Juicing for Health

This juice should come with a caution sticker to warn you that you might question the health and well being of your internal organs if you drink too much...but don't worry-it's the beets!

I make no secret of my love for my Breville Juicer, it sits in a place of honor on my counter-right next to the best Mother's Day gift EVER a Vitamix (thanks Daddy!).  These two appliances get daily work outs, sometimes both of them in the same morning if I'm feel particularly undernourished.  I love green juices, so does Paulo, and we drink those regularly and I love to experiment with new juice recipes and create my own concoctions. 

Before I get to the ingredients though I want to encourage anyone that is thinking about juicing to watch Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.  It is an amazing documentary about the healing power of good nutrition.  While I believe that most people would not need to go to the extreme that Joe had to go to in order to get healthy I think that just about everyone on the planet could use a little, no a lot, more vegetables in their diet and juicing or blending is an easy way to increase your fruit and vegetable intake.  My normal morning juice is kale/celery/apple/lemon.  It's refreshing, energizing and it tastes great.  But when I saw this particular juice on the Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead Facebook page I knew I had to try it.

So, what goes into this beautiful glass of goodness??

1/4 pineapple
1 orange, peel cut off
1 lemon, peel cut off
1-2 beets (depending on size)
4-5 carrots
5 fresh strawberries

Run the above through the juicer and enjoy!  The strawberries were an addition I made, they weren't in the original recipe but I had some extras on hand and they looked so good I had to use them. 

I hear a lot of feedback about how much time juicing takes and yes, I agree, it takes time.  But I think the bigger question is how much time does being sick take?  Our country loses countless hours of business productivity a year because of an unhealthy work force.  We sink thousands of dollars over our lifetime into the "health" care industry (or is it really sickcare?).  In the grand scheme of things if you spend a few extra dollars a month and take 15 minutes a day to make a fresh juice and it keeps you healthy isn't that worth it?  I think it is and that's why I juice, or blend, nearly every day.

Just for giggles

I hosted a 1960's theme fundraising dinner for my son's school last weekend.  It was a blast!

It was complete with vintage dresses, martinis, candy cigarettes and.....

Lime green jello mold, baby!  I must confess, in all my 37 years I have never actually made a jello mold before.  Oh I'm sure I've consumed some jello mold but I've never made one before.  I must also confess this will be my last jello mold.  Alas, I have lost my taste for sugar and this bad boy was really sweet!

Still I thought it would be fun to share the recipe, and the sugar rush.  And yes, my jello does match my dress and no I didn't mean to do that!  I bought the jello with little to no thought to my dress that I'd snagged at an awesome little antique store in Multnomah Village only days before my party. 

So, if you're ever consumed by a burning desire to twist, shout and dance the night away 60's style and need some sugar to keep the party rolling, find yourself a bundt pan (I had to borrow one!) and whip this bad boy up:

Jello and Fruit Salad Ring
2 cups boiling water
1 large box lime Jell-O
1 (8 ounce) package softened cream cheese
1 (15 ounce) can fruit cocktail, drained
1 (4½ ounce) container Cool WhipDIRECTIONS

Put Jell-O and soft cream cheese in large bowl. Add ½ cup boiling water and stir until dissolved. Add remaining water and mix well with mixer on low speed. Refrigerate until firm around the edge of the bowl (about 1 hour). Remove from refrigerator and beat with mixer on low speed until lightly mixed. Fold in Cool Whip and drained fruit cocktail. Pour into a non-stick bundt cake pan and let set in refrigerator for several hours or overnight (a non-stick square pan works well, too). Turn out onto a festive plate, slice and serve.

Recipe courtesty of AMC's Mad Men Party Guide

Hello strangers!

My oh my has this been a lengthy hiatus!  I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth and I haven't resorted to dining out nightly or ripping open boxes of noodles and cheese. I just haven't felt like blogging.  We've been eating, oh yes...we've been eating, but I was content to stay quiet in my little corner of the world and read what other people were eating.

It's Spring now and like the flowers outside and the leaves on the trees I'm coming out of hibernation.  It's been a long, dark, and wet winter!  We've been eating a lot of comfort food, rice and beans, lentils, roasted veggies and rich pastas and I am looking forward to the lighter palate of Spring and Summer-and hoping and praying we get a Summer this year, last year was far too chilly for my liking!

It's been a year of dietary flux in our household too.  I've been dipping my toe into the Vegetarian water for quite some time, I will admit I have not been able to commit 100% to it.  Sushi is my kryptonite, not that I get a chance to eat it often, but I really love it and I like to keep my options open!  I have hardly eaten any meat since the New Year, I still buy and prepare it for the carnivorous husband but it's dramatically reduced-you'd think that would dramatically reduce my grocery bill too but nope, not really-but that's a whole other vent in itself.  This week has been my first attempt at a vegan week, I haven't consumed animal products-even honey-since Saturday night.  On Saturday I did eat dairy and egg.  I actually feel really good.  My son, who turns 8 soon, has been dancing around it too, he's had stretches as long as a month where he will not eat meat, then all of a sudden he'll ask for some meat.  I try not to make a big deal out of it one way or another-but between you and me I think it bugs the heck out his Dad!  I suppose though since neither of us can commit we'd be considered "flexitarian" huh?  Kind of a silly way to define someone who just wants to eat what they want to eat to make themselves feel as healthy as possible.  I think if someone told me tomorrow, Krista you have to choose; meat eater or vegetarian?  I would choose vegetarian, but since that scenario is about as likely to happen as me winning the megamillions (and oh yes I did buy tickets for that!) I don't really have to worry now do I?

Some of my new favorite things though that I have discovered since I cut out meat are marinated and baked tofu-recipe to be posted later-and lentils and navy bean soup with smoked salt.  Actually I think the smoked salt is my favorite new kitchen discovery....well, ever!  Paulo gobbles up the soup, asks for more and then asks me to put it in his lunch the next day!  We've also been experimenting with juices, I started my week this week on a juice fast, after the initial caffeine withdrawal headache subsided I felt great!  I will post some new juicing recipes this weekend.  Finally I do have some new gluten free bread recipes to share.  So stay tuned for more recipes that I hope you will enjoy as much as we do.

Poached eggs over vegetables

My plan was something entirely different when I walked into the kitchen Monday night.  I had scheduled for a creamy sundried tomato pasta dish but I had some potatoes and previously cooked broccolli and green beans that needed to be used.  As I was boiling the water for the pasta I realized that's way too much carb!  So, plan B was born.

3-4 red or white potatoes
1/2 head steamed broccoli
1/2-1 cup steamed chopped green beans
2 cloves garlic, minced
eggs for poaching
Mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced
olive oil
sea salt
vegetable broth, low sodium
bread crumbs
1 tablespoon butter, melted

Bring water in a large pan to boil.  Heat the olive oil in a oven safe pan.  Add the potatoes and saute until crisping.  Drizzle in some vegetable broth to soften the spuds and prevent sticking.  Add in the broccoli and green beans, saute until the potatoes are done.  Sprinkle with the minced garlic, season with salt, mix well.  Sprinkle with the bread crumbs and drizzle with the melted butter.  Place in the oven under the broiler to brown. 

Poach eggs in the boiling water.

Serve the vegetables with poached eggs and top with a few slices of cheese.

Monthly menu planning

I just penciled out my first full month of menus.  I've been a menu planner for quite a while, I do agree that it helps keep cost down by reducing quick trips to the store and helps me be more efficient with my kitchen time.  But I usually plan week to week.  Now though I'm going to jump into monthly menu planning.  I printed off a blank September calendar and assigned a theme to each day of the week:

• Sunday is a family feast, something that takes a little more time to prepare and can be re purposed for lunches like roasts.
• Monday is our dedicated meatless day.
• Tuesday is crock pot meals, Paulo has a late soccer practice on Tuesday so this is definitely good for my sanity.
• Wednesday is our fiesta theme night
• Thursday is left overs, again, soccer practice so I'm trying to make my life easier!
• Friday will be a trip to the Orient for Asian style meals
• Saturday we're off to experience the wonders of Italian Cuisine

I have no idea if this will actually work out for me in the long run.  I hope it does.  I hope it helps me cut down on both time and money-both of which are in short supply-but that remains to be seen.  This will be an experiment for me.  Part of my motivation for trying this is my nerves over the impending start to school.  Don't get me wrong, I love school, so does Paulo but when he goes back to school free time gets more precious and ever more scarce.  If I can shave a few minutes off my time in the kitchen we all benefit now won't we?

Swai-hobo style

I learned a few things making this dish last night. 

1. Tin foil is my friend, it makes for insanely easy clean up.
2. Do not pile a bunch of vegetables on top of the fish, it impedes the cooking process!
3. I really like tin foil.

Take whatever veggies you have, I used the following
One yellow, pre cooked, potato-quartered and thinly sliced. 
One zucchini, sliced into rounds
Red onion
Mushrooms
Fresh basil
Garlic powder
Oregano
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil

Season the vegetables with the herbs and spices, drizzle with olive oil.  Lay the vegetables down first in the tin foil square, then plop the fish on top, close up the tin foil into a sack and pop it into an oven until the fish is cooked through.  Easy peasy!

Shrimp tacos with grilled pineapple salsa

I hate to say it out loud for fear of jinxing our good fortune but Summer may have finally arrived...at least for a couple of days.  What better way to celebrate than shrimp tacos bursting with spicy tropical salsa?

1 pound shrimp

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup white wine vinegar

zest and juice of one lime

cilantro

1 serrano chile, sliced

Combine the above in a sealed bag or medium size bowl and marinate at least 30 minutes.

1 pineapple, cored and quartered

4 tomatillos, husks removed

1/2 cup cilantro

1 serrano chile, sliced

sea salt to taste

Into a high powered blender place the tomatillos, cilantro, chile and salt, blend well until smooth and set aside.

Heat a grill to medium heat, remove the shrimp from the marinade and reserve the liquid.  Cook shrimp until done.  Grill the pineapple on all sides.  Chop pineapple roughly and combine with the blended tomatillo mixture.  Mix well, taste and add salt if desired.  Bring the reserved marinade to a boil and simmer until thick, if desired.  Serve the shrimp tacos on corn tortillas topped with the pineapple salsa and grilled onions, drizzle with the heated marinade for extra spice.