cauliflower and spinach soup... SOUPer easy!

Thanks to my client for sharing this easy to make recipe with me. She got it from her mom who got it from Boston.com! It's filling, yummy, and makes you look like you can cook! I tweaked it a little and left out the butter. Still tasted wonderful.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium size cauliflower head (pulled into pieces)
• 1 bag of spinach
• EVOO (to coat the pan and cook the spinach)
• 3 cups of vegetable broth (you can add more or less depending on your preference)
• seasonings: salt, pepper, anything else...

Directions:

• place a soup pan on medium heat and add EVOO let it heat a little then add bag of spinach. Cook until wilted. Add salt and pepper.
• toss in pieces of cauliflower, mix a little
• add in vegetable broth and bring to a boil
• lower heat and simmer for 20 minutes, mixing occasionally

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Try to stick a fork though the cauliflower. If it pierces easily then you are ready for your next step!

Let the soup cool off a little then puree. Food processor or blender, both work! Mix until smooth. I left some chunks of cauliflower. I thought it added a nice surprise. Sorry,  no final product picture. But it pretty much turns green and smooth :) enjoy.

One more thing, if you think the soup is too thick when you are done, you can add water to it. Just a little goes a long way.

Review on the Cooler Cleanse

One of my dedicated and in shape class takers recently did a juice cleanse. Never have I taken part in a cleanse, but I am always interested to see how different ones work. So I asked this dedicated and in shape class taker to do a little write up for me and my readers.

What cleanse did you do?  What did it entail?

I did the 3-day Cooler Cleanse:   It was a 3 days of 6 "juices" per day -- 2 green juices, 1 fruity juice, 1 coconut water or spicy lemonade, 1 red juice, and 1 nut milk (almond nut or brazil nut).... and tons of water and green tea.  They encouraged you to eat super clean the few days before so it wasn't as much of a shock to the system.  I tried to, and I usually eat rather clean, but didn't go too crazy the few days before and wasn't overly strict about clean eating.  I also drank 1 mug of black coffee every morning even though it said to eliminate the caffeine -- I just didn't want to deal with the caffeine withdrawal headaches at work (sad, I know)! 

See below link for more detail: 

http://coolercleanse.com/cleanse/3day

Did you eat during the cleanse?

No!  No eating, just drinking.  The juices totaled ~1200 calories/day though, so I was getting plenty of nutrients and enough calories to get through the day.

Have you ever done a cleanse before?

Yes - I have done a few.  I did the Isagenix 9-day cleanse twice before - It was longer and there were days were protein shakes and actual food, and days with just a gross cleanse drink and weird "mockolate" (faux-chocolate) tablets to chew on. I had also already tried some of the juices from the Cooler Cleanse company before (the "Healing Cooler"), but never the full juice cleanse.

How did you feel before, during, after?

Before -- bloated, unmotivated to eat healthy, had gained a few pounds in the past couple months and just wanted a jump start, help reduce cravings and increase the desire to eat cleaner and healthier

During -- Believe it or not, great.  I never felt tired, hungry, out of it, headachey, or anything else.  Ok so I did get hungry a couple times but only if I had gone too long between drinks, and then I was fine.  And I never got that low-blood sugar "I need food now" feeling.  The only side effect I noticed was that I was abnormally freezing cold all day in the office.  My friend from work that also did the cleanse said the same thing.

After -- Leaner, less bloated, and more motivated in general.  Not craving anything in particular. On Friday (the day after), I actually felt a little bit headachey and out of it at work, but I think I might have been a bit dehydrated from the struggle of a workout that morning.

Was it hard at times? how did you get yourself through it?

I actually did not find it hard at all.  I thought it would be a bit more mentally challenging, but I was totally fine. I did it Tues-Thurs, had no lunch/dinner obligations with anyone, and was super busy all day at work so the time seemed to fly by.  The only hard part was the last drink of the day, when my boyfriend was eating solid food for dinner and I was drinking a nut milk drink.  I more or less missed the act of eating & chewing, but I wasn't necessarily hungry.

 Did you work out?  How were your works outs?

I did.  On Tuesday I did Yoga for an hour, and Zumba for 45 minutes.  On Wednesday, I just did the elliptical for 35 minutes.  I didn't workout on Thursday, and then Friday morning I did 30 minutes of BarreBurn followed by 30 minutes of Zumba, and felt horrible -- my muscles were completely fatigued after only a few reps (of little or no weight, mind you), and I just felt weak and a little dizzy.  The Zumba portion was not nearly as bad, but after 30 mintues I was DONE!  So, lesson learned - don't work out at 6:30am after 3 days of cleansing.

Would you recommend the cleanse?

Yes!   It's not a miracle cure if you have a significant amount of weight to lose, by any means, but it's a great jump start to feeling leaner and cleaner.

Would you do it again?

Yes, definitely -- but no plans to anytime soon.  It was a bit pricy, though I felt like it was worth it.  In the end I lost 6.5 pounds in 3 days, and though I don't think it will all necessarily stay off, I have high hopes that at least a few of those pounds will if I keep up the clean, healthy eating, and workouts (with Lauren Hefez, woo!).

Have YOU ever done a cleanse?

100 calorie Lara Bar inspired snack!

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I love Lara Bars, not only because of their sweet goodness, but also because they are made from about 4 ingredients. I thought, if Lara can make these bars... so can I (and so can you!)

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For my "Lauren bars" I used:

4 dates

1/2 C figs

1/4 C walnuts

1/4 C almonds

1 tbsp chia seeds

In a blender (I used a mini food processor by Proctor Silex) throw in all the nuts. Make sure not to turn the nuts into a powder. You want to have some chunks in there to add texture to your bar. Set the nuts aside.

Next: Throw the dried fruit into your blender. Blend until they form a paste like this:

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I used a vegetable cutting board and laid out my dried fruit paste. I took the chia seeds and added it to the top.

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After mixing the chia seeds and paste by hand, I threw in my nuts.

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Mix nuts and paste together. I always loved playing with my food. You can make a mohawk if you would like.

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Divide mixture into 8 snack balls. Throw the balls in a plastic bag and store in your fridge.

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Each ball will contain a little over 100 calories  (~108) and provide you with a sweet  and nutritious filled snack that will give you your afternoon boost, or that pre workout lift. You can get creative with the mixtures and add different dried fruit for the paste, or nuts for the filler. Let me know if you try it, and how it comes out! Did you add something different?

The best GUILT FREE spaghetti

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So I am not much of a pasta person. I lived in the North End, Boston (aka little Italy) for 2 years; I ate at a local Italian restaurant ONCE! People always tell me I should try Spaghetti Squash.  I finally came across this "spaghetti squash" at Trader Joes, and was excited to experiment and cook with this new found vegetable. I decided to make Spaghetti squash topped with an abundance of julienne cut vegetables, mozzarella, garlic and EVOO.

To start I cut the squash in half the long way and placed it in water and boiled it for about 20-30 minutes. I used thongs to take the squash out of the water and let it cool off a little before stringing.

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While the squash was boiling I julienne cut one red pepper, one yellow zucchini and one green zucchini, all with the help from a special peeler. Next time I will add some carrots!

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I warmed up a pan with EVOO and fresh crushed garlic. After the garlic simmered for a bit I added the julienne veggies and gave it a little toss. By this time the Squash was ready for the fun part... stringing!

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You have to string the squash the long way. It can be hot so be careful! Don't forget about the veggies... keep mixing!

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In order to spice up the veggies I added grape tomatoes cut in half, diced fresh mozzarella cheese, and a medley of ground up spices. It was such a filling dish, and I can not even begin to describe how buttery and delicious the squash tasted. I kept saying, "is there butter in this"? The best part it was ALL veggies!

Other methods to cook the squash:

Bake

 about an hour in the oven at 375 F.

Microwave

 10 to 12 minutes, then let stand for 5 minutes or so afterward to finish steaming.

Boil

 for about half an hour.

Slow Cooker/Crock Pot:

 Put it in with a cup of water and let it go on low all day (8 to 10 hours).

How do you make your spaghetti squash?

fruit in your ice cubes

Next time you make ice cubes add some fresh cut strawberries, or cucumbers, or add a squeeze of lemon or lime! I made two trays of ice cubes last night.  I added cut strawberries in one, and fresh lemon juice in the other! The water really gets a hint of the fruit juices. Refreshing and fun.