Today is your day. You should feel fully energized and totally comfortable with this new way of eating. My hope is that, as you return gradually to your former eating habits, you will take with you several of your new habits, the most important of which is drinking a green juice every morning.
BREAKFAST
Your bowels should be running like clockwork now, allowing you to fully absorb the nutrients from all the wonderful fruits and vegetables you’re consuming. Keep up your water habit first thing in the morning—not just during a cleanse, but for every single day of your life.
Still optional. If you don’t need the caffeine, skip it.
Did you wake up craving your morning greens? You should notice a definite change in your “green palate” since the first day of your cleanse. If your morning green juice tastes too sweet, that means you have succeeded in cleansing your body of the toxins that lead to sweet cravings. Good for you! If you continue to drink a green juice every morning, you can use less and less fruit and move toward a purely green juice (no fruit included). Try cutting the apple in half today.
LUNCH
Full of vitamin C and other antioxidants, red peppers enhance both the healthfulness and taste of an already nutritious green juice.
Optional lunch addition: 1 cup (150g) of chopped red peppers. Eat the chopped peppers if your lunch juice doesn’t satiate you.
INGREDIENTS
3 to 5 celery stalks, bottoms removed
Big handful of spinach (2/3 bunch)
2 to 3 romaine (cos) leaves
1 red bell pepper (red capsicum)
Handful of parsley leaves (from 3 to 4 stems)
1/4 lemon, peeled (optional)
1 Wash the celery, spinach, romaine, bell pepper, and parsley.
2 Remove the top and seeds from the bell pepper and cut into pieces that will fit through your juicer.
3 If you need to cut the greenness, use 1/4 lemon. If not, skip it.
4 Run all ingredients through your juicer, scrape off foam (if desired), and enjoy!
SNACK
When my son, Cooper, was young, I used to steam broccoli for him, and he would eat only the tops—or the “trees,” as he called them. One day, I threw a leftover stalk in the juicer with my morning green juice. I was hooked.
Optional snack addition: 1 cup (85g) of broccoli florets and cucumber slices (sprinkled with sea salt to taste). Only snack on these extra veggies if you’re not satiated after your mid-afternoon juice.
INGREDIENTS
1 cucumber
3 celery stalks, bottoms removed
3 to 4 kale leaves
1/2 stalk of broccoli (no floret)
Handful of basil (6 to 7 leaves)
1/2 lemon, peeled (optional)
1 Wash the cucumber, celery, kale, broccoli, and basil.
2 If you need to cut the greenness, use 1/2 lemon. If not, skip it.
3 Run all ingredients through your juicer, scrape off foam (if desired), and enjoy!
DINNER
Time for some delicious raw soup! This recipe is a raw version of my favorite holiday vegetable dish, which I prepare for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. The cooked version involves baked butternut squash garnished with dried or fresh cranberries and wilted garlic spinach. I was determined to re-create these wonderful flavors in the form of a raw soup. If you’ve been using a Vitamix, you should now be deeply in love. It’s a fantastic tool for making soups. If you don’t have one, use a high-speed blender. By this point in the cleanse, you may want a little something warm in your tummy, so I recommend the extra step of heating this soup a bit on the stove.
INGREDIENTS
1/2 small butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1/2 medium avocado or 1 small avocado
1 cup (235ml) filtered water
1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 garlic clove
Sea salt and pepper, to taste
Handful of dried cranberries (for garnish)
1 Combine the butternut squash, avocado meat, water, olive oil, maple syrup, and garlic in a high-speed blender or Vitamix.
2 Blend on High until smooth, adding more water as needed until it reaches desired consistency.
3 Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4 If you would like a warm soup while keeping it raw, pour it into a saucepan on the stove and heat over the lowest possible temperature. Stir constantly until the soup is warm to the touch, and remove immediately. Ladle into a bowl and garnish with pepper and dried cranberries.
DINNER
Living in Texas, I have rosemary that grows like a weed year-round in my front yard. Since this is the only herb that I seem to be able to grow in this climate, I decided to incorporate it into a salad. While it is certainly an unusual ingredient for a salad, I think it adds a fun taste and texture. Just make sure to chop it very finely, and don’t use too much.
INGREDIENTS
Bowl of baby mixed greens (such as red and green romaine [cos])
Handful of tarragon leaves (from 2 to 3 stems), finely chopped
Handful of rosemary leaves (from 1 to 2 stems), finely chopped
Juice of 1/2 lime
2 tbsp hempseed
2 tbsp almond oil
Sea salt, to taste
4 to 5 raw crackers, broken into bits
1 avocado, thinly sliced
1 Combine the mixed greens, tarragon, and rosemary in a salad bowl and toss.
2 Add the lime juice, hempseed, and almond oil, and toss again.
3 Season with salt to taste. Add crackers and toss gently.
4 Arrange a layer of avocado slices over the top, and enjoy!
TIME SAVER
While I love eating raw, I draw the line at dehydrating my own crackers. Luckily, a number of great brands have started making wonderful raw crackers—including Two Moms in the Raw.
CONGRATS! You have successfully completed your Fall 4-Day Green Juice and Raw Food Cleanse. Your intestines, body, and mind should be thanking you now. You should be feeling more energized than ever. In addition, you should notice that you have enhanced mental clarity and even a nice glow to your skin. For information and recipes that will help you maintain the wonderful benefits of your cleanse and help you transition to post-cleanse eating, please turn to page 149.
