Abundance Diet, Day 8

I made it through a whole week of no junk food, no white sugar, no gluten, and no booze! Now I'm entering week two of the 28-day Abundance Diet. Throughout the month of January, I'm following Somer McCowan's meal plan from The Abundance Diet cookbook, so that means no processed food, no bad white stuff, and lots of healthy fruits, veggies, tofu, nuts, and seeds.

It was bitterly cold (20 degrees!) this morning when I woke up to go running, but I threw on some layers, snacked on a couple peanut butter-stuffed dates, and headed outside. It took FOREVER for my body to warm up, but about 20 minutes in, my gloved hands were actually getting hot. After my run, I showered and threw together my daily green smoothie. Today, that was the Chocolate Covered Blues Smoothie with blueberries, banana, spinach, cocoa powder, flax, and a scoop of Manitoba Harvest Hemp Pro70 chocolate protein powder.

I always sit down and read the news on weekday mornings while I eat breakfast, even if that breakfast is actually a drink. And that's when I turned on my computer and saw the news that David Bowie died. Like the rest of the world, I was super sad. I just don't really understand how David Bowie can die. In my mind, he's always been this supernatural creature that was most certainly immortal. Anyway, I've been processing that all day. I've listened to "Modern Love" about a million times.

But back to the food. My first lunch was a Black Bean Veggie Burger Salad. Somer's recipe instructs you to make these awesome black bean patties and serve them atop a green salad with vegan cashew-based ranch dressing. And that ranch is blended with an avocado for extra deliciousness. Loved this meal. And I will definitely be adding that ranch to my regular rotation. It's only 16 calories per tablespoon, and it's so creamy!

Later in the morning, I had the rest of my lunch (or second lunch as I like to call it). It was Abe's Hearty Lentil Soup. It's a recipe developed by Somer's brother Abe, and it's, indeed, a hearty soup. It's delicately spiced with dill and cumin, which adds a layer of flavor that's been missing from my homemade lentil soups in the past.

For my snack, I had Somer's Baked Nacho Cheesy Kale Chips, except I didn't follow the directions and bake them. I dehydrated them in my Excalibur dehydrator. Baked kale chips are nice, but in my experience, they don't retain their crunch after a day or so. With the dehydrator, I was able to make a batch large enough to have for snacks for the rest of the month. And they'll stay crunchy all month. The cheesy flavor comes from a homemade sauce made with red bell pepper, cashews, nooch, garlic, and seasonings. And it tastes very cheesy! And garlicky! 

Finally, for dinner, I had this Cowboy Special One-Pot Pasta. Such a hearty and satisfying meal. I'm so impressed by the portion sizes on this meal plan. One serving of this brown rice penne with white beans, tomatoes, zucchini, and herbs was so filling! And since the dry pasta cooks with everything else in the same pot, it developed this creamy sauce that's just divine. Really loved this dinner. I'd been craving pasta for a few days, and this hit the spot.