Lucky you Juice cleanse

A girlfriend of mine has a juice cleansing business ‘Lucky You Cleanse’

She has asked me to come up with a few recipes to go along with her mini juice cleanse. The recipes need to be healthy, vegetarian and easy. Perfect!

I need to come up with two-breakfast option and two dinner options…I did one better than that – I came up with 3 of each!

Heidy’s juices are mainly Organic (when produce allows) and super delicious (I’m not sure it’s very torturous being on one of her cleanses!)She has an incredible juicer that literally presses all the goodness out of her ingredients and leaves all the nutrients, vitamins etc whole...

I’ve been known to stop by her shop to see if there are any leftover juices I can purchase and my kids (especially frank) would happily drink one everyday.

So this was going to be fun and I’m always happy to help out a friend!

BREAKFAST goes like this:

Day 1 - Quinoa Porridge with Fresh Berries (or frozen berries), coconut and agave

You’ll need:

1 ½ cups of quinoa (or roughly half the box about 200g) – soaked over night in filtered water in the fridge, then rinsed well before cooking

3 cups of milk (whole unhomogenised, almond milk, goats milk or even water)

agave to taste – 2 tablespoons

½ teaspoon cinnamon

a few drops of vanilla extract

handful of berries

coconut to garnish

                                                               To cook:

Serves 2 for 2 days.

Pop your rinsed quinoa in your saucepan with the milk, agave, cinnamon and vanilla

Stir well and bring to the boil

Once boiling turn the heat down low and simmer till cooked (around 15min)

To serve put into bowls with a little extra milk and top with berries, coconut and another drizzle of agave.

With the leftover porridge from the morning add a little more milk (about ½ cup) mix well and divide between 2 glasses, cover and pop in the fridge for the next morning – couldn’t be easier than that!

Day 2 – Quinoa Pots with Whole Milk Yogurt, Berries and Coconut – (this is a cold breakfast)

Get your already cold Quinoa glasses out of the fridge, top with yogurt, berries and coconut – eat – Yum!!!

Day 3 – Baked Eggs with Tomato and Goats Cheese – the leftover cheese and tomatoes we’ll use for the frittata.

You’ll need for 1 person:

A small ramekin suitable for the oven

Preheat your oven to 180c

2 eggs

Small handful of baby tomatoes – cut in half

As much or as little fresh curd cheese (max made his own so we used that, but a soft goats curd would be perfect)

1 tablespoon chopped chives

Salt and pepper

1 tablespoon of olive oil

1 small garlic clove

Rub your baking dish with the oil and garlic clove the whole way around

Then pop the dish in the oven to warm up (around 10 min will do)

Carefully take it out with a tea towel – being careful not to burn yourself and place it on the tea towel ready to assemble your ingredients

You’ll need to work fast or your dish will cool down and it won’t work as well

Put your eggs in and then your tomatoes, cheese and chives – season with salt and pepper and put back in the oven for 15 – 20 min

Serve with toasted sourdough bread rubbed with the garlic and drizzled with olive oil

Might I just add that I had two stalks of rainbow chard (spinach) leftover from my frittata and steamed vegies, that would have been delicious in my baked eggs.

But sadly I’d made the baked eggs the day before!

Dinner options are:

Raw Root Vegetable Salad with Coriander, Avocado, Goat’s Cheese and Sesame Seeds

For 2 people I used:

1 large carrot - grated

1 beetroot – peeled and grated

1 small piece of pumpkin (about as much as I used for the steamed vegies – see photo) - grated

(I would have used a small zucchini – grated - but I only bought one and I used it for the steamed vegies and the frittata)

½ an avocado sliced finely in the skin, then scoop it out and squeeze lemon juice over the slices

Goat’s cheese crumbled on top

A sprinkling of sesame seeds

1 handful of coriander – washed well and chopped finely

Mix your salad together and then dress it with the juice of half a lemon, salt, pepper and olive oil – mix again gently – then eat!

Lightly Steamed Vegie Salad with Ginger and Tamari Dressing:

Will serve 2 generously.

This one is basic, all you need to do is wash and chop your vegies, pop them into a steamer and steam until they cooked (about 10 min).

You can use any vegetable’s you like as long as there is a lot of colour

The dressing is just as simple –

In a glass, grate 2cm piece of ginger

1 teaspoon of agave

2 tablespoons of tamari

juice of ½ a lemon

3 tablespoons of olive oil

Pepper or chilli

Mix well and spoon over steamed vegies (this will make more than you need, so store the rest in a jar in the fridge and use during the week)

Tomato, Spinach and Fresh Curd Cheese Frittata (you could have a slice of this with one of the salads above)

You’ll need:

4 eggs – lightly beaten with salt and pepper

½ zucchini sliced thinly in rounds

½ cup of wilted spinach – chopped

6 cherry tomatoes – chopped in quarters

a lot or a little fresh cheese

chives if you have them – finely chopped (I had run out)

Lets cook:

Wilt your spinach in a pan (see photo) it takes about 1 ½ minutes all up. Set aside

To prep the spinach (I used rainbow chard because it looked the freshest) strip the leaves of the stalks – and wash the leaves thoroughly (keep the stalks to steam).

After your spinach is done, lightly fry your zucchini until they have a hint of colour.

Set aside.

Now clean your skillet, add a tablespoon of olive oil and swirl around the pan being careful to make sure the pan is coated in the oil (so the frittata doesn’t stick)

Pour your eggs in (the pan should be on a low-ish heat) then start placing your tomatoes, spinach, zucchini and cheese. (I push these down with the back of a spatula).

Turn up the heat a little and cook all up for around 5 min, then place under the grill till it puffs up and is golden a further 2 min.

Eat straight away with either salad!

Your shopping list for the cleanse should look something like this:

A dozen organic eggs

Goat’s cheese or any fresh curd cheese

Organic tomatoes – heirloom if you can get them

Herbs – chives, coriander

Garlic

Spinach

Beetroot

Carrots

Zucchini

Beans

Pumpkin

Avocado

Lemon

Ginger

Tamari

Extra virgin olive oil

Sesame seeds or Gomasio(which is sesame seeds with seasalt)

Marrook whole milk yogurt - (Maple & Vanilla)

Quinoa

1 litre whole milk

fresh berries if in season or  frozen berries

Fresh coconut

Agave

Cinnamon

Vanilla

Good quality sourdough bread

To enlarge my photo's simply click on them once then twice to make them super big - this way you can see the finer details.

Also if you need to ask me where to buy something, I'm happy to recommend organic food sources.

©Michelle Schoeps 2013

All photos taken by Michelle Schoeps