New Years resolutions and insincerities

**Full recipe at bottom of post, please feel free to skip my jibber-jabber**

Well with January first this came the expected resolutions (quit drinking), the obvious ones I’m not going to keep (quit drinking), and the ones I’m going to give my best efforts to keep (run a 5km race in March).

My lovely sister (in-law) suggested we do a cleansing detox the first week of January. I am VERY hesitant to even use the word detox, or cleanse, cause not only are they often dangerous, or strait up wrong, they can also be confusing to do and carry with them the stigma of “Oh, you’re on a cleanse, what do you think you’re better than me?” (or maybe that how I’ve always looked at people who do them…)

Today is the first day of week two, and oh dear GOD I want a chocolate bar so fuckin’ bad! Strangely enough though, celery is starting to taste sweet to me (WTF?).

The basic idea is:
            Sugar free (including fruits)
            Gluten-free 
(easy now, considering that particular dietary need has found its place to limelight)
            & Dairy free (I miss butter.)

The first week we graded down towards the Full Monty, so to speak, with limited dairy, natural sugars (no refined sugar, not a bad thing after the holidays) and no bread products. Not that bad… we were still allowed coffee (with unsweetened non-dairy milk, Hello Almond Milk!)

Ooooh wait though!! Hold up… this week:
            No Sugar (of any kind, no refined sugar, no fake sugar, no FRUIT?!)
No coffee (black or otherwise, FML)
No legumes (good-bye sweet, delicious beans)

That’s a lot of NO

This week will be an adventure of and in itself (note: I am writing this powered solely on omelette muffins (no cheese, it’s a crime) and green tea… pfft!)

Last week though Manfriend created a delicious granola recipe, totally gluten free and totally fucking delicious! (and not just because we were jonesing for ‘real food’)


Delicious Nut Granola
            Gluten Free
            Dairy Free
            Freaking Awesome
Time: 35 Minutes
Tools: Food Processor, rimmed baking sheet, microwaveable bowl, 


Ingredients:
o   ½ cup each of:
·         Almonds
·         Hazelnuts
·         Brazil nuts
·         Walnuts
·         Pumpkin seeds
·         Almond Meal
·         Coconut Flakes (unsweetened, if you’re cutting down on your sugar)
o   ¼ cup of honey (OR ⅛ cup of honey, ⅛ cup of Maple syrup)
o   1 Tbsp. of Vanilla extract

Directions:
1.    In a food processor, chop all the nuts and pumpkin seeds into pea-sized pieces or smaller.
2.    In a large microwavable bowl combine nuts, coconut flakes, honey and vanilla extract.
3.    Microwave about a minute, to make heat honey.
4.    Mix all ingredients until honey is evenly distributed.
5.    Spread evenly onto a rimmed baking sheet.
6.    Bake at 350ºF for 20 minutes, or until light golden brown, stirring occasionally.


Omelette Muffins and Homemade Ketchup
And that’s it! It’s awesome, unfortunately we can’t have it this week, because of the honey, but after this intense thing, I am ALL over it!!

Hope you try it out and enjoy, it’s worth the 35 minutes of your life.

Stay tuned for my post about homemade condiments. 


designing a healthy life


Anna Felicity