Let’s be honest- any holiday/celebration/family gathering means an abundance of food.  Especially when everyone else around you is tucking in, it’s easy to have an ‘oh well’ attitude…which I believe is completely fine since these celebrations don’t happen every day.  The only bad part about it is the possible food hangover which may follow: you wake up the next morning and everything you ate is still sitting in your stomach like a rock.

While some people may choose to detoxify by only drinking veg juices, sticking to only fruits for the day, cutting calories like crazy, or popping a laxative, my idea of a detox is a bit different.  After all, my stomach needs the satiety and my mouth wants the chew.  Instead, I stick to only eating real, clean food, i.e. no processed, packaged food.  A perfect example is the bean burger I ate for lunch today: minimal ingredients, yet hearty as hell thanks to its protein and carb ratio.  They even taste better than the veggie burgers sitting in my freezer.  I guess I’m not  a fan of the faux meat anymore.

Detox burger recipe, serves 1

Ingredients:

• 75g freshly boiled/canned beans (I used kidney)
• 15g oats
• Finely chopped carrots, onions, and capsicum
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• Salt & black pepper to taste

Blend together 3/4 of the beans, carrots, onions, and capsicum.  Once mushy, add the remaining ingredients.  Take off any rings, and then use your hands to shape the mixture into a patty.  Using spray oil, fry the burger and keep turning till both sides are golden brown.

Serving suggestion: I enjoyed my burger with a big salad and chips made out of okra and sweet potato…and of course mustard & ketchup :).

(This picture was taken some other time, where I replaced chips with rice cakes topped with mashed avocado & low fat cream cheese)