Cleansing Cocktail

Well all, I come before you now, for the first time as a married women!  We are so excited and so happy to start this new chapter of our lives together.

After a week of eating out with family and drinking cocktails and beers I really need a break!  Sure it was all vegan but that doesn't mean it was good for me.  So its time for my favorite thing:  Juice cleanse!  So here I am pumping myself up with the movie Fat Sick and Nearly Dead and drinking a new kind of cocktail.

The Cleansing Cocktail:
Apple
Beet
Small piece of Ginger
1 Juicing carrot or 2 regular

Add all of these into juicer one at a time in the order listed above.  Enjoy!

Cinnamon Bun Smoothies

Here is a nice sweet smoothie recipe packed full of yummy banana!  Perfect for breakfast or as a sweet cooling snack.
Makes 2:

2 frozen bananas
2 cups of none dairy milk
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients together in blender and blend well.  Feel free to use some extra ground cinnamon for a garnish as seen in the picture.

Peanut Power!

As many of you know I have recently gotten really into juicing.  Honestly I dont know how I lived before my juicer.

Ingredients:

• 2 granny smith apples
• 1 banana 
• 1 tablespoon of fresh peanut butter

Send your apples through you juicer.  Pour into a blender.  Peel and break up banana.  Spoon in peanut butter.  Blend well.  If you want to, garnish with thin slice of apple.  

Erika's Morning Wake Up Juice

A spectacular way to clean out your system and have a super duper nutritious breakfast in the morning!  If you are not partial to green drinks I would drink this through a straw so that you don't smell all of the veggies. The apple will make this surprisingly sweet.

1 green apple
1 inch slice of ginger pealed
3 romaine leaf
3 Kale leaf
2 stalks of celery
1 cucumber

Send all of these items through your juicer together.  I always send the leafy greens through with other more water dense items to get the maxim juice out of them.

Stir well and enjoy!

Peach Mango Smoothie

Sometimes when my family gets gift cards for air line or credit card points, they send them to their poor, broke, civil servant daughter, aka Me. This time it was for JCpenny. Now, when most girls get a gift card its about the cloths. Now not this little vegan. I go straight to the kitchen wear section, where, this time I happened upon a Magic Bullet like machine by Cooks.

Perfect for a hot summer in south Texas (May and we have already passed 100 degrees once or twice.)

Smoothie ingredients:
-4 small peaches (Skinned and chopped)
-1 mango (Skinned and chopped)
-1/2 cup of ice

Blend well. See? Who needs a fancy when you have a blender and a stock of fresh fruit.

Super Fruity

Okay has anyone seen Baby Mama? If you have you will notice the title and I hope that you are laughing with me right now. Its May here in central Texas which means its already almost 100 degrees. This is the time of year that my nutrition takes a turn for the worst. I hate eating when its hot (Not to mention that all of those grains make unnatural bumps come out of my swim suit. So this is the time of year I normally survive on frozen grapes and rivers of water.

Not this year I tell you! This year I will be exploring the world of raw and green smoothies! This is my first one.

Creamy Fruit Smoothie
Ingredients: (Makes 4)
-3 cups of fruit (In this one banana and strawberry because it sounded good)
-1/4 cup agave syrup
-1/2 cup of ground (You should use a food processor unless you have a Ninja Blender) nuts or seeds (Cashews, almonds, pumpkin seeds or pecans)
-2 cups of water
-Ice (optional)

Place all of the ingredients (Except ice) in a blender and blend until smooth. Add ice if you are using it and blend well. Serve right away.

Will keep for one day in the fridge.

Blue Berry Green Tea Smoothie

1/2 cup of frozen blueberry's
2 cups of green tea (Room temp)
1 tbs agave nectar

Divide blueberry's into the compartments of an ice cube tray and fill with green tea. Freeze.

Puree in blender with remaining tea and agave until smooth.

Mango Coconut water Smoothie

A perfect lunch or Breakfast on the go! Contains Fruits, veggies, protiens, and healthy fats.

Ingredients:
2 cups of fresh mango chunks
2-3 tbs of lime juice
2 cups of unsweetened coconut water
Pinch of cayenne pepper

Put all ingredients in blender and combine well.

Kiwi Smoothie

As I said before a major detox is in order after the Christmas and Holidays. That being said dont be surprised if many of the posts coming up are smoothies for two reasons:
1. As I said some cleansing is in order.
2. Smoothies are awesome.

Ingredients:
4 ripe Kiwi
1/2 cup of freshly squeezed Orange juice
1 tbs Agave
1 cup of ice

Stick in blender and combine well.

Makes two servings.

Thai Iced Tea

I was looking for something different to drink. By this time last summer I had not cut out coffee yet, so a replacement for that iced latte, 4000 calorie Starbucks was just what I had a craving for. That's when I concocted this little darling.

This is a great summer drink. It is so refreshing and yummy. Its also a good replacement for coffee on a warm summer morning.

INGREDIENTS (For one cup)
3 tea bags (I use chai cause it has Cardamom in it)

1/4 tablespoon of cardamom or nutmeg

3 teaspoons sweetener (I use agave)

1 cup boiling water

Ice

1/4 cup soy or rice milk

Add tea bags to boiling water. Add cardamom and sweetener. Let steep for 3 minutes. Pour over ice and swirl. Add soy milk. Sometimes I add an almond flavoring for variety.

Heres To Yum!

I know not all of you are in San Antonio but I still wanted to share this for the people that are.

Yesterday Rachel, Alyssa and I went to a small new restaurant owned by Charles and Renee called creativity "Here's to Yum." It is a small space and they are both still starting out so they cook, buy the produce from the markets, wait on tables and everything else. They cook all of their yummy food and deserts from scratch. I would just like to encourage everyone who is in the area to check it out and support this new place! The food is amazing and fresh. Their "tea house tea" is to die for. The have a basil leaf and orange mixture on the bottom then they pour an iced tea over the top.



Alyssa had the gnocchi with chicken, tomato and goat cheese and Rachel had a beautiful chicken salad on the crissoent with an heirloom tomato salad. Obviously for those of you that are just eating healthier, this is not an all vegan place. But it is very good, very fresh and very veggie focused!



I tried to stay with the tradition veggie of coarse. It was a beautiful day, beautiful space and beautiful company so I didn't want to feel all bloaty and...lets face it with my lactose intolerance, stick the place up. I had the Pea soup one of my new fav things with a slight mint topping. It was amazing!


Now I know that it is being a bad girl but the deserts were not vegan. All the same I tried a tiny bite of each and they were out of this world! Renee makes them himself. One is a lemon tart, one of a fruit tart and one is chocolate moose so deep and dark it is almost sour! Just the way chocolate is meant to be! Each is plated beautifully and will seriously make a vegan girl debate wolfing down a whole one of them despite the tummy ache, the heart attack and the weight gain after! Yum! (Unfortuntly I couldn't get a picture of the lemon tart (My personal fav) because we just devoured it too quickly.




SO really, everyone needs to go and check this place out. Help support a local bistro who are supporting local farmers, who both have amazing food!

Juicer!

Sorry I know I have been MIA for the past while but the holidays...well you all know. Anyways not much has been happening. I got some kick ass appliences for christmas or with christmas money including a bad ass steamer, a food processor (I have never had one before! I hand chopped and minced everything!) and a new blender/ smoothie maker!

My baby Alyssa bought a juicer so tonight we made juice!


Mango/Strawberry/Kiwi Juice with Agave syrup
2 mangos ripe
2 kiwi ripe
2 handfuls of ripe strawberries
Agave syrup to taste

Stick all but the agave Syrup into the juicer. Stir and than add agave to taste if the fruits weren't about to turn.

Other than that we have been mucking around sun harvest having tons of fun! Have a happy new year and remember this Buddist quote to get you into the New year:

"To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent."

Left over rice porriage

okay not to toot my own horn but this is one of those spur of the moment things that makes me wonder why I didn't go to culinary school. This is a breakfest rice porriage.

1 cup left over brown rice
1 1/2 cups of water
Dried friut diced
parsley
maple syrup
nuts

This on if kinda hard to write down cause its really a whatever you feel like food. Take the rice, water and dried fruit and place in a pot. Bring to a boil, than reduce and let simmer until water is absorbed. place in a bowl and add your toppings. I prefer putting more of the fruit (dried apricotes for me) cinommon, maple syrup, parsley and walnutes on top.

The drink next to it is a refreshing way to start your day too. Its just pure fruit necter (NOT from concentrate) mixed with sparkling mineral water!

Health points:
Brown rive: http://hubpages.com/hub/Health_Benefits_of_Brown_Rice
Maple syrup: http://www.puremapleproducts.com/health_benefits_maple_syrup.html

Again this has a serving of fruit in it to kickstart your day!