Detox Soup

Every once and a while, I clean my room. Not like put my clothes away, make my bed clean (which, for the record, I do twice, maybe thrice a week) but like throw out old tee-shirts, re-arrange my closet, clean out all my purses and clean under my bed cleaning. I'm also a believer that people should do that with their bodies every once in a while. Back in college, I used to do this via special K... two weeks of eating nothing but organic yogurt and special K cereal. It always sucked the first few days, but really did work! This year, I decided to change things up and do a one-month detox with actual food ( no hate special k!) Week one consisted of NO dairy, gluten (wheat), processed foods, anything with "sugar" or any sort of fake sugar in the ingredients, nothing out of a can or a package, and no caffeine. So what did I eat? Not much. TONS of fruits and veggies, quinoa (a grain that does not have gluten... almost as good as rice or pasta) and lots of bananas and organic almond butter (ingredients: almonds, salt.) This detox soup was really yummy and actually pretty filling, I ate it for lunch every day that week!

Detox almond-kale-ginger-potato soup (inspired by Martha Stewart chicken-almond soup)

5 cups veggie (or chicken) stock

1 Small yellow onion, diced

1 large sweet potato, chopped up

2 garlic cloves, minced

8 oz chicken tenders, chopped up and baked at 400 degrees for 40 minutes (optional, I made it veggie-only)

1/2 cup organic almond butter (no added sugars)

2 cups kale, chopped

2 Tablespoons minced fresh ginger

salt and pepper

1) shop up and put onion,sweet potato and garlic onto cookie sheet, drizle with olive oil and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes (make sure they don't brown, just soften up a bit)

2) combine stock, baked onion sweet potato and garlic and chicken (optional) bring to a boil, reduce heat cover and simmer for about 20 minutes. 

3) in a small bowl, combine almond butter and about 1.5-2 cups of the simmering chicken broth, stir together and put aside. 

4) add kale and ginger to remaning simmering broth and veggies, simmer for about 5 minutes. 

5) stir in almond butter and broth mixture into broth and veggies, simmer for about 5 more minutes. 

6) Season with salt and pepper, and enjoy!!!!