I cooked a TON this weekend! We had a huge snowstorm in Salt Lake and our temperatures are between 3-14˚. Too cold for me to go outside and do anything fun, plus I’m still getting over this cold so I took this weather as an opportunity to prepare a bunch of food since I start yoga teacher training again this week. It’s going to be another buuuusy semester!

Here’s a rundown of what I cooked over the weekend and what I plan on eating this week. Almost to the third week of the cleanse by the way! The third week is when the magic really happens. It’s when you start to actually feel better and have fewer cravings. I’ve been so out of it with this cold though, I feel like I need to cleanse an extra few weeks just to get back in my groove!

Ok, here is what I cooked this weekend:
-2 batches of those Bite Size Peanut Butter Cookies. Wow those are good. My fiancé says they are the best peanut butter cookies he’s ever had. He is so sweet to me. 🙂
–Hashbrowns. Hey, you can have potatoes on the cleanse!
–Starbucks Gingerbread Loaf (for the soon to be hubby, he requested it and I was happy to make it)
–Sweet Potato Fries. Also cleanse friendly, yay!
–Black Bean Quinoa Chipotle Burgers. Mega yum.
-Quinoa Falafel. See below.
–Creamy Cilantro Lime Dressing. For salads.

My menu for the week:
-Breakfast: Coffee with unsweetened almond milk & 5 drops of liquid stevia and the Thin Mint Protein Shake. I still never get sick of this thing.
-Lunch: Black Bean Quinoa Chipotle Burgers w/ leftover sweet potato fries
-Dinner: Salad made of mixed greens topped with Quinoa Falafel and Hummus dressing

I don’t even feel like I’m cleansing when I’m eating this delicious food! I kind of wish I would have made a soup though. I love soup. Especially when it’s 5˚ outside.

Lilly spends her time seeking warmth as well. Here she is trying to get as much of her body as possible to cover the heat vent in front of the kitchen sink.

What a nut. That doesn’t even look comfortable!

Quinoa Falafel (adapted slightly from THRIVE foods)
3 tablespoons ground flax seed
1/4 cup water
2 cups cooked quinoa
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
2 teaspoons miso paste
1 teaspoon tahini
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 cup minced parsley
2 tablespoons coconut oil

Makes about 14 falafels

In a small bowl, combine the water, miso and ground flax. Allow it so sit for about 10 minutes until it forms a gel-like consistency.

Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, combine the quinoa, yeast, tahini, onion powder, garlic powder and oregano.

Add the flax gel and parsley to the quinoa mixture and combine thoroughly.

Refrigerate mixture for about 20-30 minutes so all the liquid gets absorbed (mine was way too wet to work with until I refrigerated it).

Preheat the oven to broil. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. First I used parchment paper but later learned parchment paper doesn’t do well on broil. Woops. Take some of the melted coconut oil and grease the aluminum foil. Coconut oil is a good choice here because of it’s high smoke point. Cooking sprays like Pam would most likely smoke like crazy on broil.

Shape the falafels into about 2″ patties and place on the greased aluminum foil lined baking sheet.
Broil for 8 minutes on one side, then flip and broil for 4-7 more minutes on the other side, or until they look golden brown.

I will be eating mine in a salad, topped with a hummus salad dressing from Trader Joe’s. But topping with regular hummus would be good too!