30 days complete! Onto the contests....

---- a new me!


I did it! I completed my 30 days of juice fasting. It sure was a wonderful challenge, and the first time I ever did a fast for that long (longest before was 15 days). I also simultaneously did a 30 day parasite cleanse and finished it with a liver flush. If this is all like reading some foreign language, there's much information out there if you wanna dive in and learn more. Curezone.com is a fun one, there's a forum on there for just about any topic you want regarding health, conspiracy theories, religeon, whatever! If you're a health nut like me though, hangin out and asking questions on the "Colon Cleansing Forum" is just par for the course!

"Why are you doing this?" "Are you trying to lose weight, why are you dieting?" "Aren't you hungry 24 hours a day?! I would die!!" "I'm worried about you, when will you start eating?!" "Are you still on a hunger strike???" (my favorite one)
I thank everyone in my circle for their concern (support?). It's not easy being the juice fasting oddball, who wants to hang out with that guy? Can't drink, go out to dinner, or go out for coffee, and besides she's always carrying around those vessels of green juice or god knows what it is!!

Anyway, it's good to be back and cooking and eating to my hearts content again! Well, not really to my hearts content, I learned alot this time around about what my body truly needs nutritionally and I also feel like I'm in a brand new body and I sure don't wanna screw it up by dumpin a bunch of crap in it. "But you're already vegan!" So what, I could eat nasty processed food, drink too many beers and eat too many carbs, go crazy with sugar and eat too much of what I bake....sugar is still sugar, the body doesn't judge! There's lots of ways to be a toxic and unhealthy vegan, and I'm not choosing that route. I'm not saying I'm a straight edge die hard, no way. I work at an Ale House after all :)

As luck would have it, the week I start eating again, Earth Balance hails their new contest! "Spring to Life" Contest! Such a great title, I don't mind if I do! As I mentioned in my last blog entry, the grand prize is a trip to NYC, dinner at Candle 79 and a day at an Aveda Spa! Good lord, count me in! I had to get right down to business and dream up an amazing appetizer.

I was thinking of some kind of fritter right away. I was reminded of my grandmas "potato pancakes" which I adore to this day, they're AMAZING! Everyone should try one of her potato pancakes sometime in their life. She serves em up with her homemade apple sauce. (need I say more???) I think hers have potato, carrot, onion and an egg to hold em together. I haven't had em in over 10 years, but I can still taste them clear as day. I'll have to make them vegan style with her one of these times. I digress.... I also love those little onion pakoras that you can get at Indian restaurants. The ones that come with spicy chutneys to dip them in, ahhhhh droooool, they're so good. Those are deep fried though, and I didnt' exactly want to make something deep fried for a contest called Spring to Life, now do I? My solution was to do a pan seared oniony veggie pancake/fritter of sorts. I wanted them to be colorful so I used zucchini, red and gold beets, celery root, red onion, scallions and carrot.


To keep them gluten free I used chickpea flour as the batter, with a lil arrowroot to help hold it all together.


Can I just say I think these are one of my most favorite things I've ever made??! I made one extra large and it was the tastiest actual "vegetable" burger I've ever had. I just ate it plain on its own, but it coulda been on a french roll with some fancy smear and avocado for $12.50 in one of these boutique burger shops that are poppin up all over these days. Needless to say, this is a versatile recipe- the seasonings could vary, veggies can vary, and it doesn't need to just be an appetizer as i just explained. Its killer burger material as well. If you like, please view the recipe and let me know what you think! I also made a yummy cashew aioli to serve on top, which too, was so delicious. I had a little leftover and today made some gluten free pasta shells and tossed it with the cashew aioli and some fresh arugula and was in heaven! This is the kinda thing you always want to have on hand ya know? Steamed veggies, pot of quinoa, pasta, bread slather, lover.... ha! There are no limits to the divine use of cashew aioli in my opinion :)

It's good to be back and firing up the stove and my own digestive fire!
I'll leave you with my top 5 new rules for myself that came out of my 30 days, just to sum up, since I could talk forever about the whole endeavor.... They're nothin earth shattering, basically things we already know we'd like to be doing for ourselves, but overlook to often.... A week off juicing and I'm stickin to it 100%!

1) Eat a fresh salad every day! - Packed with nutrition, fiber, protein, and so much more, salads are my staple food! Kale, arugula, chard, beet greens, lambsquarters, dandelions... Don't limit yourself to just boring old "spring greens". Change it up and make salads spicy and exciting!

2) Exercise every day!- This could mean just a 20 minute walk or run, or a full 60 minutes of sweatin my ass off in hot yoga, but I need to somehow shake this tush every day. Even just rollin around in the bed doin stretches is a good way to start the day.... interpret that as you like.

3) The juicer is not getting put away. - Keep that juicer on the counter and make several juices a week. Period.

4) waterwaterwaterwaterwaterwater- drink it! Your body is thirsty!

5) Love and nurture yourself. Be flexible with your sweet self and dont judge yourself or compare. Just try to better yourself for YOU so YOU feel good and love your beautiful self even more and can be proud of all the good you do for that beautiful body and soul.

Thank you all for reading and following me along my lil journey :)