Glowing Green Smoothie

This recipe comes from the book "The Beauty Detox Solution" by Kimberly Snyder. It's packed with great information and recipes, and since I need to lose just a little more weight for my goal dress to fit perfect I've decided to follow her program for the next few weeks!

We hit the farmer's market today to pick up most of what we needed, since most of the recipes are raw. I couldn't wait to begin, so as soon as we got home and put groceries away I decided to make this Glowing Green Smoothie that I've been so anxious to try! I have to say, it is FABULOUS! It's very refreshing and light, and I'm already thinking of how great one of these will be after an early morning run!

Since I don't have a Vita Mix, I decided to make this in my food processor because it's much more powerful than the blender we have. It worked out great, and I'm starting to wonder if I even need a Vita Mix at all! All I did was start off with my greens and slowly added in all the other ingredients, and only added a touch of water as needed until everything was pretty well blended. Toward the end I finished adding the water.

I also took the blended mix and put it into a pitcher with some ice so it would be nice and cool. It was so tasty that I had a 2nd glass, and even Matt enjoyed it! I'm definitely looking forward to having this for breakfast all week!



Ingredients:

1 head romaine lettuce
Bunch of spinach
3-4 stalks of celery
1 apple (cored)
1 pear (cored)
1 banana
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Optional: cilantro and parsley

Water

I'm so excited about getting some use out of our big pitcher that we bought! I intended for it to be used this spring/summer for fresh lemonade and tea but it's perfect for water during our fast! I just slice up a lemon and a lime and squeeze the juice into the pitcher and fill with water and it lasts us the entire day. I don't mind drinking plain water, but this is just more fun and it's pretty!

We've also tossed in cuccumber and oranges (not together). But I love having lemons and limes on hand to add some flavor to what I'm cooking. I try to zest them whenever I think I can add it to the dishes (like I did tonight) or a side salad.

Juice, juice, baby!

I thought I was crazy to allow myself only liquids during the day for my fast, but it really isn't as hard as it sounds. This afternoon I had a smoothie (unsweetened soy milk, strawberries, and oranges - next time will do bananas). But for "breakfast" I had my favorite juice combo - apples, oranges, and carrots! Mmmmm!!!

Is it cheating if I added a little strawberry garnish to my liquid breakfast? ; )

Smoothies

To really push myself during my fast, I am allowing only liquids during the day. Smoothies are such a quick, easy liquid snack. I love berry smoothies with vanilla soymilk, but orange/pineapple is another favorite. Buying bulk bags of frozen fruit helps save money and cuts down on how much hard ice you will have to throw in your blender!

Basic Juice Recipe

I love my juicer! I have no problem eating vegetables, but for some reason I just don't care for fruit (seems backward, doesn't it?). So I prefer to have my fruit in juice form.

I use carrots as a base for all my juices because 1) they are cheap 2) they are mild and sweet and 3) they yield a lot of juice! Plus they are a pretty vibrant color when juiced! : )

Apples and oranges go really well with carrot and make a quick, inexpensive juice recipe. Strawberries, bananas and kiwi, sadly, do not juice very well. I'll try to post more juice recipes as I come across them!

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

I found this recipe online. Some changes that I made to it: I added some honey, used vanilla soy milk, and instead of the suggested seasonings I added nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves. Personally, I think the onion added too strong of a flavor. It was okay, but not sure if I would make it again. It was a lot of work for just an okay soup!

Ingredients:
1 medium butternut squash
1 small onion diced
2 medium whole garlic cloves
2 small carrots diced
1 small celery stalk diced
1 medium sweet potato
¾ cup of chickpeas
½ cup soy milk
3 cups vegetable stock + 1 cup reserve stock
Small chunk fresh ginger
Curry powder to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil
1 large sprig rosemary - remove leaves from twig (substitute sage if preferred)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°
2. Clean squash, poke all over with fork and place on cookie tray. Bake for approximately 1 hour until skin is somewhat golden and squash is soft inside skin. Set aside and cool when done
3. Sauté onions and whole cloves of garlic in olive oil over medium heat. Once garlic has some golden color; remove from pan and set aside
4. Continue cooking onions until soft and translucent
5. Microwave sweet potato in skin approximately 1 min until skin can be easily removed from potato (potato does not need to be completely cooked at this point)
6. Add salt, pepper and curry powder, diced carrots and celery and continue sautéing until vegetables are tender and wilted
7. In food processor combine rosemary, garlic cloves, chickpeas and soymilk. Blend until a smooth paste forms
8. Add squash, diced sweet potato, chickpea paste and 3 cups of broth to vegetables in pot
9. Zest small chunk of fresh ginger into pot according to taste
10. Stir and simmer for approximately 5 minutes ensuring all vegetables are tender
11. Remove from heat and blend using hand blender or blender until smooth and creamy - strain if desired.
12. Return to heat and add reserved 1 cup vegetable stock if needed to achieve desired consistency