Yet Another Green Juice

Can you tell I'm infatuated with green juice? I can't help myself. I love to juice spinach. This particular juice is very clear and light colored because I was very careful to skim the pulp off the top when pouring it into my glass then I poured it through a very fine mesh strainer. I froze the pulp for a later use in a smoothie, can't  waste all those vitamins. I find that if I take too long drinking one of the pulpier juices that it gets a bit icky towards the end and I simply was not in the mood for that today. I really wish I had fresh mint or basil on hand for this juice, it would have been amazing. Maybe next time. This juice is very light refreshing and a bit tart at the same time.

Yet Another Green Juice:
4-5 Granny Smith Apple
2 Kiwi
1 cup Spinach and Arugula Mix
4 celery stalks
a large knob of Ginger

Juice your produce. Strain the mixture with a fine mesh strainer. Refrigerate and Drink.

What's For Dinner

It's been awhile since I've done one of these posts. You know a post that's not a real post...

Some of the things we have been eating around these parts lately are

Carrot, Sweet Potato and Pumpkin Curry Soup

Taco Soup

Lime Chicken Quesadillas

Babaganoush and pita chips

My Dad grilled out and my Step Mom and sister made sides

we had Boneless Pork Ribs

Balasamic Chicken

Grilled potatos

Grilled Zucchini

Grilled Pablano Peppers

Garlic Mashed Potatos

Squash Casserole

And Salad

WOW that was alot of food but it was goooooood!

Coconut crusted Chicken with Orance coconut dipping sauce

Bruleed Orange sweet potatos

Roased brussel sprouts

Oh and I made pink waffles for Valentine's Day. That was the last thing we ate that day due to a stomach virus being shared between us. Because of the stomach virus I had to postpone my plans of a family picnic in the living room floor with finger foods and a Monkey and Doodle Bug friendly movie. Instead we slept and drank Gatorade and ate Saltines.

 I finally made our feast this past week and I made waaaaaay too much food so we had leftovers for  days. We had baked mini eggs rolls, crab rangoon, baked buffalo cauliflower and hummus and pita chips.

Also, I didn't cook this but we had the most amazing pizzas at Mellow Mushroom. I had the Thai Dye and Lee had the Holy Shiitake, there are no words to describe how much we loved them. 

In other news...

Fun mornings.

My grandmother sent me a bunch of recipes, including some of her handwritten favorites! Jackpot!

Best Friends and Thirty.

It's embarrassing how much I neon right now. 

Beautiful days.

I mustache you a question. 

But I'll shave it for later.

Be Awesome and Bake!

I love How I Met Your Mother, I have absolutely no clue what is currently going on as I have to wait for Netflix to stream the current season. We have no cable and CBS shows aren't on Hulu Plus and CBS's website streaming is a joke! It is horrible! GGGRRRRR Anywho! Love me some HIMYM especially love me some NPH! So I made this little cutie while I was trying to drown out the noise from Fireman Sam. I'm going to frame it and hang it among some other fun DIY projects yet to be finished (or started for that matter.) Feel free to right click and save as and steal it for yourself.

Oh and I made a cute "Keep Calm" poster for my kitchen feel free to snag it as well.

Roasted Tomato Marinara

Things have been bonkers around here lately, hence my absence. And to top it off every single one of us being sick twice now and I have pulled a muscle or pinched something in my back. So I look like Igor right now. booooooo! I finally have a post ready and it is one I've been dying to share but we always eat and forget to photograph. This marinara is a favorite around here. I recently made it in mass quantity for a family get together for around 30 people and it was gone before I knew it. My husband was late because of work and didn't get any because it was gone, good thing my Mom also made Alfredo and there was enough for one plate. I guess we know what we're doing in the kitchen or at least our family seems to think so. This dinner takes a bit of time but is so ridiculously easy that it is the perfect thing for a lazy Sunday afternoon. This last batch of sauce made two meals, the first with spaghetti squash the other with traditional spaghetti noodles. If you haven't had spaghetti squash you should try it, it is a healthy, vegan, gluten free alternative to pasta. I still love traditional pasta, in fact that is what I'm showing it my sauce with in this post, and we will continue to eat it on occasion. However, I feel that making the change to spaghetti squash is a great way to keep us healthy and getting more veg into my picky little eater.

This marinara takes a bit of time between roasting in the oven then stewing on the stove top but it is very low maintenance and super easy. You can easily tweak it to fit your own palate. Depending on the natural sweetness of the tomato, onion or garlic spends on how much of the canned tomato I add later into the cooking. Depending on what I'm craving depends on the amount of basil I use. I prefer it meat free but you can easily brown some ground beef or ground turkey and add to the sauce. Just a tip for those of you who are skeptical of the flavor of the turkey, add a splash of beef stock to the sauce and you will not be able to tell the difference  I did that several times before I told my husband that he wasn't eating beef and he never knew. I use that poor guy as a guinea pig so often and he never complains. Guess I'm just lucky like that.

For the marinara:
(serves 4-6)
6 Roma tomatoes, quartered
2 yellow onions, cut into eighths
1 medium to large head of garlic, whole with the skin on
1 to 2 14 oz cans of crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce
5(ish) basil leaved finely chopped
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375 F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil add your prepared veggies and roast for 20 to 30 minutes. Your onions will be charred and that is good, do not panic. Once they come out of the oven, cut the bottom off the garlic and squeeze the garlic "meat" out into the blender and puree the veggies in a blender add to a sauce pan and simmer on medium  Add your canned tomatoes. Simmer for 10 minutes and season with salt and pepper to taste then add your basil simmer a few minutes more. Toss with your pasta top with some shredded Parmesan and a bit more fresh basil.
Enjoy!

Tropical Green Juice

I have created, okay, well I picked the stuff but the hubs actually made, the BEST JUICE EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!  True story y'all! I could drink this everyday. Not too tart, not too sweet with a hint of peppery spice in the background. I  LOVE IT! I want to drink this everyday, forever! It totally rocked my socks off, well not technically since I wasn't wearing socks when I drank it, but it totally would have. For reals! It is a bit tart, of course the tartness/sweetness can vary depending on the ripeness of your fruit. I prefer it tart, but if it is too tart for you, add more kiwi or cut back on the pineapple. You could also stir in some agave nectar if you prefer.

This recipe should serve two people one 12 oz juice each or one person two portions as meal replacement. If you are juicing along with eating healthy then 4 portions are easy what I would expect to get out of this recipe. It was my breakfast and lunch today. Of course there is no way to predict the exact amount of juice you will get from your fruit but this make quite a lot.

Juice
1/2 of a pineapple
1 mango
2 kiwi
2-3 cups of spinach arugula mix
2 stalks of celery
1/2 inch knob of ginger
Refrigerate and enjoy. :-)

Green Goodness Juice

I cheated. I skipped juicing for two days and boy was it a mistake. Juicing is work, it is not easy and I missed chewing so I skipped a couple of days. Because I stopped I felt like poo. I felt like I had a plague. So I'm back to juicing and being healthy. I have chicken thawing for a nice mostly healthy dinner and I'm enjoying this lovely beverage while I get to cracking on cleaning and rearranging the living room.

Green Goodness Juice

2 apples

2 pears

2 cups of fresh (not frozen) spinach

2 plums

a hunk of fresh ginger

Juice and enjoy!

You really really need the ginger, otherwise the juice is way too sweet. This is my favorite juice I have made so far this time around.

Sunshine Smoothie

 We started today with another yummy concoction. It looks like a lot of ingredients but in all actually it isn't. Lee came home with a gigantic bag of frozen fruit mix from the grocery store because it is perfect for my smoothie addiction. It is a mix of pineapple, strawberry, mango and peach. I made a  huge smoothie, as you can tell from the picture, for my breakfast and lunch today plus I had enough for Caleb to have a small smoothie with his breakfast.

 I find that carrots are a fairly strong flavor so I like to combine them with orange. They compliment each other in flavor and color which matters when getting kids to drink it. I know that Caleb refuses to drink anything that has muddy colors but he will drink anything with bright vibrant colors. 

Sunshine Smoothie

makes 2.5 servings

2-3 Blood  oranges, juiced

2 carrots, juiced

1 cup of frozen fruit mix

1/2 frozen banana  

Blend all ingredients and enjoy!

My Personal Revolution!

While I was away from the blog last year the hubby decided it was time for a major change in our lives. He bought a juicer and start juicing everything, we once joked about juicing a ham! Lee was pumped and loved every minute of it. He even drank some of the worlds worst combinations ever imagined. He lost 40 pounds by replacing two meals with juice or smoothies and eating healthy for dinner. I know that sounds crazy, extreme but it is was needed to break the junk food addiction that most of us have. I did not replace meals with juice because I was pregnant and didn't think that was the best idea. He was doing amazing but we stopped juicing when pregnancy complications started to arise. It was probably the best time to be juicing but it was just too much. We continued to eat fairly healthy through out the pregnancy especially since I tried to control my blood pressure issues with diet and vitamins. We still try to eat healthy more often than not. I know that is not completely obvious by my blog posts! 

This is not and never will be a permanent solution for my life. I am trying to do the same as Lee by juicing my first two meals and cooking a nice healthy dinner for 30 days. After one month I will revisit the way I eat and continue to juice when I need a little extra hit of veg or when I'll be on the run and won't have time for a proper lunch, if for no other reason to keep me away from the drive through window. I'm also trying to get Caleb drinking this typ of juice as opposed to store bought "100%" juice. He helped me make this recipe, which is why I have so much. He added an apple and an extra pear to the juicer while I was retrieving spinach from the fridge. He also had a glass of apple and pear with a bit of spinach in his robot cup with lunch. He only drank half but it was apparently "dewiscious" with his pb&j for lunch. Do not think I would ever put my child on a juice cleanse! I just want him to learn what real unprocessed fruit and veg tastes like. 

I plan on sharing some of my favorite creations but I will still be posting food and baking posts because treating yourself now and then is just fine. I need to strike a balance between eating what I want and eating what I need!

I call this one Funky Juice because it is U G L Y, it ain't got no alibi! It's ugly, yeah, yeah it's ugly!

But it is sooooooo good! I'm not a huge fan of vegetable or tomato juice, I'm hoping to change that, but for the time being there will be mostly fruit in my juice! Also you should know we have a Breville Juice Fountain Plus. If you have a different juicer follow the instructions for your machine. If you like yours cold, either refrigerate your produce the night before or you can refrigerate afterwards just remember to stir before you drink it because it will separate! 

Funky Juice

makes 1 to 2 portions

3 pears

1 apple

2 plums 

5 strawberries

a heaping handful of spinach (think side salad amount)

Wash your veggies! Remove the stems. Cut plums in half and remove the stone. Remove the tops from the strawberries and juice. Now if you don't have a juicer. Remove seeds and cores. Process in food processor or blender and strain through a fine mesh strainer.