March 8th, 2010

Fresh Juice Recipe: Super Greens Juice

Another juice recipe for you. If you tried the Beet, Car­rot, Apple Gin­ger Juice, I would love to know what you thought.

Today I tried a Super Greens Juice. If you are con­fused about what “Greens” are, here’s a tip: veg­gies and fruit that are green in color. Think kale, cel­ery, spinach, col­lard greens, beet greens, broc­coli, cucum­bers, alfalfa sprouts, wheat­grass sprouts, onion sprouts and so many more. Greens Juice is great for cleans­ing your body and jump star­ing any weight loss pro­gram. Own­ing Pink does a great job of explain­ing the amaz­ing­ness of Green Juice so go there and read about it.

This Super Greens Juice recipe comes from Goop again but I encour­age you all to try dif­fer­ent vari­a­tions. I have adjusted the recipe to make three 12 oz glasses.

• 2 cups of Kale (use everything)
• 1 whole Lemon
• 2 inches of Ginger
• 8 stalks of Celery
• 3 whole Pears

Run every­thing through the juicer. Remem­ber that leafy veg­gies are a pain so to make sure that they juice com­pletely, I wrapped the kale around the cel­ery sticks. Made life A LOT eas­ier. Also, make sure you stir your juice very well.

March 6th, 2010

Fresh Juice Recipe: Beet, Carrot, Apple and Ginger

In an effort to cleanse my body of tox­ins (also called “yuck­ies” by my 3.5 year old daugh­ter), I have been embarked on a detox jour­ney using a menu plan writ­ten by Gwyneth Pal­trow with her doc­tor, Dr. Ale­jan­dro Junger author of the book “Clean”. I know a lot of peo­ple hate Gwyneth Pal­trow, but I absolute love her site Goop as it has good tips for health.

At any rate, my hus­band and I bought a juicer two years ago and we were using it almost every day. Then for some rea­son, we just stopped. Detox­ing has given me the oppor­tu­nity to bring it out again and include fresh juice into my diet. Here is a tip: if you have a juicer, keep it out on the counter or you will never use it. I know that it’s big, but you know the say­ing, “out of sight, out of mind,” right? It’s true. So keep it out and then you can incor­po­rate that into your daily menus.

On to the Beet, Car­rot, Apple Gin­ger Juice. It’s a beau­ti­ful color, isn’t it? Before I decided to make this juice I looked up the ben­e­fits of beets in your diet. Beets have been shown to low blood pres­sure (not for peo­ple with hyper­ten­sion) and are a pow­er­ful blood and sys­tem cleanser.   It is also believed that beets can increase sta­mina and pro­vide numer­ous heart-healthy ben­e­fits.  It is being called a super juice and while I know that there is no one cure for all that ails, I am will­ing to add more healthy things into my diet.

The recipe fol­lows but I want to share my thoughts on this juice. It actu­ally tastes good despite the fact that I really don’t like beets. I did notice that my stom­ach began cramp­ing while drink­ing my ver­sion which leads me to believe that I used too much beet juice in pro­por­tion to the other ingre­di­ents. Beets are a nat­ural lax­a­tive and work rather quickly. Stick as close to the recipe as pos­si­ble. The recipe below comes directly from the Goop site.

SERVES: 1
TIME: 5 minutes

• 1 large or 2 medium beets, cut into wedges (My Note: I’m not sure this includes the greens. I did not as I used them for another recipe. Also, I’m not sure if beets are sup­posed to be peeled or not. I juiced every­thing but the greens.)
• 1/2 lemon, zest and pith removed
• 2 large carrots
• 1 large apple, cut into wedges
• 1″ piece of ginger

Juice every­thing into a glass, give it a stir and enjoy.

February 11th, 2010

Sinful Cinnamon Crockpot Oatmeal with Cinnamon Toast

I have to apol­o­gize for not hav­ing a pic­ture of this. It’s been a while since I have made this for my fam­ily. I will make it soon and add a pictures.

For the Oat­meal

• Crock­pot (I rec­om­mend the Rival 5-Quart Smart-Pot Slow Cooker)
• 3 cups of Steel Cup Oats (DO NOT USE QUICK OATS OR REGULAR OATMEAL. YOU WILL HAVE MUSH IF YOU DO)
• 8 cups of water
• 2 cups of fat-free Evap­o­rated Milk
• 2 cups of Skim Milk
• 1/2 cup of Brown Sugar
• 1.5 tea­spoon of cinnamon
• 1 stick of butter
• 1 large apple and 1 large pear (optional)

(Makes 8 servings)

To ensure that the oat­meal does not stick to the crock­pot, spray it with cook­ing spray. Place all ingre­di­ents in the crock­pot start­ing with the liq­uids first. I find that it cooks bet­ter if the liq­uids although I can’t really explain why. Place the but­ter in last. Cook on low for at least 6 hours. I cook it overnight. When you awake in the morn­ing add slice the apples and pears and add it to the pot and cook for 30 minutes.

For the Toast

• Lightly toast 8 slices of bread in the toaster
• Place them on a cookie sheet
• Put 2 slabs of but­ter on each piece of bread
• Sprin­kle with cin­na­mon and brown sugar

Place cookie sheet with bread  in the oven at 375 degrees until toast is hard­ened Takes about 5–7 minutes.

Serve oat­meal with a slice of cin­na­mon toast.