The 7 Day Detox Diet – Cucumber, Kale, and Apple Smoothie

Cucumber, Kale, and Apple Smoothie

Ingredients:

To prepare:

Make sure the kale is wilted by blanching it in boiling water then shocking it in ice cold water afterwards.

For best results, wash and peel the cucumber before slicing it. You don’t need to remove the seeds. When coring and chopping the apple into chunks, make sure to completely remove the core and the seeds because it contains toxins that aren’t safe for human consumption.

Combine all of the ingredients in a blender and puree. Want to make things interesting? Experiment by adding your favorite herbs or a pinch of nutmeg.

Carrot, Pineapple and Spinach Juice

Ingredients:

To prepare:

Wash the carrots and peel and cut them into sticks that will fit through a juicer. Do the same for the pineapple. For the spinach, wash clean; there is no need to wilt.

Run all of the ingredients through a juicer and serve in a glass. You can add a couple of ice cubes for a colder, refreshing drink.

This is an excerpt from the book:  The 7 Day Detox Diet

The 7 Day Detox Diet – VII. Detox Days 5 to 6

Detox Days 5 to 6
Days five to six are probably the most demanding of the seven-day diet. Throughout days one to four, you still get a moderate amount of portions in your daily diet, from vegetables to proteins to starches. But from day five to six, you are going to be in an all-liquid detox with very little

 additions to the fresh produce used as ingredients; not even yogurt.

You will be getting all of your nutrition from power-packed fruit and vegetable juices with ingredients ranging from pineapples and pears to celery and carrots. It’s the hardest part of the diet to stick to but it is also the most rewarding. By giving your body the vitamins, minerals, and dietary fibers that it needs in liquid form, you are making them easier to absorb. The nutritional value in a glass of juice is also so much higher than what you would get from the same food but in solid form.

Do you know how many carrots you would have to eat to get the nutritional value that one glass of pure carrot juice can give you? It will take about a dozen. And the apples, asparagus, herbs, kale, and other fruits and vegetables that you can add to your juice? You couldn’t possibly eat all that

in one sitting but you can easily drink them for the same nutritional value in one glass. It’s a great way to introduce much needed nutrients into your body while giving your detoxifying organs a break.

This is an excerpt from the book:  The 7 Day Detox Diet

The 7 Day Detox Diet – Pan-fried Chicken Breast Barbecue with Baked Potato and Vegetables

Pan-fried Chicken Breast Barbecue with Baked Potato and Vegetables

Ingredients:

To prepare:

Carefully wash the chicken breast; be careful not to spatter. On a cutting board, cut the chicken breast down the middle so that it opens up like a butterfly. Cover the chicken breast with Saran wrap and lightly pound it with a mallet so that it spreads out thinly. Be careful not to pound on it too much; you don’t want to get holes on the meat.

Take the potato and wash it, brushing with an old toothbrush to make sure that it is completely clean. Place the potato on a cut of aluminium foil and drizzle olive oil on it until it is completely covered. Season the potato with salt and pepper and wrap it with the aluminium foil. Place the potato inside an oven pre-heated at 180°C. The potato should take 20 to 25 minutes to bake.

Take the vegetables, wash them and peel as needed and chop them into bite-sized pieces. Spread them out in a baking pan and drizzle with a little olive oil. Season them with salt and pepper and place inside the oven. Roast until tender. (Note: Roasted squash is particularly good with this dish.)

Combine the paprika, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, chilli powder, and a pinch of salt and pepper in a small bowl. Rub the mixture onto the chicken breast. In the mood for Cajun chicken? You can substitute the rub with Cajun seasoning and a little salt and pepper.

Heat up a little olive oil or vegetable oil in a medium-sized pan. Pan-fry the chicken breast until it is cooked through and through.

Remove the potato from the oven and from the foil. Place it on a plate and draw an X on it with a kitchen knife, breaking it open. Serve everything warm on a plate.

This is an excerpt from the book:  The 7 Day Detox Diet 

The 7 Day Detox Diet – Grilled Prawns with Pan-fried Tofu and Steamed Vegetables

Grilled Prawns with Pan-fried Tofu and Steamed Vegetables

Ingredients:

To prepare:

Wash, shell, and devein the prawns. Leave the head and tail on for presentation and added flavor. To devein the prawns, run a small knife along its back and remove the thin, small filament. Butterfly the prawns by slicing them down the middle along its back so that they are open down the middle like books.

Heat up the steamer. Place the vegetables in a foil envelope and season with a little salt and pepper. Put the envelope inside the steamer and let the vegetables cook until tender. You can test for tenderness with a fork.

Heat up the grill and clean with a damp towel. Season the prawns with olive oil, chopped dill, salt, and ground black pepper. Place the prawns on the grill front-side down first before turning them over. When the prawns are completely orange, they are cooked. Keep an eye on them; prawns, like most seafood items, cook quickly.

Cut up the tofu into centimetre-thick rectangles. Add a little salt and pepper to the all-purpose flour and place on a plate or baking pan. Dredge the tofu on the flour.

In a medium-sized sauce pan on high heat, pour a little of the olive oil. Pan-fry the tofu until golden brown. Place the cooked tofu on a paper towel lined plate to get rid of the excess oil.

Serve the prawns right on top of the tofu with the vegetables on the side.

This is an excerpt from the book:  The 7 Day Detox Diet

The 7 Day Detox Diet – Dinner Recipes

Dinner Recipes

Dinner is the meal for the day where you get to sit down and enjoy your meal without rushing or thinking of work. It’s the time of day when you can sit back, relax, and take a well-deserved break. That’s why it’s also important to have a healthy and delicious meal to help you unwind and prepare for the next day to come.

Being on a detox diet doesn’t mean you have to constrain yourself to bland and boring food. If there’s a lesson to take away from this book, it’s that you can be healthy and lose weight while still enjoying your meals. Here are some dinner dishes to enjoy from detox diet days two to four.

Steamed Fish with Pineapple Yogurt Sauce on Brown Rice

Ingredients:

To prepare:

The first thing you need to get started on in this recipe is the rice because it takes the longest to cook. Wash the rice thoroughly and place inside a slow cooker or in a small pot. Add water, enough to cover the rice plus ¾ of a centimetre and put on low heat. Let the rice cook until all the water is absorbed and the rice is fluffy.

Any steamer – a plug-in steamer, a bamboo steamer, or an aluminium stove-top steamer – should do the job. Place the fish fillet inside an envelope of foil along with the celery, onion, and leeks and a little salt and pepper (and maybe some grated ginger if you feel like it) and place inside the steamer. If the water in the steamer is already boiling, it shouldn’t take longer than 10 to 15 minutes for the fish to cook.

In a saucepan on low heat, pour in the yogurt, the chopped pineapples, and the cilantro. Season the sauce with salt and pepper.

To serve, place the rice on a plate and top with the steamed fish. Pour the sauce over the fish and top everything with the steamed celery, onions, and leeks.

This is an excerpt from the book:  The 7 Day Detox Diet 

The 7 Day Detox Diet – Fruit and Vegetable Tempura

Fruit and Vegetable Tempura

Ingredients:

To prepare:

This recipe doesn’t really have hard-fast ingredients; you can pretty much use the fruits and vegetables that you feel like using. For one person, a serving should be about 150 to 200 grams. It could be all squash tempura or a mix of squash and apples or even a seafood mix with prawns and crab sticks. It’s really all up to you which is the fun part of having this meal and it’s also very easy to prepare.

The first thing that you need to do is to slice the ingredients that you’re going to use. Thick sticks are the usual way to go but some ingredients, like the crimini mushrooms, don’t need to be cut, only cleaned. For the prawns, shell and devein them and wash them thoroughly. The crab sticks don’t even need to be washed, only removed from their package.

Prepare the tempura batter by adding ice cold water. You don’t want the batter to be too smooth so it’s better not to use a whisk, only a wooden spoon. A pair of chopsticks would be even better. The batter should be runny but still thick enough to stick to the ingredients.

To keep the batter cold, place ice on a bowl and place the bowl of batter on top of the ice.

On a plate, put some all-purpose flour and season with a little salt and pepper. In a saucepan or pot, pour enough vegetable oil or peanut oil to fully cover ingredients when frying. Heat up the oil until 190°C if you have a thermometer or you can test for the right temperature with a little flour. When the flour bubbles and dissolves immediately, the oil is ready for frying.

Coat the ingredients in flour so that the batter will stick better before dipping into the batter. Let the excess batter slide off before gently placing into the frying oil. When the batter is slightly brown, the ingredients should be done cooking.

Remove excess oil by placing the cooked ingredients onto a plate lined with paper towels.

You can serve the tempura with your choice of sauce like a spicy Sriracha and mayo mixture or a simple lemon vinaigrette. The traditional tempura dip is a combination of rice wine vinegar or white wine vinegar, light soy sauce, grated ginger, sugar, and a little sesame oil. You can dilute the mixture with a little water if the taste is too strong or overpowering.

This is an excerpt from the book:  The 7 Day Detox Diet 

The 7 Day Detox Diet – Green Beans and Mushrooms in Peanut Soy Sauce

Green Beans and Mushrooms in Peanut Soy Sauce

Ingredients:

To prepare:

Wash the green beans and cut off the tips and throw away or save for soup. Cut the green beans into half and set aside.

Core the cabbage and separate the leaves and wash before cutting into julienne or long, thin strips. Don’t wash the mushrooms. Instead, wipe them clean with a damp paper towel before cutting into quarters or cutting into thin slices.

Let’s prepare the sauce first. Pour in the tablespoon of olive oil or vegetable oil in a small saucepan and let it heat up. Add the chopped peanuts and let it brown a little to release the flavors and roast them. Add the light soy sauce and sauté. Season the sauce with muscovado sugar and a little sesame oil. You can also add coconut milk if you have it available.

For the vegetables, pour the tablespoon of olive oil in a medium-sized pan on medium heat. Add the minced garlic first but be careful not to let it brown. Add the mushrooms first; sauté with the garlic. Add the green beans and the cabbage and sauté until tender. You can also add bean sprouts if you’d like but be sure to cook them thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper.

Combine with the peanut soy sauce and serve. Ideally served with some fried tofu.

This is an excerpt from the book:  The 7 Day Detox Diet

The 7 Day Detox Diet – Kakiage or Japanese Vegetable Fritters

Kakiage or Japanese Vegetable Fritters

Ingredients:

To prepare:

To cut the vegetables julienne means to cut them into thin, long strips. You don’t have to be too precise as long as the vegetables are of the same size, more or less, so that they cook at the same time.

Wash the vegetables and place in a bowl. Add in the flour and the cornstarch and toss. Add the vodka then add water in small amounts, tossing as you go. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Add enough water that the mixture of flour and cornstarch turns into a paste but isn’t runny.

In a saucepan or a deep pan, pour in the peanut oil and turn the heat to high. If you have a kitchen thermometer, you can measure the temperature until the oil is 190°C. If you don’t have a kitchen thermometer, you can get the right temperature by using a bit of onion or a pinch of flour. When the oil is hot enough, the thin slice of onion should brown almost immediately or the flour will bubble or froth and disappear.

Take a handful of the vegetables and flatten into a patty with your hand before placing inside the hot oil. Be careful to gently place the vegetables into the oil, moving the patty away from you. With a wooden spoon, make sure both sides of the vegetable fritters are brown then remove from the oil and place on a plate lined with paper towels to soak up the excess oil. Repeat until all of the vegetables are gone.

Serve with a lemon slice so that you can drizzle a little lemon juice for flavor.

This is an excerpt from the book:  The 7 Day Detox Diet 

The 7 Day Detox Diet – Oven-roasted Cauliflower with Garlic and Olive Oil

Oven-roasted Cauliflower with Garlic and Olive Oil

Ingredients:

Wash the cauliflower but don’t cut up into small pieces. Just remove the tough core so that the cauliflower can sit on a plate without rolling around.

Place a pan on medium heat and pour in the olive oil. Cook the finely chopped garlic without letting it brown. Set aside the garlic oil in a small bowl.

Make sure the cauliflower is dry. Place the cauliflower on a baking pan and season with salt, pepper, and a pinch of cayenne. Coat the cauliflower with the garlic olive oil and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve while it is piping hot.

This is an excerpt from the book:  The 7 Day Detox Diet

The 7 Day Detox Diet – Broccoli and Cauliflower in Velouté Sauce

Broccoli and Cauliflower in Velouté Sauce

Ingredients:

To prepare:

Prepare the sauce first so that you can set it aside and reheat before serving. In a sauce pan on low heat, place the flour and the butter. Mix the two, letting them cook into a paste. Add the chicken or vegetable broth and bring to a simmer while stirring. When the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, season to taste with salt and pepper and set the velouté aside.

Wash the broccoli and cauliflower thoroughly. Cut them up into small, bite-sized flowerettes. Peel and chop the garlic finely and set aside.

In a pan on medium heat, pour in the olive oil. When the oil is hot, toss in the chopped garlic and sauté but don’t let it brown. Add the broccoli and cauliflower and sauté. Cover the pan and let the vegetables cook until tender, sautéing occasionally.

When the vegetables are almost cooked, pour in the velouté, enough to coat the vegetables. Serve warm.

This is an excerpt from the book:  The 7 Day Detox Diet