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.