Dinner ideas

2 easy, full of veggies ideas

Mixed greens
grape tomatoes
cucumber
green, red and yellow peppers
4 oz chicken
Olive oil ad balsamic vinegar dressing

Roasted shrimp and pesto "spaghetti
1 large spaghetti squash
4 tablespoons pesto sauce (recipe to follow)
roasted shrimp

Oven to 350.  Cut squash in half and take seeds out.  Brush olive oil over entire inside surface of squash and put face down on your lined pan

Roast for about an hour

Let cool and then shred flesh with fork in to a bowl.  Add pesto and mix well.  Plate and top with your roasted shrimp.

Pesto sauce
4 cups basil
olive oil (about 1/4 cup)
Parmesan cheese (1/2 cup)
garlic cloves (1)
pine nuts (or pecans or walnuts)
All in the food processor.  Should be creamy

Roasted shrimp
350 oven
shrimp on pan mix with olive oil, salt snd pepper and roast about 5-6 minutes.

Green juice made easy

The problems with green juices are many.  Unless you have an expensive masticating juicer, the centrifugal juicers just do not extract a lot of juice out of the greens.  You need to use a massive amount to get a little bit of juice.

Another problem is the taste.  Some green juice can be rough to swallow since it tastes like you are drinking a meadow or your freshly cut lawn.

I have searched for a store brought juice to add to my freshly made juice and was never able to find one that I was completely taken with.  Preservatives.  Added sugar in the form of fake sweeteners - even Stevia is not good for you - and other added ingredients that are not natural.

Enter Suja Juice.  No preservatives.  Some have added sugar, but most do not so read your labels.  This adds volume and taste to your our of the juicer green juice.

That amount in the photo is for 2 mid morning juices and 2 afternoon juices.  Here is the recipe

Easy Green
1 bag of spinach
1 bunch parsley
1 bunch dandelion greens
1 large cucumber
5 celery stalks
1 lemon
3 granny smith apples
2 wedges pineapple
1 23.7 ounce Suja Essentials Green Delight

I juiced all of the ingredients except the Suja.  Stirred the juiced juice and then divided the individual servings by filling each container half way with juiced juice and then the rest of the way with the Suja juice.

Easy and delicious.

The Daily Juice 8-18-14

So here it is Monday.  August 18, 2014.  Matt is home from vacation and we are re-starting the juice diet in an attempt to lose more weight.

From January to May, I lost 30 pounds.  Matt lost 35 pounds.  From May until today, we were learning to maintain tat weight loss, adjust our eating habits as well as learning portion control and moderation.

One difference is going to be the lunches.  I am adding protein to lunch and not juicing.  I will only eat 4 ounces of a protein.  That seems to get me through to dinner and takes care of any tiredness I might feel mid-day.

Breakfast was the typical Nutribullet smoothie

2 cups of triple green blend
banana
handful goji berries
handful of almonds
1 cup of triple berry blend
chocolate protein powder
3 prunes

Satisfying and delicious

Snack juices are a typical green juice.  For this juice diet go around, I am going only green juices and vegetable juices.

That is a bunch of Lacinto Kale
bunch of parsley
2 cuts of pineapple
2 apples, celery
lime
2 cucumbers
ginger

I supplemented it with the Suja Essentials Green Delight.  I am doing this so that we will get four (4) 12 ounce servings out of the juice.

Tonight's dinner will be chicken breasts, broccolini, cauliflower and a salad.

I will cook enough chicken to have leftover for tomorrows lunch.  I usually get breasts that are pretty big ad I cut them in half prior to grilling.  4 portions right there.  No over eating of the protein.  I am not concerned with the amount of veggies that we take in.  Salad dressing usually consists of vinegar and oil and occasionally I whisk in a little Dijon mustard or lemon juice.

A little catch up to do...

It certainly has been a while.  Life gets in the way sometimes.

I am still juicing and maintaining the 30 pound weight loss that I accomplished.  However... It is time to lose 20 more pounds.

Let's talk a little about maintaining the weight loss.  Yes.  I had to make changes.  Not drastic changes, just changes.  First off was cutting out eating out as much as we did prior to the diet.  Along with that came cutting the high calorie, high fat foods from the diet.  My next change was limiting the amount of "white" I ate. Meaning  - pasta, all rice and grains, potatoes, bread, sugar, dairy.  Not eliminating, just reducing.  I also changed out ground beef for ground turkey or buffalo in many recipes.  And, one of the important things?  Having things to eat for lunch in the house so that we did not go out to eat.  This was accomplished by stocking the freezer with turkey burgers, chicken burgers, already cooked grilled chicken and making sure I had salad ingredients.  Another change, and probably the most important change was re-committing myself to the preparation of dinner.

Along my journey, I have discovered that I need to juice my breakfast and I need to have another juice during the day.  Lunch needs to be light and should be protein to get me to dinner.  If I grill chicken, I make an extra one for my lunch the next day.  Simple 4 ounces of chicken for lunch and I can make it to 6 pm.

I have also discovered short cuts to juicing.  One store bought juice that I can recommend is Suja Juice.

You can get this at Costco, Whole Foods and some grocery stores.  Now I won't lie.  It is expensive.  I would click on the image to go to the website and research the line ups.  Some do have Stevia in the and I stay away from all artificial sweetener - even Stevia.

Suja does not have any preservatives in it.  I like that.  When I tried the Classics line up, many of the juices taste exactly like the ones I am producing out of my Breville.  I have also tried the Essentials and found them to be a bit sweeter and probably good for someone looking to add juice to their diet.

In any event.  From here on out, I plan to include not only juice recipes, but basic recipes that I am eating to maintain my weight loss and continue on with my journey to better health.

I am headed to a lab draw next week.  One year ago I had a complete lab draw and was surprised to find how good my labs were.  Cholesterol was a little up, but the good was good and the bad was good. Looking to see a change in that overall number this year.  If I can find last years reports, I will post both.  I had that done in July... and yet it took me nearly 6 months to get my act together and get going on the road to better health.

Lesson learned.  Thankfully not the hard way.

Wheatgrass

I bought my wheatgrass already sprouted from a produce store.  When I got home, I planted it in a planter on my patio.  it has since taken off and I am cutting the tops off for my morning smoothies.  The cut parts are going to grow back, so I will enjoy wheatgrass for the summer.

Benefits of wheatgrass are numerous.  Increases red blood cell count, helps lower blood pressure, helps to cleanse the colon and all blood organs.  It is also known to stimulate the thyroid helping to fight obesity.  The biggie is that is helps restore the body's alkaline state.  Cancer can not grow in an alkaline body.  It helps to fight tumors and neutralizes toxins.

I add it to my smoothies.  People with the masticating juicers usually juice this on its own and drink a "shot" of wheatgrass.

I really can not taste it when I add a hand full.  Besides, after reading all of the benefits it provides... wow.  I will eat wheatgrass more often!

Juice. Just juice.

Goji delight
Spinach
Banana
Strawberry
pineapple
mango
papaya
goji berries

Goji berries are considered one of the "super foods" nowadays and pack an antioxidant punch.  Because they are so trendy, they are expensive.  Look for a quality online store to get them from for a far better deal than at the market.

Purple Juice  (on the left)
1/2 head red cabbage
1-2 pounds of red grapes
2 apples
cucumbers

The grapes sweeten the cabbage nicely.  I probably used closer to the 2 pounds than one.  This definitely has an aftertaste.  Just tell yourself you are preventing cancer and escorting free radicals from your body.

The 2 main juices in my house on any given day that I use the juicer are the ones below.  I call the one on the left my Favorite Juice and the one on the right Sweet Kale

Favorite Juice
4 apples (use a green or gala)
8 celery stalks
8 carrots


Sweet Kale
Bunch Kale
Bunch Cilantro
1/2 pineapple
1/2 lime
3 Cucumbers

The Sweet Kale is delicious (as is the Favorite).  It is sweet, but not overly sweet.

Enjoy your juice and your week-end.

Kale. Cacao Nibs, Mulberries.

White mulberries.  The next Superfood?  Maybe.  Research suggests it may help control fight diabetes.  They are also packed with antioxidant, fiber and protein.  AND they have less sugar than most dried fruits.

A friend of mine gave me a pound and I decided to try them.  Very different taste and I would suggest using them in a juice that also has pineapple.  To best describe it - like granny's old closet.  Ha!

Mulberry madness
spinach
banana
blueberries
cacao nibs
dried mulberries

The mulberries are the brownish pinkish white on top.

You can also make the favorite carrot, apple, celery in the Nutribullet.  Be prepared as it is very think snad pulpy.  If you like this, then go for it.  I have to admit, I prefer this juice thru the juicer.

And finally, a green juice.

Hail to the Kale
Bunch kale
leftover romaine nub
ginger
2 green apples
lemon
cilantro
celery

I love this juice.  Enough said.  Green.  Good.  Gets you going.

Enjoy your juice and stay focused.

Spicy kale... and cilantro

Wow.  I just read the wonderful health benefits of cilantro.  The biggest one is that it actually binds to heavy metals and helps escort them out of your body.

Cilantro benefits


So I made a Spicy Kale juice today.  Matt and I are back on the juice diet - juice during the day and then a healthy dinner.  This made 4 servings (2 each) to act as our mid-morning and our mid-afternoon juice.

Spicy Kale
bunch kale
5 celery stalks
2 large cucumbers
2 oranges
1 lemon
4 granny smith apples

Juicing works

This is my weight loss flow chart that was started in 2008.  I was given this by my doctor on Thursday. Note the dramatic drop since my last visit in July 2013.  I actually lost all of that since January.

Labs are next.  My lipids were slightly elevated.  I am anxious to see my new labs.

This works as long as you set your mind that it will work for you.

Shortcuts

I am all for shortcuts in juicing as long as they are healthy.  I have resisted those pre-packaged juices you can get from the stores, but I guess in a pinch they will work if there is nothing else.  Just check the labels.

So today Memorial Day, I have decided to use a short cut juice to add sweetness to a kale juice.  I got the BoltHouse Juice - Mango Madness.  First off, mangoes are a pain to peel and slice.  So this makes sense.

I took 2 big Ball jars and divided the juice in it.

Then, in the Breville, I juiced a bunch of kale, 4 cucumbers, many stalks of celery and added it to the jars.

I will drink the one on the right today and the other, more full, is for tomorrow.

The Bolthouse added the right amount of sweetness and I added my own fresh blend to get even more nutrients in to the juice.  Sweet, delicious and good for me.

Enjoy the holiday and remember those that served and serve to protect our freedom.

So many juices, so little time...

Been playing catch up since coming home from vacation and then having my husband and 2 of the dogs come home earlier this weeks.

I will start with 2 juices I used fresh raspberries in.  Not a fan of that; however, that being said, perhaps if I added some honey it would have sweetened it up a bit and I would have liked it more.  Both were a little too green for me.  I used spinach in one and kale in another, a pint of fresh raspberries, banana, almonds and water.  Neither one were very "Smoothie" like and both had a very raw green taste to them.  Not a favorite.  Why do I post?  Because maybe someone will add honey and then post that it was a good juice.

The next juices are simply favorites of mine that I will use when I am doing a day fast.

Carrot Favorite

8 carrots
4 celery
4 apples
Thru the Breville juicer.

I simply love this juice.  Sweet, tasty, has a mild celery kick and it goes down easy.

Another favorite actually contains beets!  Yep.  BEETS

Sunshine Beet (right one)
2 peeled grapefruits
4 peeled oranges
1 lemon
1/2 large beet
thru the Breville.

I love this citrus juice.  Smooth, refreshing and good for you!

The rest are NutriBlasts

Smooth Yellow
Kale/spinach blend
banana
pineapple/mango blend
ginger
scoop vanilla protein

Has a hint of ginger.  The protein fills me up and gets me thru til lunch.

My goal this week to juice all day and eat sensibly at dinner.  I had gained a little weight on vacation and I am happy to report that I have shed those 5 pounds.  It was super hard these past 2 weeks since I had been eating food during the day while on vacation and I missed that.  Slowly, I re-trained my body, stomach, mouth and mind to get back on the juice and I am happy at the results.

I still have 20-30 more to go.

Back from Vacation

I spent 10 days up in the New Jersey/Pennsylvania area.  I did manage to juice on the road and in the hotel.  Have Nutribullet, can travel.

Traveling overnight to our destination, we packed a cooler with fresh ingredients - spinach, berries, protein, almonds.  One at our destination hotel, we made sure we got a fridge and freezer and bought frozen berries and a bigger bag of greens.  I kept everything in one bag so I wasn't rummaging all over the place for the ingredients.

We juiced every morning.  The rest of the day was a bust.  I gained 3 pounds.  

Today, I am juice fasting all day long.  I will NutriBlast my breakfast and lunch and I made my favorite juicer juice for snacks.

Favorite Juice

8 carrots

4 pears

4 stalks celery

small lemon

Through the Breville

Kid Friendly juices

Trying to get your kids to drink fresh juice?  I have 2 recipes that may help.

Kid Carrot
6 carrots
10 celery sticks
2 apples
3 pears

This juice is delicious.  Sweet, a little tart and I think definitely kid friendly.  It has the taste of celery, but then the sweet comes thru.

My next juice is a watermelon cooler.  I did not peel the rind off and you may want to if you are trying to get kids to dink this juice.

Watermelon Cooler
1 small watermelon
1/2 lemon

Lemony with a hint of the watermelon.

So here is a progress report.  We started this juice diet January 6, 2014.

Matt has lost 50 pounds and I have lost 30.  We have tapered off since we have started eating lunches more often.  Both of us know we need to get back on the diet.  I want to lose 20 more pounds.  He wants to lose 10 more pounds.

We have more energy and less body aches and pains.  Neither one of us has taken antacid pills and we take less naps.  Matt's blood pressure has stabilized.  I will have mine checked when I go to the doctor next time.

Here's to your health, too.

The morning after...

I hope everyone celebrating had a Happy Easter.

I overdid it this week end and I am thankful for no weight gain and thankful that I learned a lesson and thankful that I am ready to detox - no matter how painful it may be.

I had 1.5 cinnamon sugar muffins, a cinnamon biscuit, french toast and syrup along with eggs and potatoes. My body did not like me.  I felt nauseous for the rest of the day.  Luckily I was able to start functioning in the afternoon.

Lesson learned.  No sugar.  No carbs in high doses.

I have a recipe to share from Friday because I have finally found my beet recipe.  This was a delicious juice!

Awesome Beet
1/2 red beet
4 peeled oranges
1/2 lemon
1/2 bunch dandelion leaves
4 carrots
nub ginger
nub turmeric.
Of course that juice is pictured on the right.

The juice on the left was not my favorite.  I will share the recipe anyhow

Green
1/2 romaine head
bunch kale
2 cucumbers
dill
ginger
turmeric
2 apples
1/2 lemon

One thing I have learned about apples?  Get either Gala or Granny Smith.  The red delicious do not impart enough sweetness to a juice and that is what this juice needed.

Today, my Monday, I have made the detox Green juice

Detox Green
Kale
1/2 romaine
1/2 pineapple
4 carrots
2 cucumbers
5 celery
1/2 lemon

I will drink this as a snack and have a Bullet for Breakfast and lunch today.  

NutriBullet recipes

I know not everyone has a juicer.  Many people have the Nutribullet.   I will start giving equal time to the Bullet since I use it as much as my juicer.

Tropic Thunder
2 cups spinach
1 cup pineapple
banana
goji berries
shaved coconut
water to the fill line

So delicious.  You can taste every Ingredient in there.


Antioxidant Blast
1 cup spinach
1 cup blueberry/raspberry/blackberry mix
goji berries
water to fill line

You can easily double the ingredients and make a bigger blast.  I used the small cup since I also ate a hard boiled egg.

Enjoy

Monday. Oh, Monday...

Follow us and join us on Facebook.    The Daily Juice

I had so many Facebook friends ask about my routine and ask about recipes, that I decided to start a group for all of us to share recipes and photos.

So.  We are back at it this week.  Trying to lose an additional 5 pounds before we go to New Jersey at the end of the month.

Lion's Tooth Lemonade
1 head of romaine lettuce
1/2 bunch dandelion leaves and stems
3 apples
1 lemon

I have had this juice before and it is quite good.  Tart and refreshing as a lemonade should be.

Sweet Beet
1/2 beet
4 oranges peeled
1/2 pineapple

** What a delicious juice.  Sweet with a subtle hint of the beet flavor.  I am definitely making this one again.

Both of these juices were thru the Breville and both are 2 servings.  These are our snack juices and we have a serving mid morning and a serving mid afternoon.

Recipes and more recipes... and lemons, too

Lemons.  What can I say about lemons?  In my backyard, I have 2 Meyer lemon trees that produced over 300 lemons last year.  Now that I know the benefits of lemons, I will never complain at how well those 2 trees produce.

Lemons are shown to inhibit and prevent the growth of cancer by protecting your cells.  They are also known to help aid in the prevention of a tumor from growing.  They have limonene - an oil known to help aid in the prevention of cancer.    Lemons are acidic to the taste, but when introduced to the body, are very alkaline.  Cancer cells can not grow in an alkaline environment.

Lemons are rich in vitamin C.  We all know the benefits of this vitamin.  A big glass of lemon water can help cleanse the liver and get it started for the day.

Lemons are also helpful in battling acne and promoting glowing skin.

I have 3 recipes that I used lemons in.

Watermelon Lemonade
1 small watermelon (personal size)
1/2 lemon (peel and all)

Simply put.  This was a delicious and refreshing juice.  I love using watermelon juice when I am tired of the green juices and the veggies.  This could easily be a summer sipper worthy of a poolside afternoon.

My next juice is a green juice.

Kale Explosion
1 bunch of kale
2 cucumbers
1/2 lemon
ginger
turmeric
2 apples
4 celery
dill
parsley
 *  I added the dill and parsley because I have it growing like mad in my backyard.  If you don't have it, don't worry about it.

Not sure where the red/orange is coming from on the bottom.  Maybe the apples?

And finally, an orange juice.  Just a note.  I did not use any oranges in this juice.

The Color Orange
1 large sweet potato
1/2 lemon
5 carrots
2 wedges pineapple
2 handfulls of power greens (baby spinach, kale and chard)

Sweet Dandelion and the benefits of leafy greens

I like to use dandelion greens every once in a while when I can get them.  They are very bitter, so it is necessary to sweeten the juice.  Pineapple is just that sweetener to use.

Dandelion greens are high in calcium - who said you had to drink milk to get calcium?  They are also high in antioxidants - Vitamin A and Vitamin C.  Dandelion greens are also high in iron!!

To read more about how to use dandelion greens, click here:  Dandelion green smoothies

I get my dandelion greens at Freshfield Farms, who locally sources them from Lady Moon Farms.  On their own, they are bitter.  But when juiced with the right fruits and veggies, they pack a ton of nutrition to your daily juice.

Sweet Dandelion
1/2 bunch dandelion greens
2 cucumbers
1/2 lemon
1/4 pineapple
(2 servings)

Another tip to take with us with regard to the greens in smoothies - Rotate your greens.

Why?  Alkaloid build-up.  All leafy greens contain a very small amount of toxins and when consumed over a long period of time, these toxins can build up and harm the thyroid.  Please know that this is VERY RARE.

If you use spinach one day, kale the next, you have it down pat.  Don't worry.  And besides, it is good to switch it up every once in a while as different greens have different nutrient benefits.

Another article on the benefits of greens in your smoothies:  Benefits of greens

Tomorrow?  Why to use lemons.

Hitting it hard

We are vacationing in 3 weeks and have decided we are losing 10 pounds prior to that.

My husband has lost 45 pounds since we started this journey January 6, 2014.  I have stalled at 30.

Over the last 2 weeks we were eating a little more, but maintaining.  Were they all good meals?  No.  However, we did supplement with juicing.  This is, after all, a lifestyle change and it does take time.

So.  Back to juicing thru the day until dinner and making sure that we eat a sensible dinner.

I made a simple, easy juice today.

carrots
apples
celery
1/2 lemon
turmeric
ginger

So.  Back at it.  We shall see what happens by the end of this week.  Hoping for a few pounds off.

Juicy Thursday

Today, my first juice is a garbage juice.  Doesn't sound delicious does it?  However, this is why it is garbage juice.  I take a look in my fridge and see what produce needs to go ASAP and I make it in to a juice.  I just so happened to have quite a bit!

Week old tomatoes, both round and a few grape ones, and green onions as well as a head of butter lettuce.  I added a bit of fresh produce to round it out in to a nice tomato juice

Garbage Juice
1 head of butter lettuce
tomatoes (as many as you want)
4 carrots
4 stalks celery
green onions
wedge lemon
2 hands full of spinach

 I was off the diet this past week end and I certainly paid the price.  Although I did not gain any weight, the toll it took on my digestive system was great.  I suffered, up til today, with bloating and gas pain.  I imagined that there was a battle in my intestines between the good stuff moving in and the bad stuff trying to hang on, but getting moved out.  I am feeling MUCH better today.

Next juice is a citrus beet juice.  I had a piece of leftover beet as well as grapefruits and oranges that needed to leave the house one way or another.

Citrus Garbage
2 peeled grapefruits
3 peeled oranges
1/4 beet
4 carrots
wedge of lemon
nub ginger

Enjoy the juice.

Quick Recipe

Crazy Sweet Dill Pickle
1/2 cucumber
fresh dill (as much as you want)
1 pear
Fill water to the Nutibullet "max" like and blast away

Tastes very mild - like a sweet dill pickle

Pearrific Juice

Keeping it slow and steady with another pound lost.  Matt is holding it down at 40 pounds lost.

Pears are known for their anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.  Pears are also one of the easier to digest foods and have a high amount of digestible fiber.  I know when I add them to a smoothie, they add a thick texture that feels decadent on the tongue and a nice sweet flavor.    Pears are also considered to reduce the risk of Type 2 Diabetes and lower heart disease.

Today, I have juiced a nice pear and citrus juice that I am excited to drink for my morning juice.

Pearrific
3 pears
2 peeled oranges
1 lemon
ginger

I am also still on my citrus juice

Citrus Kale Juice
6 kale leaves
2 peeled grapefruit
1 peeled orange
1 lemon
2 handfuls of spinach
1 cucumber
turmeric
ginger

Feeling inspired... and citrus benefits.

It's Monday.  Again.  We have decided that the last 2 cheat days have gotten out of hand and we are going back to what we were doing in the beginning:  Being careful on cheat days, but enjoying one meal of what we want.  My meal is usually a burger.

I am feeling inspired because I got an e mail from my Uncle Jerry and he requested prayers due to some health concerns.  I told him of course and then shared with him our journey of juicing.  He asked for all of the information and I sent it.  I then talked to my cousin this morning and I am sharing it with her as well.

It makes me feel great when I can help people.  This juicing has helped me tremendously.  The first week is the hardest, but once you see the weight loss, it will keep you motivated.

Monday's juice.  For the following recipe, I basically used up any greens that were on the edge that were in my fridge.  If you only have fresh, use those

Green Citrus Lemonade
Half head of Romaine
4 leaves of butter lettuce
bunch dandelion greens
1/2 lemon and peel
1 orange (peeled)
1 grapefruit (peeled)
2 apples

My next juice is tried and true and very kid friendly.  Want to get the kids on juice?  Use this.  Sweet, a little tart and healthy!  They will never know they are also drinking celery.  The color is also kid friendly.

Tart Celery

4 apples (granny smith are best)

10 stalks celery

10-12 carrots

Some of the benefits of citrus:

Vitamin C 

Cancer prevention

Did you know that lemons are one of the most alkaline foods?  Cancer can not grow in an alkaline environment.  Add lemon to your water and drink to your health.

Oranges have been known to lower your bad cholesterol!!

Citrus helps eliminate free radicals from the skin helping to keep it young and healthy!

Oranges help in the absorbing of Vitamin D and calcium, leading to stronger bones.

Grapefruit helps boost your metabolism and aids in weight loss

So don't overlook these delicious fruits and add them somewhere to your diet.