Day 21 - Rounding the Bend

I don't know how the weather is where you are right now, but where I am, it's still cold!  Spring has been taunting us for some weeks now - sunny and warm one day, and snow flurries the next.  This week, I decided to try one more soup variation before the warm weather sets in for good...

Celery and leek soup...

  (Shout out here, to Rada, for making awesome knives.  

One really good knife in the kitchen 

can make all the difference!)

I followed the same procedure as I did for the broccoli soup and the carrot almond ginger soup.  I used about 10 stalks of celery and one leek.  Simply boil the chopped up celery and leek until soft, drain and rinse with cold water, add to blender with about 1/2 a cup of cold water, and puree.  Pour the puree back into your pot, with 2 cups of hot water, heat to boiling, and salt to taste.

I will admit, this one probably could be improved by using chicken broth, instead of plain water.  But, it's great to know that you can have a perfectly fine soup at less cost.

If you like the taste of celery, you will probably really like celery root!

I tried this root vegetable - affectionately known as "the ugly one" - for the first time this past week.  It isn't the root of the celery that we eat; it's a whole different plant entirely.

This is a very low-carb alternative to potatoes, but it's definitely not the same - it has a very strong flavor... of celery.  If you're okay with that, it's really good.

I tried celery root two different ways...

Peeled...

diced, and fried in olive oil...

this was great with eggs for breakfast!

And, mashed...

This was a little more difficult to accomplish.  I had read that the entire root could be boiled whole, and the skin removed after...  

After an hour, however, my celery root still was not cooked all the way through, so I peeled the skin, cut up the white inside and boiled it that way until done.

Next, I added a bit of olive oil, garlic, parsley, and almond milk, for something very similar to mashed potatoes (aside from the distinct flavor).

A great side to my roasted vegetables - broccoli, asparagus, onion and leek. 

If you have been doing this with me, then after three weeks, you should be feeling differently than you did before we started.  You may or may not be experiencing symptoms of candida die-off, you may be feeling better than you have in a while, or you might still see the whole thing as a huge sacrifice (very fitting that we started this during lent).  

I sincerely hope that you are learning how easy it really is to eat without chemicals and artificial stuff - and learning that real food can be good.

In the coming week, I will be sharing a few more new (to me) foods I've tried, and I will put together a sample menu for the entire 28-day plan, that you can use if you are thinking of starting now.  

Next week, we will begin slowly adding to our food list, watching for "trigger foods", and learning to eat real food every day.