Cleanse: Day 4

Today is day 4 of my 14 day cleanse from Dr. Natasha Turner. So far, I've lost 2 pounds and am feeling healthy and fit. I'm starting to get some pretty intense food cravings, though. Mostly for sugar and red meat. Fast food commercials on TV are a real killer!

My big find for this week was brown rice pasta. This pasta has three ingredients: brown rice, brown rice bran, and water. The calories are about the same as regular pasta, 200 calories for a 2 oz. serving. So far I've used them in my recipe for Ja Jang Myun, and they worked great. Although they are somewhat lighter than regular wheat noodles, the texture is very similar. I'm not sure what, if any, flavor they might have as the sauce for the Ja Jang Myun is pretty strong.

In order to adjust the Ja Jang Myun recipe for the cleanse, I substituted chicken for the pork, omitted the sugar, and used tapioca starch as a thickener, rather than corn starch. I found very little difference in the taste so it was definitely a win.

Tonight for dinner I made beer can chicken in my smoker.

This is the chicken shortly after it went into the smoker. There is a small reservoir (instead of a beer can) in the center of the pan that holds about 1/2 of a beer, and I added some lemon, rosemary and a little thyme. The mixture steams inside the chicken while it cooks. I used a mixture of pecan and cherry wood, and smoked it at about 275 degrees for a hour and fifteen minutes. The chicken was so moist and delicious I probably ate way too much of it!

So the cleanse is still going well, albeit more difficult. I'll be looking forward to this Wednesday when I hit the halfway mark!