Popeye Protein Packed Spinach Smoothie

I think the title says it all.

Recipe

3 bananas, frozen

2 tbs almond butter

1 tbs hemp protein (maca powder works well too)

1 cup almond milk

1 cup water

1 tbs cacao powder

1 handful of baby spinach leaves

Blend

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Beet Chia Crackers

While I’m on the discussion of chia crackers….

I know, I know!….for someone who doesn’t like beets, I sure keep bringing up the topic. Anyway…

I thought I would experiment with the last beet in our fridge (good riddance!).

I really wanted to duplicate a red tortilla cracker. The color is really cool. Why not. So I thought I would juice a beet and soak the chia seeds in it.

And Viola! Red chia crackers. Yah!

Well not so much.

Why you ask? Because the CHIA CRACKER now tastes like a BEET! ugh!

My husband really likes it though.

So if anyone else thinks it might be cool….

Recipe

Juicer and dehydrator required

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup chia seeds

1 beet

salt

garlic

Instructions:

Juice the beet, mix the chia seed in the water and add BOTH the beet pulp and beet juice. Add more water if needed. Chia seeds will gel with liquid. Let it soak for approx 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Spread mixture onto Teflex sheet and put in dehydrator on 105 degrees for 15-20 hours till dry and crunchy.

Bon appetit

‘Everything’ Cracker

Thank you Peggy for this inspiration:)

Someone…..was eating my favorite bagel the other day at work. An ‘Everything’ Bagel. Oh gosh, how I miss the smell and the taste of the  poppy seeds crunching between my teeth.

Being I gave up all breads and crackers, well, flour to be more specific, I am always on a continuous search for new chia cracker ideas. It’s not easy finding a substitute for bread, crackers, chips, pancakes, waffles, pasta, couscous, cake, muffins, cookies, biscuits, mac and cheese….Oh, the list goes on and on.

Here’s my take on the Everything Chia Cracker.

Recipe

1 c water

1/2 cup chia seeds

3/4 cup poppy seeds

1/2 cup sesame seeds

1/4 cup garlic, minced

1 onion

1 tsp salt, or more to taste.

Instructions:

First mix the chia seed and water together and let it sit for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. The chia seeds will turn into a gel.

In the meantime, place onion into food processor on shred, discard any excess water.

Add the poppy seeds, sesame seeds, garlic, salt and onions to the chia mixture.

Spread onto Teflex sheet evenly. I like to score the crackers before putting them into the dehydrator so they will break easily when dried.

Dehydrate on 105 degrees for 15 hours.

Crackers are best with any dip such as hummus or guacamole.

 

 

A little dose of sunshine

A little dose of simplicity.

Add a little dose of happiness.

Followed by a dose of pure goodness.

This is how I start my mornings…

Recipe

#1. Grab 4 medium oranges from hanging basket in kitchen…

#2. Cut oranges in half.

#3. Juice oranges in the citrus juicer.

I’ve had some people question how I eat and drink so much fruit everyday and not gain weight. They tell me “Fruit is full of sugar, you’re going to get fat”.

Well 8 months of juicing and eating large quantities of fruit has led to a 15 lb weight loss and a maintenance weight of 127 lbs. So, no, eating fruit will not make me fat, but thank you everyone for being so concerned about my butt!

Now, interestingly, when I use to eat the SAD diet (Standard American Diet), I would never, let me repeat….NEVER, drink this much orange juice at once, because I would have been too concerned about the calories. I would have drunk a glass of water instead, and ‘saved’ my calories for something else, something probably processed and loaded with chemicals and food additives. Since I’ve eliminated processed foods from my diet, I’ve been able to eat fruits and nuts and seeds with no problems or concerns about weight gain.

The mail lady seems to be concerned too, but for different reasons. “Who keeps buying you these bushels of oranges and grapefruits?” “Don’t they know you live in Florida?” I don’t have the heart (or the guts?) to tell her its me!

Unfortunately, I moved 50 miles from the city. Routine food shopping now involves Super-Walmart. It’s actually cheaper and more convenient to buy a bushel of oranges and have them delivered to my front door, which, I’m sure, is the mail lady’s main concern….struggling to carry the heavy box of oranges to my front door every month.

Welcome to The Orange Shop – Famous for Fine Fruit since 1936.

Beet-Carrot-Apple Juice

As some of you may already know, I am not a huge fan of  the earthy tasting raw beet root. Why eat or drink something that tastes like dirt? Well, because its good for you. So I keep trying to find a way to choke it down.

Beets are an excellent source of folate as well as a great source of Vitamin C, potassium and iron.

Beets contain phytonutrients called betalains. Betalains have been shown to attach to toxic substances in the body, essentially inactivating the toxin, which are then excreted from the body.

This combination of fruit and veggies were surprisingly tasteful. I even went back and made a second helping.

Recipe

juicer required

1 raw beet

20 baby carrots

1 apple, cored

Place through the juicer and drink immediately.

I can honestly say I enjoyed this even more than the Beet n Berry Smoothie I previously posted.

Chocolate Chip Larabars

I’ve had a quite a few requests for these, so here’s the recipe.

Recipe

1 cup cashews

2/3 cup dates, pitted

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 oz cacao nibs (or semisweet chocolates)

2 pinches of cinnamon

add a pinch of chili chipotle for fun:)

Finely grind the nuts in food processor , then add all remaining ingredients. The mixture should be crumbly in your hand. Scoop the entire mixture into your hands at once, knead together until it sticks together, then press firmly and evenly into a greased glass bowl (I use a very small amount of coconut oil). Place in fridge for 2-3 hours to before serving.

kids WILL eat HEALTHY…..just starve them first:)

My little niece (she’s 16 now) came over for a sleepover last night. She throws her overnight bag onto the floor and heads straight for the pantry cabinet. She opens the door and stares inside for a few seconds.

“Where’s the spaghetti? I want spaghetti for dinner.”

“We don’t have spaghetti.”

“Well, where’s the cookies?”

“We don’t have cookies.”

“Do you have any ice cream?”

“No”

“Chips and salsa?”

“No”

Exasperated, “Oh my god, I’m going to starve to death!”

Well, we’re off to a great start!

45 minutes later….”Can I have some green juice?”

What?  Did I hear that correctly? My 16 year old niece who ate Subway and McDonalds earlier that day, just asked me for GREEN JUICE? Let me repeat that. She, asked us, for green juice.

Shut. Up.

Later that evening, she walked over to the fridge and stared inside for a full minute. Just as I was getting ready to say something about the open door, she grabbed the kale soup and threw it in the microwave. She scarfed it down and promptly went back for a second helping.

Over the next 24 hours, my niece proceeded to eat a Berry/Banana/Kale Smoothie. She also ate salmon for dinner (after vehemently explaining to me how she ONLY eats shrimp). I also gave her a caper to try. She didn’t like it. That’s ok she at least tried it. I chopped up a small piece of nopalito for her. She didn’t like that either. But she ate it! “Ewwwwww, is that a beet?” With a healthy dose of light Ranch dressing, she finished eating the watercress, beet, gorgonzola and walnut salad.

The next day, my husband and I felt like exercising so we grabbed the three off-road bikes and told my niece, who was laying on the couch all afternoon, she was coming with us. “I don’t feel like it” she says. ‘I have a headache, I don’t feel good, besides I don’t have any shoes to wear”. I turned off the tv, confiscated the remote and threw a pair of tennis shoes in her direction. She came outside a few minutes later with her unbrushed hair pulled back in a ponytail. “You guys are dorks, only dorks wear gloves when biking!” After biking for a few miles, we stopped to take a break. She quietly got off her bike and started picking at her hands. My husband asked her if she had a blister. She nodded her head yes. He took off his gloves, handed them to her and she immediately put them on her hands. Ok dork! We rode only 8 miles that day and she did really great. Off-road biking is a lot more difficult than on-road. We had great time:)

That evening, I was gathering a few of her things to take her back to her mom’s house and I noticed her box of Nerds candy sitting there. I shook the box assuming she left the empty carton laying around, but instead, I heard the hard little candies rattling around. Interesting, my niece never ate the candy she brought with her.

My niece was extremely resistant to a lot of things we did and ate during her brief stay with up, but ultimately she gave in.  We just stood our ground with her this time. In the past, I felt guilty for not having ‘junk food’ in my house for her. I would always take her to the store and let her pick out whatever she wanted to eat. And, of course, she would always choose the frozen pizzas and ice cream and candy. This time, we didn’t buy her any junk food, and ultimately, she ate what we ate.

I hear parents all the time saying “my kids are picky eaters, little Suzie won’t eat (fill in the blank), and then you see the kid eating a cheeseburger and fries from McD’s.  Stop feeding them snacks. Stop feeding them Goldfish crackers an hour before dinner. If you feed them snacks, they won’t be hungry. They won’t eat the peas and carrots on their plate. Why would they, they are already full. They ate Doritos for dinner. Why would they eat peas and carrots for dessert?

But what do I know. I’m not a parent. One day yes, but not right now. Some things just seems like logic. We tried something different with my niece and it worked. We’ll try it again next time she visits. If she visits. Maybe we scared her away! I hope not. I had a great time hanging out with her this weekend.

Homemade Kiwi Banana Fruit rollups

You can buy premade fruit rollups for your kids, and this is what you will feed them….

General Mills Fruit Rollups:

pears from concentrate

corn syrup

dried corn syrup (this sounds yummy doesn’t it)

sugar

partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil

acetylated monoglycerides (what is this??)

dextrose

natural flavor ( interesting the ‘natural’ flavor is at the bottom of the list)

food colorings: blue 1, red 40 and yellows 5 and 6

Wow, doesn’t that taste fresh and wholesome????

Ok, now for the ingredients in  Homemade fruit rollups:  Bananas and kiwis….

Yep. That’s it. No special equipment needed. This can be made in the oven, I use my dehydrator.

Roughly chop the bananas and kiwis, throw into a food process until pureed.

Pour mixture onto a Teflex sheet and put into dehydrator at 105 degrees for 6-8 hours until it peels easily from the sheet. Some dehydrators take a little longer and it also depends on how thick you make the mixture. Be careful not to make it crispy.

This is what it will look like before putting the tray in the dehydrator.

Oven directions:

Line cookie sheet in parchment paper (not wax paper, this will melt, trust me)

Set the oven to its lowest setting (every oven is different, 140-170 degrees)

It will take approximately 5-6 hours to dehydrate.

Use scissors to cut the roll ups in strips.

I haven’t personally used the oven method. I had to googled the instructions on the internet.

Coconut Cream Pie Larabars

I love to make different flavor Larabars. If you love coconut, you’ll love this one.

Recipe

food processor required

1 cup almonds

1 cup coconut flakes

12 medjool dates

1 tsp Coconut oil

Process almonds in food process and finely chopped. Add coconut flakes, pulse again. Add dates and process for another 1-2 minutes. Add coconut oil.

Mixture should still be crumbly. Knead the mixtures together. Grease the inside of a 7×5 glass bowl (use coconut oil) and firmly press mixture evenly into bowl. Refridgerate for 2-3 hours. Cut into pieces and serve.

Horchata Recipe

My husband and I ate at a local mom and pop Mexican restaurant while visiting in Arizona. They made their own Horchata fresh everyday and it was super delicious.

After returning home, we searched the internet to find traditional Horchata recipes (made from rice only, with no added milk, coconut milk or condensed milk). After studying quite a few recipes, we decided to make our own version, without the premade ‘milk’ added and without the granulated sugar.

Horchata Recipe

1 cup long grain white rice

1 cup almonds

2 cinnamon sticks

8 cups water

2 Tbs honey

4 Tbs Splenda (we ran out of Stevia)

2 vanilla beans, innards removed

Directions:

Blend rice and almonds in blender, add 5 cups hot/near boiling water to blender, add the cinnamon sticks.

Leave sitting in the blender for 5 hours.

Add stevia, honey, vanilla, (and ground cinnamon if needed) and reblend the mixture.

Strain mixture through nut milk bag (or double layer cheesecloth).

Serve over ice.

Ground cinnamon on top for garnish.

Most reciped called for 1/2 cup to 1 cup of sugar. Personally, I felt this was ridicuously sweet. To each his/her own!

My house guest added rum to his horchata and seemed quite pleased with the result!