The Last Supper

I've been feeling a little sluggish lately.  Maybe the weather, maybe burning the candle at both ends, maybe not taking as good care of myself as I should.  Probably all of the above.  So when I read about a cleanse in this month's Whole Living magazine, and it talked about giving me increased energy, I thought maybe I should give it a try.  I could never do a cleanse that didn't include food,  but this one is packed with great plant-based recipes that look and sound delicious.  Week 1 recipes are courtesy of Sara Forte of The Sprouted Kitchen, and my mouth watered while looking at the pics.  I'm happy (and ready) to turn my meal planning over to someone else!

I went to my friend Francesca's house last weekend for lunch, and she coincidentally made three of the recipes from this cleanse.  I took that as a sign.  So I decided to finish out the weekend and begin the cleanse this week.  It's hard with my job(s) to commit exclusively to any kind of meal plan; between my own cooking classes and my three days at Bauman College, I have more than enough food on my plate.  So it'll be a little sporadic, but I want to take the general idea into practice:

The diet is designed to detox the body and is not that far from the way I like to eat, but I'll need to give up dairy, gluten, alcohol (wait, what?!), coffee (huh?!), along with two things I don't normally eat anyway, processed foods and added sugars, so Sunday night I decided to fix a delicious "last supper" for me and Tom over at his place.
I had some chicken that needed to be cooked, and I remembered a delicious Martha Stewart recipe I made once: Chicken in Poblano Cream Sauce.  That would be it!  Even though Tom is an accomplished chef in his own right, his fridge and pantry are pure college bachelor (sorry, honey).  So I like this recipe because it requires very few ingredients.....but I had to mix it up a bit, of course.

I started by roasting a pasilla pepper on the gas burner until good and charred.  I popped it into a paper bag and let it steam until I was ready to peel it and chop it up.  Be sure to remove the seeds and veins if you're not a fan of spicy food.

Next I sauteed a couple chicken breasts in olive oil in one skillet while I sauteed a chopped onion and a shallot in another. 

When the onion was softened, I added a few garlic cloves and chopped cilantro and sauteed a bit longer.  Then I removed the pan from the heat and stirred in cream and transferred the mixture, and the skinned, seeded pepper, to a food processor to blend. 

It tasted pretty good, but Tom has made me a big believer in acid, adding the flavor boost that takes a dish from "yum" to YUUUUMMMM!"  So I added the juice of one lime and some Greek yogurt.  And because sweet is the great equalizer for spicy, I added some grade B maple syrup (not that gross pancake syrup stuff, but rather some good,  pure maple syrup....grade B stands for "better;" it's cultivated later than grade A so it's deeper in flavor and carries more nutrients.)

I cooked up a little pasta and tossed the sauce with it, then sliced the cooked chicken and away we go!!  This one is fantastic, people!!  It took all I had to not go back for seconds (the same cannot be said for my dinner companion, but I take that as a huge compliment!). 

Great last supper before a cleanse (or any time)!  What could make it better????  A little sweet treat.  It's weird; I don't have much of a sweet tooth at all.  I never crave dessert, but for some reason the past few weekends that Tom and I have cooked together, I've been wanting a cookie after dinner.  I think my "I wish I had a cookie" thoughts worked their way into his brain, because a little while after dinner he said, "I want a cookie." He dug out his ancient, passed down from mom or grandma cookbook and whipped up a super yummy batch of peanut butter cookies! (Peanut butter is always in a college bachelor's pantry!)  He'll have to give you that recipe....all I did was help hurry the process by dumping ingredients into the bowl as directed, but DANG were they delicious!!

And now I'm onto my week of fruits and veggies...... stay tuned, there are guaranteed to be some yummy recipes in our future.  In the meantime, eat this up:

Pasilla Pepper Sauce

Makes approximately 1 cup

1 Pasilla pepper

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

I cup chopped onion

2 tablespoons chopped shallot

¼ cup chopped cilantro

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

1 cup half and half

Juice of one lime

2 tablespoons Greek yogurt

2 teaspoons grade B maple syrup

Salt & pepper to taste

·         Place Pasilla pepper over a gas burner on high heat and continue turning until charred on all sides.   Place in a paper bag or in a bowl covered tightly with plastic wrap to steam 10-20 minutes until skin easily peels off. (If you don’t have a gas stove, you can char under the broiler, turning often.  Once peeled, remove seeds and membrane, chop and set aside.

·         Meanwhile in a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat.

·         Add chopped onion and shallot, and cook until softened and translucent, about 8 minutes.

·         Add cilantro and garlic and cook an additional 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly.

·         Remove from heat and add half and half.

·         Pour mixture, and chopped pepper, into food processor and blend until smooth.

·         Add lime juice, yogurt and maple syrup and blend again to fully combine.

·         Season to taste with salt & pepper.

·         Serve over pasta,  fish, chicken or steak.

Yum it up!!