This was a great weekend for my family. My husband decided to do a 72 hour cleanse which required us to bunker up at home and make no plans. For a family who’s always on the go between school, work, family, friends and extracurricular activities … This mandatory pause was really welcomed. For one, I was able to sort through my kids’ clothes, toss what wasn’t necessary, and organize a bit. A to-do that has been on my list for about 6 months!  Secondly, we got to watch 2 movies which we’ve been wanting to see… “Fed Up” and “Hungry For Change” both excellent films. What’s great about watching documentaries such as those is that they bring you back to the “why” in eating healthy. Even if you’ve been eating clean for a long time, it’s easy to start slipping little by little. Birthday parties, weddings, dinners, holidays…all these activities and our societal culture make it difficult to stay focused on eating clean. I have found myself cheating more often than I should lately. It always starts subtly. A cookie here, a pizza there. Nothing crazy. But as time goes on and life takes over, the cheats increase. And before you know it, you need to stop, reflect and regroup. This was the third benefit of staying home all weekend. We had no external influences, healthy options available in our kitchen, and the time to prepare our meals without the rush of getting out of the house.  Even on Mother’s Day when my family did come over with Cuban treats from the bakery,  since we had regrouped and refocused, it was easy to turn away the treats. It was not a sacrifice to say no to unhealthy food…it was simply that we were back in the mindset of being clean. And that is a great place to be. 

As we wrapped the weekend up, my husband made a fantastic veggie tray for dinner last night …. One that is too good not to share.

Roasted Veggie Explosion

Preheat oven to 425

Ingredients 

• 5 medium beets peeled and  thinly sliced into rounds (like potato chips)
• 1 head broccoli chop off flowerets
• 1 head cauliflower chop and use only flowerets
• 2 thinly sliced red onion
• 2 leaks sliced
• 4 or 5 cloves of roasted garlic (we try to roast garlic in large quantities to always have in our fridge)
• 1 long yellow squash thinly sliced in rounds
• 1 long zucchini thinly sliced in rounds
• Celtic sea salt
• paprika
• curry powder

Directions 

Toss beets in olive oil in a bowl. Place on parchment paper on cookie sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt, paprika NOTE: despite red color paprika is NOT spicy! and curry powder (just use as much or as little as you want of the spices and salt). The beets go into the oven on a seperate tray since The beets take about Ten minutes more than the other veggies to cook.

In a seperate bowl toss in all other veggies and toss in olive oil. spread out and place veggies  on parchment lined cookie sheet. Season with salt, paprika, and curry powder. 

Once the beets have been in for ten minutes, leave them in and put in the veggie tray on another rack in the over for 10-12 min. (Stir them halfway through and also at this point check on texture of the beets by tasting them. If they are tender take them out…if still crunchy leave in for remainder of the time)

Take both trays out, combine the beets and other veggies, toss together and enjoy.