This past Sunday brought to an end our 21-day “reset.” My NCLP and I enjoyed three weeks sans animal products, alcohol, gluten, sugar and caffeine. Sort of. While he was a master of discipline, I waved a white flag at caffeine and substituted my four cups of coffee per day for one cup of matcha.
So what did I learn? I’m still processing. And, truth be told I’m still riding the reset. I’m not too eager to pull the coffee press from the cabinet and morning porridge minus that sprinkle of brown sugar is just as sweet. NCLP and I are in no hurry to embrace animal products – we were vegetarian to begin with so slipping into a virtually vegan lifestyle isn’t that difficult of a stretch.
But I’m not making any promises. I miss goat yogurt and labane.
What I enjoyed most about the reset was the meal planning. I guess I never really knew how much I enjoyed being in the kitchen. It made me happy to be there. I loved how the parameters of the reset encouraged me to be more creative. We weren’t restricted to raw salad. We had warm bowls of porridge in the morning loaded with berries, nuts and dried fruit, grilled mushrooms and assorted vegetables on a bed of quinoa drizzled with artisanal olive oil from the farmer’s market at dinner. Lunch and snacks were light – miso soup with rice noodles or hummus on flax crackers. Frozen banana “ice cream” or chocolate and chia seed pudding.
On the last day of our reset I added a new appliance to my not-so-well appointed cooking space – an Omega Juicer. It’s a masticating juicer. That means it grinds the fruit and vegetable slowly. This promises less heat and less oxidation. In other words, a fully loaded end product. So far I’ve loved it.
The Omega Juicer can also process nuts and seeds. It has attachments that allow the user to make pasta. Since my gluten-free pasta making skills are none-existant I’m going to hold off on that. Instead I’m going to try my hand at tahini making.
The first step? Soaking sesame seeds. I’ll see you in four hours. Photos to follow.
The Well Seasoned Yogi 