Abundance Diet, Day 23

Wow, these last few days on the Abundance Diet are flying by! And that's good because my dad ordered me some Larson Vegan Donuts as a Valentine's/End-of-Cleanse gift, and they'll be in tomorrow. So I'll be dealing some serious temptation over the next few days. But I plan to pop them in the freezer until Monday, when the 28-day Abundance Diet is over. Also, I'll be cheating on Friday night with a cupcake and a few potluck dishes for Stephanie's birthday.

So I've got all that to look forward to! But for now, I'm still trucking through Somer McCowan's meal plan from The Abundance Diet cookbook. It's low-oil, gluten-free, sugar-free, and processed food-free, and despite all of that, the meals are still insanely delicious and filling. Today started with an Australian Carrot Refresher juice (carrot-apple-celery) from her book. I had it before my Yoga Camp video, but I failed to take a picture (you can see it here, just looks like fresh orange-colored juice).

After yoga, I had the Mango Madness Green Smoothie. I went to two Krogers looking for frozen mango last weekend, and they were both sold out. So I got the Mango, Banana, Strawberry frozen fruit blend and picked out the strawberries. I'll save those for a different smoothie. This also has spinach, cashew milk, and hemp seeds. Super creamy! Tasted like the tropics.

My salad for the day was the Curried Brown Rice Salad. I love a good grain salad, and this one was chock full of good stuff — raisins, cashews, carrots, green onion, and celery. The curry dressing was sweet and savory with a nice kick.

Since the salad was pretty heavy, it was nice to have a light soup on the side. This Cozy Butternut Squash Soup blew me away! I've made b-nut squash soups before, but this is light-years ahead of any similar soup I've made in the past. The squash is roasted with whole onions and a whole head of garlic. And then you add the roasted veggies to a pot of broth and herbs and it let simmer. After simmering, the soup goes into the blender with a handful of cashews, and it's whipped into a roasty, creamy bowl of goodness.

I had a board meeting this evening for Friends for Life, a non-profit that I volunteer with. They help low-income people living with HIV/AIDS access services, food, and housing. I didn't have time to eat dinner before the meeting, so I snacked on my Spicy Peanut Oil-Free Hummus with Raw Cauliflower and Red Bell Pepper. 

I was famished after the meeting, but luckily, I'd prepped my dinner the night before. I had everything for this Grilled Eggplant & Zucchini Lasagna layered into a casserole dish and ready to pop in the oven. 

This is a really unique lasagna because there are no noodles. Instead there are layers of grilled eggplant, zucchini, red onion, roma tomato, lentil-quinoa tomato sauce, and Somer's homemade cashew "moxarella." That white stuff on top is the moxarella. It didn't melt as well on top, but the inside got all cheesy and gooey, like a good lasagna should. It was nearly impossible to take a pretty photo of a slice, but here's my attempt.

Don't worry, I ate way more than that. I just didn't think my giant serving would photograph so well.