Crazy Sexy, Day 16

I'm in the home stretch y'all! And that means only five more days of the Crazy Sexy Diet before I get my celebratory post-cleanse meal of pizza and beer. And cake. But I can't dwell on that too much yet.

This morning started with another Sicilian Juice (carrots, spinach, red bell pepper, garlic, jalapeno, and celery), followed by a small bowl of One Degree Veganic Sprouted Ancient Maize Flakes with Unsweetened Coconut-Almond Milk.

Lunch was a Hummus Wrap with Kalamata Olives, Roasted Red Peppers, and Cucumbers on a Brown Rice Tortilla. And I had a side of the Farmer's Salad from Crazy Sexy Kitchen (a potato salad made with raw cashew aioli, fava beans, spinach, and red pepper).

When I was at Imagine Vegan Cafe, I picked up this Reallygoods Raw Fruit & Nut Thing to snack on this week.

So I opened the package and ate half as my afternoon snack. This was like a yummy bar made with bananas, raisins, macadamia nuts, walnuts, pecans, and coconut nectar.

It fueled me through a post-work shopping trip at American Apparel, where I had to use a Groupon that expires soon. I bought this!

I was super excited for dinner! A few weeks ago, Explore Asian sent me a box of their noodles to review. Some contained gluten, so I'll review those later. But they sent me a couple packs of gluten-free noodles too. I'd actually tried these Mung Bean Fettuccine Noodles before, so I knew I loved them. These have that light and chewy texture that I love in gluten-free noodles, and the taste is fairly neutral, so they stand up well to most any sauce.

I set some on to boil and reheated the Nana's Marinara from Crazy Sexy Kitchen that I made the night before. It's made with diced tomatoes, fresh basil, olive oil, and herbs. Simple and soul-soothing. I was inspired to try this recipe after seeing Sarah try it on her blog, Long Island Nerd. I always make as much food for supper the night before as possible, so I have less work to do in the kitchen when I get home. I hate cooking when I'm hungry! It only took minutes to put this meal on the table.

See those yellow crumbles? While I was making the marinara last night, I also made the Truffled Parmesan from Crazy Sexy Kitchen. You take pine nuts, truffle oil, nooch, onion powder, and a splash of water and blend them in the blender. When it's nice and smooth, you spread the paste on a dehydrator sheet and leave overnight. In the morning, when it's all dry and crispy, you crumble it up into parm sprinkles.

OMG. This stuff is ridic. Definitely better than any vegan parm I've had before. The truffle oil really sets this over the top. Of course, it'd be expensive as hell to make if you didn't already have a well-stocked pantry, but I just so happened to have a stockpile of pine nuts, truffle oil, and everything else I needed because I'm a food hoarder.

Oh, and I had a Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette from Crazy Sexy Kitchen with my pasta for dinner. Gotta get my greens and raw veggies!

Crazy Sexy, Day 15

Guess what? I've lost five pounds on the Crazy Sexy Diet cleanse! I'm on day 15, and when I weighed myself this morning, I was back to my ideal weight. Over the past five months, I've only been able to do limited light exercise (yoga, core work, etc.) because of my broken foot. And after the holidays, that lack of running and cycling really caught up with me. I'd packed on five extra pounds, and my skinny jeans were, well, too skinny. I was seriously having to unbutton my jeans after meals just so I could breathe!

But now my pants fit again! And I feel great. I have loads of energy throughout the day, and I'm sleeping great at night. This morning, I got to sleep in because our office was closed for MLK Day. I did some ab work and weights and had this Sicilian Juice from Crazy Sexy Kitchen (tomato, carrot, red bell pepper, red jalapeno, spinach, and garlic).

This is definitely my favorite juice so far. Love the garlic and hot pepper in this! But I was burping garlic all day. I just warned people to keep their distance, which is fine since I have personal space issues anyway.

My morning snack was something new too — One Degree Veganic Sprouted Ancient Maize Flakes with Unsweetened Coconut-Almond Milk.

The Crazy Sexy Diet book recommends sticking with a sprouted cereal if you're having cereal on the cleanse, and I was planning to pick up the Food for Life brand. But that contains gluten. And although I am allowing gluten-containing sprouted grain on my cleanse, I just had to try these new gluten-free maize flakes. They were so good! Light, crispy, and only a tad sweet from the low-glycemic coconut palm sugar.

After lunch (another Nada Curried Tofu Egg Salad Wrap and leftover Raw Harvest Soup, pictured below), my friend Autumn and I drove the hour to Jonesboro, where we had to attend a memorial for our friend Amie Doles, who died in a car accident last Friday. Amie was a bundle of light and hugs, and she'll be missed. :-(

On the way home, we snacked on Brown Rice Cakes with Hummus. And when I got back to Memphis, I warmed up some more leftovers of Chickpea with Root Veggie Tagine and Quinoa.

Well, that's it for today. Only six more days to go!

Crazy Sexy Cheats

I survived another weekend on my 21-day Crazy Sexy Diet cleanse. Wrapping up day 14 now, and that means I've only got one week to go! It's gone by both amazingly fast and tragically slow at the same time if that's even possible.

Friday was more of the same —Gardener Juice, Green "Paint" Almond Butter Dip with Fruit, Hummus Pinwheels, and Chickpea Root Veggie Tagine. I'd planned to grab a raw dinner at Two Vegan Sistas, a high-raw diner in Bartlett. But I'd forgotten that they close at noon on Fridays! Ugh.

But that was okay. I had a dining-out treat planned for Saturday anyway. Our monthly Food Awareness (Memphis' vegetarian/vegan social club) meeting was set for 2 p.m. on Saturday at Imagine Vegan Cafe. Imagine has LOADS of stuff I can't have right now, but I was able to resist the siren song of the vegan Big Mac or their creamy, dreamy vegan mac & cheese in favor of their Spinach Salad (baby spinach, strawberries, pecans, and a balsamic vinaigrette).

Dinner was more Chickpea Root Veggie Tagine on Saturday night. And though I managed to stay strong in the face of temptation earlier in the day at Imagine, I slipped up a tad on Saturday night. Paul had gotten us some free tickets to a Mississippi RiverKings hockey game (Memphis is just 15 minutes from the MS state line). I thought, "Well, that will be a nice way to spend a Saturday night that doesn't involve a bar." How wrong I was!

Paul failed to tell me that we were sharing a suite with about eight of his co-workers, most of whom were young, very drunk guys. They were wild! And I was annoyed. Drunk people are so obnoxious when you're off the sauce. The only way I could handle their silly antics (dancing, spilling beer, etc.) was to take the edge off with a glass of red wine. Thankfully, the hockey arena had some for sale. When in Rome ...

But it was just a glass. And it helped. After the game, I went home, had some air-popped popcorn with nooch and watched Saved by the Bell reruns before retiring for the evening. I had a big fasting day planned for the next day!

This morning was my second half-day juice fast of my cleanse. Kris Carr recommends doing these every Sunday of the cleanse. I technically have three Sundays on the cleanse, but I'm only doing two fasts since next Sunday will be a busy day. I awoke to this big bowl of fruits and veggies, waiting to be juiced.

I had lots of green juice.

And some red (because of beets!).

Although a whole-day fast would probably be optimal, I just can't do that. I have a very high metabolism, and while on these fasts, I stay hungry the entire time. Tummy growling and all. Plus, my favorite art class/club Five In One Social Club was having a potluck tonight. First, before the potluck, I eased out of my fast with a big bowl of Kristin Suzanne's Harvest Soup from Crazy Sexy Diet.

This is a bunch of raw veggies blended in the blender rather than juiced, so it retains the fiber and is more filling. This had zucchini, carrots, tomatoes, celery, garlic, sea salt, and onion power. I'm not always the biggest fan of raw soups, but I LOVE this one. I made it on this same cleanse two years ago, and I just loved it. The soup's creator Kristin Suzanne is no longer vegan though. She's paleo now. It's always makes me sad when we lose our soldiers in the fight for animals. But she can make a damn mean raw soup.

At 5 p.m., I headed to Five in One for the potluck. It wasn't a vegan potluck, so I knew I'd only be able to eat what I brought and what Cassi brought. But that was okay because I needed to eat light after fasting all day.

I made the Farmer's Salad from Crazy Sexy Kitchen — baby red potatoes, spinach (subbed for the nasty arugala in the recipe), red bell pepper, capers, cashew aioli, Dijon vinaigrette, lemon zest). This was amazing and hearty! Loved the homemade cashew mayo.

Cassi made Sriracha Hummus and Avocado Hummus! She brought pita bread for everyone else, but since I'm gluten-free on this cleanse, I packed a bag of baby carrots for dippin.

Now, Cassi knows I'm cleansing and off the sugar. But she made a Vegan Chocolate Cheesecake for this potluck, and without telling me, she made me two tiny cheesecake bites. She said I should probably cheat and eat them.

So I did! Wouldn't you? And they were delicious! Eating these bite-sized cheesecakes made me a little sad that I couldn't have more, but I should just be thankful that I had a great excuse to cheat with sugar!

A few hours after the potluck, I got hungry again! So I just finished a late-night snack of miso soup and a brown rice cake with hummus. I don't typically eat this late, but I was famished. Juice fasts make me feel clean for sure, but they also play tricks on my appetite. I'm glad I'm done with juice fasting for the rest of this cleanse.

Crazy Sexy, Day 11

Only 10 more days to go on my 21-day Crazy Sexy Diet!

This morning started with a Gardener Juice (orange, kale, red bell pepper, carrots, and radishes), the same juice I've had every morning this week. I'm sticking with a weekly juice theme to save money.

After the juice, I whipped up an Aztec Spirit smoothie (cacao powder, almond-coconut milk, agave, vanilla, and spinach). This time, I added some ice for a thicker smoothie. I stayed hungry all morning for some reason, so I snacked on fresh pineapple and Curried Cashews from Crazy Sexy Kitchen at my desk.

Lunch was a new dish — Hummus Pinwheels from Crazy Sexy Kitchen.

This is a Food for Life gluten-free brown rice wrap with garlic hummus, spinach, roasted red pepper (that I roasted myself to save $$$), kalamata olives, and cucumber. Such a great combo! Plus, I have a ton of hummus leftover from last night's full moon party.

I also had a salad topped with the leftover Get Fresh Memphis Edamame Salad that I picked up from my gym Tuesday night. It has sundried tomatoes and kalamata olives in it, and it's so damn good.

Dinner was another new meal, and it's definitely my favorite thing I've eaten on the cleanse so far — Chickpea with Root Veggie Tagine. It's also from Crazy Sexy Kitchen.

This was the first recipe I bookmarked in Crazy Sexy Kitchen. Something about chickpeas and green olives together just sounded awesome to me. And it was! It also has sweet and russet potatoes, carrots, currants, and marinated artichokes. And there are lots of spices — toasted cumin seed, coriander, red pepper flakes, turmeric, and cinnamon. I served it over a bed of quinoa.

I had to scarf down this lovely dinner though because I had to attend a 5:30 p.m. meeting for work. Shelby County Schools is considering closing 13 public schools, and as a reporter, I needed to be there to cover the concerns of parents and students. After the meeting let out, I was kind of hungry since I'd had an early supper. So I whipped up a small helpin' of Banana Soft Serve. That's just a frozen banana ice creamicized (yes, I can make up words) in the food processor.

Well, I've got a Crazy Sexy three-day weekend coming up since we're off for the MLK holiday on Monday. But I'll be back Sunday night with a regularly scheduled recap. Got another juice fast on Sunday, and I'm sure the weekend will be filled with temptations. Wish me luck.

Crazy Sexy Day 10

Double digits, y'all! And as of tonight, I'm basically halfway done with the 21-day Crazy Sexy Diet cleanse. I'm feeling great on this cleanse, and it seems much easier than in the past when I've tried it. But I'm not gonna lie — I'm counting down the days until I can have pizza and beer.

Today was a snacky day. I didn't eat many new dishes, so I've combined most of what I ate into picture collages for a quick post. For my meals, I had Gardener Juice (orange, carrot, kale, red pepper, and radish) for breakfast, a Nada Egg Curried Wrap (eggless tofu salad on a gluten-free wrap) and salad for lunch, and leftovers of the Southern Staple (black beans, brown rice, collards, and garlic sauce) from Imagine Vegan Cafe for dinner.

But I also had loads of snacks! At work, I snacked on Strawberries and Bananas with Green "Paint" Dip (raw almond butter with spirulina) and Organic Pineapple (our intern Alexandra brought in cupcakes for her birthday today, and since I can't have cupcakes right now, she brought me pineapple!).

Tonight, I went to a friend's house for a full moon party! I brought a Whole Foods Hummus Sampler and Carrot Sticks. And my friend Sonya made Baked Apples. Her recipe called for sugar, but she left it out and baked them sans sweetener because a couple of us are on cleanses right now. People have been so sweet and accommodating on this cleanse!

There was one new thing! I went to the gym yesterday, and the owner told me they'd started selling to-go vegan food from Get Fresh Memphis (a vegetarian/vegan meal service)! My gym — Envision Memphis —hasn't sold food previously, so I think it's pretty cool that the food they are selling now is all vegan! I picked up this amazing Edamame Salad (it was chock full of sundried tomatoes and kalamata olives).

For lunch today, I tossed some of the edamame salad over romaine lettuce and added a little raspberry balsamic vinegar to coat the greens.

Crazy Sexy Diet, Day 9

I'm nine days into my 21-day Crazy Sexy Diet cleanse, and today was filled with awesomeness. It started with another Gardener Juice (carrots, orange, red bell pepper, radishes, and kale) from Crazy Sexy Kitchen.

And then for a morning snack, I had the Aztec Spirit from Crazy Sexy Kitchen. This is vegan chocolate milk drink that isn't quite as thick as a smoothie. But it's amazing. Almond milk, cacao powder, agave, vanilla, and spinach. I used maple-flavored agave for this, and it added a really special kick. And the recipe actually called for kale, but I bought a big ole bag of spinach for another recipe this week, so I wanted to make sure it all got used. Plus, I think spinach tastes better in green smoothies because it's not bitter.

The recipe actually calls for strong coffee as well, but coffee isn't allowed on the CSD cleanse. The book, Crazy Sexy Kitchen, was written as more of an everyday book rather than just a cleanse book, so it contains a couple of recipes that stray from CSD Adventure Cleanse rules. But the coffee is optional, so I left that out. I'll have to make this again when I'm back on coffee though because I bet it'd be even better.

If you're wondering how I'm faring without the coffee, well, it's actually a breeze this time. In cleanses past, I spent a lot of time whining on this blog about not having my morning joe. But last year, on the Thrive Forward cleanse, I discovered that raw hot cacao has the same effect as coffee. So I've been having a mug of that every morning before work. This morning, though, I skipped the hot chocolate since cacao was in my Aztec Spirit.

My tummy was grumbling by 11 a.m., so I had a small handful of Soy Nuts. Roasted nuts aren't really allowed on the cleanse, but I think it's okay to have a bit. And soy nuts are very, very alkalizing.

Lunch was the Nada Egg Curried Salad Wrap from Crazy Sexy Kitchen — a tofu "egg" salad made with homemade cashew aioli, carrots, parsley, cilantro, and spices served on a gluten-free tortilla with watercress. The brown rice tortilla is made by Food for Life, and I just love this. They're kinda chewy. I like chewy.

And a Side Salad with Currants and Carrots.

For my afternoon snack, I had a handful of Simple Truth Organic Trail Mix. This mix, which I found on manager's special at Kroger, is mostly dried fruits with a few raw almonds and walnuts and organic roasted peanuts. Peanuts also aren't recommended on the cleanse, but Kris Carr says if you do eat peanuts, they should be organic. After I ate this, I hit the gym for a quick workout on the stationary bike.

Dinner was the last of my Lentil & Chard Ragout with Millet. Finally! Loved this dish, but I've been eating it for days. Of course, I doused it in hot sauce.

After dinner, Cassi and I trekked out to the brand-new Whole Foods store that opened today! For years, Memphis has survived with one measly little Whole Foods that used to be a Wild Oats store. But the new store is MASSIVE, like a real Whole Foods in a big city. We spent at least an hour and half in there, just roaming the aisles. And I may have had a tiny sample spoon of the Pineapple Basil sorbetto from the gelato bar even though sugar isn't allowed on the cleanse. But we have sorbetto at Whole Foods now! I had to try it.

Crazy Sexy Diet, Day 8

Dude. I was so glad to happy to be eating solids today. It's amazing how a little juice fast can make you so grateful for the ability to chew. But I didn't get to nosh right away. My day started with The Gardener Juice from Crazy Sexy Diet.

Omg, this juice was so good! Carrots, orange, red bell pepper, radishes, and kale are, like, the perfect combination in a juice. The orange makes it nice and sweet, and radishes add just a dash of spice. Carrot juice is just the BEST! And the red bell pepper really steps it up.

For my morning snack, I made Green Paint with Strawberries and Bananas from Crazy Sexy Diet. The "paint" dip is actually raw almond butter mixed with spirulina, agave, vanilla, and a splash of almond milk. This is actually Woody Harrelson's wife Laura's recipe! In the book, Chef Chad Sarno says she introduced him to green paint, and now he makes it all the time as a healthy snack for his kid.

Lunch was leftover Miso Broth with Zucchini Somen and Mushrooms. I made this veggie-heavy soup last night to break my fast.

On the side, I had a Salad with Sunflower Seeds, Currants, and a Raspberry Balsamic-Flax Dressing.

My afternoon snack was Carrots and Hummus (and yes, I had more than one carrot! More like 10 carrots).

Dinner was more leftovers of the Lentil & Chard Ragout with Millet. I made this dish for dinner last week, and it made a ton. I still have one more serving for tomorrow!

Oh, and I got an awesome surprise today! The folks at Vega sent me a fun package to kick off their #OneChange campaign, which launches on Wednesday! There's a Vega running shirt, a Vega headband, a reusable Vega shopping bag, and a KOR One water bottle. Score!

Last January, I did the Thrive Forward cleanse, and I completely fell in love with Vega protein powders for post-run recovery. I'm currently sidelined from running because of my stress fracture (it's been almost 5 months!), but it's healing. And I hope to be running again in a couple months! I'm almost as excited about getting to drink Vega smoothies again as I am about running.