Vegan Macrobiotic Cleanse

After a week of high-fat, fried food and dairy products from some festivals we celebrated, it was time to do a nice fall cleanse.  Actually, a lot of people eat this way everyday (maybe even yourself!)
Since I'm not good at no-food or juice fasts and find them to be quite harsh, I was looking for something that involved eating real food, not taking any pills, and did not leave me hungry.

Here's what I followed for 7 days:
Ultra Slimdown  
My goal was not to lose lots of weight because I'm at a healthy amount for my height.
I wanted to see what cravings arose and to see what food may be causing me trouble when I introduced them back.  I did lose 5 llbs over the course of the week and I did crave tortilla chips and some spicy foods.

If you didn't have time to read the article, here's the basics:
Eat brown rice, lots of steamed or sauteed veggies (using a miniscule amount or no oil), some beans and legumes, have a rice protein smoothie with real fruit and flax seeds (no added sugar) for breakfast, vegetable broth or another shake for snacks. Eat all organic items.  Take an Epsom salt bath with baking soda and lavender essential oil every night.  Cut out all processed foods, meat, dairy, wheat and other gluten containing grains, corn, nightshades (tomatoes, eggplant, peppers), alcohol, caffeine, sugar (natural and artificial).  What's left you say?  Lots of honest, good food!
Anyway, it was pretty easy and you could continue to do it as long as you wanted.

Here's some of the meals I ate:

Asparagus, Green Salad, Quinoa

Broccoli, Sweet Potato, Quinoa

Golden Beets, Zucchini,
Whole Grain Rice Blend

Kale, Chickpeas, Brown Rice

Brown Rice Maki Spirals

Mung Dahl with Cauliflower &
Long Beans and Quinoa

Cabbage Subji
Wild Rice Blend

Okra Chickpeas
Brown Rice

Breakfast Shake

Organic Homemade Vegetable Broth
Full of Alkaline Mineral Goodness

Organic Ingredients for
Veggie Broth

With all the disclaimers about contacting your doctor, etc....maybe you should before doing this, even though I can't see why anyone would not be able to eat this healthily. 
If you would like to follow this cleanse, but have no time to prepare everything or make the broth, contact me.  I'll bring everything over, including items for the breakfast shake and bath, prep the veggies for you for the week,  make the beans & broth & grains, and leave some happy & healthy vibes for a great week.  The whole deal for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 7 days is only $300 (includes the groceries)! 
Contact me today to start feeling awesome! info@chefveggie.com or 512-914-1543

A Bridal Shower

I hosted a bridal shower for my sister a couple weekends ago.  I thought that I would share some of the decor, games, and of course, food.

Everything was very elegant, neat and classic.  Her wedding colors will be white, green and champagne. I tried to keep the same scheme for the bridal shower.  White place settings with little touches of green with beautiful flowers like hydrangeas and white roses created the perfect table.

Each guest had a favor with her name on it as her place card.  Inside is a super practical purse hanger.

She will never have to put her purse on the floor again!

The food!  Here are some of the items:

Vegetarian Lumpia

White Cheddar Scallion Biscuits (the green and white theme)

Farfalle with Pesto (Tie the Knot Bowties!)

Since most women love chocolate we had a chocolate fondue fountain dripping with vegan dark chocolate!  Somehow I only got a picture of the dippers -strawberries and pineapple.

Two of the cheezy bridal shower games we played were food related.

Banana Bride
I split the ladies into 3 teams.  Each team was given a banana.  The bride was sent to another room to hang out with the flower girl.  Then I told them they had to dress the banana like a bride with only the items found in their purses!

The bride picked the one with the sunglasses and $$$

A-Z Grocery List
Here's one to test their memory.  They had to remember a long grocery list created in alphabetical order when each guest added another item.  The bride goes to the store and gets an apple, banana, cookies, dog treats, eggs, etc. I still haven't figured out if it's easier or harder to remember an obscure item - k was kitchen shears.

My sister was so happy and scored some really awesome Crate and Barrel goodies for her home and kitchen.  I'm hoping to see her in the kitchen more often!

Anyway, if anyone would like help with food for a bridal shower for their veggie friends, please let me know.
www.chefveggie.com