The 7 Day Detox Diet - VIII. Detox Day 7

Detox Day 7

Day seven is the big day! It’s the last day of your seven day detox diet and you’ve made it to the finish line. You’ve also made it past the crucial days five and six where your only intake are fruit juices and vegetable juices and smoothies.

For day seven, we’re going to ease you back into your steady diet with a few light meals with some much welcome proteins like fish and chicken.

Breakfast Recipes

Oatmeal with Apple Slices and Nutmeg

 Ingredients:

To prepare:

In a small pot or saucepan combine oatmeal and water and place on low heat. Let the oatmeal cook and absorb the liquid until it is just the right tenderness. Take out the oatmeal and add the yogurt to give it some richness. At this point, you can season with either salt or honey or a little bit of both.

If you are using a nutmeg nut, you can grate some over the oatmeal with a microplane. For the powder, sprinkle a pinch or two for added flavor.

Wash and core the apple and slice. Serve with the oatmeal. Pair the oatmeal with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice and you’ll have a great breakfast.

This is an excerpt from the book:  The 7 Day Detox Diet 

Homemade Healthy Baby Food Recipes and Cookbook - 6 to 8 Months

6 to 8 Months

When  your baby is six to eight months old, he or she is going to show more of the same signs of readiness for solid food that were mentioned above but more evidently. They’ll not only show one or two signs but almost all of them and more often.

This means that you can feed your baby more solid food instead of just introducing it to the diet like when he or she is four to six months. But even at six to eight months, solid food should only be supplementary to breast milk. It is best to continue to breastfeed your baby up to two years old.

Some of the food that you can feed your baby at this age include pureed soft fruits, boiled and pureed vegetables, pureed tofu, small amounts of plain or unsweetened yogurt, and even pureed meat like chicken. What you shouldn’t feed your baby is cow’s milk (not until past their first birthday) or any food that’s high on the allergen rating.

When your baby is four to six months old, you are basically giving them a taste of solid food with maybe a mouthful or less at a time. When he or she is six to eight months old, you can start feeding them a teaspoon of pureed fruit or vegetables, gradually increasing to ¼ cup to ½ cup in two or three feedings.

Don’t forget to introduce new food one at a time with three days in between to make sure your baby is not allergic.

This is an excerpt from the book: Homemade Healthy Baby Food Recipes and Cookbook

The 7 Day Detox Diet - Lychee Banana Smoothie

Lychee Banana Smoothie

Ingredients:

To prepare:

Place the peeled and deseeded lychee in the blender along with the banana, the yogurt, and the shaved ice. Puree everything and serve in a glass.

For added flavor, you can also squeeze in some lemon juice or orange juice or toss in some raspberries or blueberries.

This is an excerpt from the book:  The 7 Day Detox Diet 

Homemade Healthy Baby Food Recipes and Cookbook - 4 to 6 Months

4 to 6 Months

When your baby is four months old, he or she is going to begin to show signs of readiness for solid food that you can intersperse with breast milk. Some of the signs to look out for include:

•          Holding his or her head up
• Sits well on a baby chair
• Begins to make chewing motions
• Begins to show interest in food
•  Can close his or her mouth around a small spoon
•   Can move his or her tongue back and forth
•  Seems hungry even after eight to ten feedings of breast milk a day
•   Has begun teething

At this point, you can begin to introduce soft food or purees one teaspoon at a time with one feeding a day like mashed bananas or mashed carrots while still breastfeeding your baby.

If your baby doesn’t seem all that interested in the food, let him or her smell and taste the food until he or she warms to the idea of eating solid food. To soften the food further or to make it more familiar to the baby, you can add a little bit of breast milk.

When feeding your baby new kinds of food, it is best to not feed them the same kind of food for another three days so that you can observe for any allergic reactions. That’s why it is best to introduce food one at a time with at least three days in between.

This is an excerpt from the book: Homemade Healthy Baby Food Recipes and Cookbook

The 7 Day Detox Diet - Tomato Broccoli Juice

Tomato Broccoli Juice

Ingredients:

To prepare:

Wash the tomatoes, core them, and slice them but there’s no need to separate the seeds. Chop the broccoli into small pieces, small enough to fit through a juicer. Combine the parsley leaves with the tomatoes and juice. Juice the broccoli and combine with the tomatoes.

For a little added flavor, you can add lemon or ginger. Enjoy!

Ginger Apple Juice with Cinnamon

Ingredients:

To prepare:

Core the apples and chop or slice into pieces that will fit through a juicer. Make sure to core the apples and remove all of the seeds; it contains unhealthy toxins that are bad for you. Run the apples through the juicer and set aside.

Peel the ginger and slice into pieces that will fit through a juicer. Run the ginger through the juicer and set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine the apple juice and ginger juice and place on low heat. Add a pinch of cinnamon and let it simmer. Pour into a mug, add the cinnamon stick, and enjoy.

This is an excerpt from the book:  The 7 Day Detox Diet

Homemade Healthy Baby Food Recipes and Cookbook - IV. Age-by-age Guide to Feeding Your Baby

IV. Age-by-age Guide to Feeding Your Baby

What’s the best food to feed your baby who is less than four months old? The easy answer is breast milk. In fact, it is best to continue to breastfeed your baby up to two years old. Breast milk provides plenty of health benefits to your baby that he or she can’t get anywhere else; not even formula. In fact, formula was never meant as a replacement for breast milk and only as an emergency alternative for when the mother isn’t around or isn’t producing as much milk as the baby needs.

It is through the breast milk that the baby gets his or her much needed share of protein, antibodies, carbohydrates and minerals.

During the early stages of development, your baby’s immune system is only beginning to develop and relies heavily on the components of breast milk for protection and health.

Some of the health benefits that breastfeeding can offer your baby include lower risk of asthma, childhood leukaemia, obesity, ear infections, diarrhoea, and type 2 diabetes. That’s why it is strongly suggested that you fully breastfeed your baby from day one up until he or she is four months old.

This is an excerpt from the book: Homemade Healthy Baby Food Recipes and Cookbook

The 7 Day Detox Diet - Celery and Cantaloupe Juice with Parsley

Celery and Cantaloupe Juice with Parsley

To prepare:

Make sure that all the ingredients are washed and cleaned. Run all of the ingredients through a juicer. Don’t like parsley? You can substitute with basil or mint or other soft herbs. This juice is best served chilled.

For a twist, you can create a smoothie instead and enjoy the high dietary fiber content of both celery and cantaloupes. Add half a cup of plain yogurt for added richness.

Minty Apple and Orange Juice

Ingredients:

To prepare:

Wash the apple, core, and chop into pieces that will fit through a juicer. Be careful to remove all parts of the core, especially the seeds, because they contain traces of toxins which can be bad for you. Chop up or tear up the mint and toss with the chunks of apple. Run the mint and apple chunks together through the juicer.

Wash the oranges. Using a citrus squeezer, squeeze the juices out of the oranges and strain the seeds out.

Combine the mint apple juice and orange juice in a glass. Add a couple of ice cubes and enjoy!

This is an excerpt from the book:  The 7 Day Detox Diet 

Homemade Healthy Baby Food Recipes and Cookbook - Should You Bottle or Can Baby Food?

Should You Bottle or Can Baby Food?

Leave bottling or canning baby food to the experts. Technically, it is okay to bottle or can baby food but they need to be cooked prior to canning or should have a high level of acidity. Otherwise, you are putting your baby at risk for botulism.

Home canned food are generally at risk of having botulism spores but the risk is reduced by cooking the food beforehand. But when it comes to preparing food for your infant, risk isn’t something you can afford to take. 

A lot of bacteria out there don’t need air to thrive (anaerobic bacteria) and actually prefer low acidity environments which makes home canned baby food a bad idea.

To put it as simply and as straightforward as possible; don’t do it. 

This is an excerpt from the book: Homemade Healthy Baby Food Recipes and Cookbook

The 7 Day Detox Diet - Cucumber, Kale, and Apple Smoothie

Cucumber, Kale, and Apple Smoothie

Ingredients:

To prepare:

Make sure the kale is wilted by blanching it in boiling water then shocking it in ice cold water afterwards.

For best results, wash and peel the cucumber before slicing it. You don’t need to remove the seeds. When coring and chopping the apple into chunks, make sure to completely remove the core and the seeds because it contains toxins that aren’t safe for human consumption.

Combine all of the ingredients in a blender and puree. Want to make things interesting? Experiment by adding your favorite herbs or a pinch of nutmeg.

Carrot, Pineapple and Spinach Juice

Ingredients:

To prepare:

Wash the carrots and peel and cut them into sticks that will fit through a juicer. Do the same for the pineapple. For the spinach, wash clean; there is no need to wilt.

Run all of the ingredients through a juicer and serve in a glass. You can add a couple of ice cubes for a colder, refreshing drink.

This is an excerpt from the book:  The 7 Day Detox Diet

Homemade Healthy Baby Food Recipes and Cookbook - III. Proper Storage and Other Safety Rules

III. Proper Storage and Other Safety Rules

Proper storage is a chapter that we included because it is very important to properly process and store food, any kind of food, with hygiene in mind, more so when it is food that you are going to give your baby who is more sensitive to bacteria and contaminants than most adults are. Most of our recipes are actually meant to be prepared a la minute or last minute because they’re so easy to prepare and washing, peeling, and mashing fruit right before feeding time is also the cleaner, easier, and hassle-free thing to do. But food safety is always of the utmost importance, especially when you’re feeding infants, which is why this chapter can’t be neglected and is absolutely necessary.

Normally, in commercial food outlets like restaurants and hotels, food can be chilled and kept for three days or frozen and kept for three months (this varies depending on the type of food being kept). In the case of food for infants though, I would strongly suggest that you only chill and keep baby food for 24 hours and freeze the food for no longer than five days. A great idea would be to chill the food in portioned baggies so that you can take one out and place it in the chiller to thaw overnight and use for the next day.

The two-hour, four-hour rule doesn’t really apply to infants either. Under normal circumstances, food that has been in room temperature below two hours can be consumed or chilled and kept, food out in room temperature more than two hours but less than four hours should be immediately consumed, and food more than four hours in room temperature should be discarded. For food that has been prepared for babies, don’t let it sit out for longer than two hours. Less than two hours in room temperature should be consumed; any longer than two hours and the food should be discarded. Keep in mind that while rotting in food can be detected by taste and smell, food poisoning bacteria is undetectable until it’s too late.

Finally, if you are using bottles or plastic containers to hold the food in the fridge, always sterilize them as you would your baby bottles. That means placing them in boiling water for eight to ten minutes to make sure that all of the bacteria and not just the physical contaminants are removed from the containers.

When it comes to handling baby food, you can never be too careful. If you are in doubt, throw it away. For many reasons, preparing baby food last minute has a lot of advantages to it, especially when it comes to food safety. It won’t take forever to mash up a small piece of banana and it’s just as healthy and wholesome as it is.

Allergies

Allergy tests can be administered very young, even on infants, and it can save you a lot of anxiety and guesswork.  The worst way to discover that your child is allergic to one food or another is during an attack. Ask your physician about having an allergy test or skin test administered so that you can put your mind at ease while putting together a good diet for your child.

If your baby hasn’t had an allergy test yet then it’s best to go with food that are generally hypoallergenic or have very few allergens if any. Some of the most hypoallergenic food are organic bananas, apples, pears, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, beets, and asparagus. On the other end of the scale, the most allergenic food include peanuts, milk, eggs, soy, and wheat.

Symptoms that can indicate a potential allergic reaction are loose bowel movement, vomiting, sudden rashes on the skin or bottom, runny nose, hives, respiratory problems after eating, swelling of face, or the swelling of lips or tongue.

This is an excerpt from the book: Homemade Healthy Baby Food Recipes and Cookbook

The 7 Day Detox Diet - VII. Detox Days 5 to 6

Detox Days 5 to 6
Days five to six are probably the most demanding of the seven-day diet. Throughout days one to four, you still get a moderate amount of portions in your daily diet, from vegetables to proteins to starches. But from day five to six, you are going to be in an all-liquid detox with very little

 additions to the fresh produce used as ingredients; not even yogurt.

You will be getting all of your nutrition from power-packed fruit and vegetable juices with ingredients ranging from pineapples and pears to celery and carrots. It’s the hardest part of the diet to stick to but it is also the most rewarding. By giving your body the vitamins, minerals, and dietary fibers that it needs in liquid form, you are making them easier to absorb. The nutritional value in a glass of juice is also so much higher than what you would get from the same food but in solid form.

Do you know how many carrots you would have to eat to get the nutritional value that one glass of pure carrot juice can give you? It will take about a dozen. And the apples, asparagus, herbs, kale, and other fruits and vegetables that you can add to your juice? You couldn’t possibly eat all that

in one sitting but you can easily drink them for the same nutritional value in one glass. It’s a great way to introduce much needed nutrients into your body while giving your detoxifying organs a break.

This is an excerpt from the book:  The 7 Day Detox Diet

Homemade Healthy Baby Food Recipes and Cookbook - II. The Advantages of Cooking Your Own Baby Food

II. The Advantages of Cooking Your Own Baby Food

Baby food is a multi-million dollar industry at this point, with dozens of brands to choose from at the grocery store and flavors ranging from basic fruit purees to multi-ingredient combinations designed to appeal more to the parent than to the health of the child. And while we know that these packaged and processed food are no better than their adult counterparts, we can’t resist the convenience of simply buying over-the-counter. After all, having a baby and caring for him or her is a handful enough; adding baby food preparation to the mix just seems like too much additional work sometimes. But as it turns out, there are plenty of advantages to preparing your own baby food; a lot more than people realize.

You don’t need fancy equipment to make your own baby food; all you really need are fresh ingredients. You can use the blender or the food processor you already have. You can even use a basic steamer or a pot of boiling water and a fork and sieve. And it’s not as difficult or as time consuming as you think, especially with the right know-how and storage techniques. In fact, chances are you already have everything that you need to make healthy and wholesome food for your little one, which brings us to the first advantage of cooking your own baby food.

Preparing food for your baby at home is so much more affordable than buying them ready-made at the store. How much does one large sweet potato cost? A dollar? How about a carrot? Your baby doesn’t need a lot when it comes to food and even a single piece of vegetable can last for a while. Store them in properly sealed bottles and you can be set for a week, interchanging with other fruit and vegetable purees for every meal. Add up the dollars saved and you’ll find you’ve saved a lot of money and you’ve given your baby the healthier option to boot.

The second advantage is pretty evident, especially since we’ve been reiterating it since the beginning of the book – cooking your own baby food is the healthy choice. There are plenty of adults who are already shying away from processed and pre-packed food because of the amount of unknown ingredients and preservatives that are in them so why would you offer your baby any less? The point of the matter is when someone else prepares your food for you, you don’t know what goes into it and not knowing exactly what your child is eating is the last thing that any concerned parent wants.

Also, when you are planning and preparing your baby food, you also inevitably end up paying much more attention to your baby’s diet than you would have if you bought bottled food from the store. And it paves the way for making healthier meals, even as your baby gets older. When you get them started on good, farm-to-stove food from the beginning, you won’t find them craving for TV dinners or snack packs. Start them young and they will learn to appreciate and enjoy real food that’s both delicious and healthy.

Here’s another important point; a lot of parents turn to homemade baby food after learning that a lot of the bottled baby food you’ll find in the stores are cooked at extremely high temperatures. That’s to make sure that all the bacteria is dead but it also kills off most of the vitamins that you want from fruit and vegetable purees, along with active enzymes that have a lot to offer to your baby’s growth and development.

Your baby is at that age when growth and development is racing, going on full speed, and every step counts. You would be surprised at how much is decided in terms of physical and brain development happens long before your baby learns to crawl or walk. That’s why it’s so important to give his or her body the right kind of fuel to push against those boundaries and to grow as strong and healthy as he or she can be.

Don’t worry; you aren’t a terrible parent if you find yourself reaching for bottled baby food at the grocery store when you run out or for emergencies. It is by no means an all-or-nothing decision. But you’ll find that our recipes are very easy to follow and are designed to not be time consuming or inconvenient. In fact, you may find that you’ll start leaning towards just preparing those quick purees to save yourself the time and effort and a few dollars too. At first, you may find yourself mixing it up with store-bought food and homemade baby food, but the more you get used to preparing your baby food right at home, you’ll look for those bottled food less and less because preparing baby food from the same food that you and your family already eat and keep in the kitchen will become the easier, healthier, and more economic choice.

This is an excerpt from the book: Homemade Healthy Baby Food Recipes and Cookbook

The 7 Day Detox Diet - Pan-fried Chicken Breast Barbecue with Baked Potato and Vegetables

Pan-fried Chicken Breast Barbecue with Baked Potato and Vegetables

Ingredients:

To prepare:

Carefully wash the chicken breast; be careful not to spatter. On a cutting board, cut the chicken breast down the middle so that it opens up like a butterfly. Cover the chicken breast with Saran wrap and lightly pound it with a mallet so that it spreads out thinly. Be careful not to pound on it too much; you don’t want to get holes on the meat.

Take the potato and wash it, brushing with an old toothbrush to make sure that it is completely clean. Place the potato on a cut of aluminium foil and drizzle olive oil on it until it is completely covered. Season the potato with salt and pepper and wrap it with the aluminium foil. Place the potato inside an oven pre-heated at 180°C. The potato should take 20 to 25 minutes to bake.

Take the vegetables, wash them and peel as needed and chop them into bite-sized pieces. Spread them out in a baking pan and drizzle with a little olive oil. Season them with salt and pepper and place inside the oven. Roast until tender. (Note: Roasted squash is particularly good with this dish.)

Combine the paprika, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, chilli powder, and a pinch of salt and pepper in a small bowl. Rub the mixture onto the chicken breast. In the mood for Cajun chicken? You can substitute the rub with Cajun seasoning and a little salt and pepper.

Heat up a little olive oil or vegetable oil in a medium-sized pan. Pan-fry the chicken breast until it is cooked through and through.

Remove the potato from the oven and from the foil. Place it on a plate and draw an X on it with a kitchen knife, breaking it open. Serve everything warm on a plate.

This is an excerpt from the book:  The 7 Day Detox Diet 

Homemade Healthy Baby Food Recipes and Cookbook

I.                   Introduction

One of the best ways to give your baby a good start in life is to give them a good, healthy, and wholesome diet free of pre-packaged and over-processed junk. The only reason a lot of parents are tempted to reach for bottled baby food in the grocery store is because of the convenience; but what if you had access to dozens of fast and easy baby recipes for each of his or her early developing stages? What if you could give your baby the advantages of all-natural and powerfully nutritional food that’s filled with all the right stuff, vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber and more?

Healthy and power-packed baby food plus easy preparation guides is exactly what this book has to offer. Knowing how crucial the early stages of growth and development are, we use natural ingredients in our recipes that are easy to access but give your baby an advantage in the health and nourishment department. Plus, it helps put your baby in the right path towards having a healthy eating habit and appreciating good food.

To make things easier for the everyday parent, we’ve categorized our recipes by age group, from six to eight months, eight to ten months and so forth with an information filled narrative to go with the recipes so that you know the ‘why’ behind the ingredient choices and recipes for each stage. We’ve also included a chapter on food safety and proper food storage that’s a breeze for any parent to understand and master.

With Homemade Healthy Baby Food Recipes and Cookbook, preparing your own food won’t be intimidating or difficult. You’ll find that it can be done fast and easy and with very little inconvenience on your part, so much that you won’t be reaching for that branded and bottled baby food at the grocery store ever again. And the best part is you will be giving your baby the best diet that any developing child needs and deserves for a happy and healthy beginning.

This is an excerpt from the book: Homemade Healthy Baby Food Recipes and Cookbook

The 7 Day Detox Diet - Grilled Prawns with Pan-fried Tofu and Steamed Vegetables

Grilled Prawns with Pan-fried Tofu and Steamed Vegetables

Ingredients:

To prepare:

Wash, shell, and devein the prawns. Leave the head and tail on for presentation and added flavor. To devein the prawns, run a small knife along its back and remove the thin, small filament. Butterfly the prawns by slicing them down the middle along its back so that they are open down the middle like books.

Heat up the steamer. Place the vegetables in a foil envelope and season with a little salt and pepper. Put the envelope inside the steamer and let the vegetables cook until tender. You can test for tenderness with a fork.

Heat up the grill and clean with a damp towel. Season the prawns with olive oil, chopped dill, salt, and ground black pepper. Place the prawns on the grill front-side down first before turning them over. When the prawns are completely orange, they are cooked. Keep an eye on them; prawns, like most seafood items, cook quickly.

Cut up the tofu into centimetre-thick rectangles. Add a little salt and pepper to the all-purpose flour and place on a plate or baking pan. Dredge the tofu on the flour.

In a medium-sized sauce pan on high heat, pour a little of the olive oil. Pan-fry the tofu until golden brown. Place the cooked tofu on a paper towel lined plate to get rid of the excess oil.

Serve the prawns right on top of the tofu with the vegetables on the side.

This is an excerpt from the book:  The 7 Day Detox Diet

The 7 Day Detox Diet - Dinner Recipes

Dinner Recipes

Dinner is the meal for the day where you get to sit down and enjoy your meal without rushing or thinking of work. It’s the time of day when you can sit back, relax, and take a well-deserved break. That’s why it’s also important to have a healthy and delicious meal to help you unwind and prepare for the next day to come.

Being on a detox diet doesn’t mean you have to constrain yourself to bland and boring food. If there’s a lesson to take away from this book, it’s that you can be healthy and lose weight while still enjoying your meals. Here are some dinner dishes to enjoy from detox diet days two to four.

Steamed Fish with Pineapple Yogurt Sauce on Brown Rice

Ingredients:

To prepare:

The first thing you need to get started on in this recipe is the rice because it takes the longest to cook. Wash the rice thoroughly and place inside a slow cooker or in a small pot. Add water, enough to cover the rice plus ¾ of a centimetre and put on low heat. Let the rice cook until all the water is absorbed and the rice is fluffy.

Any steamer – a plug-in steamer, a bamboo steamer, or an aluminium stove-top steamer – should do the job. Place the fish fillet inside an envelope of foil along with the celery, onion, and leeks and a little salt and pepper (and maybe some grated ginger if you feel like it) and place inside the steamer. If the water in the steamer is already boiling, it shouldn’t take longer than 10 to 15 minutes for the fish to cook.

In a saucepan on low heat, pour in the yogurt, the chopped pineapples, and the cilantro. Season the sauce with salt and pepper.

To serve, place the rice on a plate and top with the steamed fish. Pour the sauce over the fish and top everything with the steamed celery, onions, and leeks.

This is an excerpt from the book:  The 7 Day Detox Diet 

The 7 Day Detox Diet - Fruit and Vegetable Tempura

Fruit and Vegetable Tempura

Ingredients:

To prepare:

This recipe doesn’t really have hard-fast ingredients; you can pretty much use the fruits and vegetables that you feel like using. For one person, a serving should be about 150 to 200 grams. It could be all squash tempura or a mix of squash and apples or even a seafood mix with prawns and crab sticks. It’s really all up to you which is the fun part of having this meal and it’s also very easy to prepare.

The first thing that you need to do is to slice the ingredients that you’re going to use. Thick sticks are the usual way to go but some ingredients, like the crimini mushrooms, don’t need to be cut, only cleaned. For the prawns, shell and devein them and wash them thoroughly. The crab sticks don’t even need to be washed, only removed from their package.

Prepare the tempura batter by adding ice cold water. You don’t want the batter to be too smooth so it’s better not to use a whisk, only a wooden spoon. A pair of chopsticks would be even better. The batter should be runny but still thick enough to stick to the ingredients.

To keep the batter cold, place ice on a bowl and place the bowl of batter on top of the ice.

On a plate, put some all-purpose flour and season with a little salt and pepper. In a saucepan or pot, pour enough vegetable oil or peanut oil to fully cover ingredients when frying. Heat up the oil until 190°C if you have a thermometer or you can test for the right temperature with a little flour. When the flour bubbles and dissolves immediately, the oil is ready for frying.

Coat the ingredients in flour so that the batter will stick better before dipping into the batter. Let the excess batter slide off before gently placing into the frying oil. When the batter is slightly brown, the ingredients should be done cooking.

Remove excess oil by placing the cooked ingredients onto a plate lined with paper towels.

You can serve the tempura with your choice of sauce like a spicy Sriracha and mayo mixture or a simple lemon vinaigrette. The traditional tempura dip is a combination of rice wine vinegar or white wine vinegar, light soy sauce, grated ginger, sugar, and a little sesame oil. You can dilute the mixture with a little water if the taste is too strong or overpowering.

This is an excerpt from the book:  The 7 Day Detox Diet