Today's Juice is Brought to You by the Color.....

GREEN!

My juice this afternoon was inspired from the book "Organic Avenue, Recipes for Life, Made with Love" by Denise Mari.  On page 134, she gives a recipe for Super Green Juice and encouraged free expression to substitute, mix and match as one might wish.  So that is what I did.  

I used:

1/2 Lime

Handful Kale

Handful Spinach

4 Celery stalks

Handful Parsley

Handful Cilantro

1 baby Cucumber

and a Green Apple

Poured over Ice.

I guess I'm too chicken to go completely green, so at the last minute I added in the apple....which made it much more palatable.  I didn't think I was going to enjoy this combination, but it actually turned out quite tasty.  Kate even gave her thumb's up of four-year-old approval.

We hope you have a great day!  Make it a GREEN one!

Could-a Had a V8!

Today's lunch inspiration comes from the popular V8 juice that you get in the grocery store.  I loooove an icy cold V8, but how cool would it be to re-create it?  I started by googling what ingredients were in the store-bought version, followed by several Pinterest recipes.  I found a bunch of great tips (from stewing the tomatoes first)....to adding lots of different things (green peppers, onions) etc.  In the end, I decided to combine a few different recipes, and come up with my own.

The girls and I took off for Harris Teeter for a couple of things including Watercress.  Many moons ago, I worked in a grocery store and had the PLU for watercress memorized, but that is the extent of my knowledge of this vegetable.  And apparently, that is even more than the guy who was stocking the produce shelves at HT!  He looked at me like I was looking for a green alien when I asked him about it, and told me he had never heard of it, and was fairly sure they didn't stock it there.  Okay, scratch the watercress.....for today.

My homemade V8 concoction:

1/2 Small Beet (the flavor is so powerful, it really only takes a little)
2 Stalks of Celery
2 large Carrots
Handful fresh Parsley
Handful of Spinach
3 medium Tomatoes
1/2 Lemon
I added a dash of Worcestershire sauce and poured over ice.

It was delicious!!  Not quite the same as the store bought....not even really similar.  BUT, I loved it, and would definitely try this again.  I would just cut down the beet to 1/4 or less.

Good Morning, Sunshine

Ugh! I slept dreadfully last night, and moved out to the couch around 2 in the morning.  I slept in until 9 and woke up with a sore throat. Blah!  I definitely was in the mood to try a breakfast juice, so I got right to work.  I didn't have an actual recipe to go from so decided to just wing it:

1 Orange
1/2 Cucumber
1 Cup of frozen strawberries, thawed
Kale
Spinach
Fresh Cranberries
Poured over crushed ice.

The color of the juice was anything but appealing, but the flavor was okay.  I think the Cranberries kind of took over the flavor, so maybe less of them next time.

For today, I want to go to Trader Joe's to pick up some more fruits and vegetables.  I always say that "True love doesn't allow one's spouse to shop at Trader Joe's on the weekends"....but I might just make an exception to that for today.  I also want to be sure and get my 30 minutes of exercise in since it didn't happen on day #1.

Happy Saturday, peoples!!

xoxo

Day Number ONE!

Well, hello there!  My name is Anna....I'm 38 years old.....wife to one, mother to two.  Last week, I was struck with sudden inspiration to order a juicer from Amazon....and the kind Fedex guy delivered it today.  I am starting this blog in the hopes that it will help hold me accountable to actually use this new toy and try lots of different recipes out.

My long term goal is to start feeling better.  The last few months, I have just been fighting constant fatigue and sleepiness.  I am not sleeping well at night, and it leaves me feeling dragged during the day time.  There seldom goes a day where I don't take a nap....which, I think, feeds into another poor night's sleep.  I am hopeful that by starting with nutrition, I will have a bit more energy to feel motivated to get some exercise in, and then start sleeping better at night.  That's my end goal.

For the short term goal, my hope is to start establishing a new habit.  I think they say it takes like 21 days to cement a new pattern, so I have a goal to juice every single day for 30 days, at least once per day.  Twice, if its a good day. ;)  For the rest of my nutrition, I want to keep with my usual habits of healthy, non-processed foods, with lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.  And for exercise, rain or shine, I want to do 30 minutes every.single.day.  Up until about a year ago, I was a runner....and then knee pain started to kick in, nagging me at every turn.  And then I had a horrible run....And I lost motivation.  So, I'm hoping to get into a habit of walking and slowly ease into running, a little at a time.

My starting weight this morning was 136.6.  I would be happy to eventually lose maybe 3-4 pounds, but mostly I am hoping to just get a bit more toned from starting to exercise.  I will be keeping track of my weight, just because I am interested in seeing if replacing a meal or two every day will make any kind of difference.

So, today was DAY #1!  At 4:00 this afternoon, I opened the big box that the kind Fedex guy dropped off at our front door, and slowly took out each piece.  The juicer that I ordered was the Breville JE98XL Bundle Juice Fountain Plus Juicer with DVD for around $140.  I liked the reviews on it.  There are a lot of pieces to clean, though, so hopefully I don't get weary of washing all the parts.  That's my biggest concern, actually. haha

From the library, today, I took out a book called, "Organic Avenue, Recipes for Life Made with Love" by Leda Scheintaub.  This book is geared towards turning people Vegan, but let me be clear from the start...going Vegan is SO NOT my intention.  I love milk.  And eggs.  And Chicken.  And I believe that there is wholesome goodness in all of those.  In limited quantity, and from a good source.  But a Vegan I am NOT.  Anyway, I was drawn to this book because it has bunches of good juicing recipes that seemed attainable, do-able and yummy.

I quickly scanned through the book, and jumped ahead to the recipes section.  Dinner was quickly approaching and I really wanted to try one right off the bat.  The recipe I chose was on page #129 called Perfect LOVE Green Juice.  I ran to the local grocery store and picked up some organic spinach, beets, celery, cilantro, etc.  A huge sack of organic vegetables, enough to make at least 4 juices was only $10!!  I was stoked!

Here is the recipe for Perfect LOVE Green Juice:

1/2 lemon, peeled
1/2 cup Cilantro, leaves and stems
1 handful Kale
Handful of baby Spinach
1 Carrot, scrubbed***
1/2 large Beet***
3 Celery stalks
1/2 unpeeled Cucumber
Served on Ice.

***We ALWAYS have carrots in the house. Like, always.  Except today.  I opened the fridge to find that it was carrotless.  So, I used one whole beet, and then at the last minute added in one Gala Apple.

It was super easy to prepare the veggies, and 10 minutes later, I had 15 ounces of the rubiest red, delightful juice.  And it was *delicious*.  The girls didn't care for it too much (no surprise there).  I would *definitely* make this again sometime.  I added a handful of wheat crackers with peanut butter to complete the meal.  Completely satisfied.

Stay tuned for Day #2 tomorrow!

xoxo