Angela's Apples

Dinner

Lentils and brown rice seasoned with salt, pepper, onion powder, sage and nutritional yeast. Walnuts and lightly sauteed kale mixed in.  I also ate 2 carrots and a cucumber as an appetizer. Simple and delicious!

I just started a fresh jar of lentil sprouts. Hopefully it goes as well as it did last time. I am going to try sprouting them for a bit longer this time—maybe a full three days.

I have 13 hour day tomorrow so I made a nice big green smoothie that I can chug back before leaving and packed a huge bag full of food to keep my going! Planning ahead saves the day.

My internet has been out so I haven’t been able to post—such a bummer!

Green Smoothie (drank out of my boyfriend’s skull mug):
a few handful of kale
a few handful of greens from a friends garden (mostly spinach and romaine)
2 medium bananas, frozen
1.5 cups frozen peaches
3/4 cup blueberries
1 medium avocado
water to thin

I have a really cheap blender, so I always need to add at least a cup of water to my smoothies so they will blend thoroughly. I cannot wait until I can afford a really great blender! In all it made about 1.25 liters, which took a few hours for me to get through.

Now, I need some advice! I have decided to go on a bit of a cleanse, but I am not totally sure how I want to approach it. I don’t want to do anything too extreme or difficult. So my plan is this:  make a huge blender full of green smoothie in the a.m. to drink throughout the morning and afternoon (about 1.5 liters). Then in the evening have one meal of legumes and brown rice or quinoa with lots of veggies. More raw fruits, veggies and sprouted lentils throughout the day if I need to snack. I am also drinking a huge liter full of water with about 2-3 tbls of lemon juice in it and plan on making a glass of fresh veggie and fruit juice each day as well. More water when needed.

I have been doing this today and so far, so good. I would really appreciate advice from anyone who has experience with doing cleanses, detoxes, etc. Do you see any major issues with my current plan? Are there any adjustments to my plan you would suggest?

Thanks in advance!

Late night dinner

Side of kale: 1/2 a bunch of kale (about 3 cups lightly packed) sauteed with a drizzle of olive oil, 1 clove of garlic and a pinch of salt

Cheesy Garlic Quinoa: about 1 cup of prepared quinoa, sauteed in a drizzle of olive oil, two garlic cloves (just very lightly cooked—still really fresh and spicey),  a small fist full of nutritional yeast, and a huge fist full of my lovely lentil sprouts. I didn’t actually cook the sprouts, just threw them in at the end.

Totally hit the spot!

Now, off to watch Easy Rider…

This is my first time sprouting! I soaked 3/4 cup of lentils for about 8 hours last night. Rinsed them a few times this morning and will repeat tonight before bed. You can already see their little sprouts! I am way too excited about this!

Dinner: Chard wraps

2 large chard leaves stuffed with julienned carrot and cucumber, avocado, peas, sprouts, green onion, seasoned with salt and lemon juice

This is my new favorite meal/snack! I love getting all these veggies in and it’s full of so much flavor. I need to practice my wrapping skills, though. They always fall apart as I’m eating them.

Breakfast: 3/4 cup cooked quinoa, 1/2 cup so delicious coconut milk, small handful raw walnuts, 1/2 a banana,  about 2tbls ground flax, about 1 tsp coconut oil all cooked together.

It was so good! I am out of maple syrup, but I think that would have made this dish perfect. The quinoa stuck with me a lot longer than normal oats usually do. Must be the extra protein and fat in them. I will definitely be making this again.

Snack: a few slices of marinated tofu

So I am doing it. I am GOING VEGAN! I am excited! It’s going to be tough for the next four days because my boyfriend and I are going up to his family’s house for a visit and then camping. I have a giant bag of produce all packed and ready to go and they always have tons of food around, so I should be able to manage pretty well.

Green smoothie for breakfast

3 cups of kale, packed

1 cup soy milk

1 extra large frozen banana

1.25 cups frozen mango

1/4 cup water to thin it out a bit

It made just under 4 cups, so it should take me the next hour or so to drink it all. This is my first time using frozen mango in a smoothie and it really adds to the sweetness.

So this may be a bit TMI, but I am a serious sweater. I mean I sweat, all the time. Constantly. I can be sitting, doing nothing and still, I will sweat. This has been a problem that has plagued me since puberty. I have tried every deodorant under the sun with no luck. My friend Cho, also a sweater, noticed that her sweating decreased significantly after she made a few changes in her diet. She cut back significantly on wheat and sugar. Increased her servings of leafy greens (mostly kale) and fruits. Added coconut oil, flax and avocado to her daily intake and stopped using chemicals on her body. On top of this, she has been vegan so over a year. Possibly two years (I can’t remember).

As a mentioned earlier, I am really interested in pursuing veganism. Although I am not doing this to stop my perspiration problem, I must admit it would be a fabulous side effect. So as I make a transition to a vegan diet, I am also going to try to follow a few of the anti-sweat solutions outlined above. As part of that, I am going to switch from my usual Secret deodorant to an all natural homemade version.

This simple recipe has only three ingredients and smells amazing. I’ll have to report back on it’s effectiveness after a few days. I am going camping this weekend, which will be the ultimate test!

Deodorant

1/4 cup corn starch

1/4 cup baking soda

2-3 tbls coconut oil

Mix the three ingredients together (I used my hands), adding more coconut oil until the consistency of deodorant. Rum onto those smelling pits as needed

I’ll let you know how it goes!