Three Day Juice Cleanse - Day Three!

One of the great things about juicing at home is knowing that your ingredients are organic. Eating organic is always important, but specialists like Gary Null, John Robbins, and just about everyone else emphasize how important it is to use organic fruits and vegies when juicing. Some even suggest not doing it at all if it isn’t organic because you’re just filling your system with pesticides. This is super important too when juicing to detox; we’re trying to get out the toxins, not get more in!  

It’s kind of exciting to mix different flavors and try new vegetables and fruits. Some recipes can be duds and won’t come out as delicious as you’d hope, but sometimes certain combinations can surprise you with a new favorite. One of my favorites is a Bloody Mary inspired juice that I think I perfected this morning. I threw in a handful of cherry tomatoes, two carrots, three celery stalks, a bundle of kale, and four small sized peppers (or one large one,) any color. The red, orange, and yellow ones tend to be sweeter than the green peppers. The cherry tomatoes are sweeter than full sized ones and the peppers added some sweetness too. The celery is salty so together this drink is very satisfying.

The next recipe I tried I was a little apprehensive about. I’ve never been crazy about swiss chard. It has a very strong taste and can be bitter. If you use too much in a juice, every sip kills your throat. BUT, it really is one of the best things for our body so I gave it another chance. I used three large leaves and pared it with one red apple, two kiwis, one lemon, one cucumber, and a handful of alfalfa sprouts. Sprouts are beneficial because they contain a concentrated amount of nutrients in a small amount of food, juiced or not. This juice came out on the sweet side with a small amount of bite. I can’t say it’s my favorite juice, but I can say that it’s the best combination I’ve done with swiss chard! That counts for something right?

The most recent recipe I did was a combination of a juice and a smoothie. First I juiced a large bundle of purple kale. Then I broke out the blender to mix the kale juice with coconut water, coconut meat, and a banana. This juice always comes out amazing to me because I am a huge coconut lover! But, I saved this one for the second half of day three because there is some fiber in this drink from the banana and coconut. I also thought it would be a good transition for tomorrow when I start eating whole foods again. It may be just enough to hold me over tonight. If not, I’ll make a banana, peanut butter, almond milk, and ground flax smoothie.

I’ve always wanted to complete a juice cleanse and now that I know how easy it is, I won’t hesitate to do it again. I know a lot of people have the misconception that juicing is like fasting but on the contrary, your body is getting packed with more nutrients and vitamins than any other diet available. I thought I’d be ending this post with day dreams of tomorrow’s lunch but instead I’m thinking about juicing again for breakfast!

Three Day Juice Cleanse - Day Two

Day two and I'm feeling good! But, today was a test to my will power for sure. While it's a lot harder to get my hands on a fresh juice when I have to work, it's definitely a lot harder to say no to the eat-when-I'm-bored cravings I can have on a day off. That's why I took a train up to Poughkeepsie to meet up with my mom and spend the day with her. She's into juicing as well so I was able to come "home" to a fully stocked fridge which was awesome!

I started the day with a kick. I had baby spinach, ginger, lemon, cucumber, and a dash of cayenne pepper. The spinach and cucumber give a healthy does of vitamin K and spinach is a serious super food. Ginger is shown to reduce blood pressure and cholesterol and can even destroy cancer cells! I love adding lemon to my juice and it's packed with vitamin C and are alkaline-forming. Don't skip on the cayenne - it's not just for taste. It's shown to work as a pain suppressant and a natural morphine. This is a spicy drink and as much as I loved it, it's not sweet at all so it might not be the best option to try during your first juice experience.

The juice isn't exactly filling but it is satisfying - or at least it is for an hour or two. My second juice (created by mom) was more sweet. It was with carrot, apple, sugar snap peas, spearmint leaves, lemon, spinach, and kale. Carrots are antioxidants and have a ton of vitamin A (which is what keeps your vision 20/20.) It also is great for glowing skin and healthy teeth. Apples are laxatives and are great for those who are juicing for weight loss. Kale is another super food. It's high in calcium, vitamin K, and manganese, which all promote bone density. Got Kale?

After going "number one" 7 times, we drove to New Paltz where we soon had to stop at Karma, a vegan café, for another juice. I grabbed a quick carrot, parsley, and celery to hold me over and stabilize my pH levels.

We got home just around dinner time and time for, yep you guessed it, another juice. First I took a shot of juiced wheatgrass. It's great mixed in with drinks, but enzymes are best able to absorb this detoxifier when consumed on an empty stomach. It's really sweet but kind of intense so brace yourself. After that I juiced carrot, celery, red/green/yellow pepper, beet, and purple kale. Beets are amazing for liver function and cleansing the blood. They also are very sweet and make any juice taste great.

Don't be discouraged if you make a gross juice. (Sometimes I make some seriously disgusting ones.) But I try to get a variety in and if there's something that you don't really like, try to mask it with a strong fruit or spice. It's really important to drink water in between juices, which I honestly sometimes forget to do. I also like drinking coconut water if I can find one that's not from concentrate. Today my amazing mom sliced open a young coconut for me so I could get the fresh stuff. The work is well worth it because it's so much tastier than the bottled stuff. - Then again, I wasn't the one hacking at it so what do I know.

Three Day Juice Cleanse - Day One

One of the first things I did after deciding to go vegan was buy a juicer. After some extensive research and browsing on Amazon, I decided to go with the Breville. It's price point is doable and it had amazing reviews. I purchased a juicing recipe book on my Kindle and went for it!

Since then, I've read and seen documentaries on the importance of green based juicing and doing a juice cleanse. They all recommend starting slow; Start with a three day cleanse, then try five, and so on. They also recommend not eating any meat or dairy a couple days before as to not put your body into shock (Or else you'll be on the toilet all day!)

It can be difficult (and expensive!) to stay on track while living your everyday lifestyle. You want to consume your juice as soon as possible or within four hours of pressing. The reasoning? The juice starts to oxidize over time causing it to loose vital nutrients. This can be very inconvenient for most because the average work day is 8 to 9 hours. Also, the three meals a day theory is out the window. You should consume about 5 to 6 juices a day during a cleanse. I know... you're getting discouraged now right? Don't. You just have to come up with a plan.

I planed my days to be working today, the first day, and have off for days two and three. What's my plan for day one? Before I leave for work, I will juice twice. One I will consume before leaving and the other I will have after I get to work and settle in. This should hold me over until lunch. For lunch, I will have to go outside and buy a juice. When doing this, you want to go somewhere where they will have fresh pressed juices, not pre bottled. I'll grab two, drink one on the spot and save the other for an hour or two latter. This should be enough for me to make it home and juice again but if not, I'll stop outside to grab one more before heading home.

Hopefully I'll stay strong and wont cave! I'm off to start my first recipe: Spinach, celery, carrot, and green apple. I'll let you know how it goes!

vegetable noodle soup

It's official. I'm totally sick! And I mean stay-home-from-work, lay-in-bed-all-day sick. I really want to reach for the Campbell's can like always, but they put high fructose corn syrup in most of their soups. So instead, I reached for the phone and called my mother. She gave me the recipe to her escarole soup. She used to make this soup for me as a child and I would pick through the greens and only eat the noodles. (Who am I kidding, up until 5 months ago I was doing it.) Needless to say, I cringed a little at the thought of putting escarole in my soup but went for it anyway. (Ahhchooo!)

The ingredients are somewhat interchangeable, but the following made a delish and nutrish soup:
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 of a small red onion, cubed
2 stalks celery
2 to 3 carrots (I also include the greens)
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 head of escarole, chopped
2 Tablespoons EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup pasta (your choice)
A pinch of iodized salt (1/4 Tablespoon?)
A few twists of fresh ground pepper
1 bay leaf

Her instructions were simple:
Start out by sautéing the garlic, onion, and celery in EVOO in a large pot. In the time it takes to chop the carrots and parsley, you're ready to toss them in as well. (Cough) Next is the escarole. Add one cup of broth to the pot, stir, and let the ingredients simmer for 10 minutes. In the mean time, put on another pot of water to boil for the pasta.  Lastly, Add the remaining cups of vegetable broth, salt, pepper, and bay leaf and let it come to a gentle boil. After draining the pasta, you're ready to add it to the mix and serve.

This soup did wonders for my throat and I definitely didn't have to choke it down. I will no longer push the escarole aside and maybe next time, I'll try putting the whole head in the mix ;) Thanks again ma.

vegan blueberry pancakes

(Recipe update: since the posting of this blog, I've experimented with different ingredients and now make these pancakes a little differently. I've noted the changes below with an *)

For my whole adult life, I have been making pancakes from a box. Don't get me wrong, they tasted good. But the real reason why I never tried making them from scratch was because I thought it would take too much effort. I know I sound really lazy, but before I knew about all the additives in processed foods, I didn't think taking the easy way out was so bad. How can you argue with "just add water." But now that I'm vegan, I can't depend on Aunt Jemima anymore.

The good news is, making pancake mix from scratch is actually really easy! I looked up a couple recipes online and they all have the same main ingredients: flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, milk substitute, and oil. Each one had a little something different; some added spices like cinnamon or replaced the sugar with a fruit. I chose to use the following:

• 1 cup unbleached whole wheat flower
• 1 Tablespoon cane sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon iodized salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 Tablespoon ground flaxseed
• 1 cup almond milk
• 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil (*coconut oil in liquid form)
• 1 cup blueberries

First, I mixed the dry ingredients- flower, sugar, salt, baking powder, and flaxseed. Next, I added the Almond milk and vegetable oil (*if you are using coconut oil, rather than vegetable, zap the almond milk in the microwave for no more than 60 seconds. Having the milk at room temperature will keep the oil from solidifying.) Most recipes called for Soy milk but I'm tying to boycott Monsanto as much as possible so I went for the almond milk. Plus, I like the flavor. Once the batter is mixed, I added half the cup of blueberries and let it sit for 5 minutes. This is something momma D figured out and taught me. If you let the batter sit, the pancakes will come out fluffy. I oiled up the pan and ladled in the batter with the flame on low. With Aunt Jemima, I would look for bubbles to surface in the batter to know when to flip. That didn't happen with this batter. I timed about 3 minutes on each side but it's better to flip a couple times than to burn it. After dishing, they were topped off with the remaining fresh blueberries and syrup.

These pancakes are guilt free and are delish. I think next time I'll try it with banana :). This recipe only makes four good sized pancakes which is more than enough for me! But if you're cooking for a few, double the amount.