Dessert - "Healthy Shamrock Shake"

~¼ cup mint leaves (not packed, loosely in cup)

3 granny smith apples

½ cucumber

~2 cups almond milk 

Ice

Here's the second drink for St. Patrick's Day where I use nothing but green produce. So this tastes nothing like a "Shamrock Shake" but it's definitely a lot healthier. You can use whatever mint you like. I used mint from my father's garden--I think it's lemon balm. Not really my preferred mint but that's all he had. My mint didn't quite make it over the crazy hot summer.

You can use any type of vegan milk for this. Vanilla almond would probably be the best. Or even add some vegan creamer or yogurt to make it more rich. You could also put it in the freezer for a bit after making so it firms up.

The ice is necessary to keep the foam to a minimum. Since this recipe doesn't have any frozen produce, it would be a foamy mess without the ice. I added 3 ice cubes to the blender.

I think I would have liked this better if the mint I had were "mintier". I will have to try making this again when I have a different mint.

Green Smoothie - "Mixi"

3 leaves lacinato kale
Large handful baby spinach
1 cucumber
1 small ruby red grapefruit
1 small handful raspberries frozen
1 handful mango frozen
3 T ground flax seeds
Water

I love the way a bit of citrus can really liven up a smoothie. The acidity balances out the bitterness of the greens and the sweetness of the cucumber and mango. This was a great blend.

Dessert - "Kale 'n Fruit Ice Cream"

6 leaves lacinato kale

1/2 cucumber

16 oz frozen pineapple

Handful black seedless grapes

4 T ground flax seed

1 c soy creamer

1 c unsweetened almond milk

It was the middle of summer and I was really hungry and hot. I knew a green smoothie wouldn't fill me up so I decided to make ice cream from greens and fruit. The main difference between this mix and a green smoothie is I used soy and almond liquids instead of water and it had a higher fruit ratio. I added 1 more tablespoon than I usually use of ground flax seeds so it would be thicker than usual.

If you are eating raw, you could make your own nut milk and use that instead of the soy creamer and almond milk.

I was so excited about it I had forgotten to take a picture of the ingredients so I took one when I remembered. Once blended, I added to my ice cream maker. I have and earlier version of this one and I really like it.

I thought it tasted great--filling and cooled me off but my husband didn't like it at all. I'm not sure why. Maybe because he expects ice cream to have a certain flavor? 

This made a lot! It completely filled up the ice cream maker. I tried freezing what was leftover but it got rock hard and didn't thaw evenly. It was inedible after that. If you make this, make sure you have enough people to eat it just after it's made. 

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!

Juice - "Apples on the Lawn"

~7 leaves curly kale
1 granny smith apple
3 small fuji apples
1 tray wheat grass

made 3+ servings

You can't really see the wheat grass in the picture but it's there! I cut it up so it exits the juicer easier. Cutting it also prevents the grass from getting tangled around the auger.

This was a very crisp, green tasting apple juice. Would be perfect after spending a hot day outside.

Green Smoothie - "Peaches 'n Greens"

2 large handfuls baby spinach

2 leaves beet greens

1 thin slice watermelon

10 slices frozen peaches

Handful raw sunflower seeds

Ice

Water

Less watermelon and more peaches would have made this taste more peachy but I needed to use up this watermelon--the thing was huge!

Don't be fooled by the "before" pic--there are a lot more greens than it appears.

I added the seeds at the very end so there would be some chunky bits to chew on. It's a good thing to "chew" your smoothie to get the digestive process started. Chewing causes saliva production to increase and that's the first step of digestion.

Green Smoothie Fail - "Dandy Melon"

2 large handfuls baby red & green romaine lettuce
~6 dandelion greens
1/2 cucumber
1/2 Tuscan cantaloupe
Handful frozen mangos
Ice
Water

I thought I'd try a Tuscan cantaloupe...this one was not good.  I'm guessing it just wasn't a good melon rather than that Tuscans aren't good.  It tasted like BO. Here's a tip: taste the produce before you add it to the blender. This recipe is still good though--as long as you use a good melon.

Tips for Saving Money on Organic Produce

A few days ago I wrote about why you should eat organic produce. Here are some tips on how to save money doing so.

Buy What's in Season for Your Area
Not only will in-season produce taste fresher, it's often cheaper. If it's in season, it doesn't necessarily have to be shipped in from great distances or even overseas. Of course, there are some things that can't be grown locally (e.g., bananas) that will always have to be shipped in, no matter the season. Here's a list of seasonal produce by state.

Join an Organic CSA or Co-op
You'll probably have so much produce if you join a CSA or a Co-op you won't know what to do with it! That's why juicing and blending will come in handy. Not only will you receive seasonal produce, you'll get things you may not have thought about buying. It can be fun to plan a meal around something new--great way to stay out of a cooking rut. If you have a CSA in your area, the produce will come from a local farm or farms. A co-op's produce can come from anywhere--just like produce at the store. Here's a searchable directory for the US (and parts of Canada).

Shop Locally
If there's not a CSA/co-op in your area or it's just not for you, check out farmers' markets. Keep in mind that just because it's at a farmers' market it doesn't mean it's local nor does it mean that it's organic.

Use Common Sense
Sure some organic produce can be outrageously expensive. $5 bell peppers! $9 per lb cherries! But that doesn't mean you have to buy it! There are so many things to choose from you probably aren't going to miss that bell pepper.

These were NOT $9 a pound

Buy Frozen
There's nothing wrong with frozen produce--especially if the produce in questions isn't in season. Produce is frozen when it's at it's peak ripeness and full of nutrients. Some nutrients are lost but not as much as with canned. I'd try to eat more fresh than frozen but frozen is better than none at all. Frozen produce is also perfect for green smoothies to keep the foaming to a minimum.

Find Other Stores in Your Area
The large health-conscious grocery store chains such as Whole Foods and Trader Joe's aren't the only stores to find organic produce. Theses smaller stores can often be cheaper. In the Dallas area there's Natural Grocers, Sprouts, and Sunflower Market. All of these stores have multiple locations throughout the US. My favorite store for produce is actually Natural Grocers because all of the produce is organic. There are other smaller stores just like those all over.

Grow Your Own
This might sound like a daunting undertaking but it is possible! I'm proof! My husband and I have black thumbs but we've had swiss chard and various peppers in our garden for months and months now! Our herbs didn't do so well...but that's another story. We started with small plants from a local nursery. I don't think we could have done it from seeds. If you don't have much room, you can always do container gardening. Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces is a great book on getting started. Also, talk to your local organic nursery--they will be able to advise you on what grows best for your area and many have classes.

Cheat With the Clean 15
EWG lists 15 fruits and vegetables that are the least contaminated by pesticide, dubbed "The Clean 15". Just make sure you avoid conventionally grown produce from "The Dirty Dozen".

Even with all these money saving tips you might end up paying more for organic. But it's important to remember that what you eat greatly affects your health. And a healthier person spends less on medical care.

Green Smoothie - "The Tracy"

2 large handfuls baby spinach

2 leaves Swiss chard (yellow)

3 leaves dandelion greens

1 thin slice watermelon

Handful frozen pineapple

Handful frozen cranberries

Ice

Water

Made this for my friend,Tracy. She was looking for a way to get more greens and veg in her diet. She doesn't like greens (or most vegetables) at all and I wanted her to try them in this form. She wanted me to include the pineapple and cranberries. I thought she wouldn't like it because it wasn't very sweet (cranberries add tartness but not sweetness and it doesn't cover up the greens' bitterness well) but she said she liked it. I believe her because she drank all of it!

Juicing Fail - "The Breaker"

Not only did this taste awful, it broke the strainer on my Hurom Slow Juicer. The carrot tops were very bitter and if the juicer had not broken, I would have added more apples or some pears to cover up the bitterness.

The Hurom has a warrantee so the part was replaced for free--but I didn't get it for over a month. I'm not sure why it broke...maybe I should have cut up the carrots more? This is why I would buy and Omega Vert HD--the strainer is 8 times stronger and suitable for juicing every day. Unfortunately, it came out after I got my Hurom.

I'm posting my "fails" because there is always something to learn from every failure.

I included the picture of the grocery bag because it looks just like the bags you see in TV shows and movies!

Juice - "Grassy Apples"

4 small braeburn apples

1 tray wheatgrass

Made 2 servings

This was pleasantly sweet--not too grassy.

I learned something from making this simple juice: I should cut up the grass before putting it in my juicer so it doesn't clog up the exit chute.  I had to stop it halfway through to clear it out and probably should have stopped it again. That's the trade-off with a vertical single auger type of juicer--it will juice fruit, veg, and greens (including wheatgrass), but you'll have to cut up those greens/stringy vegetables to keep the chute clog free. 

Green Smoothie - "Tart Thanksgiving"

1/2 cucumber
2 handfuls baby spinach
2 leaves lacinato kale
1 handful frozen cranberries
1 thin slice watermelon
1 small handful raw pumpkin seeds
Water

I call this Tart Thanksgiving because of the ingredients--cranberries and pumpkin (seeds) not because I made it for Thanksgiving. I kind of figured I'd have to add more than just the cranberries for the fruit part but wanted to see how it tasted alone. As expected, it was way too tart so I added the watermelon (more than you can see in the picture--it had already sunk down). The smoothie was very tart (but in a good way) after that.

Cranberries add flavor, tartness, but not sweetness. If you use cranberries, you will need to have another fruit that is sweet enough to balance out the bitterness of the greens.

I added the pumpkin seeds at the very end so that there would be something to chew on. Something to change things up.

Green Smoothie - "Green Melon"

1/2 cantaloupe
1 cucumber, peeled*
2 leaves lacinato kale 

2 large handfuls baby spinach
2 leaves red chard 

Water

*I didn't know it at the time but you do not need to peel cucumbers.

It looks like there is less greens then there really is because the cucumbers are sitting on top of all of it. This is the first green smoothie I made that didn't need major tweaking. The only thing I would change knowing what I know now (other than not peeling the cucumbers) is add ice and less water to compensate. The ice (or frozen produce) keeps the foaming to a minimum. 

Green Smoothie - "Purple Leaves"

~5 oz frozen blueberries

2 lacinato kale leaves, ribs removed*

2 large handfuls baby spinach

1 handful of purple/red leaves from packaged spring mix

1 stalk celery

Water

*I didn't need to remove the ribs but didn't know it at the time

I love how purple this one turned out! The combo of purple leaves and blueberries overpowered the green colors. However, the greens overpowered the taste. I now know that blueberries are not sweet/strong tasting enough to be the lone fruit. I should have added mango or watermelon if I wanted more sweetness without a strong fruit flavor or added pineapple for strong flavor and sweetness. 

Juice Explained

Unlike green smoothies, practically everyone has heard of and knows what juice is. The difference is, juice you make in a juicer is vastly superior in nutritional value and taste than what you'd buy in a store. Not to mention it doesn't contain preservatives, sugar, dyes, "natural flavors", or any other number of additives. Even if you are lucky enough to find "fresh" juice at a store like Whole Foods, it's not as fresh as what you can make at home. And as time goes on, juice oxidizes and will taste less "alive" and lose some nutritional content (amount depends on how it's stored and for how long).

Probably not going to find broccoli-apple-parsley juice at your local supermarket

One thing to keep in mind is the caloric and sugar content of juice, especially if you are trying to lose weight or have a medical condition where you need to limit your sugar. (I do not offer any medical advice on this blog--consult your medical professional.) Drinking a large glass of fruit juice can be the same as drinking a soda--calorie-wise. (Of course a soda does not have the same nutritional value as fruit juice.) Root vegetables (beets, carrots, etc.) can also have a high sugar content. So probably not a good idea for anyone to drink a jug of juice a day. Personally, I don't drink more than one glass. And it's also probably not a good idea to drink sugary juice before bedtime. Don't forget, you can always save your juice for the next day in a canning jar--store in the fridge, of course.

Green Smoothies Explained

Purple Leaves
 one of my purple "green" smoothies

When some people hear "green smoothie" they think of a smoothie that's green but the "green" doesn't just refer to the color. In fact, many of my green smoothies are purple or brown. The "green" refers to the greens in the smoothie.

Generally, a green smoothie contains greens, fruit, and sometimes vegetables and other ingredients. The purpose of the fruit (along with the nutritional value) is to cover up the taste of the bitterness from the greens. Some people say the greens/veg should be 40%. Some say 60%. I'd say that you should start with the amount of greens/veg that you feel comfortable with. If you start out with 60%, you might think it's disgusting and give up on green smoothies altogether. Start out with more fruit and as time goes on, your taste buds will adjust and you'll find yourself actually wanting more greens and veg in your smoothie! So even if that means starting out with just a few leaves of greens in your fruit smoothie--that's okay. Don't be discouraged--you will get there!