Smoothies, Juice and Soft Serve

Lemon Balm Green Smoothie

2-3 c. water

4 c. kale

1/4 c. lemon balm or mint leaves

1 1/2 c. blueberries (frozen or fresh)

 1 c. of mixed fruit blend 

(I used  frozen mango, strawberries, peaches & pineapple)

2 T. hemp seeds

Blend & Enjoy!

This made about 2 quarts  my daily dose of green smoothie. I normally drink 1-2 quarts of green smoothie per day. This is a good way to get a significant amount of nutrient dense greens into your diet.  

Green Juice

kale 

spinach

romaine

leaf lettuces

beet greens

cucumber

zucchini

2 radishes

ginger

lemon juice

Juicing is another way to flood your cells with nutrients.

This is for pure pleasure!

Strawberry Soft Serve with Cacao Sauce

1 c. fresh almond milk

2 frozen bananas

frozen strawberries with greens

Blend in a Vita-Mix or food processor.

To make this more nutritious you can add some spinach or green powder.

Cacao Sauce

2 T. raw cacao or cocoa powder

1 t. vanilla 

agave to sweeten and blend to desired consistency

I made this soft serve the next day.  

Chocolate Sunbutter (taste like peanut butter) Soft Serve. 

1 c. almond milk

2 T. sunbutter

2 frozen bananas

vanilla

blend in Vita-Mix or food processor 

Banana Soft Serve can be made into any flavor you desire.  Just remember the almond milk & frozen bananas are the base.  Use your imagination and enjoy!

Stawberry Rhubarb Smoothie

Last week we received rhubarb in our share.  

While at my daughter's Karate class I was sharing with a lady who uses it in her smoothies. (thanks Holly!)

So I decided to make a strawberry rhubarb smoothie and it turned out great.

Here is my recipe~

Strawberry Rhubarb Smoothie

2 c. water

1 banana

handful of beet greens including stems

big handful of spinach

2 small stalks of tender rhubarb

1 1/2 c. frozen strawberries (if using fresh add ice to smoothie)

Blend & Enjoy!

Eat More Greens!

Beet and Kale Salad Recipes & What to do with Mint

I've been getting spearmint and peppermint from one of my CSA shares.  

What to do with it??

You can make  Spearmint or Peppermint Infused Water

Infused Water~

Thank you Penni Shelton of Raw Food Rehab

This batch of water includes

fresh spearmint

1 organic navel orange

goji berries

liquid stevia

I placed this in the fridge overnight and it was ready in the morning.

I waited to add the stevia to each glass.

Mint tea's help the body to stay cool in the heat.  I try to keep some in the fridge all summer long.

Or make some Tabbouleh~

Tabbouleh

1 bunch of parsley~chopped fine

1 bunch of cilantro~chopped fine

4 tomatoes~diced

4-6 stalks of celery~diced

4 green onions~chopped

2 c. cooked quinoa or for all raw use hemp seeds

1/3 c. lemon juice

1/3 c. extra virgin olive oil

1/2 t. cumin

2-3 T. fresh MINT

black pepper to taste

Tonight we enjoyed this Tabbouleh with lemon Tahini dressing (tahini, lemon juice, Bragg's Liquid Aminos and water to thin)..I like to drizzle this dressing over my salad. On the table was garlic hummus and warm pita bread. 

We also recieved Beets in our share.

Here is one of my favorite raw recipes:

Beet Salad

1 bunch of beets peeled and shredded

5-6 cloves of garlic minced

1/4 c. ev olive oil

1/4 c. lemon juice

dash of salt

dash of ground cloves

mix and let marinate for a bit.

Did you know that  CLOVES neutralize garlic breath?

Remember clove gum?

I used to love it!

This is not garlic clove. 

KALE SALAD

1 bunch of kale

radished~diced

mini sweet pepperrs~chopped

chives~finely chopped

Chinese Five Spice to taste

 lemon juice

extra virgin olive oil

Himalayan salt

handful of raw pumpkin seeds

Cheezy Kale Salad

not pictured

1 large bunch of kale cleaned, de-stemmed and shredded

in blender:

1/4 c. apple cider vinegar

1/4 c. Bragg's liquid Amino's

1/2 c. filtered water

1/3 c. tahini

1/4 to 1/3 c. of  raw sesame seeds

2 garlic cloves

Himalayna  salt to taste

1/4 c. nutritional yeast

blend until smooth and pour over kale massage and let sit in fridge or eat right away if you cannot wait!

Mediterrianean Kale Salad~pictured above

kale

yellow bell peppers

olives

olive oil

lime juice

Himalyan salt

Remember to smile today

and be kind to those you meet

you never know what someone is going through

Strawberry Banana Soft Serve and what I'm doing with my Veggies

Yesterday was our first portion from our CSA.  I am blessed to belong to two of them.  I received strawberries in my full share and more are expected next week from my other farmer.

We ate many of them, stems included.  Don't throw away the greens.  They are full of chlorophyll and other nutrients.  If you are not hard core like me, just toss them in your smoothie.

My daughter and I  had planned on making Banana soft serve today...but those strawberries were sitting on the counter so I tossed a few in....Yummy!!!

Here is the recipe:

Strawberry Banana Soft Serve

In Vita-Mix  

add in this order:

1/2 c. fresh almond milk

4 strawberries

4 medium frozen bananas broken up

1/2 t. vanilla 

begin blending at 2, then increase speed to 3 or 4 until four mounds appear.  stop your machine so that it doesn't overheat or melt your ice cream.  

This soft serve was absolutely the best!

you can use a food processor if you don't own a Vita-Mix.

Enjoy!

I have been getting lots of greens from my farmer over the last few weeks so I've been enjoying lots of green juices.  This is another way to get tons of micronutrients.

We received a leek in our share yesterday.  So I made some quinoa.

I made 2 c. of quinoa

then added

chopped leek

orange bell pepper

black pepper

lemon juice

Here is another item we were blessed with, asparagus

I water sauteed it with leeks and tossed in a few chopped collard leaves

My lunch

Kale &  Bean Salad 

(we also received kale in our share) 

asparagus

quinoa

Being part of a CSA is a great way to recieve load of healthy immune strengthening micronutrient rich foods.

You can find pictures of last years harvest here. 

Thanks for reading.

God bless your day!!

Eat More Veggies!

We try to eat mushrooms as often as possible.  Today we lightly sauteed them with red onion and bell peppers (nothing added).  Mushrooms are one of those foods to have in your immune strengthening arsenal.
Some mushrooms are anti-inflammatory, stimulate the immune system, prevent DNA damage, slow cancer cell growth, cause programmed cancer cell death, and inhibit angiogenesis. Angiogeneiss is the promotion of new blood vessel growth from existing blood vessels.  These blood vessels feed cancer and tumor growth and also fat cells. In addition to these properties, mushrooms also contain aromatase inhibitors – compounds that can block the production of estrogen. Which is good news for inhibiting some hormone cancers.

Studies show that onions halt the development of some cancers. They are loaded with antioxidants and have anti-inflammatory effects.

Colorful vegetables like bell peppers are high on the nutrient density list and they are also a high water content food.

With all of these benefits shouldn't you be eating more vegetables today?

More Local Veggies & Kale and Bean Salad Recipe

Here is a picture of some of the yummy young kale I received from my CSA farmer. 

Kale is a cruciferous vegetable.  

Kale is one of my family's favorite greens.  All of my kids love to put kale in green smoothies or lightly steamed.

Today I am making a kale & bean salad that I came up.

 

  Kale and Bean Salad

  

1 bunch of kale~cleaned and chopped

Place kale in the bottom of a large bowl

3 cans of variety beans~ ex. Black, garbanzo, kidney~ drain & rinse

1 small red onion diced fine

1 bell pepper your choice of color

2 stalks of celery diced

Place all of these ingredients in a different bowl.

Marinade

¼ c. honey or a mixture of agave & honey

½ c. lemon juice fresh or no preservatives

2 T. Extra Virgin Olive oil or flax or hemp oil

Blend marinade ingredients together and pour over bean mixture.

Add pepper if you like or salt free herbs of choice.

Then pour the bean mixture over kale and let sit for a couple of hours to marinate.

This can be served as a main dish or a side.

Cruciferous Veggies

This is a picture of some radishes I just devoured.  Our CSA is just about to begin and as usual we have the option to order some of the veggies that are coming on prior to the start of the season.  

Radishes are a cruciferous vegetable and produce ITC's (Isothiocynates) ITC's occur when the cell walls are broken by chewing, blending or juicing.  Make sure you crush those cell walls prior to cooking or the chemical reaction does not occur that produces ITC's.  Try to eat some raw cruciferous veggies everyday.

Why do you need ITC's?

Isothiocyanates combat carcinogens by neutralizing them and compartmentalizing them.   ITC's fight for us...they have anti inflammatory effects, antioxidant effects, they detoxify carcinogens, and prevent carcinogen DNA binding and promote the repair of damaged DNA, promote apoptosis (cancer cell death), promote the excretion of estrogens, they have antiviral & antibacterial properties and they inhibit H. Pylori growth.

 

here are a few of your choices.....arugula, bok choy, broccoli, broccoli rabe, broccolini, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, horseradish, kale, kohlrabi, mache, mustard greens, radish, red cabbage, rutabaga, turnips, turnip greens, watercress.

I found this photo on my memory card compliments of my daughter.  This picture was taken in my front yard.

Have you ever seen a Pilated Woodpecker?  They are quite breathtaking...and very large.

God Bless your day.......

Time with My Daughters and a Visit to the Farmer's Market

This past weekend my youngest daughter and I went on a road trip to Tennessee to spend time with my oldest daughter.

Time spent with my children is the best.   I love the time trapped in the car with my youngest.  It offers a focused time of sharing.  Then reconnecting with my oldest daughter and taking in the woman she has become and sharing about life is a blessing too.

We have many seasons of life....

Jim Elliott said.....

Wherever you are be all there. 

Make sure you take time to be in the moment, not wandering out in the future or the past too much...you just may miss out on the important stuff.

While we were in Tennessee we took a trip the the Nashville Farmer's Market and then wandered around downtown Nashville.

We visited a really cool eclectic shop called Pangaea with everything from hip and trendy clothing to unique and funky gifts.  

Sorry, no picture but you can follow the link to check it out and if you go to Nashville look them up.

We also visited our favorite Vegan/Vegetarian Restaurant  The Wild Cow.  This time they had fresh juice...kale, apple, ginger, which was delicious!  I also spotted a raw raspberry lemon cheesecake that looked yummy....but I was stuffed this time from my taco salad.