Clean Eating Detox: Day 7

We are half-way through our two-week clean eating challenge. For info on days 0-6, click here or use the "Clean Eats" label to the far right.

Each day of the challenge we receive breakfast, lunch, a daytime snack, dinner and a nighttime snack. Today we made:

In light of my 12+ hour Relay extravaganza and J's early work schedule, we opted to switch out Saturday's labor intensive breakfast (poaching an egg!?!) for Sunday's blueberry smoothie. It was pretty good, but like our first smoothie (kale-banana) it was an overwhelming portion with a gritty texture. Other than having to brush my teeth for twice as long as normal, it was pretty decent.

Lunch was a black bean, kale and feta salad. It was another one extraordinary salad. This one didn't feature any wild flavors - like fennel, or heavy herbs - but scallions and kale as a base. And a simple lemon juice/olive oil dressing that we had to "massage" into the kale; which is a vital step. The massaging of the acid/oil softens the kale's texture without making it wilt, or over dressing it. This time we got 2 oz. of feta which was a super generous portion and added the necessary salt. 

For snack we were allotted 1/2 and orange and 2 T of raw, unsalted almonds. But, I was in a staying-up-all-night coma that left me napping through snack time. I did add my almonds to my nighttime snack. 

Buzzfeed original photo

This evening, J made "big batches" of tomato sauce and turkey basil meatballs with collard greens. This was a really exciting presentation where the collards acted as our "noodles" with meatballs and a wonderful fully homemade vegetable sauce. The sauce is impeccable and full of flavor and would be healthier and cheaper than store bought sauce; we did leave ours a little more chunky than the recipe suggested. I liked the meatballs, they were a little more bland than J's signature meatballs - old family recipe with crazy ingredients but tastes like heaven. 

For nighttime snack we were allotted 1 oz of dark chocolate (no milk this time, so no gray cocoa) and were in such a hurry to dive in to our only "candy" that we didn't take a photo. I've mentioned before that I'm a milk chocolate person, but I can tell that my taste buds are being more perceptive to subtle sugar, because even though this bar was 70% cacao it had a great sweetness to it (compared to our "desserts" of late). 

Buzzfeed original photo

Day 7 synopsis: I feel great. I can't pinpoint any great changes in myself but I have felt satisfied, full and pleased with all of the great food we've enjoyed this last week and look forward to more in the upcoming week.