Day Five on the Lower-case Dee (Tox).

Our casual detox is going quite well. I am actually pretty excited about being off meat. I realized yesterday that I've been completely meat free so far in 2013 and started to exclaim that I should challenge myself to a full year without (I always love these little challenges and projects I give myself). But then my NO ABSOLUTES resolution flashed through my head, and I thought about being a pain in the butt at family dinners (no one likes to cook around a vegetarian--except maybe my mom, who could do it easily for a year with a different meal each time, probably). So I'm just going to follow the path of least resistance, and not eat meat because I don't want to, lower my dairy intake (because really, if cows are mistreated in the farming industry, that includes being forced to produce milk unnaturally, and kept in small pens, etc), and keep up with the wild fish. This is for at-home consumption. When out, I tend to gravitate towards veggie burgers anyway, and did even while eating meat, so I'll keep that up, but if the mood strikes to eat white meat at a pub or something, well... never say never.

The weight loss is slow, but at least I've reversed the direction. Down 3.6 pounds since Wednesday, January 2nd. More importantly, feeling good. I feel cleaner and more alert. The caffeine reduction certainly helps, I'm sure, but being off meat, wheat, sweets and booze makes such a difference. 

Yesterday I took the dog for a 75-minute walk by myself. It was meditative and I realized that I actually prefer winter to summer, unlike 99% of the population. The trees heavy with snow, the squeaky sounds my feet made on the sidewalk as I trudged along, the feeling of solitude a big hood gives you, the ability to regulate your internal temperature by removing layers or unzipping as you go... you can't beat that! Maybe I'm just working with what I have, and to hate winter living in Ottawa would be a huge thorn in my side. No resistance!

Some things we're eating. Organic black rice. I've never had black rice before--wild rice, yes, but black rice is a shorter grain. And nutty and absolutely delicious! We topped it with some leftover dahl from last week and had a side of carrot sticks with tahini dressing for dipping.

This morning, we are going to attempt to make black rice fritters with the leftovers, two small ones, and we'll put a poached eggs on top. I will take photos if we're successful; we're working without a recipe!

On Friday night, we made a marinara from scratch sans recipe. We used an onion, two carrots, one green pepper, two small zucchinis, a LOT of garlic, 4-5 roma tomatoes, dried spices (basil, chilies, oregano, thyme, salt and pepper), fresh basil, and a can of crushed tomato, then blended it all together. We threw in some Texturized Vegetable Protein (TVP) and poured it over a bed of zucchini ribbons (made with a veggie peeler as we don't have a mandolin). A friend stopped by and tried it and was surprised that it was veg--she said she would've assumed that there was actual ground meat in the sauce.

It ended up making far more than we expected, so we had leftovers last night. We had no zucchini left but we did have a few bags of frozen shredded cabbage in the freezer, so we sautéed it with some garlic and thyme, and used that as our 'noodle.' It was way better than we expected! Yesterday was lacto-ovo day so we got to have a sprinkle of parmesan too--what a treat. We split a kamut bun to make a little garlic bread side.

I love pasta, but I feel like I never need to eat it again, between our 'zucchiniccine,' shredded cabbage, spaghetti squash... I have yet to try the tofu noodles from the Asian supermarket that my mom told me about, but if they're close to the texture of pasta, then I never have to eat the gluteny wheat ones again (they give me awful gas--TMI?--plus I tend to overeat pasta every time).

For a bedtime snack last night, we made our own version of Chai lattes. The tea is called India Spice, and I think I posted about it back when we did Joshi last in September 2011. It's not quite Chai, but I find it even more flavourful.


We put a couple of teabags in a pot of soy milk on the stove, let it come to a slow simmer, and then we use our new frother (from dad!) to make velvety foam, and top with cinnamon. It's delicious.

Today's recipe will be the detox salad dressing that we're using, both as a dressing and as a veggie dip. It's absolutely delicious on brown rice as well or as a sauce over falafel. Enjoy!

Lemon Tahini Dressing.

2/3 cup unsweetened soy milk (I've also used almond milk, which is fine)
5 Tbsp lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
1 garlic clove, crushed 
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup tahini (we found a brand of tahini in the ethnic section at Food Basics that was a fraction of the cost of the kind you'd get at, say, Market Organics) 
1/8th tsp toasted sesame oil (I use a bit more than they say because 1/8th seems ridiculous to me)

Put all ingredients in a Magic Bullet or blender and purée until smooth. Voila!