Detox – Day 3: Moroccan Stew Recipe

I woke up at 6am this morning and did some studying for my course. I just started the Anatomy section; it’s so difficult! Although some of the terms are coming back to me from my highschool biology class; I guess I was paying attention. Terms like: golgi apparatus, nucleus and cytoplasm. I was really hungry this morning while studying so I had a ½ cup of All Bran with light vanilla soy milk. I’m usually not that hungry in the morning, but I think it has something to do with the lack of meat protein over the last couple days. I felt quite hungry and tired all day yesterday, but I feel better today – more energetic again. I’m basically eating a vegetarian’s diet with the addition of fish and eggs. Lately I’ve been thinking that I could be a vegetarian, but I actually miss chicken, beef and pork. My husband makes the best pork tenderloin; that will definitely be on the menu next week!

Until than though, here’s the recipe for my Moroccan Stew that I made on Monday. Just in case you decide to do a detox it’s important to plan your meals ahead of time so you’re not tempted to grab take-out or make a frozen pizza due to lack of ingredients.

This recipe is inspired by my friend Bev’s Moroccan stew recipe. I’ve made it so many times that I’ve made a few tweaks along the way. Enjoy!

Moroccan Stew

Ingredients:

1 tbsp of olive oil
1 onion
1 large sweet potato – chopped into cubes
1 red pepper – chopped (any colour pepper is fine)
2 cans of diced tomatoes
1 can of chick peas (drained & rinsed)
1 cup of frozen green peas
I use 4 tsps of Jamaican Curry powder, but if you don’t have it, 2 tsps of curry powder and 2 tsps of cumin is a good alternative
2 tsps of chilli powder
½ tsp of cinnamon
½ tsp of cayenne (or more if you like it spicy)
1 tbsp of brown sugar (I find this cuts the acid from the tomatoes)
2 tbsp of natural peanut butter
Salt & pepper to taste

Method:

Heat the oil on medium-high in a large pot. Saute the onions in the oil until translucent.

Add the sweet potatoes & pepper and sauté for about 5 minutes.

Add the cans of tomatoes and all the spices, salt & pepper, brown sugar and peanut butter, stir well.

Add the chick peas & frozen green peas and stir to combine.

Cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn heat down to low and simmer uncovered for about 20 minutes (or until potatoes can be easily pierced with fork)

You can serve this over brown rice pasta, quinoa or toast some whole wheat bread and cut into strips for dipping.

This recipe is great because you can change up the ingredients to your liking. You can use mushrooms or a different type of bean. And if you’re not detoxing you can also incorporate ground chicken or turkey.

Here’s my day 3 detox diet:

Study Snack: ½ cup All Bran with ½ cup light vanilla soy milk

Breakfast: Green tea, Blue Menu Cinnamon & Spice instant Oatmeal with 1 small banana and a spoonful of wheat germ (this is a great addition to oatmeal, cereal, smoothies, salads, pasta or anything! It’s loaded with B vitamins and amino acids, which is basically protein. I buy the Blue Menu kind, but you can get it at any grocery store in the cereal section. It’s the healthy part of wheat that is taken away during the processing of refined flour)

Pre-Gym Snack: 1 Clementine (usually I have this with yogurt, but this was enough for me today—my breakfast kept me feeling full all morning)

I usually study in the morning on Thursdays because I love doing Body Pump at noon. It’s one of my favourite classes at Goodlife! It works all your muscle groups in one hour. It’s good for muscle conditioning & burns calories.

Lunch: Baby Spinach salad with cucumber, cherry tomatoes, baby carrots & light Italian dressing with a boiled egg and 1 Clementine for something sweet after.

Mid-afternoon snack: 1 apple

After-work snack: 6 chedder rice crackers with 1 tbsp of hummus, a few almonds and water with lemon (drink 6-8 glasses of filtered water everyday! It’s so important for good digestion, it helps to flush out toxins and is good for your skin).

Dinner: Shrimp Stir-fry with Coconut Curry sauce and Soba noodles (these are buckwheat noodles that you can buy at specialty stores or St. Lawrence market—a yummy, healthy alternative to white rice noodles)

Stay tuned for Detox – Day 4!