Cleansing Made Easy: Eleven Meals To Conquer Your Cleanse.

A detox can be as much a challenge of the imagination as a diet, especially if you’re new to cleansing. What do you include? What do you avoid?

Having a plan always makes the detox process easier, and working out a grocery list, meal plans, and snacks will help you navigate towards a successful and rewarding detoxification. If you’re looking for some inspiration, take a peek at these recipes and incorporate them into your two-week detox process! Your body (specifically, your taste buds) will thank you!

4 Beginner Meals

Breakfast: Julie Daniluk's Flax Apple Breakfast Pudding

Sometimes breakfast can be tough to swallow, especially if you’re running a bit late. It’s the most important meal of the day, and when you’re starting a new cleanse, you’re going to want to eat breakfast.

This Flax Apple Breakfast Pudding recipe is a fiber-rich, protein-packed, delectably smooth way to start your day. When starting your first cleanse, having versatile meals that you can garnish to your tastes is a must. You can add nuts, seeds, your choice of dairy alternatives – even shaved coconut and exotic-sounding toppings like elm bark powder.

It’s also perfect because it’s easy to prepare ahead of time and have on hand. Now you’ll have no excuse for “accidentally” forgetting your cleanse!

Ingredients

• 3 medium, unpeeled apples, cored and diced
• ½ cup water
• 2 tbsp. flax protein powder or finely ground flax seeds
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• ½ tsp. cinnamon

Optional Toppings

• 1 tsp. slippery elm bark powder with 2 tbsp. (30 ml) filtered water
• 1 tbsp. chopped almonds
• 1 tbsp. shredded coconut
• Unsweetened almond milk (to taste)

Directions:

1. Bring apples and water to a boil in a medium saucepan, then cover and reduce heat to a simmer for ten minutes until the apples are soft and mushy. If you're adding slippery elm bark powder, add the 2 tbsp. of water before cooking the apples.
2. Remove from heat; mix in the flax protein powder or flax seeds, vanilla, and cinnamon until smooth.
3. Portion into a breakfast bowl or two. Top with your optional ingredients if desired.

 

Lunch: Jesse Lane's Falafel Hummus Collard Wraps

 

These wraps are portable, delicious, and really prove that a cleanse doesn’t have to be without flavour or… well, food! It gets the mind thinking about how you can use seemingly disparate ingredients to make a very filling meal.

That, and it’s simply packed with nutritious ingredients. Collard green leaves are full of antioxidants and vitamins A, C, and E. The falafel hummus is perfect for getting much needed fiber in a grain-free way, and it'll satisfy your craving for something savory.

Feeling well-fed and satisfied is an important part of any detox. Don’t let a light lunch make you wish you were gorging on stale office donuts.

Ingredients

Falafel

• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 cups chickpeas (19oz drained and rinsed)
• 1 lemon, juiced
• ½ cup parsley, packed
• ¼ cup tahini
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp. miso
• ½ tbsp. cumin
• ½ tsp. cayenne pepper
• ¼ tsp. black pepper
• Salt to taste

Rest  

• 8 large collard green leaves
• 4 carrots, julienne
• 4 celery stocks, julienne
• 16 cherry tomatoes, diced
• 8 pickles, thinly sliced

 

Directions:

1. Wash the collard green leaves and lie them flat on a cutting board spine side up. Carefully run your knife or a peeler over the spine and shave off as much as possible. This will make your collard wraps much easier to roll.
2. To make the falafel hummus, place the garlic in a food processor and process until chopped. Add the chickpeas, lemon juice, parsley, tahini, olive oil, miso, cumin, cayenne pepper, black pepper and salt and blend until smooth.
3. Gently fold the tomatoes and pickles into the hummus.
4. To assemble the falafel hummus collard wraps, lay the collard wraps on a flat surface. Place the carrots and celery in the center of the wrap and top each collard wrap with ¼ cup of falafel hummus. Roll up the collard wraps starting at the base of the collard green and secure with kitchen twine.

 

Dinner: Goodness Me!'s Detox Salad with Creamy Avocado

Eating clean can have a fairly lousy reputation, even among those who love eating clean. Ugh, salads, they think, as they shovel forkful after forkful of lettuce into their mouths, more for sustenance than pleasure, more for how they’ll feel later than how they’re feeling at meal time.

Don’t do salads wrong, especially because many detox-friendly foods are best taken in this form. Salads can be a great meal, especially when they’re rich, creamy, and full of healthy fats – i.e., this salad! You’ll be getting the detoxifying power of carrots, cabbage, garlic, lemon, cilantro, and olive oil, all garnished with an incredible avocado dressing.

Salad Ingredients

• ½ large head organic red cabbage, chopped 
• 6 organic carrots, grated 
• ½ cup organic cilantro, chopped  

Dressing Ingredients

• 2 medium organic avocados 
• 1 lemon, juiced 
• ½ cup olive oil 
• ½ cup water 
• 2 cloves garlic 
• 2 tsp. honey 
• 2 tsp. parsley (I used dried, but could use fresh) 
• Salt & pepper, to taste 
• Cayenne, to taste  

Directions:

Mix the cabbage, carrots, and cilantro together. Add all dressing ingredients into a food processor, except the olive oil and water, and process. While the food processor is running, drizzle in oil and water and mix well (if you don't have a food processor, mash the avocadoes first and use a blender to mix all dressing ingredients together). Cover salad in dressing to taste (the more dressing, the creamier the consistency). Enjoy!

 

Snack: Sophie Bourdon's Red Velvet Hot Chocolate

Raw cacao powder is a delicious superfood, full of minerals and antioxidants. Put this cleanse-friendly treat to good use with an evening hot chocolate!

The beets are a great food for your liver, and it’s detoxifying effects make this rich dessert a worthy detox option, and it gives the hot chocolate a delectable Red Velvet-esque colour. Don’t let your detox prevent you from indulging now and again!

• 2 cups plant-based milk (almond, cashew, coconut, etc. - I used homemade cashew milk)
• ½ medium beet, cooked and grated (about ¼ cup packed)
• 3 tbsp. raw cacao powder
• 3-6 soft dates (depending on their size and desired sweetness), pitted and roughly chopped
• ½ tsp. vanilla extract
• ¼ tsp. ground cinnamon
• Small pinch fine grain sea salt

• 1 can full-fat coconut milk, refrigerated at least 3 hours and up to 1 day (Thai Kitchen works best for this)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• A touch of maple syrup if desired (optional)
• Shaved dark chocolate

Without shaking it, remove the can of coconut milk from the refrigerator. Open it, scrape the thick cream layer at the top and place it into a bowl. Keep the coconut water for another use (I use it in smoothies). Add vanilla and maple syrup to the coconut cream and whip with a hand mixer until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Taste for sweetness, adding more maple syrup if desired.

 

4 Intermediate Meals

Breakfast: Julie Daniluk's Avocado Breakfast Smoothie Bowl 

Smoothie bowls can be the perfect detox breakfast: there are a lot of dairy replacements, and their flavour can be covered up by delicious ingredients if you aren’t particularly taken in with coconut, soy, or almond replacements.

You can also garnish to your heart’s desire! Coconut shavings, hemp hearts, detox-friendly fruits, and other can make it special to you.

It’s also super easy to make, even when you’ve hit the snooze button a few too many times.

Ingredients

• 1 large avocado    
• 1 tsp. spirulina
• 1 cup coconut beverage            
• 1 tbsp. sunflower lecithin          
• 4 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 tbsp. inositol powder (use more stevia if you don't have this)
• 10 drops stevia liquid or 1 tbsp. of raw honey

Optional Ingredients

• 1 banana
• 2 tbsp. hemp hearts
• 1 tbsp. gelatin
• 1-2 tbsp. coconut butter

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients into a blender and blend until well mixed.
2. Pour into a bowl and garnish with berries and hemp hearts. Makes 4 servings.

 

A simple, easy, perfect springtime salad, this Detox Salad mixes fresh ingredients and tops it off with an incredible dressing. Shaking up lemon juice, dried basil, and olive oil with off-the-wall detoxifying ingredients like kelp flakes, flavoured fish oil, and Herbamare.

Your liver will be kicked into overdrive, and you’ll feel energized, helping you power through the day. It’ll be like the opposite of a siesta.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup coarsely chopped organic red peppers 
• ½ cup organic cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• 1 cup organic English cucumber, finely sliced and cut in half 
• ½ organic red onion, sliced very finely
• 1 organic avocado, chopped

• ½ cup extra-virgin organic olive oil 
• ½ tsp. Herbamare
• 1 clove chopped organic garlic
• Juice of 1 organic lemon
• 1 tsp. dried basil
• ¼  tsp. kelp flakes 
• 2 Tbsp. lemon flavoured fish oil

 

 

• 1 head green cabbage (shredded)
• 3 carrots (shredded)
• ½ cup purple cabbage (shredded)
• 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• 3 tbsp. honey
• 1 squeeze of lemon juice
• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. sriracha (or to taste)
• Pinch of salt and pepper

• 2 sweet potatoes (peeled)
• 2 cups brown rice
• 1 cup chickpea flour (or brown rice, quinoa, all purpose gluten free)
• 1 yellow onion (chopped)
• 3 clove garlic (chopped)
• 1 can or 2 cups green lentils (drained and rinsed)
• ½ cup sunflower seeds
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1 tbsp. Montreal steak spice
• Few dashes hot sauce
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• ¼  tsp. salt (or to taste)
• 1 tsp. pepper
• 1 head purple cabbage (for serving)
• 1 avocado (sliced for serving)

Directions:

For slaw:

In a large bowl whisk vinegar, honey, sriracha, lemon, salt and pepper until combined. Then slowly add olive oil. Stir in cabbage and place in the fridge until you serve.

For Burgers:

These kale chips are a healthy alternative that contains all the crunch and saltiness of potato chips, but you won’t feel gross after snacking. Organic kale is a great detox food, and besides making a delicious chip, you’ll get an incredible amount of iron.

They are also super simple to make. It’s almost like you have no excuse to make these. Grab some lemon water, settle in front of a movie (a nature documentary, because you can detox your mind, too) and dig into kale chips – it’ll make your detox night in complete!

Ingredients

• 1 bunch kale, stems removed

• 1 tbsp. olive oil

• 1 tsp. sea salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F and lay out aluminum foil.
2. Tear kale into bite-sized pieces and ensure the kale is dry from washing.
3. Place kale onto aluminum foil and spread the pieces apart.
4. Drizzle with olive oil and sea salt.
5. As soon as you put the kale in the oven, turn the oven off. Let it sit in the oven for 15 – 20 minutes or until the edges are brown.

 

Four Advanced Meals

Breakfast: Goodness Me!'s Detox Juice with Cucumber, Kale & Ginger

It’s your first day of hardcore detoxing. Your geared up and ready to go, but instinctively pick up a box of Pop Tarts. Put it down! Don’t worry, you’ll feel much better, and delicious detox drinks make it much easier to stay on track.

This Cucumber, Kale, and Ginger Detox Juice will help lighten your toxic load, assist your liver in processing toxins more effectively, and start your day off right! You might look at the ingredients and think to yourself, “Cilantro? Really??” But it's true, cilantro is an excellent cleanse ingredient! It can help remove heavy metals from your body and help your liver do its job. Just make sure you don’t have that gene that makes it taste like soap!

Ingredients

• 2 organic cucumbers
• 3 stalks organic celery
• 2 organic kale leaves
• 1 organic lemon (peeled)
• ½" knob organic ginger
• 1 cup organic cilantro  

Directions:

Process all ingredients through a juicer and enjoy!

 

Lunch: Mandy King's Lemony Dill Detox Salad

No wheat or processed meats in your advanced diet means you’ve got to put away the ham sandwich and start getting creative for lunch. Luckily, it's not so hard - a wide array of salads will help you flush out your toxins!

This Lemony Dill Detox salad put to good use a key ingredient in cauliflower: indole-3-carbinol is a compound that really helps your liver work to detox your blood. It also substitutes a grain, making it much more cleanse-friendly.

Roasted Yam

• 1 yam, diced
• Sprinkle of salt, pepper & oil

Cauliflower Rice

• ½ large head of cauliflower
• 1 tbsp. coconut oil
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. onion powder

Remaining Salad

• 5 oz arugula & spinach mix (or just one or the other)
• ½ cucumber, diced
• 3 stalks celery, diced
• 3 green onions, diced
• 1 large lemon juiced
• ½ avocado
• ½ cup of dill, finely chopped
• ¼ cup olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste (about 1 tsp salt, ½ tsp pepper)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425F
2. Dice the yams and place on a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper
3. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and a touch of olive or grapeseed oil
4. Roast for 25-30 minutes
5. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat with 1 TBSP coconut oil
6. Meanwhile, roughly dice ½ your cauliflower head so that it fits in the food processor
7. You will have to do it in a few batches as it doesn't all fit
8. Pulse the cauliflower until it's a rice like consistency, trying not to shred it too finely - it can have a few small chunks in there
9. Place the cauliflower rice in the frying pan and season with garlic powder and onion powder
10. Saute for 10-15 minutes until fully cooked through
11. While that's happening, dice the cucumber, celery, greens, avocado, green onions and dill
12. Mix everything together in a bowl, and season with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper
13. If it needs more flavour, you can add a pinch of cayenne, or more salt, pepper, dill and lemon juice!

 

Dinner: Mandy King's Gluten Free Stir-Fry

An advanced detox is the perfect time to start experiencing and experimenting with different vegetables and health foods you might have overlooked previously. Bok choy, crimini mushrooms, tamari, and firm tofu are likely things many would overlook when browsing the grocery store. Why get tamari when soy sauce is right there?

Tamari can be a gluten-free option, and has much less salt than traditional soy. Cremini mushrooms are a great way to get the antioxidant selenium in your diet. And bok choy just tastes great. Give tofu a shot, too, as it’s a great way to get complete proteins during your cleanse. This detox will help grow your choices and your palate!

Instructions

• ½ head of broccoli, largely chopped
• 1 package of crimini mushrooms, largely chopped
• ½ block of firm tofu, cubed (organic, unflavoured)
• 1 hefty spoonful of coconut oil
• Juice of ½ lemon
• ⅙ cup of tamari (I know – it’s a weird measurement, but I did ½ of ⅓ cup)
• 1 inch ginger, minced
• 1 large clove garlic, minced
• ½ tsp. basil (I didn’t have fresh, so used dried)
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste

 

Directions:

1. Ideally marinate the tofu ahead of time, but it's not necessary
2. Mix together lemon, tamari, ginger, garlic, basil and pepper in a bowl and place cubed tofu in to marinate for as long as possible (max 8 hours)
3. Heat coconut oil over medium heat
4. Once hot, place broccoli and mushrooms in pan and saute until mushrooms become soft (about 10 min)
5. Add tofu and leftover marinade into the frying pan and continue to cook for another 10 minutes
6. The tofu doesn’t need to cook, it only needs to be heated, so if your vegetables are ready, the last step can be shorter