DAY 4 - Daniel Fast

Yuck!


That's my first word of the morning...after my breakfast of "live" granola with soy milk (shudder).

Okay, so it's not all good!  But this is where you come in...everyone's tastes are different.  If I suggest something on my menu that you don't like, substitute it with something you do like!  (Just not any meat, sweets or treats!).  I'm taking the live granola with soy milk off my breakfast rotation.  I will instead tweak my favorite homemade granola recipe and make it Daniel Fast-friendly.  My normal breakfast is plain Greek yogurt with my favorite Nature's Path hemp granola (which must be "dead," I suppose, as opposed to "live") and fresh fruit (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, pomegranate and cherries are my favorites), and I have that pretty much every day.  Once in a while when I want a change I'll have a bowl of muesli soaked overnight in plain kefir and topped with cinnamon, nuts and dried cherries. And every once in a greater while I'll scramble a couple eggs with tomato, spinach, green onion, Italian seasoning, and a dash of tobasco sauce and eat it with a piece of toasted Dave's Killer Bread (sprouted) with a bit of butter and homemade blackberry jam.  Then, a few times a year, I'll eat breakfast out at my favorite breakfast restaurants, like Wildwood where they have unbelievablely good french toast and veggie omelette, or Tasty-n-Sons for something unique and delicious.  Actually, when I went to the store early this morning, they had two new flavors of "live" granola, both on sale and both sounding much better than the plain one I bought...one was apple-cinnamon and the other chocolate!  Both were still Daniel Fast-Friendly.  But I was feeling a little gun-shy and didn't purchase either of them.  Maybe another day when I'm ready to be adventurous again!  Right now, I just want to eat : )

So back to breakfast for you...if you love the live granola, stick with it.  But if you take a couple bites and think, "Gross!", then dump it down the sink and make a bowl of oatmeal!

TODAY'S MENU

BREAKFAST:  "Live" granola with soy milk and a piece of fruit

My bowl refuses to hold this breakfast ever again!

LUNCH:  Loaded Spinach Salad

This is my favorite salad, only I usually put salmon and goat cheese on it!  However, it's still delicious, minus the "animal products."  Fresh baby spinach and a handful of arugula for zip, topped with toasted hazelnuts, juicy pomegranate arils (seeds), green onion, and avocado.  It's the avocado that makes the meal feel filling, because of the healthy fat it contains.  Then dress it with a simple dressing of equal amounts of oil (olive oil, walnut oil, grapeseed oil) and vinegar (raw apple cider, balsamic), a splash of orange or pomegranate juice (no sugar added, 100% juice only) and salt and pepper.  If you know what Bragg's amino acids are, you can add a dash of that too for a healthy flavor boost.

Living in Oregon gives me easy access to hazelnuts...but you
can use your favorite nut if you don't have them.  Be sure to
toast them first for extra crunch and flavor!

The easiest way to seed a pomegranate is to cut in half...

...and then take the seeds out in a bowl of cold water

As you peel away the skin and membrane, you will expose
chambers of ruby-red arils that easily roll off into your bowl
between your fingers

This method is good for two reasons:  #1 You lose very little
juice.  This is all the juice that came out with the first and
only cut.  So now you have a lot more juicy arils and a lot
less mess!

#2 All the seeds sink to the bottom of the bowl while the
white membrane pieces float to the top, making it easy to
pour them off,

...leaving beautiful jewel-like pom arils behind!
They store for quite awhile in an airtight container in the fridge,
ready for salads, main courses, granola and (once the fast
is over) yogurt!  Yum!

DINNER:  Pasta and Mediterranean Veggies

If you were able to find sprouted pasta, great...if not, just use whole-grain.  My store doesn't carry sprouted pasta, even though it has a pretty good selection of health food.  I buy mine through an organic foods delivery business (how I found that company is a great story for another day!).  Whole Foods or New Seasons are also wonderful sources for organic and health-food products.  I don't go very often because I am soooo tempted to overspend!  Whole Foods and the Portland's Farmers Market are my weak spots.  I love clothes, but I can easily pass them by if I don't have money.  I love decorating my house, but I can drool over a Pottery Barn catalog and then close it and continue on my merry way.  But when I am in a specialty food store or the fresh market I must think and re-think every item in my basket.  Two things help me maintain self-control...someone accompanying me to tell me no or only taking a set amount of cash!

Anyway, back to dinner!  Get out a large saute pan and a deep pot for the pasta and fill it with cold, salted water.  Start chopping up some veggies while you're waiting for your pot of water to boil.  Tonight we're doing onion, sweet pepper, mushrooms, zucchini, Greek olives, garlic, sundried tomato and fresh basil.  Toss your veggies into the saute pan with a bit of olive oil, except leave out the garlic, olives, basil and tomatoes until the very end.  Drop your pasta into the boiling water.  Whole-grain pasta takes about 10 minutes to cook, so everything should end up being done at the same time.  Drain the pasta and pour it into a wide, shallow bowl, then top it with the hot veggies.  You can sprinkle some Italian seasoning, sea salt and fresh-cracked pepper on top, if you want a little more zing.  This is a delicious, filling meal.  You won't even miss the meat!

I love, love, love this magic lid for boiling pasta!
The little "flower" in the top raises with the steam,
allowing the bubbling over that always happens with
pasta to come out, and then once exposed to air it
quickly evaporates and stays contained in the lid.
Best investment!  Buy it for $29.95 at Sur La Table

http://www.surlatable.com/search/searchContainer.jsp?q=spill%20top&s=true

Here it is, another hearty vegetarian meal!

Everyone was so eager to eat that I actually

didn't get to take a picture of the finished dish!

Grocery List:
Spinach Dahl (see picture and description below)
refried beans (get the vegetarian, which just means it wasn't cooked with lard, which is the "original" or traditional way)
pico de gallo (you should be able to buy this fresh in the produce department next to the lettuce)
more avocados (if you need them)
canned or fresh pumpkin or squash (I will show you how to roast your own pumpkins!)
organic marinara/tomato sauce (check label for sugar!)
Odwalla smoothie (fruit and veggies only, no sugar)
V-8 (don't get low-sodium, it tastes awful!)
fruit (whatever you need to replenish)

Dal is a ready-made spinach and lentil soup.
If you can't find it, select an organic soup that's
similar or, if you still have left-overs, eat up
the rest of the chili or spinach-leek soup.