yay! did everyone have a most fantastical 4th of july weekend?! we hope so! ours was filled to the brim with so much fun! the last day of the
Adventure Cleanse Tune-Up for me was this past sunday. i am so excitedfaced that i made it through the cleanse and had such a wonderful experience! i’ll post my ACT wrap up at the end of the post, but right now we want to get to the great eatz we enjoyed this weekend!
friday morning after my 6 mile run i cooled down & filled up with a super tasty green juice and a smoothie with a special treat – a dollop of organic & natural peanut butter (along with almonds, spinach, banana, hemp seeds, hemp milk, water, and half a cucumber)! mmmmmmmmm! my green juice consisted of swiss chard, carrots, cucumber, and an orange – delicious, fo ‘sho! friday afternoon dan went golfing with his buddies and i headed to the river with my friends andi & emily!
we ladies we lounged on the rocks, chit-chatted away, and had the most glorious time relaxing and sunning ourselves – soaking up all those rays made me so happyfaced! i forgot to bring along the camera for dinner out friday night – we enjoyed italian yummies at a local place – dan had the veggie sub sans cheese, and i had the most tasty house salad with tons of veggies, sauteed artichokes, sweet peppers, and eggplant! awesomesauce!
saturday morning i wasn’t feeling too hungry (we ate around 10 friday night) in the morning – so i just stuck with a green juice before heading to the farmer’s market for some
csa goodies.
here’s what we got: eggplant, shiitake mushrooms (superw00t!), spring mix, cucumbers, cherry & roma tomatoes, 2 heads of romaine lettuce, swiss chard, carrots, green beans, and a watermelon! after my afternoon workout
i was craving a massive salad so i made a mediterranean themed one with csa spring mix, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, sun-dried black olives, 2 dolmas, and some raw tahini dressing! so good! saturday evening dan & i headed to our friends 4th of july hawaiian themed bash!
we brought the motherload with us so we’d have plenty to share and fill our bellies with. here’s what we brought: gluten-free agave sweetened hawaiian bread (recipe below),
mango salsa (i diced up 4 mangoes, 1 cucumber, ½ a red onion, 1 jalapeno, 2 tbsp chopped parsley & cilantro, and used the juice from a lime – adding in just a pinch of sea salt!) it was such a hit! yay! we also made some chocolate coconut macadamia nut cookies
, a tropical themed quinoa salad (super similar to the one in
veganomicon with a few tweaks - we added in agave nectar, a pinch of cumin lime juice, pineapple, a yellow bell pepper along with the red bell pepper, red onion, & parsley),
and sunshine burgers (with a gluten-free millet bun for me and a whole wheat bun for dan).
we had so much fun hanging out with friends, catching up with people, eating lots of yummies, and relaxing! superw00t!
sunday morning was a another green juice, and i had just a bit of leftover quinoa salad for lunch.
dan and i headed out for a movie, worked out together, and then grabbed some chipotle for dinner – i put my veggie fajita bowl (sans the rice) on top of a giant csa salad to make for one filling and awesome dinner!
yeah, we were be’n a little lazy – but we figured relaxing was the name of the game this weekend – and so we did just that!
here's our recipe for the gluten-free agave sweetened hawaiian bread
ingredients:1 cup brown rice flour
½ cup tapioca starch
¼ cup sorghum flour
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp xantham gum
½ tsp sea salt
¼ cup margarine (we used earth balance)
¼ cup plain hemp milk (any non-dairy milk should be a-okay!)
2 tbsp flax seeds
1 tbsp spiced run (optional)
2 tsp vanilla extract
8 ounces of crushed pineapple with its juice (we bet mango would be just as tasty as well!)
1 cup shredded coconut (we used unsweetened organic coconut)
½ cup agave nectar
what you’ll need:- 2 medium-sized mixing bowls
- food processor (or blender)
- bread pan
- olive oil cooking spray
what’cha gotta do: pulse flax seeds in your food processor until they’re finely ground. add in hemp milk & process for another 30 seconds. set aside and let this bind up a little. melt margarine in one of the mixing bowls and add in the agave nectar, vanilla extract, & rum. combine & set aside. in the other mixing bowl combine together the flours and starch, baking soda, sea salt & baking powder. mix the flax & milk mixture in with the margarine & agave – then add in the dry mix from your the mixing bowl to the wet mix. combine well, gently mix in the pineapple & its juice, then fold in the coconut (add in some chopped macadamia nuts if you like as well!). transfer to a your bread pan that's been lightly sprayed with a little olive oil cooking spray & bake in a pre-heated oven on 350 degrees for 1 hour. remove from heat & carefuly remove the bread from the pan, cool on a cooling rack, and enjoy!
and now for the
Adventure Cleanse Tune-Up wrap up…
a few months ago i started visiting the crazy, sexy life site a lot more and was reading about this challenge that everyone had started back in may. i didn’t join in then as i didn’t have a juicer just yet and i was pretty intimidated by the cleanse – but a few weeks later i had decided to join Adventure Cleanse Tune-Up (ACT) because i was finding myself feeling pretty icky & i had burned myself out trying to increase my weekly miles (running) too soon and way too fast. the end result was me feeling crappy, down in the dumps, and i started indulging in waaaaay too many snacks, treats, sugar, comfort foods, and bread. i was addicted to sugar & would often times binge on sweets late at night. throughout the day i had a lot of intense cravings for sweets and junk - and while i was able to not “give in” to the cravings during the day, there was something about late at night – i would cave to my cravings and it was an all-out sugar fest. eek!
i figured i would give ACT a try because i needed a kick in the butt – i needed to stop feeling like crap, get my energy back, and i wanted to be my happyfaced self again. i’ll admit – i was super hesitant at the beginning because i didn’t know how i would do giving up sugar, diet coke, and bread as i knew it (gluten breads) – i didn’t want to fail, and the cleanse was downright scary to me. i knew i had to change – and so on June 8th i dove in and got my ACT on! the first ACT day i was grumpy & felt spacey – i wanted sweets and my diet coke and i got fussyfaced knowing that they weren’t ACT friendly (i stayed strong and didn't give in & enjoy them). days 2 and 3 i was a wee bit nauseous in the afternoons, but that quickly passed. the nights when the cravings for sweets got bad (usually after dinner) i’d enjoy a date or two or a small handful of raisins. i knew that i was a little organic dark chocolate was
ACT appropriate, but for me, enjoying a small square of chocolate might have had me binging on sugary stuff, so i didn't indulge. at the end of week one i was feeling pretty darn good – and the best part - my IBS was non-existent! i’ve suffered with IBS ever since i can remember, and as of day 3 on ACT it had completely disappeared! not having to use restroom 12+ times a day was so awesome!
during week 2 i had noticed that my protein intake had dropped from 55-60 (pre-ACT) to around 35 grams day (i log my daily eatz on
sparkpeople – dan & i have done this since becoming vegan to make sure we’re getting enough of what we’re supposed to in the way of: fiber, fat, vitamins A, C, D, folic acid, & B12, zinc, calcium, and protein.). so the 2nd week of ACT i increased raw nuts & added chia seeds and nutiva hemp protein powder to my smoothies. i quickly found that my body didn’t care for chia seeds or the hemp powder – so i cut out the chia seeds, decrease the nuts (as i gained about 4 lbs in a week from eating waaaaay too many nuts and was starting to feel more sluggish) - replacing them with raw hemp seeds and hemp milk. i also ate more millet & quinoa, spinach, peas, and corn. the second week i went out and bought some gluten-free bread & gluten free pretzels on a craving and overindulged that weekend – carb coma! ahahahahaa! but i quickly nipped that in the bud & increased my greens & water intake – that fo ‘sho helped me out & got me back on track.
week 3: lots of green juice, salads, low GI fruits, and i was feeling so awesome again! i got back in to running and started weight training again – i had so much energy! my IBS remained out of the picture and i know it’s the lack of gluten and processed sugar/junk. i really believe that gluten is the big culprit in causing IBS for me. week 3 flew on by and the next thing i knew it was my final week!
the 4th week i found myself craving green juice, salads, fruits, ‘n veggies, & i looked forward to my morning juice ‘n smoothie, the giant salad for lunch, and mostly raw dinners. i had even made cookies for my coworkers and wasn’t tempted to taste the dough or eat one – that NEVER would have happened pre-ACT. knowing that gluten and sugar weren’t the friends i thought they had been made me not want them anymore. i knew too well how icky they made me feel.
post-ACT: i’ve decided to stay gluten-free (dan will be enjoying the gluten yummies though – so you’ll still see many on happyveganface, but we’ll also be sharing our gluten-free goodies with you all, too!), mostly sugar free (i’ve gotta have my ketchup, sriracha, and the occasional gluten-free treat, right?!), and no more diet sodas and way less junk. i think i will incorporate some cooked foodz into my lunches (about 80% raw & 20% cooked) and a few more cooked goodies for my dinners (maybe 50/50), and the green juices & green smoothies will fo 'sho stay with me because i love them the most! dry brushing is my new favorite (it’s so fun and makes my skin feel wonderful), i make & take more time for me now, i do more yoga, i actually relax a bit – and i’m not in the bathroom 12 times a day – that’s the best part! i feel happy, full of energy, and super stellar! i have gotten back in to my running & weight training (superhappyface) - my mood rocks and my body sings! right now i’m learning about meditation and i’m working on making more changes that will keep me more stress free, too. i want to keep feeling this good & i feel like if i incorporate a lot of what i did during the cleanse i’ll be most successful in feeling this great all the time! this really is a new way of life for me – one that i cherish, enjoy, love, and look forward to! so if you’re thinking about jumping in and trying ACT, i say – go, go, GO! it’s just 28 days! give ACT a try if you’re thinking about it because you’ve got nothing to lose – i promise!
superhappyface!
thursday night dan made the most excellent meal ('cause he's awesome like that!) his coworker had given him a few home grown goat's horn hot peppers & his family recipe for some spicy pasta sauce. dan wanted to make a marinara sauce similar to the recipe, so he put his tasty spin on the recipe and tweaked it a ton using more fresh ingredients and lots of love. this resulted in one of the yummiest pasta sauces i've had to date - it was most glorious, and i'm superexcitedfaced that we have another goat's horn pepper leftover and will be making this again soon! hooooooooray! the sauce had a little heat, it was chunky, and the flavor was spot on! here's what he did...
i really love that their dressings are all gluten-free and vegan, and i noticed they had some tofu on the salad bar that they had used wheat-free tamari on as well - too cool on the gluten-free offerings. 
i snagged from our csa offerings: an eggplant, 3 heads 'o lettuce, celery, corn, more cucumbers, 2 cantaloupes, tons of roma & cherry tomatoes, an assortment of onions, & green beans. also at the market i picked up some summer squash, a head 'o cabbage, and some more garlic (local garlic rocks socks!). 
for lunch time yummies on saturday afternoon we had csa salads topped with sauteed chickpeas and a tangy tahini dressing. oh, and i made a little potato salad using some vegan mayo, a little relish, mustard, sea salt 'n pepper. man, i love potato salad! i think i could easily eat it every darn day! 
