clean: day 7, one week done! or, “it was the best of smoothies, the worst of smoothies”

this morning, mr. happy stuff came to breakfast and said, “i think our bathroom scale is broken.  it says i’ve lost 8 pounds since sunday.  it’s gotta be broken.” his back is still sore from the caffeine withdrawal, but i think it’s on the mend, finally.  my nose is still stuffy, so we’ll see how this progresses.

we started the day off with one of my favorite smoothies so far (original recipe by me, see bottom of page for approximate details).  the key ingredient was a super ripe comice pear i found in our refrigerator that was starting to look a little pitiful.  i peeled it and took out the seeds and it made a perfect smoothie base.  locals, if you’re looking for a good pear and are frustrated with mealy, tasteless, crunchy pears that always seem to ripen from the inside out, you must try the comice pears from brennan’s.  they are worth every penny.  this smoothie was so smooth and creamy that it put my old frozen banana smoothies to shame!

lunch was equally amazing–a salad with roasted chicken breast, red quinoa (much nicer taste and texture than the white!  but maybe i just overcooked the white?), toasted pecans, roasted butternut squash and diced pink lady apples, drizzled with a lemon/olive oil/salt dressing.  oh. my. goodness.  the chicken might have been superflous.  it was so big and colorful with so many great contrasting textures and flavors…. yesterday, a friend and i were chatting at lunch and she said that the one thing she’s learned from watching the food network is that food always tastes better if, right after you’re done plating your meal, and even if you’re alone, you gesture toward your plate of food and say, “doesn’t this look amaaaaazing?”  well, people, i couldn’t stop thinking about how amazing this lunch looked and tasted and i kept thinking how lucky i was to have it.  (now, aren’t you all jealous?)

but supper was…. not my favorite.  i made a super tropical smoothie for mr. happy stuff (pineapple, mango, coconut, passion fruit!) and figured it was sweet enough and flavorful enough that i could throw in some extra healthy green stuff for my own, so i chopped up the rest of our kale and added some macadamia nuts just for fun and it was…. unbearably chewy (darn you, too much coconut!).  and somewhat bitter (darn you, kale!).  i felt like i had to choke it down.  still better than the zucchini fiasco of night 1, but i was glad to see the bottom of this cute glass.

i totally fell asleep while putting the happy toddler (still on his food strike, today he’d only eat dairy foods at school and refused to eat anything at home) to bed, so i’m blogging this on the morning of day 8.  i hope i didn’t forget any ingredients from the super yummy smoothie recipe below.  maybe i’ll have to make it again tomorrow just to check.

blueberry pear nutmeg smoothie

one super ripe pear (preferably comice), peeled and seeded

2 handfuls of frozen blueberries

fresh (unpasteurized) apple cider (maybe 1 cup?)

dash of cardamom & nutmeg

big dollop of almond butter

splash of almond milk if it’s too thick

–blend all ingredients till extremely smooth and creamy.  then blend it just a little bit longer.