Thursday, January 7, 2010

Not such a great day...


As you know, yesterday I had all intentions of doing a 24 hr. juicing detox. It started out well...

Juiced some carrots for my first "meal"

And kept the carrot pulp. I really want to figure out what
to do with this stuff. I don't have a dehydrator to make crackers
but figured I could still cook them in the real oven
to make something out of them...
Then, being that it is FRIGID (for this Floridian) outside with
the highs being in the low 50s here and freezing every night.
I had a nice hot cup of green tea about an hour later.
By mid morning I was starving so I made a green monster smoothie.
Spinach, apple/oatmeal protein powder, almond milk
and a sprinkle of cinnamon on top. Mmmm....good!
By lunchtime though I would have given my first born child up for a real meal. I'm sure this is mostly psychological since I've gone plenty a day before without having time to eat enough due to various busy reasons, but for whatever reason on this particular day I wanted FOOD!

I made my boys Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches for lunch with pita chips and hummus and that did it...I wolfed down 1 1/2 sandwiches myself plus enough pita chips and hummus to keep that company in business for years! It was shameful. :(

But...it's over with. I've learned my lesson. I simply need food. For now. Perhaps when I don't feel like hibernating with these temps we aren't used to, and I'm not running the heck out of my body in the mornings at the gym I will be more prepared for an ocassional juice fast. Yesterday was not one of them!

I did manage to make an incredible dinner, so my family thought! :) Chicken Tortilla Soup!

It's funny...I posted that I was making this on Facebook and I got a couple of responses like "Hey...I thought you were a vegetarian!!" I guess I should expect that type of reaction, I DO eat mainly vegetarian, although the response got me thinking. I guess I really don't want to be labeled anything. I've made a really good effort in the last three months to NOT get in the hang up of "dieting" or being on a certain diet. I've been eating what my body craves, listening to hunger cues, not denying myself what I want. While I DO eat a mainly vegan diet on any given day, I don't want to say I'm a vegan. If I'm at someone's house that is serving Spaghetti that has meat in it, I'm going to eat it. If I get a hankering for some stew that has chicken in it...I want to eat it.

I've spent too many years in a state of deprivation, not allowed to eat this or eat that based on that particular diet I was following. It's oppressive.

Do I feel my best when I'm eating a high plant based diet. ABSOLUTELY. But that doesn't mean that I want to forever give up other food options. This may disappoint some out there, especially those that are vegan for ethical purposes. But this is me. My choices.

One thing that I have definitely changed, no going back, is my purchase of ONLY organic meats and poultry. Since those ARE much more expensive we don't eat those that often anyways.

One of my New Years Resolutions was to continue to learn, refine and define my eating lifestyle and all of this is apart of my process...fine tuning! :) Even the occasional mishaps...

I know many of you requested the soup recipe so here it goes. So super easy and delish. BOTH my boys wolfed this down! (This recipe could be easily modified to make it vegan)

Chicken Tortilla Soup

2 lbs. chicken (cooked and shredded)
1 can chicken broth
2 cans Rotel
1 16oz. can of salsa (depending on how spicy you want it mild or medium)
1 cup of water
1 can of corn
1 can of black beans
1 T chili powder

Mix everything up in a crockpot and cook on whichever setting you need it to be on (high for 2 hr. low for 4+ hours). Top with crushed tortillas and serve along side some warm cornbread!

MMMM....good!

10 comments:

  1. Holy smokes that soup looks good! I wish I had the ingredients to make it today. Looks like it'll have to wait about 3 days for the 3 feet of snow to melt.

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  2. I do think it was a GREAT day, after all. Look at the forgiveness you've given yourself, the compassion, self-understanding! I appreciate the realization that you need food. I realized that same thing with the whole raw food experimentation. Psychologically for me it's way more important to be in a healthy place than to have a 100% "anything" (vegan, raw, etc.) diet. I'm so glad you've come to the same conclusion!!!

    Have a great day today too!

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  3. Can't wait to make it this weekend :) Yum! Thanks for sharing!

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  4. I found a similar recipe on line last night. Was planning on making for dinner tonight, but I worked nights last night and didn't have the energy to go to the store--ugh!!! Now I wish I had!

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  5. We made the chicken tortilla soup tonight...another winner in our house!! Thanks so much for sharing all these yummy recipes...made some Krusteaz honey cornbread to go with it, kids and hubby loved it!

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  6. Save the carrots for a veggie broth or to add to a veggie or bean soup.

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  7. THANK YOU for posting this recipe - it looks absolutely delish!! I can't wait to try it!!

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  8. I know what you mean Tiff about strict vegetarian diet. I was a strict vegetarian for 9 months. When my mom passed - I realized even more that life is too short and my mom hated that I did not eat any kind of meat. I did not consider myself a vegan - way too strict. I still don't eat meat a lot.

    But like you said - you should expect questions when you call yourself a vegetarian but eat meat. Trust me - I got plenty of them when I started eating meat again.

    XOXOXOXO Missy

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  9. I need food too!! We juiced this morning....I dusted off the 'ol juicer and put it to work. I'm going to make it a habit! Thank you for encouraging me to make good habits :)

    You have an amazing variety of healthy, yummy food....I love it! And you know that I love U!!

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  10. Hi Tiffanie, thank you so much for writing about RO*TEL. We love this recipe and think you should enter it into our recipe contest for a chance to win $2,000. For more info visit http://www.rotelacrossamerica.com

    - The RO*TEL Across America Team

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