday was pick up day for the organic food co-op we are a part of.  It only happens every other week, and our fridge was totally void of any produce, so I was really excited to pick everything up yesterday.  I get a lot of questions about what we get each week.  To give you an idea, here’s what was in my box yesterday:  2 big heads of lettuce, 3 acorn squash, 4 ears of corn, a bag of carrots, cauliflower, 2 heads of broccoli, celery, yams, tomatoes, 2 bunches of bananas, apples, nectarines, pears and plums.  It is so nice to have fresh, organic produce always available for the family.  And, now that I have Harper, it is so convenient to be able to pick everything up all ready for me, without having to go far and grocery shop…  Not to mention, it is way cheaper than me going to the store!  If you haven’t tried the co-op, you totally should.  We love it, and it is so worth it!  Contact Monica with any questions.

Last night, we had dinner at some friends’ house.  It was wonderful!  Why does food always taste so much better when someone else cooks it?!  They made us a salad with grilled chicken breasts, and brown rice and stir fry.  The stir fry had broccoli, onions, celery and carrots. 

My house smells delicious right now!  I am trying my hand at the real deal, homemade chicken stock.  There are so many things you can do with fresh broth, and when you spend the money on an organic, free range chicken, you don’t want to waste any of it.  I will let you know how the stock turns out.  Here is where I got the recipe and info from.  Again, love Nourishing Traditions!

Like I said, I did buy a whole, free range, organic chicken from Sprouts yesterday.  That is what we had for lunch.  I removed the parts from the cavity, and stuffed it with a lemon- cut in half, 2 bay leaves and 5 garlic cloves.  I put sea salt and black pepper and a little coconut oil all over the bird.  Next, I put it in the oven at 400 degrees.  After 30 minutes, I added brussel sprouts, onions, celery, sweet potatoes, water and butter to the pan, and returned it to the oven to finish baking.  It baked for about an hour.  This was such a simple, delicious dish!  Also, if you aren’t to the part of the cleanse where you can have meat yet, baking a mixture of vegetables like this turns out wonderful too.  I love the way baking makes my house smell!  Here is proof of the lunch, doesn’t it make you hungry?