Beauty Detox Solution on a Budget: Groceries for $60

The Beauty Detox Solution is a program by Kimberly Snyder, which focuses on plant foods to ease digestion, make your body more alkaline, lose weight, improve health, and improve skin and hair. Her plan is gluten-free, dairy-free, mostly vegetarian, and focuses on lots of fruits and vegetables. People often say that these kind of diets are too expensive to follow, but I am going to follow her basic concepts for one week for $5 per person per day. I followed the basic principles of her diet and did notice a great difference in how I felt.

The basic principles of her diet that I am following this week are: warm water with lemon first thing every morning, green smoothie for breakfast, eating "light to heavy" throughout the day (which means saving any protein for dinner), eating mostly raw foods, eating probiotics, and eating tons of fruits and vegetables.

I am going to modify some things. The Beauty Detox is done in stages, with the last stage being completely vegan. That's not realistic for my husband and I, so we are including meat for dinner a few times over the week. She also advocates eating mostly organic. This is difficult to do on a budget, and so I have bought almost nothing organic. I did, however, buy a bunch of parsley and cilantro. We will have about 1/4 cup of parsley or cilantro each with lunch and dinner, which works to cleanse the body of toxins that might be found in non-organic food.

Here is our menu:

First thing in the morning: Hot water with lemon
Breakfast: Green Smoothies
Snacks: Fresh Fruit
Nuts
Lunches: Mediterranean Chopped Salad (2 times)
Lebanese Salad (2 times)
Baby Greens Salad (2 times)
Dinners: Salmon Cakes with Vegetables
Sweet Potato and Zucchini Street Tacos with Beans
Fried Rice
Chicken Calabasa Stew
Butternut Squash and Chick Pea Stew ( 2 times)
With Dinner: Lactose-Fermented Pickles

Shopping List:
7 Bananas
Romaine Lettuce (2 heads)
Baby Spinach (big container)
 10 tomatoes
5 cucumbers
Baby kale, mixed greens or spring mix, or baby spinach (1 big container)
1 bell pepper
2 avocados
1 large or 2 small red onions
Fruit (for snacking)
Parsley
Cilantro
Calabasa Squash or Zucchini (4)
1 pound sweet potatoes
1 bag pre-cut butternut squash (4 cups)
2 cans of Rotel
1 can of diced tomatoes
32 ounces chicken broth
1 can chick peas
1 can black or pinto beans
 Chicken breasts (1 pound)
Package of tuna (optional for salads)
1 can salmon
1 package of steam-in-bag frozen brussel sprouts (or other vegetables to go with salmon cakes)
1 package of frozen peas and carrots
1/2 dozen eggs
Orange Juice (I spend the extra for Simply Orange)

From my pantry: garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, balsamic or other salad vinegar, rice, cinnamon, cumin, corriander seeds, chili powder, crushed red pepper flakes, cinnamon, pecans (for snacking), soy sauce, Siracha chili sauce, raisins

Lacto Fermented Pickles

The Beauty Detox Solution advocates eating a "probiotic and enzyme salad" every evening with dinner to promote the growth of good bacteria in your gut, the bacteria you need for proper digestion. This salad is essentially home-made sauerkraut. I don't particularly care for sauerkraut, but I do like pickles. So, I am replacing the sauerkraut with 4 to 5 slices of lacto fermented pickles before dinner every night. (I make pickle chips, not pickle spears). Important: most grocery store pickles do not have the healthy bacteria in them any more, so you have to make your own.

I am not an expert pickle maker, but I will share with y'all one of the recipes I follow for the pickles. These do take time to make, but I think they are so worth it.

Here is a link to the recipe I follow .

Butternut Squash and Chick Pea Stew

This dish has great Indian warm flavors with cinnamon, coriander, and cumin. This recipe takes longer to make than I usually cook, but it is not "active" cooking time, and I usually use the time it is cooking to do something else.

Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 bag pre-cut butternut squash (4 cups)
1 can chick peas, drained and rinsed
1 can tomatoes
32 ounces chicken or vegetable broth (Organic if you can)
1/2 onion chopped
2 cloves garlic chopped
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (no need to measure precisely)
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds, crushed (if you don't have them, add an extra 1/4 cup chopped cilantro into the cooking soup)
1 teaspoon ground cumin (no need to measure precisely)
red pepper flakes (to taste)
1/4 cup raisins (golden raisins if you have them)
Chopped cilantro (for garnish)

In a soup pot, add a little oil and the onion and cook over medium heat until golden, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, garlic, and spices, and cook until the tomatoes start to cook down, about 5 minutes. Be careful not to let the garlic burn. Add the squash, chick peas, raisins, and chicken broth and bring to a simmer. Cover, and let simmer for 20 minutes, or until the squash is fork tender.

Serve in a bowl and top with some chopped cilantro. Hearty and delicious!

Fried Rice

Okay, going gluten free, I really start to crave some grains. Thank goodness rice is gluten free! It is also the cheapest grain you can buy.

Serves 2 to 3

Ingredients:
1/2 bag cooked brown rice (cooked according to package directions)
2 cups frozen peas and carrots (no need to measure closely)
3 eggs
1 cup onion, diced (no need to measure closely)
1 to 2 cloves garlic, diced finely
Soy sauce
Cooking oil
1/4 cup cilantro chopped

Heat a little cooking oil in a pan over medium high heat. Add the onion and cook until translucent. Add the rice and cook until it starts to get a little crunchy. Add the peas and carrots and garlic and cover. Cook about 5 minutes or until the vegetables thaw.

In a separate pan, scramble the eggs and cook over medium low heat. Add to the fried rice mixture and toss to combine.

Top with a little soy sauce, chili garlic paste (if you have it), and chopped cilantro. 

Sweet Potato and Zucchini Street Taco with Beans

Mexican food is one of my loves, but it is hard to think of Mexican food that is vegetarian, dairy-free, and gluten-free. I love street tacos and had some vegetarian ones a few months ago. This is my version.

Serves 2

Ingredients:
1 to 2 zucchini or calabassa squash, cut into bite size pieces
1 small to medium sweet potato, cut into bite size pieces
Chili powder, to taste
Ground cumin, to taste
Garlic salt, to taste
Olive oil
Black or pinto beans
2 tomatoes
1/2 an avocado
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
Corn tortillas (gluten free)

Combine the sweet potatoes in a bowl with a little bit of olive oil and add the chili powder, ground cumin, and garlic salt. Toss to coat the sweet potatoes in the spices. Heat a little oil in a pan, and add the sweet potatoes, cooking over medium to medium high heat, stirring occasionally. While these are cooking, add the zucchini to the bowl with a little oil and toss with additional spices. After the sweet potatoes have cooked about 5 minutes, add the zucchini. Cook an additional 5 minutes or until all of the vegetables are tender.

If you want refried beans with dinner, drain your can of beans and rinse them. Add to an additional pan with a little oil, garlic salt and chili powder, and cook over medium heat. Mash with a fork or potato masher while they cook for about 5 minutes. 

While cooking, dice the tomatoes, avocado, and cilantro as a side "salad".

Serve in gently warmed corn tortillas. 

Baby Greens Salad

Another great salad recipe. I use this on the rare occasion that I need a break from the Lebanese salad.

Serves 1

Ingredients:
Your favorite baby greens (baby kale, spring mix, or baby spinach)
1/4 red onion chopped
1/4 cucumber chopped
1/4 cup sundried tomatoes
1/4 cup parsley, chopped

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon Balsamic vinegar
1/2 clove garlic, chopped
Fresh pepper

Combine salad ingredients in a bowl. Combine dressing ingredients and toss. Delicious!

Mediteranean Chopped Salad

This is a great salad that doesn't feel like a salad to me. It's a take on panzanella (a bread salad) without the bread or mozzarella.

Serves 1

2 tomatoes, chopped
1/4 small red onion, finely diced
1/2 clove of garlic, finely diced
1/4 bell pepper chopped
1/3 cucumber, chopped
Optional: olives, chopped
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon Balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup of parsley chopped

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and toss to combine. Enjoy!

Salmon Cakes with Brussel Sprouts

One of my health goals is to eat more omega 3 fats...and thus to eat more salmon. But, salmon can be expensive, especially the good stuff. This is a very tasty recipe for canned salmon, which is very economical.

Serves 3

Ingredients:
1 can of salmon
1 egg
3 tablespoons of good mustard
1 clove of garlic, chopped
Squeeze of lemon juice
Crushed red pepper flakes (to taste)
Dried Dill Sesoning
Bag of frozen brussel sprouts(steam in bag)

Take the salmon out of the can and remove the bones and skin. Place into a bowl. Add the garlic, dill, pepper flakes, and squeeze of lemon juice. Toss to combine. Add one egg and 1 tablespoon of mustard and combine. We are using this combination as a binder for the salmon. Add more if necessary to hold the ingredients together. Form the salmon into patties a little smaller than the palm of your hand. I usually get 6 to 8 salmon patties.

Heat some oil in a pan over medium high heat. Add the salmon patties to the pan. Be careful not to overload the pan because you need room to flip the patties. After about 4 minutes, check to see if the patties have browned. If so, flip and cook until the other side is browned.

While the patties are cooking, heat the frozen vegetables according to directions.

For a great sauce to top your patties, combine 1 Tablespoon mayonnaise with 1 Tablespoon mustard and a squeeze of lemon juice. Or omit the mayonnaise and just use mustard and lemon juice.

Lebanese Salad

This is my favorite salad with my favorite salad dressing.

Ingredients:
Romaine lettuce
Red onion
Tomato
Cucumber


 Dressing Ingredients: (per person)
1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
Garlic salt (to taste) or 1/2 clove garlic per person
Pepper

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and enjoy!

Chicken Calbaza Stew

This is one of my favorite slow cooker recipes for a busy day. It smells great when you come home too!

Ingredients:
4 calabaza squash, sliced into bite size pieces
2 cans Rotel
1/2 onion, diced
8 ounces chicken, cut in bite size pieces
1 T garlic salt (according to taste)
1 T ground cumin (according to taste)
Tortilla chips (optional)

Serves 4

Place the first six ingredients in your slow cooker. Stir to combine. Cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours. *If you don't want to use a slow cooker, just combine the onion, squash, chicken and spices in a pan and cook until the chicken is done. Add the Rotel and just let it simmer for 15 minutes.

For serving, top with chips if you like.

Tamales with Refried Beans and Tomato Avocado Salsa

I am so lucky to have my mom give me some tamales. If you don't have any tamales, this meal is great with cheese quesedillas as well.

Ingredients:
Tamales (or tortilla and cheese for quesedillas)
Can of pinto beans
2 Tomatoes
1 Avocado
Cilantro
Lime juice
Garlic Salt
Chili Powder

Heat some oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the beans, garlic salt, and chili powder. Mash the beans with a fork or potato masher. Cook until heated through.

Dice the tomatoes and avocado. Top with lime juice, salt, and cilantro.

Serve with tamales or quesedillas.

Salmon Cakes with Brussel Sprouts and Spring Vegetables

One of my health goals is to eat more omega 3 fats...and thus to eat more salmon. But, salmon can be expensive, especially the good stuff. This is a very tasty recipe for canned salmon, which is very economical.

Serves 3

Ingredients:
1 can of salmon
2 Tablespoons of mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon of mustard
4 green onions, chopped
1 clove of garlic, chopped
Squeeze of lemon juice
1/4 cup Italian Bread Crumbs (or crushed crackers, etc). 
Crushed red pepper flakes (to taste)
Bag of frozen buttered brussel sprouts(steam in bag)
Bag of frozen spring vegetables (steam in bag)

Take the salmon out of the can and remove the bones and skin. Place into a bowl. Add the green onion, garlic, bread crumbs, and squeeze of lemon juice. Toss to combine. Add 1 Tablespoon each of mayonnaise and mustard and combine. We are using this combination as a binder for the salmon. Add more if necessary to hold the ingredients together. Form the salmon into patties a little smaller than the palm of your hand. I usually get 6 to 8 salmon patties.

Heat some oil in a pan over medium high heat. Add the salmon patties to the pan. Be careful not to overload the pan because you need room to flip the patties. After about 4 minutes, check to see if the patties have browned. If so, flip and cook until the other side is browned.

While the patties are cooking, heat the frozen vegetables according to directions.

For a great sauce to top your patties, combine 1 Tablespoon mayonnaise with 1 Tablespoon mustard and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Chicken Broccoli Parmesean

I was craving Italian food even though I was doing low carb. You could easily add pasta to this if you want.

Serves 2

Ingredients:
Chicken, cut into bite size pieces (4 ounces per person)
1/2 onion diced
1 large head of broccoli cut into florets
1 clove of garlic, diced
1/2 jar of Spaghetti Sauce
Crushed red pepper flakes
Parmesean cheese (to taste)
2 Tablespoons of pesto sauce (optional)

Season the chicken with salt and pepper and then cook in a pan over medium heat with some oil until no longer pink. Add the broccoli and cook about 2 minutes. Add the garlic, spaghetti sauce, and crushed red pepper flakes. Cook until the chicken is completely done and the broccoli is bright green and tender. When serving, top with pesto sauce and Parmesean cheese if desired.

Chicken Stir Fry with Broccoli

This is part of my low carb program. If you wanted to, you could add rice. You could also use whatever vegetables you like. Stir fry is a great quick and healthy meal.

Ingredients:
Chicken, cut into bite sized pieces (4 ounces per person)
Broccoli, cut into florets, about 2 cups
1/2 onion chopped
1 red bell pepper chopped (or green for a cheaper recipe)
1 bag snow peas
Ginger
Soy Sauce
Red Chili Paste (optional)
Asian dried seasoning (optional)

Season the chicken breast with Asian seasoning. Stir fry the chicken in a little bit of oil over medium high heat until no longer pink. Add the vegetables, ginger, soy sauce, and red chili paste. Cover and cook for four minutes until chicken is cooked through. Serve with rice if desired.

Mediteranean Salad with Chicken

This is my favorite salad with my favorite salad dressing. I use Rotisserie chicken as a quick source of protein that doesn't require preparation. It makes this salad easy for lunch.

Ingredients:
Romaine lettuce
Red onion
Tomato
Cucumber
Rotisserie Chicken

 Dressing Ingredients: (per person)
1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 Tablespoon lemon juice
Garlic salt (to taste) or 1/2 clove garlic per person
Pepper

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and enjoy!

Sopa de Lima and Quesedillas

Sopa de Lima is kind of like tortilla soup. I had it in Mexico and fell in love with it. This is a somewhat modified version, but it is very easy to make and healthy.

Ingredients:
5 long green chiles (You can use any kind of pepper you want depending on how spicy you like to eat: poblano, Anaheim, jalapeno, or even bell peppers. This version is pretty spicy. If you don't like spicy, use only 1 or 2 poblano peppers or bell peppers.)
1/2 large onion
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can black beans (drained and rinsed)
36 ounces of chicken broth
lime juice (3 or 4 limes or about 1/3 cup of juice)
2 cloves of garlic chopped (only 1 clove if you aren't crazy about garlic)
Ground cumin (about 1 teaspoon)
Cilantro
Tortillas
Shredded Mexican blend cheese
Garlic salt
Chili powder

Dice the onion and chiles. Heat a soup pot over medium heat, add a little oil, and saute the onion and chiles until cooked. Add the tomatoes, black beans, and ground cumin. Stir to combine. Then add the chicken broth. Bring to a boil and let cook for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add the garlic and lime juice. Let sit about 5 minutes (this will cook but not burn the garlic). Top soup with chopped cilantro.

While the soup is sitting, fill some tortillas with cheese. Add some garlic salt and chile powder to taste. Fold over and warm in a pan until the cheese melts.

Serves 4

Pasta with Brocoli and Pesto

This is a great really simple but healthy meal for when you are strapped for time. If you need some protein, add some canned chicken, tuna, salmon, or rotisserie chicken, or even a can of cannelini beans.

Ingredients:
1 box of pasta (I use the Smart Taste brand for extra fiber and calcium)
1 large head of broccoli, cut into florets
1/2 jar of pesto sauce
Red pepper flakes

Bring salted water to a boil and add pasta. Cook according to package directions, but in the last 2 minutes add the broccoli. Cook until the pasta is done and the broccoli has just turned bright green. Drain. Combine with pesto sauce and add red pepper flakes to taste. This recipe will make enough for great leftovers.

Green Smoothie Recipe

In the world of extreme health, juicing is becoming really popular. My problem is that juicing is expensive. In addition to buying a juicer (which is several hundred dollars), the amount of fruit and vegetables you have to put in to get one glass of juice is expensive. Also, juices have no fiber. For that reason, I have settled on green smoothies as a more budget friendly and filling substitute. Now, I know you're thinking this sounds really gross, but just try it. Even my husband really likes these. I always feel great starting my morning with a cup of vegetables and a cup to two cups of fruit.

Some people recommend not making these with fruit juice, but these are usually people with really expensive blenders. I make these with my cheap one-portion-size blender I bought at Wal-Mart in college. If you want to omit the juice, you can use water, but it won't taste as sweet. 

Ingredients:
1 to 2 hand-fulls of baby spinach (According to taste. Start with one hand full and then add more gradually. After a couple months, I shove as much spinach into there as my blender will hold.)
6 ounces of orange juice
1/2 to 1 banana (according to taste)
Optional: a teaspoon of honey, 1/2 cup of your favorite frozen fruit, 1/2 cup of yogurt

Usually, I use one whole banana if I am not adding other fruit and only 1/2 a banana if I am adding other fruit.

Combine the orange juice and spinach in a blender and blend until the smooth. Add banana and any optional ingredients (yogurt, other fruit, honey) and blend again until smooth. Drink up!

Week 5 Food Costs: $50

I'm back! I had lots of craziness in my life with family illnesses that prevented me from blogging. I did come up with some great strategies to get through those times on a budget and I will post about that later. Meanwhile, here is our menu and grocery list for this week:

Breakfast: Green Smoothie (tasty, quick, fruit AND vegetables in the morning!)
Lunch (about 3 days): Mediterranean Salad with Chicken
Lunch (about 2 days): Bacon, Tomato, Avocado Sandwich with Sweet Potato Fries
Other 2 days of lunches will be leftovers from dinner

Dinner: Pasta with Broccoli and Pesto
Dinner: Sopa de Lima with Quesedillas
Dinner: Chicken Stir Fry (2 days)
Dinner: Chicken Broccoli Parmesean
Dinner: Salmon Cakes with Brussel Sprouts and Spring Vegetables
Dinner: Tamales with Refried Beans

I am doing a low-carb crash diet for three days this week (salad for lunch, chicken stir fry, chicken broccoli parmesean, and salmon cakes for dinner). If you don't want to do low-carb, simply add rice and pasta to these meals, for an extra week's cost of about $2 to $3.

Grocery list:
Cilantro
5 tomatoes
1 avocado
ginger
Romaine lettuce (I bought the bagged because the store was out of the heads, but the heads are MUCH cheaper)
1 cucumber
6 bananas
1 bag spinach
3 to 5 long green chile peppers or poblano peppers
1 jalapeno
2 large heads of broccoli
1 red bell pepper
1 package of snow peas
a few oranges (for snacks)
1 pound of chicken breasts
frozen brussel sprouts
frozen "spring vegetables" (get whatever kind of frozen vegetables you like)
frozen bag of sweet potato fries
Can of black beans
Can of pinto beans
Can of diced tomatoes
Box of chicken broth
Orange juice
Shredded cheddar cheese
1 rotisserie chicken

From my pantry: parmesean cheese, 1 box pasta, 1/2 jar pesto sauce, 1/2 package bacon, sandwich bread, tortillas, olive oil, lemon juice, lime juice, soy sauce, 1/2 jar spaghetti sauce, 1 can salmon, 1 onion, garlic salt, crushed red pepper flakes, mayonnaise, mustard, tamales (my mom makes tamales for me!)