I don’t believe that you should consistently starve yourself if you’re eating well. Eat when you’re hungry (unless it’s really late at night, in which case unless you can’t sleep, it’s better to tough it out). Still, when you switch to eating mainly whole foods (with a few gluten free substitutes thrown in there), some people can find it tough to come up with really satisfying dishes.
Where I get creative is the kitchen, so I’m here to give you some ideas to make meals for the hungry girl or guy in your life (especially if it’s you). All of the recipes listed here are my personal creations (complete with pics!). Let’s start with this beauty pictured above. It’s the vegan gluten free burrito. Now on my cleanse you don’t have to keep it vegan, but let’s face it, I’m too lazy to cook some chicken in the middle of the day most of the time, so vegan makes it super simple. Your burrito can have anything in it, but here is the recipe for the particular one pictured here:
Awesome Vegan Gluten Free Burrito
Serves 1 hungry person or 2 people
1 brown rice tortilla (I used Trader Joe’s brand)
sprinkling of cheddar daiya or other rice/nut cheese of choice
1/2 cup black/purple/forbidden rice (can substitute other rice of choice, but purple is even healthier than brown!)
1/4 organic green pepper
1 organic avocado
~ 6 organic grape tomatoes
cilantro to taste (I grabbed a small handful from my plant and then chopped)
~10 chives
dashes of hot sauce to taste (I used Trader Joe’s brand)
vegan sour cream (optional)
Cook the purple rice or heat instant purple rice and hold to the side. Chop the cilantro and chives and put aside. Half the avocado and remove the pit. Slice longways, making long slivers. Scoop out with a spoon and put to the side. Half the grape tomatoes and put to the side. Using a ceramic grill pan or skillet (that way you do not have to use oil, and you don’t get the toxins of teflon coating), on a medium-high heat, put the rice tortilla in the skillet. Once one side gets warm, turn it over and place a sprinkling of “cheese”. Once the cheese is almost melted (watch out, the tortilla can get really crunchy if left on too long), remove the tortilla from the pan, put the purple rice on top of it, then the dashes of hot sauce, cilantro and chives, the green pepper, tomatoes, and avocado. You can top with a couple dabs of vegan sour cream (optional) and a couple more dashes of hot sauce. You can even add a squeeze or two of lime if you like! Fold the sides together, creating the burrito, cut in half and enjoy! If you want to split it with a friend or special someone, you can serve with a side salad made of greens with black beans and corn, and a dressing made of lime, honey (technically not vegan but part of our cleanse), olive oil, salt and pepper.
Today I made a burrito with sushi rice that I had in the fridge, soy chorizo, lentils, cilantro, avocado, soy cheese, pickled jalapenos, lime juice, and hot sauce. I’m not a huge fan of soy cheese or soy sour cream to be honest, but I had some soy cheese so I used it. Get creative and you can even use some regular cheese if you want to have your dairy for the week.
Along the same line, street tacos are really satisfying as well, and it’s the same idea, you just use corn tortillas which are small, and you have 2-3 depending on how hungry you are.
Ok, what if you hate Mexican food? There are plenty of other options. Here are some more of my most filling creations:
Potato, Carrot, and Leek Soup
This one is super easy and great for the fall especially, though I also make it year round when the mood strikes. All you have to do is take a box of vegetable broth, add 3-4 decent sized red potatoes (or whatever potatoes you have), 1 large leek (or a couple small ones), and a couple carrots; chop everything into chunks, add it to the vegetable broth along with a couple sprigs of fresh rosemary, and simmer until the potatoes and carrots are soft. then blend it with a hand blender or a regular blender. Note: if using a regular blender, do not fill it too full because hot liquids expand and believe me you do not want to sear your skin with hot soup!! You can finish it off with some extravagance if you want, by dolloping some sour cream and adding chopped fresh chives. Yum!
Next we have a dish that I invented using a new sauce/spice combo that I’ve fallen in love with. It’s called harissa, and it’s a North African sauce that’s mainly olive oil, some spicy peppers, sundried tomatoes and some other goodness.
This is Eggplant, Shiitake mushrooms, and Kale with Harissa…though I honestly combine harissa with other things as well. My favorite is definitely eggplant and greens though. All you do is chop up everything, and then add a few spoonfuls of harissa. It can’t be easier! Cook until the veggies are tender. If you don’t like spicy food you might not like this…though I’d consider it mildly spicy.
Speaking of spicy, why not make some chili? It’s super easy and very satisfying. Here is mine, adapted from other recipes I found (mainly one from Paula Deen).
It’s literally as simple as opening cans and adding them. First start with some ground beef or turkey if you like (though I often don’t bother). Cook until browned. I add one chopped orange pepper and one chopped yellow pepper, but you can use any color bell pepper you like. Saute a few mins. Then add 1 can of tomato sauce, 1 can of diced tomatoes with jalapeno peppers, 1 can of kidney beans, 1 can of cannellini beans (white kidney beans), 1 can of black beans, and either chili spice if you can find it (I never can), or a mixture of cayenne (watch out, a little goes a long way), cumin, garlic powder, salt and pepper. I kind of eyeball it, but there are places you can find recipes for chili spices online if you don’t feel comfortable with that. Then you cook it and let all the lovely flavors combine for 30 min or so. It makes a lot of chili as you can see…but even a guy will love how filling this is.
How about sushi? If you’re like me you are a little intimidated by making raw fish sushi at home. I leave that to the professionals. But I do make avocado sushi, and because avocado has all that filling fat, it is great for days when you are hungry.
You may want to check out a tutorial online for how to make sushi, but in general you just need to cook some sushi rice, adding a little rice wine vinegar, then you add that to your plastic wrap covered bamboo sushi mat, spreading it out into a rectangle. Add a nori sheet, then sliced avocado, then roll tightly and then you can add some sesame seeds if you like. Sushi is fun.
What about salad? Well, there are few healthy salads out there that are truly filling. That is why one day I created this:
It’s kind of a hybrid between a salad and a burrito filling, but it was super tasty. All it is is some rice on the bottom, a couple handfuls of salad lettuce, some cooked red and green bell peppers (maybe I threw in some fajita spices, I can’t remember), and a grilled chicken breast. Because the warm veggies and chicken helped to slightly wilt the lettuce, and plus there were juices from those ingredients, it didn’t even need dressing! I was stuffed after this one!
Last but not least is one of my standbys: stir fry. It’s very easy when you get the hang of it, and it definitely satisfies.
What you see here is a tofu stir fry with haricot verts and carrots…but you can make stir fry out of anything. Here are the basics: start with a minced clove of garlic and some minced/microplaned ginger in some safflower or canola oil (you want an oil that doesn’t have a flavor). Then add your meat or harder veggies like carrots or bell peppers, and eventually the softer or quicker cooking items like tofu or green beans. Then add whatever flavors you like, such as tamari, gluten free teriyaki, gluten free hoisin sauce, or hot sauce. I usually mix all sorts of stuff together. It’s really a great dish that you can make when you need to get rid of a whole bunch of random items. Your imagination is the only limit. You can serve it over rice or with rice noodles. If you use the noodles, you may want to add some extra sauce to cook them in as well!
So there you have it. My super seven dishes for days when you or your loved ones are feeling super hungry. These are all staples in my house, so try them out at your next meal and maybe they’ll become staples in yours too!
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