Green Smoothie - "Swamp Thing"

3 leaves lacinato kale
Large handful baby spinach
Large handful frozen blueberries
1 small orange
Small handful frozen mango
Dulse
3T ground flax seeds
Water

This sure was ugly but nutritious!

I put a few pieces of dried dulse in water before I start chopping the produce. Then I add it to the blender along with the water it soaked in. This ensures that no minerals are lost.

I grind the flax seeds in this coffee grinder and add the powder in at the very end of blending.

Juice - "Violet Brock"

1/4 head red cabbage

2 heads broccoli

1 tray wheatgrass

7 pears

Made 4 cups

Whenever I juice broccoli I get a lot of foam. Juice foam doesn't bother me nearly as much as smoothie foam because it's lighter and mixes in relatively easy.

It's kind of surprising that the little bit of red cabbage made the juice a purplish color. This was a thick juice but very tasty.

Green Smoothie - "Romaine Rooibos"

2 handfuls baby red & green romaine
3 romaine hearts
1/2 cucumber
1 small handful blackberries frozen
1 large handful pineapple frozen

Dulse
~8 oz rooibos Earl Grey tea
Ice

I found some Rooibos Earl Grey tea at Whole Foods right before I made this so I was excited to try it out. I'm a huge fan of Earl Grey but I don't drink caffeine. It was good but not very Earl Grey tasting (to be expected). I had a serving of it leftover and noticed it when I was making my smoothie and thought, "hey, why not use that instead of water?" It turned out well! This was the first time I had used tea in a smoothie. It gave it a different flavor--slightly sweet and astringent (in a good way).

Juice - "Bloody Grass"

1 small beet
1 tray wheatgrass
1 bunch red kale
5 fuji apples
1 granny smith apple

Made 4 cups

I'm not personally a huge fan of beets but my husband loves them so I make sure I add them to my juice recipes from time to time. If you're not careful, they can add an overwhelming earthy taste. For some reason, my husband doesn't notice the earthy taste (or likes it) but just the sweetness that is inherent with root vegetables. I do love the intense red/pink color of the juice though. They will turn almost any juice red, even if you have a lot of greens in it.

This juice wasn't too earthy for my taste because the sweetness of the apples and red kale, and the green flavor of the red kale and wheatgrass helped cover it up. So both my husband and I were happy with this concoction.

Green Smoothie - "Frozen Blue"

3 leaves rainbow chard

2 large handfuls baby spinach

1/2 cucumber (not pictured)

1 small handful mango frozen

1 small handful pineapple frozen

1 small handful peaches frozen

1 large handful blueberries frozen

Handful raw pumpkin seeds

Ice 

Water

When I made this (a long time ago--I can tell by the plastic straw and the poor picture quality), I had a lot of partially used bags of frozen fruit. I decided to use it all up and not let the fruit get that frosty again. Because a lot of the ingredients were frozen, the blender had a hard time mixing it up. I didn't want it to be too watered down so I added the cucumber. Cucumbers and watermelon are great ways to add liquid to a smoothie without that weird watered-down taste.

Juicing Fail - Watermelon Radish

It was one watermelon radish but I don't remember how many apples and pears I used now. It doesn't matter because I won't be remaking this. I got really excited about the watermelon radishes I saw at the store so decided to get some. I read online that they are sweet enough to eat raw. So I thought it'd be OK to use a whole one in a juice.

And I was wrong.

This turned out so spicy it made my chest hurt. I could only drink a few sips. Oh well, at least it was pretty.  If I used watermelon radish again, I'd probably only use a 1/4 or even less. I didn't follow my own advice and taste the produce before I juice/blend it.

Wasted Food

The Whole Foods Blog has a great posting today about cutting down on wasted food. I know I am guilty of this from time to time but I really think that juicing and blending has helped me with this. For blending, you just need to have some fruit and then you can add in whatever veg/greens you need to use up. I try to stock up on frozen fruit for this reason. And juicing is even more flexible--you don't have to use fruit. Just today, I realized that I had some romaine that was on the edge of going bad so I used all of it in a juice. I had originally planned to use it for a salad but never got around to it and knew I couldn't tonight. Recipe coming soon. I called it The Joker.

Quick Tip - Cleaning Your Juicer

Mine has grass in it b/c it's the
bowl I used to hold the ingredients

It's a good idea to run around 4 cups of water or so through your juicer after you finish juicing. This flushes out some particles and you have less work to do when you clean it. If you have a vertical single auger juicer like I do, then this water flush will allow you to juice a different kind of juice next without the flavors mixing. In that case, I'd run water through it until it's clear.

But wait--don't pour that "dirty" water down the drain! There are many ways to use that (extremely) watered down juice!

• Drink after exercising for a healthier alternative to sugary sports drinks.
• Pour on your compost pile.
• Water you outdoor plants.
• Use when cooking rice or other grains instead of plain water.
• Use when reconstituting dehydrated food/bouillon.

And if you freeze it in ice cube trays there are even more things you can do with it!

• Give to your dogs as a cool treat.
• Use as ice for iced tea or other drinks.
• Use as the ice in your smoothies.
• Lightly massage on puffy eyes.

Of course, the type of juice you make will depend on how you use it. You obviously wouldn't use the water from say a pear-apple juice for your savory rice dish but it would be great for boiling oats for a pleasantly sweet breakfast. Make sure you don't ever feed your dogs grapes or onions. (ASPCA Poison Control for details)

I'm sure there are many other uses for this "dirty" water--please share if you have any!

Green Smoothie - "Cherry Rainbow"

Large bunch of rainbow chard (I had about 4 leaves of each color--pink, red, orange, green)
~8 oz cherries frozen
~8 oz chilled vanilla almond rooibos tea (no flavorings, just vanilla bean, almonds, and rooibos)
3 T ground flax seeds
A few shakes of Ceylon cinnamon
Ice

I actually made this today so this recipe is jumping way ahead but I just felt like writing about it now.

I stopped juicing and blending for a while because I got really busy with other things and then I started to get headaches almost every day. Maybe because I stopped? My skin is also not too great since stopping. I was determined to make a green smoothie today but didn't have much in the way of produce (or any groceries for that matter) so I went out to the garden and harvested some rainbow chard. Thankfully, I had some frozen cherries left. I was a bit worried that this would turn out bitter but the tea and the cinnamon really helped balance things out and it had a bit of a kick. This was a very watery smoothie--more like a juice but that is completely fine with me.

Happy New Year! I'm back!

Did you get your 366 black-eyed peas for luck and greens for money on new year's day? I had been so busy that I had forgotten all about it til a few days before. Unfortunately, the store was out of dried and fresh black-eyed peas so I had to go with canned. I ended up making a sage bep dish.

And then I forgot about the greens! How could I forget those?! I went outside around 8 (in my robe with a flashlight!) and harvested some rainbow chard, purple mustard greens, and purple pak choi. I usually eat/drink greens raw but I wanted to do the traditional NYD thing so I sauteed them in safflower oil and added garlic, onion, and chili powder, pepper, salt, and vinegar. It's crazy how that much raw cooks down into two small servings. I left the rib in the leafy parts but cut it off below the leaf. I take the leftover stems and freeze them for my dogs to eat as a treat. It was pretty good (a little too salty) and I hope it brings me green for 2012!☺

I also hope all of you have a green, healthy 2012! The new year brings a perfect chance to challenge yourself to make healthier food and drink choices!