Dinner Juice Recipe

This juice makes a nice change from fruits and vegetables and can be served warmed.

Ingredients:

• Two large tomatoes
• Two celery stalks
• Bunch of basil
• clove of garlic
• 1/2 medium sweet vidalia onion
• 1 sweet potato
• 4 carrots
• 1T nutritional yeast
• vegetarian broth/base

Run everything but the yeast and broth through the juicer.  Pour into a pot and add broth/base to taste and the nutritional yeast.  Warm to bath temperature and enjoy. Makes around 32 ounces.  Try different amounts of the veggies to see what your taste buds like.

I have tried heating this juice in the vitamix but it becomes too frothy for my taste. 

Magenta Juice

The garden is in full swing...bush beans, beets, carrots and zucchini.  The grapes, alas,  are from the store and I can't show you the blueberries because they went into the juice.

The results: fresh taste and gorgeous color!

Here's the recipe:

• Two medium beets
• Two small carrots
• 1 cup green beans (some of mine are purple)
• 1 zucchini
• 1 bunch of red grapes
• handfull of blueberries

Juice and enjoy!  This recipe makes about 32 ounces of juice.

Nutrition:

The beets give you Calcium, magnesium, vitamin C, iron, potasium and B6.  The green beans are rich in the same things as beets plus vitamin A.  Carrots are a superpower for Vitamin A.  Zucchini has tons of vitamin A and potassium.  Grapes make this juice sweet and delicious and blueberries are high in vitamin C.  All these dark colored fruits and vegetables carry a load of anti-oxidants and fiber. 

Hit the Trail Energy Bars

 We live a very active lifestyle...biking, hiking, skiing and kayaking...or just plain being busy.  I love energy bars for that reason.  What convenience...pop one in a jacket pocket or backpack and voila--instant snack.  I've been warned: calories, added junk that's bad for you...it goes on, so I wondered "how hard are they to make?"  The answer: darned easy!  So easy in fact that I think my twelve year old could do it.

These bars are healthier and much much cheaper to make than to buy.  I think I have around $7 dollars into them for 15 bars...less than 50 cents per bar.  You can't even beat that at Sam's Club!  They taste better than the store bought because you can add whatever you like.  Substitute different nuts: pepitas, pine nuts, cashews or pecans leap to mind.  Substitute different dried fruit to make a completely different taste: dried apricots, apples and cinnamon, raisins or dried cherries would all make a great choice.

Here's the recipe I came up with.  The first time I used maple syrup and the "bars" didn't hold together.  They did, however make the BEST granola in the world after a 10 minute trip to the oven.  Figure your worst mistakes with this recipe will be yummy.

• 1 cup oats, lightly cooked in a dry frying pan over medium heat.  (10 minutes or so)
• 1 cup roasted sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 2 cups crispy rice cereal
• 4 Tablespoons butter
• 2/3 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup honey *** (honey unfiltered from local sources.  A lot of "pure honey" has a certain amount of corn syrup and Chinese honey which is illegal because it contains pesticides.  Don't buy it.  You might as well save your money and get corn syrup--at least you know what you're buying.  Once filtered and pasteurized there's no telling what's in it)

Cook the oats to bring out their nutty flavor--un-cooked they taste a whole lot like bits of cardboard.  Put the nuts, seeds and oats in a bowl and mix. Set the mixture aside.

Put the butter, sugar and honey in a small pot.  Cook on low for about 10 minutes.

Line an 8x8 cake pan  with wax paper --all the way up and over the sides.  Mix the syrup with the nut mixture.  Add the cranberries and crispy rice cereal to the batch and mix well.  Transfer the mixture to the wax paper and take another piece of was paper to lay on top.  Compress the mixture through the wax paper until firmed.  Let sit for about an hour to cool and solidify.  Cut with a sharp knife.  At this point the bars will still be warm and gooey, handle with care.

This makes about 15 bars.  Wrap individual bars in wax paper and allow to harden another hour.

You are now ready to take a hike!  Next time I make these I am going to try dipping the bottom in dark chocolate and drizzling some on top for an extra mmmmmmmm factor.

And the Beet Goes On

 You may have been wondering where I went.   I did break my fast at 23 days and started working on the BIG question...what do I eat?  I didn't want to write about something I didn't really know about so I waited to see what would happen.  I started out eating "regular food" for the first few days--heavy on the veggies and salads.  When I say regular food I mean I ate a little meat, like chicken, at dinner, had eggs or oatmeal at breakfast and a big salad with tuna and veggies on it at lunch time.  Pretty healthy stuff.  Here's where things get interesting.

When you stop eating food and go on juice you lose all your stomach ailments...daily aches and pains that you don't notice when it's an every day occurrence.  I have acid reflux quite a bit and that went away on the juice fast.  I would have cramps and mild nausea sometimes and that went away.  There is an uncomfortable bloated feeling that also went away.  And my blood sugar spikes and dips went away on juice.

When I started eating again those things came back in spades when I ate the wrong thing.  For me wheat was the biggest culprit but I also had bad reactions to sausages, sugary stuff and milk and cheese.  You get feedback right away and it takes a little time to recover afterwards.  Good incentive to get it right.

What's for dinner takes on a new meaning in these un-charted waters.  I began experimenting.  Here are some ideas if you are looking for what to eat.  I take a salad and either put a lean unprocessed meat on it (4 oz or so of tuna or chicken) or a 1/4 cup of seasoned beans...I like garbanzo beans with garlic, onion and italian herbs or black beans with garlic, onion and chili powder and cumin powder.  I am enjoying my new taste buds by adding fresh herbs like cilantro and basil to the salads.

Yesterday I harvested some baby beets and added one of them to my salad for lunch.  Later on I made the rest for dinner featuring baby beats, sweet potatoes (thin sliced) cooked in a mixture of dark maple syrup (1/4 cup and 4 TBS butter)  Saute until tender and add thin sliced granny smith apples and thin sliced ginger.  A Tablespoon of broth finished the mix...I served this over the beet greens sauted with onions and garlic in a little olive oil.

 It is heaven for the taste buds!  Here's the recipe:

• 3 medium beets, thin sliced
• 1 medium sweet potato thin sliced
• beet greens and stems 
• 1 small granny smith apple, cored and sliced
• 2 x 1 inch peice of ginger, thin sliced and peeled
• 2 cloves of garlic, pressed or chopped fine
• one medium onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup dark maple syrup
• 4 Tablespoons butter
• 1 Tbsp broth

• Olive oil to cover bottom of pan in thin layer

Saute the beets and sweet potato in butter over low heat for 5 minutes.  Add the maple syrup and continue cooking until tender--another 5 minutes or so.

In the meantime put the olive oil in another pan and saute the onion and one of the cloves of garlic.  Add the beet greens and continue to cook until done.

Meanwhile, add the sliced apple, pressed garlic and ginger to the beets and sweet potatoes.  Stir frequently.  Reduce the glaze by cooking over medium heat.  Add the broth and taste.  Add salt to taste.

When the beet greens are done, turn them off.  Season to taste.  Serve beet greens topped with the tangy-sweet beets and sweets mixture on top.