Abundance Diet, Day 15

I forgot to even mention in yesterday's weekend wrap-up post that I'm more than halfway through with my 28-day Abundance Diet challenge. January 31st is my last day, and I'm getting closer. Not that I'm really longing for it to be over though. I'm actually really loving this whole foods-based, white sugar-free, gluten-free, low-oil diet.

Typically, when I do these similar cleanses every year, I spend the last couple weeks counting down the days until I can have a cupcake. And don't get me wrong, I am pretty excited about that. But I'm also still looking forward to trying more of Somer McCowan's Abundance Diet recipes for the next two weeks. Her meals are so flavorful and hearty and creative that I don't even miss my old junk food-heavy diet.

Today started with a 4-mile run around 9 a.m. I was off work for Martin Luther King Day, so I got to sleep in a bit. After my run, I had this Apple Pie Green Smoothie — apples, banana, dates, spinach, flax, cinnamon, and Vega One French Vanilla protein powder. So naturally sweet and tasted like apple pie!

Since I was off work, I got started early with my food prep for tomorrow. That's the only downside to following the meal plan included in the book — LOTS of meal prep and cooking. It could be much easier if you choose to just make a full recipe of each dish and eat leftovers for four days. But I'm following the meal plan and halving each recipe to only make two servings so I get more variety throughout the month. And that means more cooking. But I enjoy it most of the time. Today, it was nice since I had all the time in the world. After I got some of tomorrow's meals started, I dug into the lunch for today that I'd prepared the night before. First, there was Asian Cabbage Salad with Wasabi Chickaeas & Oranges.

Isn't it so pretty? This super colorful slaw is made with green and purple cabbage, orange segments, cilantro, and a mixture of roasted wasabi chickpeas and edamame. The recipe suggests edamame as an alternative to chickpeas, but I used both since I had some edamame in the freezer that needed using. The dressing is a creamy sesame sauce. 

For the rest of my lunch, I had this Cheesy Smoky Spicy Black Bean Soup. It's LOADED with nooch, and it gets its spiciness from cayenne and its smokiness from smoked paprika. It was supposed to also have Anaheim pepper, which might have upped the spicy factor, but I couldn't find those around here so I left it out. It's served with Somer's homemade Cashew Sour Cream. I'm a huge fan of black bean soup, and this one did not disappoint.

I ate lunch pretty late in the day — around 3 p.m. — so it was enough to fuel me through my 5:30 p.m. hula-hoop class. After class, I snacked on some more Hot Spinach & Artichoke Dip with veggies. You may remember this from my day one post. Somer's plan repeats the snacks after two weeks, so my snacks this week will be the same ones I ate the first week. Luckily, I made enough spinach dip the first week to freeze several individual portions.

Dinner was another repeat too. Two of the meals on the plan repeat later in the month, just because the main dishes section of the book didn't have enough meals to allow for them not repeating a couple. But this one — the Cheesy Cauliflower Potato Bake — is the only one I'm repeating because I have dining out plans on both nights the other meal is supposed to repeat next week. I don't mind eating this again though because it's my second favorite dinner on the plan so far (the first fave was that cauliflower crust pizza!).

This is a super-simple casserole of chopped potatoes and cauliflower with a cheesy cashew sauce. You can't go wrong with potatoes and cheese. And roasted cauliflower!