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.

Greenling

I feel as though I need to confess something.  Its something that you have probably noticed and something I am ashamed of:  I have not been cooking as much.  Working at a restaurant does that too me because I get free food every shift I work there.

I am so ashamed.  I hate not cooking my own food.  So in an effort to remedy this I have turned to a source that a friend recommended to me:  Greenling.com .

Greenling is a website that brings the local farm to your doorstep.  Forget that for a moment the whole organics argument.  I hear from people all the time that they are just to busy to go to farms markets and support their local agriculture and food economy.  

Well, that is just plain not an excuse anymore!  Greenling is a website where you can place an order of fresh everything (Including dairy and meat if you are so inclined), they will go to the local farms and pick it up, package it for you and then deliver it right to your doorstep!

Now I know what you're thinking.  That there must be something wrong with it.  Its not totally cheap but if you've already graduated over into the health world you know that no matter where you go nutritionally dense food is expensive.

But could it possibly be good quality?  When you're at the super market you get to pick what looks good and what you're going to skip on. I don't know about you but if I walk into the market ans see something I don't like, even if it was on my list I skip it.  And I'm pretty picky.

So lets get to my review.   Here is a picture or two of my box when it arrived.

As you can see the box stuffed with yummys.  The van was refrigerated so everything was cold and crisp and the brochure said it would keep everything inside cold for up to four hours if you were not there to pick it up.  The man that dropped it off was named Robert and he was so nice!

The box itself is ten dollars when you order added on but they are recyclable.  When another order is made you leave the box outside of your door and they will pick it up.  Even if you are not going to be using them again you can schedule a free pick up for the containers.

The food inside it was packed perfectly!  I was so impressed.  Nothing was crushed or under anything it shouldn't have been.  the mushrooms were in a brown paper bag exactly like they should be.  I am so excited to eat it all!  The Kale was still crisp and perfect along with the lettuce.  I am very picky about my leafy greens so it says a lot when I say that they are perfect.

Also in the box since it was our first delivery were two bumper stickers and a welcome brochure.  I know that this is a marketing thing but you can be sure that I will be putting the "Beets Driving" on my car because it is so darn cute!

Also, on the back of my packing slip was a note saying "Packed with Kale :) Jamie."  I found this so sweet and personal that I cant help but feel a personal connection to this company.

All together I am more then satisfied with this order and I will be using this service again. I would recommend it to everyone.  A huge thanks to Jamie and Robert who made this all the more personal and won huge brownie points for this company.

Strawberry Pistachio Snackers

Yummy yummy snacks! I have been starting to increase my work out routine again. Trying on wedding dresses makes you realize what needs toning. After a run or yoga I get so hungry! These little buggers are great as a nice raw snack after a work out!

Ingredients:
-1 1/2 cups coconut flakes
-1/2 cup pistachios (ground into flour)
-1/2 cup fresh strawberries, chopped
-3-4 medjool dates,lightly chopped (about 1/4 cup or so)
-3 tbsp coconut oil

Grind pistachios by using food processor.

A dd in the dates and strawberries. Pulse till combined.

After the batter starts coming together add in coconut flakes and oil. And pulse a few times till just combined. Or hand stir this although you will need to either make date paste, or use a liquid sweetener.

Watermelon Sorbet

This is such an easy way to make your own desert. Say bye bye to ice cream, cause this will rock your world! It is perfect for a hot summer day.

7 cups of chopped seedless watermelon/ juice.
1/2 cup of raw sugar or agave
Juice from 1 lemon

Combine all ingredients into blender and blend well. Pour into several or one large Tupperware container. Freeze.

After frozen you can spoon out. This recipe will make 8 large servings.

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.

Spinach Salad with Pomegranate and Avocado

Ingredients
*1 pomegranate
* 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
* 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* Coarse salt and ground pepper
* 2 bunches flat leaf spinach, stems trimmed, well washed and dried
* 2 tablespoons roasted, hulled sunflower seeds
* 1 Hass avocado


1. Halve pomegranate lengthwise and seed. Working in a bowl of cold water, use your hands to separate seeds from membrane. Membrane will float to the top; discard. Scoop out pomegranate seeds and pat dry.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together 3 tablespoons lemon juice, mustard, and oil; season with salt and pepper. Toss spinach, sunflower seeds, and pomegranate seeds with dressing in bowl. Transfer to a serving platter.
3. Halve avocado and remove pit. Scoop out flesh and thinly slice lengthwise; drizzle with remaining lemon juice. Transfer to plate and arrange salad on top. Serve immediately.

Fruit Bowl with Apple Tahini Sauce

Oh. My. God. I love international food. Which is a plus because international food tends to love me right back.

Tahini. That is the word of the day. Familiarizing yourself with it. Become part of it. Eat it. Tahini is a sesame paste that is ground from either shucked or un-shucked seeds (depending on what culture you are getting it from). It is high in proteins and complex carbs. It has a nice nutty taste and when combine with the ingredients in this sauce has the perfect satisfying nutty after taste that can throw a sauce right over the edge of good into greatness.

Sauce (4 servings):
1/4 cup of Tahini
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 tbsp agave
2 tbsp water

Combine all of these into a food processor and blend well.

Dish:
4 cups of assorted fruit. (I used oranges, banana, pears and green grapes)
1/4 cup of toasted, unsweetened coconut flakes.

Arrange fruit in serving bowls. Drizzle with Tahini sauce and top it off with the toasted coconut.

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.

Vegan Thanks Giving- Cranberry Sauce

Well after many many many Thanks Giving's filled with a big, stuffed carcase in the center of the table, having to pretend the food looked good to me to protect the feelings of my host and having to hide practically all of the food offered under my napkin (Or if I was unlucky enough having to eat it and then be sick for the next week) I decided to host my own Thanks Giving with some of my friends. So the next series of recipes are for a very vegan thanks giving!

The thing that is awesome about cranberry sauce is that it is so easy to make. Plus since there are so few ingredients it has a very clean, pure taste that can be lost during Thanks Giving.

4 cups of raw cranberries
1/2 cup agave, maple or rice syrup
Juice from One Orange

Rise the cranberry's and transfer them into a large sauce pan. Add in the Syrup, orange juice and 1/4 cup of water.



Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often. When it comes to a boil reduce heat and cover. Boil gently until berries pop (About 10 minutes.). Chill for 1 hour before serving.

If you keep it warm it is also a great thing to put on top of pancakes or waffles!

Rainbow Salad With Kiwi Stars

So I have been waiting for this! A chance to debut my beautiful new lunch box that by lovely boyfriend got me for my birthday (because thats just how wild and crazy we got). So here we go....not that I haven't been taking lunch to work but because it has been relatively normal food (Almond butter and jam and what not). This salad though really looked great and I'm sure its going to taste great tomorrow too.

I suppose you could say that this is my version of left overs...which is to say, the veggies in my fridge that are nearing the end of their lives. I love it because it encompasses what I love to tell people about eating the rainbow.

On the bottom I have layered red pepper slices, then avocado, next some radishes, followed by red onions. Next I mix up some lemon juice and olive oil and drizzled that across the top to soak in over night in the fridge. I left a bit of lemon on the side because I love the taste of lemon and avocado together.

For desert I just took some of my favorite raw fruit to snack on. The kiwi I cut with a cook cutters to make cute little stars.

As for my birthday lunch box....its awesome. It creates a vacuum to hold everything perfectly into place. There is also a little sauce case but I didn't want to use it today! Love!

Banana Cashew Power Balls

I was looking for a good snack after running for Will and I. The raw craze has really brought up the love of "Raw Balls". These are not raw but they are still great and tasty! Keep in mind that they are highly fattening though so unless you have a high metabolism and/or exercise a great deal eat them in moderation.

That being said they are a great snack for after a work out!


2-3 overripe banana
2/4 cup raw cashews (about 1.5 ounce)
2 tablespoon flax seeds, ground
6 tablespoons oatmeal (regular or quick oats)
dash of vanilla extract

Cut the banana into slices about 3/4-inch thick and place them on a plate. Microwave on medium power for about 7 minutes, until most of the moisture has boiled out of the banana.

Using your hands (Moist works better) form into small balls and put into a tuperware container. Refrigerate before eating and keep in the fridge after.

While you are waiting on this pulse the cashews in the food processor until coarsely ground. Add the flax seed and oatmeal and pulse a few more times. Add the banana and dash in the vanilla extract into the processor. Blend into a thick paste.

Banana Ice Cream

Public Confession Time....

Alright I give in and have to tell all of you that I am an ice cream addict. Some of my fondest memories are of my family and myself sitting around after dinner and having a bowl of ice cream.

Alas, ice cream is not vegan. True you can find some yummy ones that are but they too are stuffed with processed sugar. Purely Decadent is my favorite and a guilty pleasure. But Fear not health food lovers! I bring you a recipe for home made, non dairy, no artificial sugar, one ingredient ice cream just in time for summer!

Ingredients:

3 Bananas

Thats it.

Peal off the banana's and cut into pieces about 1 inch thick. Place them in the freezer for about 1-2 hours. You can also try adding foods like frozen mango and other fruits to alter tastes!

When frozen take them out and stick them into a food processor. Puree until creamy....freeze again if not cold enough for you. Thats it. You are done! I sprinkled some walnuts on top of mine cause I love them!

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."

Snack time!

Snacks are unhealthy for most people. Potato chips, cheetos and the like. Snack time for me though really gives me a pick me up. So here are some my favorates that I thought that I would share with you.

Hummus is a great and filling snack. Especially with some whole grain pita that you can pick up at any Arabian market. I would get the hummus from there too. Sprinkle some Lemon seasoning on it with olive oil.

I love any kind of fresh fruit. Strawberries, mardrin oranges, raspberries and mango...everything. I reduce a little Balsamic vingear with agave syrup and lime juice than pour it over them. One of my fav seasonal ones through is pomagrant straight out of its shell. Theres alot of it and its sweet and tart at the same time. Its better than a whole bag of M&M's!


I also LOVE seeds and mixed nuts, most of all pumpkin and squash seeds. These little guys are great! Nuts are great too if you get them straight out of their shell and they are packed with protien and iron which will get you going about your day longer and stronger than a candy bar.

Wasbi peas also have a great spice to them. They satisfy even the most picky of snackers. I always have a handfull of them tucked away in my bag.

If you are really on the go and need something fast and portable, or if you forget something and walk into a super market looking for something to grab really quick, most places have Luna Bars (Copyright). They come in a bunch of flavors including chocolate peanut butter and S'more (Among others).

All of these should get rid of snack cravings and satisfy you a ton more! If you have any other suggestions let me know!

Eat the Rainbow!

One of the first things that I learned as a veg was to "Eat the Rainbow". Eating a huge varitey of colours will give you an endless buffet of amazing eating options. And surprise! All of them are good for you! So dont limit yourself and dont be afraid. All of them are good for you and they taste good.



One of my favorates that I never really ate before are radishs. I use them in just about everything now. Food, drinks (Daikon and carrot tea is amazing). Again dont be afraid to experiment. These foods are cheap and you can get them in a split second. Also something is always in season so check what grows and what growns in your area. If you go to a farmers market like myself you can eat the berries and what not right out of the bag. Its great.

Health Plus (s): (There are so many in this that I cant even write them all down.)

Red:
Red produce like tomatoes, watermelon, berries, guava, peppers and radishes contain nutrients like lycopene, anthocyanins, ellagic acid and bioflavonoids including quercetin, and hesperidin.

Orange/yellow:
Beta carotene colors things like sweet potatoes, mangos, pumpkins, carrots, squash and apricots. Other oranges and yellows like citrus, peaches and pineapple contain vitamin C flavanoids.

Green:
Everybody knows greens are good for you. Cruciferous ones especially like broccoli, brussel sprouts, bok choy, cauliflower and cabbage provide glucosinolates, isothiocyanates and indole-3 carbinol (noted for its ability to inhibit cancer growth). Other greens like spinach, collards, kale and broccoli contain carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin. These greens are also loaded with vitamins, minerals and fiber.

Blue/purple (and a little bit of red):
These guys have been hogging all the attention due to their nutritional value. Produce like pomegranates, blueberries and grapes (red wine) are known for their high levels of antioxidants. These colors contains anthocyanins, lutein, zeaxanthin, resveratrol, vitamin C, flavonoids, ellagic acid and quercetin.

White:
White might seem like a strange inclusion, but some white produce is super healthy, especially for your immune system and to help lower cholesterol. Things like garlic, onions and leeks (think inside the leeks) contain allicin.

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!