The Cleanse - Day 3

I'm really surprised at how well everything is going so far on The Cleanse. And by well, I mean that I was the opposite of constipated yesterday. But, you probably don't want to get into a discussion about my overly-frequent bowel movements. :P

Anyway, I tried to cook the same thing from day 1 last night, but with some additions and it didn't turn out as well. I added in tomatoes and a few more spices. Unfortunately, I think that the tomatoes absorbed the balsamic vinegar flavor, so there wasn't much to cover up the core brussel sprout flavor - which is not very good. I just had to pound it down.

Tonight I decided to give the BS a break, and I headed for the asparagus. I also made some super awesome tomatillo salsa. I wanted to eat the asparagus with the salsa, but soggy asparagus stalks just didn't seem to be the way to eat it. So instead of steaming them I decided to sear them in a frying pan with a little bit of olive oil and some sea salt. They turned out AWESOME! I smothered them in fresh salsa and ate to my heart's content. I think that in this one meal I have doubled the total amount of asparagus that I have eaten in my life.

The one problem was that some of the fatter stalks didn't soften up very well in the searing and those were kind of like chewing on a tree branch. So next time I think I will briefly steam the asparagus so that all the stalks soften a bit, and then after the searing they will all be perfectly edible.

I also went to the gym last night. I was a little fearful that the lack of meat and fat in my diet would leave me wanting for energy during my workout. Twas not so! I lifted as intensely as I always do, and even added a few reps to my max bench press. So I was definitely not hurting for strength. Huzzah!

How to make my awesome tomatillo salsa:
1 lb tomatillos
1/4 of a large red onion
Fistfull of fresh cilantro
1-2 large jalapeno (more or less, depending on how hot you like it)
Juice of 1 fresh lime (more or less, depending on your taste buds)
1/4 tsp minced garlic (more or less, depending on how strong of a garlic kick you like)
Sea Salt (to taste)

Husk and wash the tomatillos. Boil the tomatillos and the jalapeno for about 5 minutes, until the tomatillos change from their dark green color to a medium green color. Drain the water. Add tomatillos, jalapeno, onion, garlic, salt and the juice from the lime into your blender. Use those scissors in your knife block that you have never used, and cut up the cilantro into 0.5" pieces as you add it into the mixture. Blend at lowest setting. You don't want to puree the salsa, you just want to chop it up and mix everything together.