Friday, July 23, 2010

My Lemon Aid Diet Update

This week I dropped another 3 lbs with the simple addition of lemon, water, grade b maple syrup, and cayenne pepper lemon aid concoction added to my diet.  I am extremely happy with this weight loss.  Since May I've been excercing every day, juicing, eating healthy and the scale did not budge.  I guess at my age the metabolism is at a standstill.  Then I added the lemon aid 2 weeks ago and I've dropped 6-1/2 lbs. I've been drinking it 2-3 times a day and I really like the taste.  Try it!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Soy Perfect!

Practice makes perfect and I think I've finally perfected this recipe for a "no guilt" soy pie.  The crust is made of pecans and dates, the center is tofu with grated lemon peel, the top is any crushed fruit you choose.

No fancy name attached to the recipe I haven't thought about one.  I've made this pie about 1/2 dozen times and finally I think it's soy perfect!

The thing about this recipe it is so healthy I eat it as a meal sometimes.  It makes an awesome breakfast.

Here's the recipe and some photos to show the proess.
Recipe

6-8 dates soaked in water for 4 hrs (or until plumped up)
1 cup raw pecans (I have used other nuts)
1 banana sliced
2 pkgs of extra firm tofu
zest of 1 lemon
2 tbsp grade b maple syurp
1 pint of blackberry, blueberry, or raspberry

After soaking the dates but in a large bowl and smash.  Chop the nuts and add to date mixture.
Mix together then press into pie tin.  Slice banana and place on the flat surface of tin.  This keeps any liquid left in the tofu from making the crust soggy.
Break up the tofu with a large fork and make into tiny pieces.  Add the maple syurp and mix with tofu then add the entire zest of one lemon.  Mix together and pour onto crust. Press tofu down to make a nice uniform mound.  Smash berries so that juices flow and pour over top covering it completely.  You and your guests will love this!







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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

What do a Mellon, Spinach, & Banana Have in Common?

Answer:  Blended together they make one heck of a delicious green smoothie.  Each is the secret ingredient in this smoothie, no ingredient stands out, they blend seemlessly together in a smoothie perfect for summer.  Creating smoothies is one of my favorite things to do in the kitchen.  It seems the possiblities are limitless.  I just started creating green smoothies and I find spinach is a perfect green ingredient in the green smoothie.  I doesn't leave a heavy green flavor blends nicely and the color can vary depending on the amount of spinach added.  Green smoothies are so pretty too!   Next time I going to blend in the mint rather than use it as a garnish I think it will be a nice addition...like I said limitless possibilites.
Recipe
1 frozen banana
1 handful of fresh spinach
1/4 cup of cantelope mellon
1/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt
1/2 cup almond milk (original flavor)

The Back to Basics smoothie maker is what I used before I bought my Vitamix...sometimes I think it did a better job than the Vitamix!

Monday, July 19, 2010

Fresh Figs Stuffed with Goat Cheese

Here is a quick recipe for fresh figs.  They are really yummy and good for you too.  I think they'd go great with a nice glass of Riesling wine, sitting on the deck on a beautiful summer's evening.

If you've never tasted fresh figs you don't know what you are missing.  They are delicate in flavor and texture and oh so delicious.  Easily bruised, handle gently.


Recipe

Fresh Figs (as many as you want)
Goat Cheese (enough to cover the halved figs)
Balsamic Vinegar (just a drizzle over the figs)
Chopped Pecans (just enough)

Slice the figs in half.  Mix all ingredients together except figs and vinegar.  Top figs with mixture and drizzle with balsamic vinegar.  Broil until cheese gets bubbly.  Serve with wine and chill out!

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The Green Green Grass of Home.....Grown!


I'm still learning how to grow wheatgrass, after 8 flats grown not a single one grew like the other.  Some had big bald patches where nothing grew, another had moldy seeds, and another grew perfectly.  I did find that soaking the seeds for a couple days in water helps them sprout easier.  Growing wheatgrass is a challenge and well worth the effort consisdering the energy boost it gives me along with the overwhelming sense of well-being.


When I tried my first wheatgrass shot  I thought it tasted like freshly mown grass smells....very, very green.  I never drank a plain shot again I started mixing it with carrot juice and it went down easier. 
That first shot of wheat grass came from a commerically purchased flat of grass from "Whole Foods".  Wheatgrass is too expensive to buy at $12 a flat so that's when I decided to grown it on my own.
Juicing wheatgrass takes a lot of effort and time but I find it worth it.  DON'T try juicing in a regular juicer they can not handle the strong fibers of the grass.  I bought a cheapy little wheatgrass juicer on Amazon and finally figured out how it works after reading all the reviews on Amazon.  But before I read the reviews I gave up on it and tried to juice my grass in my Omega...it died that day after a long useful life.  After it's death I read the Amazon reviews on my wheatgrass juicer in one review the author described in detail how to use it.  Whala!  I was getting wheatgrass juice out of that cheapy juicer!

I've tried energy drinks before, I actually had a seizure in Costco after sampling an energy drink.  They called an ambulance and the EMT told me that I wasn't the first to have a siezure from an energy drink.  It actually was my second seizure for that type of drink.  The amazing thing about wheatgrass for me is I get all this energy with out any of the jitteriness or seizures of the energy drinks.

I use the pulp left over from juicing.  I roll the leftover fiber into 2 rolls about 5" long each and insert them under my lips onto my gums.  I extract a lot more juice from the fiber and it is beneficial to gum health.  I heard of others....this you might find gross...who actually insert it anally for colon health.  Haven't tried that one!

Please note that any product advertised through Amazon.com on this blog is a product I use myself.  If you have any questions about the products I would be happy to answer them.
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Sunday, July 18, 2010

Sugar Reborn! Hallelujah!




I found a big old plastic bag of white sugar packets in my pantry the other day.  I was ready to throw the bag in the garbage when I thought what if I have guests that want sugar in their cofee...what kind of host would I be if I couldn't offer sugar to a guest!   I should have thought what kind of host would I be offering poison to my guests....but let's just say I'm still working on the programming in my head that says sugar is yummy.


I put the bag back in the pantry unsure why I was reluctant to throw the white poison away...was it me just being thrifty, not wasteful, or was I becoming a hoarder!  So what was I to do with a huge bag of white sugar packets that for some reason I was having difficulty parting with?  

And then last night at around 11:00 pm I had the light bulb moment!  I grabbed a bowl and start tearing the packets open three at a time. I then squeezed the juice of one fresh lemon into it and then added about 2 tbsp of aloe vera juice.  Mixed it all together and gave myself a face scrub.  It was just awesome.

I was surprised that the sugar did not disolve in the lemon juice and aloe vera.  When I rubbed it into my skin the mixture felt like sandpaper, so I lighted up on my rubbing pressure.  The result was it tightened my skin up and it felt so soft...I couldn't stop looking in the mirror.    I'm going to do a scrub again this morning because I had enough left for another application, this stuff is just too good to throw away.  I want to mention that I did get some of the mixture on my lips and I did taste it, of course it tasted yummy.  It was pretty funny and ironic that the thought ran through my head that I shouldn't do that again....don't want to ingest poison, knowing the poison that white sugar is and how horribly it affects my body when ingested.


***Update when I went to use the leftover scrub the sugar had dissolved so rather than throw it away I just added more sugar.

New official habit in my daily ritual!

Recipe

1/2 cup white sugar
juice of one fresh lemon
3-4 tbsp of aloe vera juice

For my next batch I'm going to add more sugar to make it a little thicker, I'm going to scrub for at least one minute and then I'm going to leave it on for 5 min....can't wait to see those results!

Fill pretty bottles with this scrub and give it away as gifts...it's that good.
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Friday, July 16, 2010

Edible Leather

Last night I had 5 over ripe mangos.  This morning I had mango fruit leather.  Rather than toss the mangos in the trash, I peeled them...they still tasted great, they were just really juicy and messy to eat.  So I got a fork and mashed the heck out of them, spread the mixture thinly and evenly over the non-stick dehydrator sheet and dehydrated over night for about 12 hours.   Next time I will put the mangos in a food processor to eliminate those lumps.  This morning when I woke up I had fruit leather with no added sugar...great treat for kids.  What's great is you can make any over ripe fruit into leather.  You can store the leather wrapped in wax paper in the fridge, it is delicious cold.

I made one batch of leather just plain mashed mango.  Another batch I added hot pepper relish to the mashed mango.  Nothing goes better than mango with hot sauce and this proved that point one more time.  The sweetness of the mango and the hotness of the peppers is a taste treat, try it sometime.

* I have 2-1gallon bags of frozen fresh peaches (I purchased a huge case of peaches for $5 at the Hartford Regional Market) taking up precious room in my freezer.  I defosted one and processed the peaches to a smootie texture in my Vitamix.  Then I made Peach Leather with it in my dehydrator....delicious!

It isn't Pretty

Ok I know this isn't a pretty lunch and I wasn't even going to post about it or photograph it....but then I tasted it!  Portabella mushrooms nestled in a rice tortia.  I love those rice tortias they crisp up nicely.  Here's the recipe.

Portabella Taco

3 Portabella Mushrooms
1/2 onion diced
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
sprinkle of parmesan

I sauteed the onion and mushrooms in olive oil then spritzed with balsamic vinegar.  Toasted tortia right on the glas top stove, fliped over and loaded with mushroom then folded in half.  Flipped over again and again until toasty enough.  That's enough for two big tacos.

Juicy Juice

I love juicing....it takes time and energy but it is so worth it!  My basic ingredient in my juice is carrots...from there I go crazy.  The juice pictured is carrot, ginger, beet topped off with a shot of wheatgrass.  I juice for a couple of days worth  at a time just because juicing does take time.  The wheat grass however, is juiced as needed, I want to squeeze every drop of nutrition out of my wheatgrass because I grow it myself and the yeild is a paltry 6 ounces per tray.

I had an Omega juicer until about 2 weeks ago.  I paid $25 for it on eBay and it served me well for years until I decided to try juicing my wheatgrass.  Just a handful of wheatgrass in the Omega Juicer froze the motor and it never worked again.  That expensive mistake forced me to look for a new juicer.

My new juicer costs $265 on sale from Amazon.  It did come with free delivery and my Chase Amazon Credit Card had accumulated $100 worth of points so it ended up costing me $165.  I purchase a Breville Juice Fountain Elite and when I first used it I thought...this will save me hours thank god my other juicer burnt out!



With the Breville I no longer have to cut the veggies small enough to fit in the hopper!  I can fit 2 large carrots in the Breville hopper at once.  It can handle whole apples and beets, now it takes me minutes not hours to juice.  My Omega had a basket that needed emptying after 4 or 5 carrots.  The Breville has a huge basket that I may only empty once or twice per 3/4 gallon of juice depending on the veggies being juiced.


Since I've been juicing the benefits are evident.  My skin is clear and my eczema gone, gone after years of nothing else working.  My energy level zoomed upwards especially after adding that shot of wheatgrass.  I even think my eyesight has slightly improved with all the carrots, I find myself looking less for my reading glasses although I still need them often.
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Wednesday, July 14, 2010

My Little Secret


Twice a month I get up at 5:00 am on Sunday morning and drive 45 min to my favorite place the Hartford Regional Market.  There I buy lots of fresh produce at rock bottom prices.  Last week I spent about $100 and here's a list of what I purchased along with prices.


50 lbs of carrots/$15
12 pints of fresh figs/$5
12 pints of grape tomatoes/$10
40 lbs of bananas/$12
12 pints of raspberries/$10
95 lemons/$32
25 huge portabella mushrooms/$10
10 mangos/$5

The carrots get juiced...fresh carrot juice is delicious and oh so good for you!  A big glass of carrot juice in the morning along with a shot of wheatgrass juice gives me unbelievable energy for the day. 

The lemons are used for making lemon aid...read my earlier post and see how this simple drink can change your metabolism and rejuvenate your liver. 


The bananas....well I dehydrated about 5lbs which I store in the fridge they are so so good.  Then I freeze about 10 lbs and I use them in smoothies.  Freezing the bananas eliminates the need to add ice to a smoothie....take the peels of first.  I didn't remove the peels first time I froze them and it was hard labor taking the peels off frozen.  I make banana cookies in the dehydrator...yummy!  Look for the recipe at the end of this post. 


The figs didn't last long, there is nothing quite as good as fresh figs  in my book.  I searched the fridge this morning hoping to find one last container of those delicate treasures....none to be found maybe next time I'll buy 24 lbs.

Raspberries don't last long in my house.  I made banana rasperry smoothies with some, recipe at the end of post.  The rest well they disappeared quickly as a nutritious snack.

The portabella mushrooms are about the best I've seen anywhere.  Last night I had 3 for dinner.  Look for my recipe at the end of this post.

The tomatoes became a simple fresh sauce and I made some awesome salsa too.

The Connecticut Department of Agriculture (DoAG) operates this wonderful regional farmer's market in Hartford.  Every Sunday morning at 5:00 the market opens and people from all around CT make their way to the market.
 Address:
101 Reserve Road


Hartford, CT 06114-1612

(860) 527-5047


The Hartford Regional Market is the largest perishable food distribution facility between Boston and New York. It is operated by DoAG as a self-sustaining, non-profit venture funded through operational fees. The Connecticut Marketing Authority oversees its operation and planning.  (info taken from DOAG web site).

If you don't live in CT check with your states Dept of Agriculture to see if your state has something similar.



RECIPES

Banana Cookies

Smash over ripe bananas as many as you want
add a couple of dashes of cinnamin
1/2 c more or less nuts of choice chopped
1/2 c raisins

Take a tsp full of  mixture and place on dehydrator sheet until finished.  Place trays in dehydrator and run at about 125 degrees for 24 hrs or until like a soft baked cookie.

I made these cookies today with raw cashews and added blueberries instead of raisins.  I change this recipe constantly but this is the basic recipe.

Raspberry Banana Smoothie

1 pint of rasperries
2 frozen bananas
1/2 cup of non fat plain yogurt
1/2 cup blue diamond almond milk

Place all ingredients in your Vitamix and mix until smooth...you'll never crave a milkshake again...smoothies yum!











Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms

3 large portabella mushrooms
2 cups spinach
1 cup raw pecans
salt pepper
1/4 c parmesan cheese
2 tbsp on seseame oil

Wash mushrooms and remove stems.  Chop stems, pecans, spinach and add salt pepper and seseame oil and cheese.  Stuff caps and bake about 20 min. at 350 degrees....these are awesome!

Fresh Salsa

Tomatoes
Cilantro
Basil
Onion
salt
pepper

add the quantities you want and be prepared to eat the entire thing in one night.  I make my own chips for this using Rice Tortias from Trader Joes...I toast them by placing the tortia right on the burner of my glass top stove....use a low heat, turn continually and in no time at all you have fat free rice tortias that taste way better than any store bought chip.

Fresh Tomato Sauce

Tomatoes as many as you want chopped
garlic pressed I like it garlicky so use what you like
basil chopped
extra virgin olive oil
salt pepper

Heat oil and saute garlic add all the other ingredients serve over sprouted pasta

Do What You Love and Call it Play



For all of my adult life I considered exercise a form of torture.  Sitting on a bike going nowhere with sweat pouring down my body.  Walking on a treadmill and seeing nothing but the television set in front of me.  Pulling on a chain with a handle and calling it rowing....I hate all of it. 


What I do love is riding my Schwinn bike on a country road with the wind blowing in my face, cooling me down and making me feel alive, walking in the woods and seeing chipmunks, deer and wildflowers, or hopping in my Emotion Kayak and feeling one with the water.

A few years ago I heard someone say "do what you loved as a kid" and really it changed my life.  The thing about that statement is you can apply it to all kinds of things.  Pick a career by doing what you loved as a kid.  Exercise by doing what you loved as a kid.  It makes sense doesn't it.  When you're a kid that's all you do are things you like doing., it's called play.  As a kid you don't sit on bikes that go nowhere, my bike was my escape and it still is, now that I got off the bike that went nowhere.

I love the water, as a kid we always had a pool, the above ground kind.  Not big enough to learn to swim in and thus I don't know how to swim, but it doesn't negate my love of water.  Now I live in a beautiful condo with access to 4 pools.  I spend time in one of them every day.  I bought an Aquafit package that included dumbbells, a flotation belt, and webbed gloves.  Now I can go into the deep end of the pool and play with my weights, elongate my body, splash and kick around...now that's doing something I love.


Eating real food is a great healing thing to do for your body.  Playing will keep your mind, soul, and body young.  Together you have the recipe for a happy life and you will see you body change.

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Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Boost Your Metabolism with Lemon Aid!

This simple recipe for lemon water can help you loose weight while boosting your metabolism.  It works!  I drink this concoction everyday, so does my daughter, and so do her classmates in nursing school.  While the recipe comes from the diet called "The Master Cleanse" I don't follow the fasting part of the diet.  I simply drink the lemon aid before each meal and sometimes in between meals.  I've actually grown to love this drink.  Here's the recipe:

Juice from one lemon (I roll and press on the lemon to free the juice)
Water room temp
a small amount of cayenne pepper (I have it in a shaker bottle and do a couple of shakes per glass)
1 tsp of grade b maple syrup

Cayenne pepper is one of the hottest peppers around.  The heat from this pepper, is beneficial it is to your body because it reduces the stickiness in platelets, keeping arteries from narrowing.  Cayenne contains vitamins C, E and carotinoids. The capsaicin will increase your metabolism, stimulates the immune system and helps your blood circulation. It is a cleanser in your body killing harmful bacteria, germs, viruses, and infection.

The lemon juice needs to be fresh, not from a bottle, or those squeezy plastic lemons.  Lemons are a tonic to the liver, eliminating toxins.  Lemon also aids in digestion.  Not to mention all that vitamin C.

Grade B maple syrup just takes away the bite of the drink by adding a little sweetness, and adding some really great minerals.


Weigh yourself, drink this wonderful elixer for one week, eat healthy, excerise, jump on the scale and see what happens.  It helped speed up my old 50+ year old metabolism.

Grade B Maple Syrup vs Honey, Sugar

Maple syrup is high in calories, but a little goes a long way and the nutritional value is worth the calories since it is used sparingly in my lifestyle of real food,  Maple syrup is an excellent source of the trace mineral manganese, with 2 tbs containing about 22% of the FDA Daily Value.  Manganese is a trace mineral that helps form antioxidant defenses.


It is also a good source of zinc with 2 tbs containing 3.7% of the FDA Daily Value.


I choose Grade B over Grade A, the choice is simple. Grade B is a dark syrup with a deep, robust flavor. Grade A is milder so more is needed for flavor and doesn't hold up as well in cooking. So why Grade B maple syrup over honey...less calories (40 vs 60 per tsp) and a higher concentration of all those important minerals.  Grade B is loved by foodies everywhere and is used in detox cleanses.  Forget sugar it will kill you, age you, and make your life miserable. Switch to Grade B maple syrup and see the difference but only use a little it goes a long way.

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Shopping the Perimeter


When I go grocery shopping I rarely go down the aisles I shop the perimeter of the store.  That's where all the real food is located.  Almost everything else in the store is processed, look at the  list of ingredients you don't want lists of ingredients when selecting food.  Some foods do come in packages for ease of transport, like nuts, I love nuts, I buy them raw from Trader Joe's.


Oatmeal is another real food that comes in a package choose the steel cut oats over the rolled oats because you'll get more of the real food with steel cut.  Steel cut oats are cut into small pieces but all the good stuff remains, the stuff that lowers cholesterol.  Steel cut oatmeal takes longer to cook but it is so worth it.  When I add the steel cut oats to the water I also add raisins.  The raisins plump up nicely in the water, add a tiny bit of grade b maple syurp and you will have a real food treat.

Here is my recipe for homemade granola made with steel cut oats.

2 cups of steel cut oats soaked in water for a couple of hours
1/2 fresh coconut cut into small pieces
1 cup of raw nuts chopped
1/2 cup goji berries
1/2 cup raisins
2 Tbs grade B maple syurp

dehydrate in an Excalibur dehydrator you will find dozens of uses for it.  I bought my Excalibur on Amazon and I use it all the time to preserve real food.

It's been a long strange trip

After decades of dieting and failings and even gastric bypass surgery I've finally found what works for me.  It's not a diet it's a lifestyle.  The lifestyle of eating real food, nothing processed, just real food without labels or ingredients.

Real food doesn't come with a prize...I heard that on NPR this week when Michael Pollan was being interviewed.  Real food also doesn't come with a label listing ingredients.  Real food gets moldy, real food is not the twinkie with a shelf life equal to nuclear waste.  When you eat real food you can eat all you want and not worry about consuming too many calories.  How many apples do you have to eat to equal the calories of one Big Mac? 

Real food doesn't do trippy things to your blood sugar. 

The purpose of my blog is to spread the news of real food so you can change your life, your health, and gain control.