Spring Vegetable Risotto

Blogging Marathon# 64: Week 2/ Day 1
Theme: Cook from 1 European Cuisine -- Italian

Dish: Spring Vegetable Risotto

We are on to our second week of blogging marathon today and my theme for this week is to 'Cook from 1 European Country' and I picked Italian cuisine. When I think of Italian food, pizza and pasta are the first to come to mind. But there is so much more to the world of Italian cooking. The many regions in Italy have distinctive cuisines based on the local ingredients available, cooking styles and eating habits.

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For the first day, I have this Spring Vegetable risotto. Risotto is a north Italian rice dish that is cooked in broth to a creamy consistency. Arborio, Carnaroli etc are the principal varieties of rice used to risotto. These are high in starch, round medium or short grained white rice -- they have the ability to absorb liquids and release starch, so they are stickier than the long grain varieties.

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Mexican Chocolate Date Truffles (Vegan Energy Balls)

After doing the detox diet, I have been trying to avoid processed foods and refined sugar in our diets. But sometimes it is difficult to stop those afternoon sweet cravings. Instead of reaching to those chocolate candy, here are a much healthy and nutritious alternate -- these Mexican Chocolate Date truffles.

These little energy balls are made with medjool dates, nuts and cacao powder. They are no-bake, no-cook and are perfect when you are short on time. I used mixed nuts with almonds, cashews, pistachios and peanuts, but you can use any one nut or your favorite combination of nuts.

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3 Day Clean Eating Detox Diet -- My Experience and the Outcome

If you have been following my blog, then you already know I did a 3-day Detox diet and I've posted the recipes for the dishes to eat during the cleanse in the past couple of days. I wanted to do a post on everything that's involved with the cleanse, in case you are interested in doing it yourself. 

Disclaimer: I am not a dietitian or nutritionist -- I followed the Clean Eating detox program from Clean Slate cookbook and I'm simply giving what's written in the book. 

Other Detox Diets: You can google 'Detox Diets' and there are quite a few different ones available (there's Dr. Oz's detox, Gwyneth Paltrow's detox, then there's all-juice detox). Read through them and pick one that fits in to your lifestyle.

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3 Day Detox Diet -- Detox Soup with Carrot & Green Beans

Blogging Marathon# 64: Week 1/ Day 3
Theme: Detox Diet

Dish: Detox Soup with Carrot & Green Beans

What I really liked about this 3-day detox diet is that we never felt we were dieting or eating less in the 3 days. The portions of all the meals are quite substantial and we are also allowed 2 snacks each day -- either 1oz. of nuts and/ or 2 pieces of fruit. Today I have the recipe for the soup that is served for dinner during the cleanse.

It is a simple soup with carrot and green beans. Make the full batch on the first day and you are good to go for the next 2 days. Hot soup is poured over fresh spinach and chopped dill and then steeped for 5 minutes for the greens to wilt.

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