Hubby's Green Juice Blast Keeps Us Healthier

A big glass of Green juice is what we use to keep colds away especially over the winter months. My husband teaches everyday which places him in close contact with all manner of new germs or sickness. Since we have been drinking green juice regularly during the past couple of years, gone are the days of constant sickness! Whenever we feel a bug or germ is trying to get at us we make sure to prepare a big green juice! If we are on the road we get a 'green monster' at the local co-op or juice bar! So keep yourself and loved ones healthy by remembering to juice those fresh organic greens! Here is the recipe for Ben's usual organic green juice which you can of course adjust to what greens you have in your house. I am so grateful that he happily takes a big part in keeping us healthy by chopping the organic veggies and making this juice while I prepare and chop the dinner. Thanks honey! You are the best!!!

Ben's Green Juice Blast

1/2 - 1 Fennel bulb

Large handful of fresh baby spinach

Handful of fresh pea sprouts

1-3 Leaves of Swiss Chard

3 Stalks of celery

1 English Cucumber

1 Lemon

1-2 Green apples

Inch of peeled ginger

Optional 1-2 Carrot sticks (which will make the color a bit muddy)

All of the above ingredients are organic except our cucumber which was peeled to remove the toxins. After preparing your vegetables, fruits, and greens, by washing, peeling, or chopping, just place in your juicer. See my juicing guide here if you are unfamiliar with the routine. I love the fennel as that always adds a boost of flavor to the drink! Delicious! Be happy. Be healthy. Be peace.

Jicama Celery Cucumber Green Juice: A Light And Sweet Nutritious Libation

Treat yourself to a simple green juice with the added sweetness and body of jicama. This light Springtime green juice is a breath of fresh air, full of beneficial nutrients for your mind and body. Use your favorite glassware, and make everyday a special occasion to celebrate the healthier you! I love these seeded glass goblets... they make me feel like a Queen... if you know what I mean! So get out your beloved glassware, and rock your green juice today!

Purchase organic produce as much as possible, and remove the skin of items like cucumbers if they are not organic. Always peel the jicama regardless if it is organic or not, as the thick tough skin has low level toxins and must be discarded. It is actually the leaves, stems, and seed pods that are most toxic though, and the creamy flesh of the root is fine. Jicama is a wonderful addition to your produce basket especially if you are diabetic or sugar intolerant as it is very low glycemic for such a sweet tasting root.

Eaten raw or cooked, jicama is quite versatile and gives you the crisp snap and texture you may desire in many dishes. We often use the super crunchy water chestnut or apple like flavor of peeled and chopped jicama in salads. When jicama is added to your juice of choice it adds a wonderful mild earthy sweetness. You can read more about jicama in my post here.

Good organic whole food is a wonder and a blessing! Have you noticed that it just tastes better too? Without the dangers of pesticide and fungicide toxins, your veggies and fruits can provide you with clean healing goodness. Modern supermarket produce is generally grown on the poorest mineral depleted soils as well. If you buy from a local organic farmer who uses better soil practice you get even more nutrients. More reasons to buy organic and get those goodies inside of you!

Jicama Celery Cucumber Green Juice

1/3 - 1/2 jicama (depending on the size)

1 English cucumber peeled if not organic

4 stalks celery

1/2 lemon with some pith and peel left intact

1 - 2 organic only apples

1 inch peeled ginger root

 Chop and prepare veggies and fruit. Add to juicer. Pour into your glass and enjoy.

Have a bright inspiring day! Be happy! Be healthy! Be peace!

Sunny Light Pineapple Carrot Jicama Celery Juice. An Organic Tropical Delight!

This tropical delight is a much healthier orange colored juice than I gave to my kids in those sunny plastic bottles back in the eighties! As a mom I cringe at my old ignorant ways! Now that I know better by doing extensive research, I want my grandchildren to reap the benefits of a nutrient dense organic plant lifestyle. They are super intelligent kids (of course) and I want them to grow even smarter and stronger! Children's bodies need non-toxic foods and beverages! No dumbing down for them! So many parents are unaware of the dangers to our wee ones' growing brains from the overload of chemicals and toxins in our modern food supply. We know the little darlings love sweet things, so let's give them the very best goodies by making sure the food and fruits are organic.

Today's organic juice recipe came to be created because I forgot about the organic pineapple sitting behind all the produce... Yikes! I needed to make some juice quickly, before it was unusable. As a rule I generally juice only the core of the pineapple for its cancer fighting properties, and use the rest of this large sweet fruit in other dishes. Since this pineapple was ripe, it was ready to go! Then I wondered how much juice one pineapple would generate!? Hmmm... So that was the first part of the juicy scenario.

The second part of the juice plan was to add some compatible veggie items, along with something that would cut the overt sweetness of this juice down. Ripe pineapple is extremely sweet, and I did not want that huge of a sugar load on my sugar sensitive body. A big hunk of jicama added creaminess. Celery and lemon together took the edge off the sweetness. Adding carrots into the mix did not take away from the pineapple flavor either. These ingredients worked well together, and since the juice overall was still sweet, I drank this juice only in the morning. Now if you find the juice to be too sweet for you, just add some spring or sparkling water for a lighter tropical spritzer, and pour over ice. Tastes yummy if you are young, or 'eh hem' an older kid!

Pineapple Carrot Jicama Celery Juice

1 ripe organic pineapple

3 carrots

Half of a jicama peeled

5-6 celery stalks

1/2 lemon

1 inch ginger peeled

Optional 

Turmeric

Ceylon Cinnamon

All ingredients are organic. Cut or twist off the top of the pineapple. After cutting off the top and bottom areas of the pineapple, I then cut long chunks of pineapple that would fit into the wide opening of my Breville Juicer. You can leave the skin on if your pineapple is organic. Do not leave skin on if it is not organic, as the fungicides stick into all those crevices of conventional pineapples. Eww. I decided to leave skin half on, and half off. The juicer will take care of straining the skin out. Don't forget to juice the core! This is the most important part! 

WoW! This made a lot of juice! The pineapple juice alone filled the pitcher to the 850 mark! Doesn't it look cool before I mixed the juiced ingredients together! Psychedelic man! Then I gave the juice in the pitcher a stir and the orange carrot color became dominant as you can see in the photo below. 

After hubby and I each had a glass of sunny sweetness, I put the leftover juice into mason jars. Simply fill the jars to the top to keep out the oxygen damage, and cover tightly. Keep in the refrigerator and you're all ready for the next morning. This recipe will make a great deal of juice, so you will have to share, or save for later! Not a bad thing!

Since we do not often buy whole pineapples this was a very sweet treat. The celery, jicama and lemon not only helped to cut down on the sweetness, they gave us a wider variety of nutrients. Ginger gives this juice zesty cancer fighting goodness along with the pineapple core! Adding Ceylon Cinnamon helps with the insulin spike. Healing Turmeric is always a great addition to any juice or smoothie. This fresh made juice is a healthy sunny pleasure full of tropical delight! Enjoy!

Mixed Veggie Juice To Go!

Take your freshly made juice on the road! Fill a mason jar to capacity with your veggie juice, pack the tightly lidded jar on ice, and enjoy later in the day. Yes I realize this mixed vegetable juice may not look as pretty as some others, as it's a bit muddy looking in color due to orange and green items. So remember that the beauty of this baby shines in the healing cancer fighting nutrients that will fill your glass...or jar! Tastes good too! Since this recipe makes enough for two you can share with a loved one, or pack the extra to go!

Mixed Veggie Juice

3 Dinosaur Kale Leaves

3 carrots

2 apples

1 cucumber

5 Romaine Lettuce leaves

4 celery

1/2 lemon

1 inch ginger peeled

1 large broccoli stem and a few florets

Optional to stir in your juice after it's made.

1 Tsp Cinnamon

1 Tsp Maca powder

Place items into the juicer in the order listed above, or just remember to put harder vegetables into juicer after soft produce, to help push them through the machine. Add any optional ingredients to your juicing pitcher and stir well. I like to mix the maca powder in a small saucer with a bit of water first, then add to the pitcher. Pour the liquid magic into a glass and/or mason jar...and you're off on your beautiful day!

Fennel Jicama Carrot Pear Juice

This 'Fennel Jicama Juice' is inspired by a recipe from Dan McDonald - The Life Regenerator. Just when I was watching one of his DVD's called "Juicing For Energy and Peak Performance," we got a fresh fennel bulb from the CSA. Great timing! Since I did not know what to do with fennel last year, this was the perfect solution for us! 

Can we say 'beyond amazing' taste? I think that we can! Fennel has a licorice/anise flavor and even though I never liked black licorice as a kid, I found the flavor of fresh fennel to be extremely satisfying. Especially in this juice recipe! After taking a sip, hubby and I just looked at each other and said, "Oh WoW!' ...WoW!...and WoW! ...again. A seriously different flavor than any other drink! Thank you 'Dan The Man!' 

Fennel Jicama Carrot Pear Juice

1 entire Fennel Bulb

4 pears

4 carrots 

1/2 jicama peeled

1 inch ginger peeled

Prepare your organic items and run through your juicer. I put the entire fennel bulb and fronds into my Breville juicer. You can add the pears directly to the juicer, or instead use a blender afterwards to mix the pears with your juice of fennel, jicama, carrot, and ginger. If you juice the pears be sure to put the carrots in afterwards to push through the soft matter in your juicer. Taste your creation! Isn't that fantastic!!! 

You can find Dan McDonald's DVDs for sale here on his website. Dan says this juice is a great tonic for your digestion since pears and fennel are soothing for that area of the body. The only thing different from Dan's original juice recipe is that I added jicama to the recipe, and changed a few amounts.  

All the ingredients in this delicious juice are naturally sweet, then the ginger and fennel give it zing! Definitely give this fennel, jicama, carrot, pear, juice a try! You will love it for sure!!! A memorable juice experience, and good for you too! Sigh. We are happy in the neighborhood.

An Orange Dream Of A Juice

Of all the fruits associated with juice I would think 'orange juice' would certainly come to mind quickly. Apparently it does not come to my mind very often at all. Duh! That is a left over reaction from my blood sugar sensitivity mentality. Even though I have reversed my diabetes with my plant powered lifestyle I am still careful not to take in sugary items. This is not hard to do because I find so many things way too sweet now, and no longer enjoy them. Fruit is different and the natural sugars are pretty tasty, but I am careful of the spike in blood sugar from OJ. Since fruit is so important to health, I try to rotate the variety of fruit I consume just as I do my vegetables. I don't overload on just one fruit, and I try to keep most of the fruits in the first half of my day. Now I am getting back to juicing oranges on occasion for the flavor, the vitamin C, and other nutrients. 

As you know there is no comparison with store bought OJ and the home made orange juice. The store bought processed orange juice is not as 'picked fresh' as they claim, and actually sits in vats for a year. Did you know the famous OJ brands are actually owned by the famous soda brands. Oh my... think on that.

Since we are all about freshness and live enzymes let's juice for real! I decided to put a couple of organic oranges in the Breville and see how it handled them. It kinda sprays everywhere, so pull your plastic bag up over the corner edges of the bin where the top cover meets the machine. Since it's not my usual green juice, I drink this sweet juice in a small OJ glass and share with my hubby. If you decide to make homemade orange juice, I found this simple combination tastes quite reminiscent of a good ole childhood favorite called the creamsicle. When this orange dream hits your tongue be sure to swirl it like a fine wine in your mouth! Mmmm it almost feels creamy rich. You will then find the ice cream truck dream has returned... and your taste buds are singing, "heaven...I'm in heaven..."

Orange Dream Juice

4 oranges rind peeled

1/2 lemon rind peeled

1 cup coconut water

Peel your citrus rinds. Leave the white pith on as it is good for you.

Juice your oranges and lemon with your juicer of choice. 

Stir in the coconut water. Share and drink up! It's oh so yummy!

...and you didn't have to run down the street with your quarters.

Sunny Beet Carrot Apple Kale Juice

Beet Carrot Apple Kale Juice

3 leaves curly red kale - stems removed

1 small red beet - skin removed

1 large cucumber

1/2 lemon

2 Granny Smith apples

1 carrot

3 - 4 stalks of celery 

Turmeric sprinkle

A brilliant blend of juices from colorful fruits and vegetables. 

No worries newbies...beets, carrots, and apples are sweet, 

and you will not taste the kale at all.

Prepare your organic produce by rinsing and trimming.

Place all but the spice in your juicer, finishing with the hard carrot and celery.

Add turmeric to the pitcher of juice and stir. Pour and enjoy the rainbow.

We usually have green juices, but sometimes it is good to mix things up!

What's That? Dragon Fruit

This exotic Pitaya fruit which is grown in South America and many Asian countries is definitely the most gorgeous fruit I have ever seen for sale at our local grocery store. My eye always goes straight to this glowing beauty. A member of the night blooming cactus family, this shocking hot pink fruit always stands out when sitting in the fruit bins at Wegmans. Although the insides of Dragon Fruit can come in magenta, and yellow as well, I think the crisp white color dotted with the tiny black specs of the Dragon Fruit seeds are visually impressive against the pink outer rim. What a fantastic display, and lovely presentation a few of these Dragon Fruits would make on your party buffet table! Imagine a couple of these halved and sitting around the edible fruit tree (click for my previous post). Wow! Talk about turning people on to eating more fruit! Once people taste how delicious these cubes of fruit are, it will disappear from the table in no time. There are no thorns on this cactus either! Be prepared to fall in love with Dragon Fruit!

Nutritionally Dragon Fruit like most fruit contains valuable fiber to help with your digestion. Vitamin C, B1, B2, B3, Vitamin, A, calcium, phosphorous, are also readily available in the Dragon Fruit flesh. Since you eat the seeds that are evenly scattered in the flesh you are also getting protein and healthy fats. Additionally lycopene is in the red flesh variety of this cactus fruit. The delightful delish Dragon Fruit is also high in antioxidants making it a fighter of free radicals in cancer defense. Dragon Fruit is said to be a great choice for diabetics as it can aid in lowering the insulin response. Are you ready to try a Dragon Fruit yourself? You can read here how to choose a Dragon Fruit at the store. Dragon Fruit can be added to your smoothies and juices, with some coconut water and banana. Unless you have access to many of these tempting fruits, to me the Dragon Fruit seems too beautiful to just mush up in a drink. I like to take advantage of this showy species and enjoy the splendid attractiveness and tantalize the eye as well as the taste buds!

Preparing a Dragon Fruit to eat is very simple. You could just slice into long quarters and eat the interior flesh as you would an orange or watermelon, but I prefer the method of creating cubes shown above. After all with such a unique built in bowl, why not make use of that colorful attractive fruit platter. Oh I just love being fancy when it is so simple!

Slice open the fruit lengthwise with a knife revealing the delicious inner flesh. 

Carefully scoop with a large spoon a semicircular chunk of the soft interior flesh 

from out of the thick leathery skin. Much like half of a big melon ball.

Flip out the speckled flesh onto a cutting board and slice into cube shapes. 

Trim off any of the pink inedible outer skin that you may have cut by mistake. 

Return the cubes to The Dragon fruit bowls. Impressive! 

Use a fork or toothpicks to eat. You can cover and refrigerate.

Mmmm a delicate watery mouthwatering mix of soft sweet pear, melon, and kiwi in taste.

Plus hearing the word "Dragon" reminds me of "Game Of Thrones." Awesome! 

What a spectacular and cool dish this would be for a "Game Of Thrones" viewing party! 

Enjoy and Rock The Dragon!

Sweet Green Lemonade Juice

Fresh, sweet and green!  It's a bright glass of sunshine! Organic celery mixes well with any vegetable juice combination that you may create. This healthy fresh home made juice has celery as the star of the show for a change! Along with a whole lemon, cucumber, and two green apples, the taste of this green celery juice is light and sweet. Certainly a great substitute for your sweet drinks of the past. Celery juice is rich in B-complex vitamins, plus vitamin C, A, E, minerals, and helps maintains electrolyte balance. Using some of the zest of the peel adds cancer fighting limonene to your juice too. This is a sweet beauty that makes your taste buds sing! "Oh yes!"

'The King' bought me that retro royal nubby glass that you see in the photo for Valentine's. I'm thinking that perhaps The Queen may need a few more of those appropriate glasses!

Sweet Green Lemonade Juice

8 stalks of celery

2 granny smith apples 

1 lemon peeled

lemon zest

1 cucumber 

All ingredients are organic, but if you buy regular supermarket cucumbers be sure to peel them. We peeled the lemon, and had zested just one fifth of the rind beforehand for the nutrients and added flavor. Add each ingredient to your juicer, then drink up! 

This recipe makes enough juice for two servings. Enjoy!

Red Chard, Dandelion, Parsley Juice

Juuuuuuuuuiccccccce! When everyone around you at work is getting sick, that's a big reminder to keep up with downing your awesome green juices everyday! Tell yourself that it's time for a screaming green meanie! Make something just like this juice, it tastes good, but has that dark green kick to it! Juicing fresh organic produce makes for a great green elixir of health! The celery, apple, lemon, and cucumber, add the sweetness to the chard, parsley, and dandelion mix. You can always add in an extra apple as well to keep the doctor away.

Swiss Chard is full of vitamin C, K, and A, along with minerals and phytonutrients, which makes chard a powerhouse of goodness. Regular intake of chard prevents osteoporosis, vitamin-A deficiency, and perhaps even colon cancer. (One caution: If you make oxalate stones in the urinary tract you will have to avoid chard, and spinach, or take with a lot of water. You can always substitute more dandelion or Romaine lettuce.) This juice, filled with all these good green veggies and herbs, has wonderful benefits towards your good health! Now here's to you feeling better, and raising your Immunity too!

Red Chard, Dandelion, Parsley, Green Juice

2-3  leaves Red Chard

small handful of dandelion

small handful of parsley

4-5 stalks of celery

1 large English cucumber

1 granny Smith apple

1/2 lemon

1/2 inch ginger peeled

Place your organic herbs, and leafy green veggies in juicer first, followed by the harder fruits and veggies. Peel your cucumber if not organic. That's it! Makes enough for you and your mate! Be sure to share the healthy juice! Keep the sick meanies away!

Carrot Leek Cashew Coconut Soup

This is a story about carrots. Lots-o-carrots! I had planned on making some type of vegetable soup, as I had a box of low sodium vegetable starter broth. You know just a quickie soup pot to warm up a cold winter's day. Well this turned into a production, but it was so worth it in the end. In gathering the usual mirepoix ingredients (celery, carrots, and onions) I was looking over my current pile of produce. I then spied two huge leeks that needed to be prepared soon. I thought to myself, "Well leeks are a form of onion, so that should work as a substitute for the onions." Okay sounds interesting.

Then once more I looked into the fridge to get the celery and carrots. Oh my, I had an over flow of carrots in my supply. Some fancy organic dark red carrots, and a huge bag of carrots for juicing. Hmmm I have seen Dr. Joel Fuhrman put fresh made carrot juice right into a soup he was making, maybe that is what I should do too, just to use up the orange lovelies. Then I considered what to use to cream up a carrot soup, since I do not do dairy. How about coconut milk? Yes, I have that in cans and boxes. As soon as I thought coconut milk, I thought Thai... and cashews. That's how I came to make this soup. 

I have since looked this veggie soup combination up on the internetzzz, and found that other people had this fantastic idea too! You might assume that I take pix of every meal I make. Actually, I don't always have the time, or even think about it... till afterwards, and then I say, "Oops!"  Well, thank goodness I took photos of this one, because it is a winner! My husband said this carrot leek soup was so delicious, it was like dining at a fancy restaurant. Good call honey!

Carrot Leek Cashew Coconut Soup 

3-4 stalks of celery

2 huge leeks

12 carrots

1 box low sodium organic vegetable broth

1/4 tsp garam masala

1/4 tsp turmeric

1 tsp curry powder 

1 inch fresh ginger minced or micro-planed

3/4 box coconut milk

1/2 cup cashews - plus garnish amount
4 tbs golden flax powder.

1/2 lemon

After gathering the organic vegetables together, I washed, trimmed, and prepared them to go into my enameled cast iron Lodge Dutch Oven,stew pot, which I love, by the way. I have the Caribbean blue version, and it looks beautiful on the stove even when I am not cooking. Of course you could get all super fancy on us, and buy the Le Creuset Enameled Cast-Iron French Ovenversion, which is the superstar of enameled pots! Oh! Get on with your bad super chef self! I can't touch that!

Back to preparing leeks, be sure to slice them lengthwise first, and fan out the layers as you run water down inside the veggie. This is to dislodge any sand, or dirt particles, that may have gotten trapped inside. I placed the chopped leeks, chopped celery, and two of the carrots, which happened to be the dark red organic carrots, inside my big soup pot. I held back a few slices as a garnish for the plate, since the red carrots have that cool sunburst design inside. Psychedelic baby!

I then sauteed the veggies without using any oil. You do this because it is much healthier of course! As the water from the veggies steams out, you then you add a bit of spring water to steam them till they saute and wilt. Add your spices to the pot, then stir a few times. Smells good right? Mmmm I know. Now pour in your box of organic low sodium vegetable broth, or your own homemade broth. Bring to a boil, then lower temp to a simmer.

While the covered soup is heating up on the stove at a simmer, go peel 10 carrots. Just zen out with your peeler. Think about Unicorns for awhile. If the carrots are organic, you can just scrub them really well. The Unicorns are dancing in the forest now.

Let's make carrot juice using my  Breville Juice Processor which made a quick cup and a half of carrot juice from those 10 carrots. Mmm looks good! I really want to drink that right now!!! I bet those Unicorns want some too!

Stroll back over to the stove and pour the fresh carrot juice right in your soup! Pretty.

If you do not have a juicer just chop the carrots and place in the soup to cook down till soft. Either way, cover the pot, and let your soup simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour. Then you are going to let it cool way down before placing into a blender. Reserve some of your cooked chunks of carrot, celery and leeks and set aside if you would like some of these chunky bits in your final soup dish. 

Warning! Do not place hot soup in blender. See that soft plastic lid on mine, it got so hot from the soup, that I am getting the shivers thinking about anyone turning the blender on and burning themselves. Noooooo, do not do it. Danger Will Robinson! Please pour the soup you are going to blend into another pot or large bowl first to cool down. I wish I had the awesome  Vitamix 5200s blender for this task! Oh yeah baby! This is the year we are getting one, with all the extras too! I just know it! Anyway, while you are waiting for the soup to cool, you can use this time to place your 1/2 cup of cashews into a Cuisinart Mini-Prep Food Processor, or Black & Decker Coffee Grinder /spice grinder, and make a cashew powder.  I do have a Black and Decker coffee/spice grinder, and that is what I chose to use for the task. This works great for grinding the whole flax seeds into powder too. Speaking of flax, let's make some golden flax powder now as well.

Okay, now take your cooled down soup mixture, and pour to the halfway point in your blender container. It will take a couple of batches to blend smooth all the soup you have made. Patience. Pour in some of the coconut milk, ginger, flax powder, and cashew powder, each time you blend a batch. As you finish each blended carrot leek cashew coconut soup mixture, then pour this back into your big soup pot. If you have an immersion blender Cuisinart Smart Stick you can avoid the extra steps and mix right in your soup pot! Just be sure the stick is fully immersed before you blend! (Thanks for the heads up Tamera!)

Once you have returned all the soup back into your big soup pot, squeeze the juice of 1/2 lemon into your soup. If you reserved some chunky bits of cooked chopped celery, leek, and carrot, you can add those back in at this time as well. Stir and warm up the creamy goodness. Use your own judgement about how you like the thickness of your soup, whether or not to add any more coconut milk, since there should be some left in the box. Be sure to serve this soup with whole cashews thrown into each bowl. Oh yes, see me toss them in with delight! Seriously the crunch of the cashews goes fantastic with these flavors.

So there it is! One of my best food creations ever! If you have the time to try making this carrot, leek, cashew, coconut soup, you will be so very happy with yourself! It is now completely up to you, if you decide to share it with the Unicorns. Enjoy!