Clean Eating Detox: Day 1

Today is the first day of our two-week clean eating challenge and so far, we're off to a great start! 

Each day of the detox features a breakfast, lunch, daytime snack, dinner and nighttime snack. Day 1's menu included: 

We had a banana-kale smoothie with almond milk, raw almond butter and vanilla extract for breakfast. It was different my idea of a smoothie because it wasn't overwhelmingly sweet like many commercial smoothies made with flavored yogurt or ice cream, and it had a gritty texture from the kale, opposed to a smoother, fruit and dairy-heavy drink. But the flavor is great and doesn't taste like a cliche "health-food." And it was a huge portion and kept me full for a long time. This eased my big fear that we are doomed to starve to death on this diet. 

For lunch we had a shaved asparagus salad with shallots and fried eggs. Again, this was another substantial dish that filled me up - and I couldn't even eat it all! We eat salads fairly frequently but never like this! I've never shaved asparagus or added fried eggs to salads and it was delicious. Also, the dressing was just lemon juice and it added a surprising complexity. My only complaint was that there was way too much tomato (which I don't like to begin with) which made the salad almost too big and watery; next time I'd only use half a tomato per salad. We will be making this again for sure!

One of our two snacks was three medium-sized carrots cut into matchsticks with 1/4 c of hummus. I was so full from lunch that I actually didn't eat mine and J found it to be almost too many carrots to eat. 

For dinner we made several "big batch" recipes that will continue to be used throughout the week, including quinoa, steamed kale, roasted chicken breast and orange vinaigrette that were tossed together. This was an excellent entree; another "make again" dish for sure. We had feared that this dish might be flavorless and bland, but it wasn't! The chicken is cooked bone-in, skin-on with only salt and pepper but you allow the seasoned chicken to rest for 30 minutes before cooking and the flavors actually soak in quite well. The quinoa (which we'd never tried before) was perfectly salted and the vinaigrette added lots of acidic, garlic flavor, too! 

As our nighttime snack, we each had a thinly sliced pear with 2 T of raw almond butter. I was skeptical of this - I like pears but almond butter looks a whole lot like paper mache paste, a poor substitute for peanut butter. But it was delicious! It isn't nearly as sweet or smooth as peanut butter but it's texture and subtle sweetness paired perfectly with the pears (or licked right off the plate as I just caught J doing). 

Day 1 synopsis: We've been pleasantly surprised by the flavors and quantity of food in these recipes. My hunger worries are, so far, unfounded. However, we did realize how literally addicted we are to sugar. J's been bemoaning the utter lack of cookies and ice cream in the plan and I'd love to sneak a bite of leftover Easter candy, myself. And the no-coffee rule is already taking it's toll on my husband. Even on a stress-free Sunday, he's dragging without his big mug of coffee. We are technically allowed to have up to three cups of unsweetened green tea, but really who wants to drink that? 

There are also two kitchen observations we made today. The cooking doesn't take an excessive amount of time but you do need to be organized and have your thoughts and plans straight - so don't worry. However, you will go through some dishes! Thankfully, we have used some of our less-frequently-utilized kitchen tools - like our new mandolin and juicer - but have had to run a load through our dishwasher and hand washed two sinks-worth more! 

And in the words of the detox's origin, Buzzfeed - complete with motivational gif; 

"You made it through Day 1 of the Challenge. Way to go!"