The Cleanse: Day 5 - We can eat fish tomorrow!

Over the last 5 days, we've tried a lot of different recipes that featured some new ingredients and different takes on old ones.  There were some definite winners and losers:

Winner: roasted red peppers, cauliflower, and almonds.  This was definitely one meal that we could have after the cleanse is over.  Granted, we would probably want it to accompany a nice branzino or maybe even some roast chicken, but the roasted vegetables in combination with the toasted almonds created a nice, hearty meal that we actually enjoyed eating.

Loser: steamed broccoli and squash with tahini sauce.  We did enjoy the tahini sauce that accompanied the steamed veggies, but this dish just felt like everything you imagine a cleanse to be if you're dreading it.  Roasting or sauteeing the squash would have made it much yummier, and steamed broccoli - well, it is what it is.

Winner: spiced butternut squash soup.  This soup reminded us of an earlier Whole Living recipe we tried in November, and we'll probably make it again.  We ended up eating this recipe three times because the recipe called for 6 servings, and we actually looked forward to it.

Loser: roasted garlic-beet soup.  Just too much beet.  This is the first time that Ben ever had beets, and while he is not opposed to eating them in the future, it's going to have to be the distant future.

Honorable mention: cinnamon poached apples with toasted walnuts.  The dish itself, which we used as an occasional dessert, was nice enough.  But the poaching liquid, which was infused with ginger and cinnamon and which we used as a makeshift apple cider, was delightful.

Even though, we've only done 5 days of Week 1 of the cleanse, due to being sick of eating only vegetables time constraints, we're switching to Week 2 tomorrow.  That means some new recipes, which include seafood and legumes.  Despite some intense hunger and feeling a bit weak in the afternoons (tennis was a bit of a struggle today), we powered through as best as we could - with a few naps along the way.  We're proud of ourselves for not cheating and sticking with the menus.  We didn't even try to lawyer our way out of this either.

C & D