Zucchini Boats and Coconut Rice

For the twenty sixth day of the cleanse, I started with a fruit smoothie for breakfast and then had the simple stir fry and almond lime sauce from last night's supper for lunch. For supper, I started with a red leaf lettuce salad (I need to go to the grocery store to get more dandelion greens and arugula!) and then had zucchini boats and coconut rice. To start with I cooked chickpeas (1 cup chickpeas, soaked for 4 hours earlier in the day, drained, rinsed, covered with new water, brought to boil, reduced to slightly lower heat for 60 minutes) and long grain brown rice (1 cup rice, 2 cups water, brought to boil, reduced to simmer for 40 minutes). Then I started the zucchini boats.

Here is the recipe for the zucchini boats (see top picture to the left):

2 small/medium zucchini, 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 onion, finely chopped, 1 tbsp ginger, freshly grated, 1 cup carrots, finely chopped, 1 cup portobello mushrooms, finely chopped, 1/2 cup almonds, finely chopped, 1/2 tsp sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice zucchini in half and scoop out inside flesh (set aside inside flesh for stir fry). Place zucchini on a lightly canola oiled baking sheet. In a pan, heat olive oil over low heat and add onion and ginger and saute for 5 minutes. Add carrots, zucchini flesh, and mushrooms and saute for another 3 minutes. Add almonds and sea salt and saute for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat and scoop stir fry mixture into the scooped out zucchini boats. Place zucchini boats in oven and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and serve with rice and chickpeas.

To finely chop the veggies (including the zucchini flesh) and the almonds, I used a food processor. As well, I had approximately 1 cup of stir fry mixture left over, so I placed it into a loaf pan and baked it at the same time as the zucchini boats (also for 30 minutes) and will eat it for lunch over the next few days.

After I was finished the zucchini boats stir fry, I cleaned the pan and started the coconut rice.

Here is the recipe for the coconut rice (see middle picture to the left):

2 tbsp olive oil, 1 onion, finely chopped, 1 tbsp ginger, freshly grated, 2 cups green kale, finely chopped, 1/2 cup cashews, finely chopped, 1/2 cup grated dried unsweetened coconut, 1/2 tsp sea salt, 2 cups cooked long grain brown rice, 2 tbsp lemon/lime juice, freshly squeezed

Heat olive oil in a pan over low heat and add onion and ginger and saute for 5 minutes. Add green kale and saute for another 3 minutes. Add cashews, sea salt, and coconut and saute for another 2 minutes. Add rice and mix together. Remove from heat and mix in lemon/lime juice (you can use one or the other or a combination of both).

Because coconut is higher in fat (which accumulates toxins more easily than lower fat foods), it is important to aim to use certified organic dried coconut, if possible. I also used a food processor to finely chop the ingredients in the coconut rice (saves lots of chopping time!). Normally I do eat almonds (and other nuts and seeds) raw, but it is a nice treat to have the added flavour of the baked almonds in this meal.

Once the meal was dished up, it was seasoned with flax oil and sea salt (see bottom picture to the left). This was a very special and yummy meal!