Back to Diet Detoxing and Dairy Free Granola Bars Made from Scratch

 

 BACK TO DIET DETOXING

As some of you who know my history battling gastritis, it is something that most times comes without warning.  Unfortunately I have had some bad flares up these past few months.  Though medication has helped, I feel that I need to go back on my tried and true detox diet where I eliminate many acidic foods such as dairy (which I only eat a small amount of), sugar, and red meat, to name a few.  As extreme as this diet may seem to some, this is a diet for my survival getting through my tummy troubles.  The bonus side of this is a I do lose some weight for the time being, so most of you may relate to that side of it.  I also find that when I do this detox for a couple of weeks, that my body starts feeling better all over (i.e. increased energy levels, decreased muscle tension).

Here is the basic list of foods I will be avoiding for the next few weeks:

• Most gluten free grains - except for oats and rice
• Sugars - this includes pure sugars like white sugar and cane sugar
• Small amounts of fruit - I include bananas because they do help people like me who have stomach issues
• No red meats - eat mostly chicken, fish and lentils
• No caffeine or alcohol - stick to herbal, caffeine free teas such as peppermint and ginger
• No vinegars
• No high acidic fruits and vegetables - corn, tomatoes, citrus fruits

Every meal or snack I is eat clean, meaning it is made from scratch or organic.

One of the most important aspects of this detox is exercise, especially cardiovascular.  It is the best way to clear toxins out of your body through sweat as well it encourages the circulation of the lymphatic system.  It is my hope in the next few weeks that my stomach will heal itself once again and I can start introducing some other foods back into my diet - like SUGAR!!!

MADE FROM SCRATCH GRANOLA BARS

(dairy-free)

So while I am on my detox diet, there is no way I will get my kids and husband to join in!  I still enjoy making them healthy, eat clean snacks that they will eat and I feel good about giving to them.  I stumbled upon this Granola Bar recipe from Another Lunch blog and made a few changes in the ingredients.

What I really love about this recipe is that it is a great alternative to the Quaker granola bars, which is great if you are a dairy-free household.  The other good part is that I use alternative ingredients such as maple syrup for sugar and coconut oil instead of soybean oil.  It is also tastes great comparative to those Quaker brand bars.

These are the ingredients I used for this recipe:

Ingredients:
2 1/2 C. quick oats
1/2 C. organic rice puffs

 1/2 C. mini semi-sweet vegan chocolate chips
1/2 C. coconut sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 C. coconut oil
1/4 C. maple syrup

1 tso. Epicure Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Epicure Vanilla
3 Tbsp. ground flax seed

If you plan on preparing this recipe, read the instructions carefully on Another Lunch. 

My bars turned out perfect!  

I packed them in my daughter's lunch box the next day.