FOOD

Food: Delivery Cleanse arrives in Monaco

Spring is in the air and immediately everybody yaps about losing weight, shedding the holidays’ pouch and  getting into bikini body shape. Now we all know the best way to lose that weight and tone your body, is by exercise and practicing Sports! However a good detox or quick cleanse can help achieve that goal quicker and motivate you on the way to your desired ‘summer shape’.

Most big cities have ‘delivery-to-your-door’ diets and low cal meal plans, so I was happy to find out even ‘our big town’ now offers a similar service.

The Milan based company ‘Time to detox’ has set up shop in Monaco! I studied their website and found it explained well but somehow not really inspiring or appetizing what they offered. So, I ordered a sample day.

At 11:30h sharp a big bag containing lunch, dinner and breakfast was delivered to my door by a very friendly man. He explained what the company offered (3 or 10 full day cleanses as well as 5 days per week lunch plans) and he gave a quick overview on the content of these bags full of (recyclable) containers that would be all I got into my system for the next 24h.

All food is made from gluten-free, animalprotein-free (aka vegan), organic ingredients, and prepared to ayurvedic and macrobiotic standards. The goal is to eliminate toxins and rid your body of excessive water retention and waste products. A copper ‘tongue cleaner’ (yes, to scrap off those toxins) is also included in my bag! Weight loss is a welcome side effect of the program, but the real goal you are embarking on is to detoxify your system , which again will reduce sugar cravings for the future.
Brochures and thorough (English) descriptions are included with each dish. So what did I find in my various meal bags:
Lunch

Soup of Coral Lentils with cumin and lemon quinoa: it tasted sooo much better than it looked. In fact the lemon zest flavour in the well boiled quinoa was quite a revelation and I ate it way too fast. You are supposed to chew very, very slowly. Not me. The ‘afternoon snack’ , wrapped separately in the lunch bag, was a buckwheat chapatti. Now that one, I chewed very slowly and I wouldn’t really kill to have it again. But it did take away that craving for sweets which always creeps up early afternoon for me. So, well done for that!

Dinner

Cream of sweet vegetables mustard and onion bells caramalized with spicy rice. Same again, whilst you heat up your dinner soup (in a pan/no microwave please), you are not convinced that this could be a delight. Once you start eating you are just happily surprised and appreciate the feel-good factor for your body.  The soup/cream was a little spicy but full of flavour and the rice in the other container was cooked to perfection. Little downside: on my descriptive leaflet for the dinner a snack of Umeboshi pearls was mentioned, but they were nowhere to be found in my bag?

Breakfast

Ok, I did wake up hungry but the night wasn’t torturous as I might have expected. The bag contained cup with Kanten Mint, which turned out to be some mint-flavored jelly and a pot of Rice cream with malt and fruit. I found both a bit too sweet for my taste, but given that it will be the only sweet flavour on my taste buds all day, - a welcome flavour after all. Snack was Soft rice Almond Cake, which my 17-months old son snatched away…but the remaining crumbs tasted heavenly. Little chap knows what’s good.

Refreshing herbal tea  bottles are  packed with all 3 meals as well as wooden spoons and the already mentioned tongue cleaner. Now, I am sure you are dying to know the prices. It doesn’t come cheap but considering the rather exotic ingredients all from organic produce, the fresh prep and delivery to your door, I find the prices rather justified: 3 full days are 200,-, 10 days will set you back 600,- and the 5 lunches per week are 100,-. Also, it IS much easier and quicker to organize and definitely a lot cheaper than booking a cleanse or detox somewhere in a hotel/spa/wellness clinic.
Mention 'MCDISCOVEREDBLOG' when ordering to get a discount !!!

For sure, it’s a service that many in Monaco have been waiting for.  I will be back to order after the Grand Prix…the week when nearly everybody here could do with a detox J

Where to order:

http://www.timetodetoxmonaco.com/en

Call for to order:       +33 678 63 73 69
Here some photos of my menu:

The Tongue cleaner  & descriptive leaflet

My bags arrive :)

Lunch w soup, quinoa, tea and afternoon snack

breakfast jelly and rice cream , snack of almond biscuits and tea

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Raw Food the Soft Way:


The Raw Food Trend slowly introduces itself also on the French Riviera. Nutritionists praise the sheer power and cancer-cell-fighting qualities of food prepared from raw veggies, fruits, seeds, soaked grains and sprouts. I find this type of cuisine really time intense to prepare and often also struggle with appreciating the taste. However once a week I buy my sprouts and make a 'healthy detox' salad, - not only to calm my conscience but because I have actually grown to like it. Sprouts of all sorts of vegetables are known to have the   pure strength and freshness factor of a YOUNG plant, hence delivering the best of vitamins and minerals straight to your system. In Monaco you can find 4 different types of sprout mixes at Bio Solis Supermarket (Place D'Armes), usually delivery arrives Tuesday or Wednesday!
My salad recipe: I mix the sprouts (see below) with diced avocado and fresh cut mango pieces. A drizzle of olive oil and fresh squeezed lime & orange juice over it ... and if I am really going for POWER Food I let a soft boiled egg melt over it, yummmm...