The Joy of Eating.

Although we are now 'free' of the detox, our eating habits have not changed very drastically. We still have our wheat-free, gluten-free cereal with unsweetened soy or almond milk in the morning, our plain yogurt and hummus with rice crackers for snacks, split pea soup or a salad for lunch. We've thrown in an apple or Asian pear to shake it up--Asian pears are like crack to me, they're by far my current favourite fruit (although I've only had that, a Royal Gala, and a MacIntosh since being on fruit again).

We actually managed to remain fairly 'Joshi-friendly' for the majority of the day on Saturday, the 1st of October. Forgetting to buy anything special for our first meal off the program, we just ended up having some of our cereal and a small banana smoothie before heading to Spanish class (which was then cancelled). On our way to do groceries, however, we did stop to buy two tall Americanos at Starbucks! They were delicious, but honestly, not as good as I used to think they were. I drink coffee black, and I love it that way, but I found the after-taste a little too strong. We managed to nurse them for the duration of our grocery-shopping trip.

Lunch was take-out from Indochine, a great little Vietnamese place in the Byward Market, and again, nothing was radically off-plan. We got chicken vermicelli dishes--and we ate the veggie spring roll that came with it! Other than that, it was just rice noodles, chicken, carrot, lettuce, fresh mint, some nuoc cham and a bit of cucumber.

We were unsure if we'd be having anyone over for dinner, so we planned something that there would be enough for guests. It ended up just being us, which was great, because we ended up with so many delicious leftovers! First of all, we drank this while we cooked:

It was fantastic, and we'll definitely get it again. We made a vegetarian noodleless lasagna.The layers of 'noodles' were strips of zucchini and egglant, and the 'ricotta' was actually mushed up firm tofu with basil, lemon juice, olive oil and garlic in it. We will make this again--it was absolutely delicious, and so low-fat.

Here it is, ready to go in the oven.

While waiting for the timer to ding I couldn't help but have more of this delicious wine.

Tyson was hoping we'd drop some.

And now it's ready to eat!

We un-veganized it by adding some part-skim mozzarella on top, and a sprinkle of parmesan. We modified the recipe by adding a layer of portobello mushrooms, swiss chard, and tomato slices as well. Carb-free lasagna! Who would've thought!

Mmmm, mushrooms.

We spent quite awhile in the kitchen on Sunday, prepping some food for the week. Last Wednesday we went car-shopping, and this week we go pick up our new (to us) 2008 Nissan Sentra! So wanted to prepare some things in advance for the nights we'd be out at the dealership (which has hopefully been condensed into one--I just got word that we might be able to pick it up tonight!). We made: four lunch salads (Monday, Tuesday lunch) with grilled tofu in BBQ sauce, feta, toasted sunflower seeds, and all the salad fixins; a batch of smoky split pea soup (Wednesday, Thursday lunch); and a big lentil shepherd's pie that we've been craving since the weather started changing. This recipe is a keeper--we've made it about four times now. I mean... look!

So good! We had our classes on Monday (belly dancing for me, boxing for Marielle), so it was really handy to have it all ready to go--Marielle popped it in the oven when she got home from work.

Last night we made a fish dish that we made up over the summer. We sautée some tilapia with seasoning sprinkled on it (paprika, chili powder, whatever you want, really), just to brown it, not cook it. Then remove it from the pan, and sauté some onion, zucchini, mushrooms, tomato, green olives, and garlic. Add some dried basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Once the tomato starts to break down a bit, add a splash of dry wine or cooking sherry, put the tilapia on top of the veggies, and cover it loosely so that the fish finishes cooking by steaming. We added some fresh basil too.

This was a HEAPING portion--we used too many vegetables (two zucchinis, two whole tomatoes, an entire white onion, etc). But hey--it kept us satisfied for the night, and there was no mindless snacking (while watching The Biggest Loser, which always makes us hungry for some reason...). 
I've been drinking green tea every day still instead of coffee, and I'm loving it. I will still drink coffee, but maybe not every day. Maybe not even every week. I'm avoiding wheat, sugar, and red meat, but I'm careful not to make anything entirely off limits, because I enjoy eating way too much!