Black Bean and Ginger Pasta Fry + Spring Cleanse Plan

March 26, 2011 By Leanne Vogel September 22, 2017

Yesterday was great. Kevin and I made pasta and watched movies all night long. Back to the grind today. I’m just about to head to the gym for 1hr swim + 40min spin + 6k run + 20min core work + a lot of snacking in between. There’s nothing better than snacking at the gym. It’s the epitome of food for fuel and whole foods for health. It doesn’t get any purer for me than that. If I don’t eat during these longer sessions I have absolutely no energy, I get dizzy, experience low poor performance, etc. These sessions just show me how important it is to eat clean, whole foods to fuel my body. My favorite @ gym snacks: Larabars, Oskri Organics coconut bars, homemade black bean brownies [amazing!], apples and almond butter, and home made fruit leathers. If I could take this pasta with me, I would.

Black Bean and Ginger Pasta Fry

Author: Leanne Vogel

Recipe type: Vegan, Gluten free, Dairy free, Sugar free, Yeast free

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 8 mins

Total time: 18 mins

Serves: 4 servings

The ginger, onion, and coconut oil sauce bring the veggies to life! With over 12 grams of fiber and 17 grams of protein, this 15 minute meal is perfect after a long day and will give you the boost you need to push through the evening.

Ingredients

1½ cup uncooked rice pasta
1 cup black beans, rinsed
2 yellow onions, chopped
3 carrots, chopped – do not peel!
1 yellow pepper, chopped
6 green onions, diced
2 tablespoon onion soup mix – I used this but onion powder would work too!
2 tablespoon braggs liquid aminos [gluten free soy sauce]
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
1 tablespoon raw honey or agave [use agave if wanting to make the recipe vegan]
1 tablespoon coconut oil
salt + pepper

Instructions

Cook pasta as per instructions. Once cooked, strained, and rinsed, place in a large serving bowl.
Saute onions with coconut oil for 3-4 minutes. Add carrots, onion mix, braggs, and apple cider vinegar. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
Add green onions, yellow pepper, honey/agave and ginger. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
Add black beans and stir to coat.
Drop bean mixture over top of pasta and stir to mix. Serve!

View Nutritional Information (once on page scroll down) Nutrition stats [1 serving]: calories 482; fat 5.7g; carbohydrates 93g; dietary fiber 12.6g; sugars 11g; protein 17.2g

The Spring Cleanse

So, the cleanse. I’m planning to do things a little different this year. Last year I started every day with 2 fruit/veg smoothies + 4 cups of fresh juice and didn’t begin eating solid foods until noon. But because I have a 10k coming up and I’m marathon training like mad, I’m afraid that not eating solid food before noon could be an issue [blood sugar, hunger pains…]. Plus my diet is much cleaner than it was last year so a deep cleanse isn’t as necessary. The approach I’ll be taking for Spring 2011 is to add as many natural cleansing foods to my diet as possible. This will provide me with a soft, subtle cleanse, keeping my energy up and my immune system supported the whole way through.

Increase water from 3 liters to 4 liters/day. I plan to drink 500mL the minute I get home from work and the other 500mL while I get ready for bed.
Lemon water in the morning. 500mL filled with 2 tablespoon lemon juice will be sitting on my bedside table every morning. It will be the first thing I do [after I grab my iPhone and check my emails]
Ginger water in the afternoon. 1000mL of my daily water intake will be blended with 1 tablespoon fresh ginger + 1/8 teaspoon stevia and left to ‘steep’ overnight.
Add parsley to my breakfast shakes. 1/2 cup parsley = extra greens! And you don’t even taste it.
Prepare 2 cups of fresh cleansing juice everyday [with 5 drops of chlorophyll]. My juice will contain cleansing vegetables like: cranberries, celery, apples, beet, kale and ginger and I’ll drink it on my drive in to work.
2 salads a day. The recipe below totally counts as a salad. I have to ease my way into this. My salads will be simple and contain ingredients like: steamed kale, parsley, avocado, beets, cabbage, celery, garlic, and seaweed. Simple dressing: lemon, flax oil, Himalayan rock salt, and dill.
Continue with whole food sweeteners and sugars. Coconut sugar, medjool dates/dried fruit, and raw honey.
20 chews a mouthful. Have you ever counted how many times you chew your food before you swallow it? I was amazed the first time I did it. My count was 5. There were still so many big pieces of food left! Can you imagine what that does to our digestion? It has to work in overdrive to be able to process the food. I’m hoping that this practice can continue past my cleanse.

Over the past month or so I’ve been coming home after work, packing my lunch, and snacking on things along the way: granola, carob chips, dried fruit, an apple, spoonful of almond butter, crackers, etc. But I haven’t been eating dinner. Not good. So, I need to work on that and thought I may was well add that to my cleansing plan. Once I’ve completed about 2 weeks of this plan, I’ll transition to adding more Spring foods which we’ll talk about next week. And don’t worry, we’ll chat about other approaches to cleanses in the coming days too – the different types, pros and cons of each, what’s safe, what’s not, how to come off a cleanse… you name it! Do you bring snacks with you to the gym? What foods do you snack on? Have you tried chlorophyll or parsley in your smoothies? Do you like it? Are you in the mood for Spring? It’s so hard for me to be talking about Spring right now. It’s SO cold outside and there is SO much snow falling to the ground. I think we’re going tobogganing this afternoon.

This entry was tagged: cleansing, pasta, pasta salad, roasted vegetables, stir fry