Plant-Based. Fast. Flexible. Delicious. Four principles I strive to bring to every Juice Junky post. And this meal hits the jackpot! A quick, delicious, vegan entree that doesn’t call for any fancy schmancy ingredients or some 50 hour prep time. … Continue reading
Happy Summer! And happy end-to-my-blogging-hiatus. I’ve been so overwhelmed these past two months with school, work, new hairstyles, moving, family crises, internships…. the list of excuses is never-ending. Bottom Line: I’ve been making a lot of changes in my life and working my butt off, but staying healthy, vegan, and happy throughout. And that’s always important.
The hair: I’ll just touch on this for a brief second. Yes, It’s very Miley (or Beiber?), and I like to faux hawk WHENEVER possible. I like it because I can also make it very “Robin Wright” (House of Cards) and look like a rockstar who’s married to a congressman. All in all, I’d recommend to any woman that CHOPPING it alllllll off at least once in a lifetime is insanely liberating and confidence-boosting. Yes, you ARE that brave. Don’t sell yourself short!
Okay. Now. Lets talk about my move! I liked to say before that I was living in Cleveland, but to be honest, preppy and far-far-east side Chagrin Falls (though beautiful and quaint) is anything but city life. I was so happy to make the move out to the Coventry neighborhood in March and finally snag a true Cleveland address! My landlord is absolutely amazing, the walk to campus is a gas-saver (not to mention beautiful!), and the food venues I have at arm’s reach are… well quite honestly they’re making me fat! Tommy’s (one of many famous veg restaurants in the Cleveland arsenal), Chipotle, Panini’s, Picadilly, Kiwi Spoon, Mongolian Barbecue… let’s just say self-restraint is a virtue I have been perfecting over the last few months. Apart from the small fire in my bathroom that went down tonight (an old hair dryer and a faulty outlet don’t mix), it’s been nothing but positives! Did I mention the running? City running ROCKS! Bouncing through Little Italy with the orgasmic aromas of fresh pizzas and sangria is nothing short of wonderful.
When someone starts to make any kind of positive changes to their life, it can sometimes amplify the other aspects of their life which may need to be revisited. This is definitely happening right about now. I’m over the moon with my new location, and my close proximity to CWRU has only amplified my enthusiasm for all things academic. I NEED to get more involved with my classes and the programs offered. Now that I can take a 10 minute walk and find myself studying in the Med School Library whenever I want, I’m able to really see the life I’ve been envisioning, and I’m THAT much more motivated to to get there!
This move has also amplified the annoying. Not that I don’t love my job, but now that I have to drive almost an hour to get there (as opposed to my previously gorgeous 30-minute-walk down country roads at sunrise), not to mention animal welfare’s lack of relation to HIV research, I’ve found myself thinking “What the heck am I still doing here?” Something needs to be done about this, but more on that another time. An internship at MetroHealth on top of my work obligations AND two summer intensive courses has my brain juggling just about all it can handle right now.
This post was supposed to be about some awesome juicing recipes and tips, but thanks to my little hair dryer incident, my kitchen has been rendered useless for the time being and I’ve had to rely on Starbucks and Chipotle for the day. I’m going to go now and relax with my cat and a Blue Moon, but I wanted to let everyone know that summer is here and so is my inner Juice Junky! So get ready for awesomeness.
I’ll leave you with an anonymous quote which has been wholeheartedly driving my productivity as of late, one which I can only hope inspires you to achieve your full potential!
Make the changes YOU want in your life, or someone will make them for you.
Stay Healthy, and Happy Juicing!
What happens when a light sleeper gets bombarded with 23 texts at 3 in the morning? An overly productive morning and a Rent sing-a-long. Oh, and lots of juice! I’m a big advocate for making use of everything in my kitchen, and that includes the stalks of broccoli I saved after using the florets for soup the other night. Using broccoli stems as the base, I threw in some beets and carrots, and a whole bunch of cilantro. To top it off, I added some coconut water to the end product. Holy yum!
Add the coconut water after juicing all vegetables. Enjoy!
Does your kitchen look like this at 3:30 in the morning? I think my neighbors are hating me through our very thin walls right now. At least Bran isn’t terrified of the noise anymore.
I’m so chill while mom juices. Sometimes I get to eat the pulp!
Last night, I had dinner & drinks with a good friend who has been a vegan for years, and we got to talking about things that changed for us when we made the transition. She started talking about different “chapters” in the life of someone adopting a plant-based diet, and seeing as it’s been almost a year since I fully dedicated myself to adopting a plant-based lifestyle, I’m seeing truth to her theory.
One of the big changes we talked about was the amount of alcohol we consumed. I thought I was just out of the “college phase” and that was the explanation for my abrupt drop in tolerance for cocktails. Nope. Turns out a plant-based diet can lower tolerance over time, and it makes sense. Lowering processed food intake and eliminating animal products altogether makes for one very clean and efficient machine of a body! Nothing to clog up digestion or block absorption of nutrients; this holds true for alcohol as well.
You can take one of two approaches with your attitude in regards to this. You can be upset about the fact that keg-stands are probably not going to stand in your life much longer, or you can get as stoked as I was about not having to buy 3 or 4 beers since I’m satisfied with one or two now!
Sorry for the short post, but I’m off to enjoy my juice and save the world one puppy at a time. I’ll be posting more this week, so don’t worry!
Happy Juicing!
Now that the Polar Vortex of 2014 is finally over (fingers crossed!), 14 degrees on a Wednesday morning is practically Spring Break weather! I’ve been doing my best to stay healthy during this cold and icky germ season, and one of my most powerful weapons (besides the holster of Purell on my belt) is juice. Not Day-Quil. Not a packet of Emergen-C. Just good ol’ veggies and fruits and all the goodness they provide.
It’s not easy to think about health when it looks like this outside!
I’m not gonna lie; I woke up Monday morning feeling foggy, with a tickle in my throat and pressure in my ears. I pretty much dove towards my juicer as soon as I woke up and made a couple “shots” of Flu Buster Juice (1 lemon, 1-2 inches ginger, 4-6 garlic cloves, dash of cayenne on top).. Hands down, better than any cough syrup I could have tried, and immediately my throat was like “thank you, thank you!” I also made a big pot of green vegetable soup, which I swear will cure anything you’ve got! I’m still working on perfecting the recipe, though, so look for an upcoming post about it!
It’s so easy to fall into the mindset of “I don’t have time to juice”. I’m not criticizing; I’ve been there too! As a part of my New Year’s Resolution, I decided that I needed to make a conscious effort to juice more. Now, I’m not saying every single day, because things happen. I’m not going to set myself up for failure, and neither should you. I want to get as close to that mark as possible, though, and I know that the “time” factor can definitely affect anyone’s juicing habits. Lucky for you, I did a little experiment in my kitchen this morning to help debunk (even to me) the “I don’t have time for juicing” myth.
Steel-cut oats have been my go-to breakfast lately, so I started the water boiling to make some. These take about a half hour to cook, so after throwing in the oats, I started prepping my veggies:
I was already throwing carrots into the juice, so I cut up a few extra to bring as a snack to campus with me. Then I juiced my delicious concoction and scrubbed down the juicer. Surprise, surprise, my oats were still cooking by the time this was all done. I had time to make a bag of trail mix for class as well before my oats were ready to go. Within 40 minutes of waking up, this is what I had to show for myself (on top of making hot lemon water, drinking my supplement, and taking my vitamins):
Not too shabby if I do say so myself! I know some of you are thinking “I don’t have 40 minutes between waking up and leaving my house to get all this stuff ready.” Okay, but in all fairness, the juicing took ~15 minutes total, and the rest of the time went to making tea, mixing trail mix, stirring my oats, and cutting up veggies for my midday snack. You can always stick to doing the juicing alone, but my morning routine requires some waiting around (like when I’m cooking breakfasts like steel-cut oats or an apple bake), so why not spend that time being productive? I even got some packing done! Side note: I’m so happy I’ll be moving into an apartment without such crappy lighting soon! My pictures are going to look so much nicer.
What I’m trying to say is that everyone can sneak in healthy habits where they might not realize they’ve got a little time to kill! When I’m not using my “oat-cooking” time to make juice, I spend it practicing yoga or meditating, or even reading for school. Whether you juice, sneak in a workout, read the paper, or write in a journal, making choices that are kind to your body & mind, especially in the morning, can really set the tone for the kind of day you want to have. I find that when I take the time to make myself a yummy juice like the Broccoli Citrus Blast I’m about to share with you, I feel good about myself, and I radiate that goodness and project my positive attitude onto others. Try it! You will feel great, I promise!
Time for the juice!
Juice and Enjoy! It may not be the prettiest of colors (orange and green don’t exactly mix to create a sparkly rainbow) but it’s delicious, I promise! Feel free to add a granny smith apple as well; I didn’t have any on hand but I’m sure it would have been delicious!
Stay Well & Happy Juicing!
Baby, it’s COLD outside! It’s shaping up to be a winter for the record books, and everyone and their mother is thinking of how they would trade ANYTHING to be on a beach right now working on their suntan (with plenty of SPF of course!). While that sounds like a pretty tempting aspiration, it’s days like today that make me happy to live in the midwest. It may be -12 degrees out, and my car battery may have froze, leaving me stranded for the time being, but I’m in my bed under 4 or 5 blankets, cuddling with my kitten and savoring a big bowl of steel-cut oats and blueberries while I write to you all. Hello SNOW DAY! If I lived in Hawaii or Mexico or LA, the ever-elusive-but-joyfully-decadent-when-it-happens snow day would be non-existent. I don’t think I could give days like this up! How have you been spending your snow days? (assuming of course that you’re not essential emergency staff and assuming you live in the CLE like I do!)
I planned my food out again this week. Three weeks in a row; I think this is becoming a habit and I’m not upset about it! Actually, I’m really proud of myself. I’ve been sticking to my budget (5$ over this week on groceries but that’s not bad!) and I’ve been prepping all my meals from scratch! It’s good to praise yourself and give yourself credit when it’s due, and I am really happy with how well I have been following through with this plan.
Last semester, I lived of Clif Bars and pita bread from the BRB cafe (@ CWRU). Three weeks into this semester, I haven’t had to buy a thing from the cafe! Unless coffee counts. You all know I’m very anti-caffeine, but between 40+ hours at work and 30+ hours spent on campus, Starbucks and I have been getting pretty chummy.
Okay, let’s get to the FOOD! I’ve been trying to come up with new and creative “pre-packaged” meals that aren’t REALLY pre-packaged. Sorry, no juice this week. It just wasn’t in my budget, and though the old Kate would have just gone over her budget and rationalized it, Present Kate is trying to be better than that! Next week there will be some yummy juice recipes though, I promise!
Sunday after work, I ran up to Giant Eagle (I wish Earth Fare had FuelPerks) and did my grocery shop for the week. When I got out of my car though, a bitter gust of wind ripped my list from my hands! I had to do the whole shop from memory, so that may have contributed to being a few dollars over budget. I did all my food prep Sunday night and thought of my friend @allisoninwellnessland since she always has her “Sunday Food Prep” posts! Two big recipes: I made a big bowl of salsa chickpea salad to make lettuce wraps with, and at the same time I had a huge pot of chili simmering (hot chili and a little nutritional yeast is sounding really delicious right now!). The chili fit perfectly into 5 small mason jars and perfectly encompassed my “pre-packaged” food goal! Still trying to figure out how to pack the lettuce wraps, but since today’s a snow day, I get to enjoy them from home and their logistics have become a non-issue today.
Okay. You want this chili recipe? You ready to warm your bones? I know I am! use whatever beans you have on hand. This is a loose recipe, so add in or omit as you see fit! Go where the flow takes you!
Obviously Bran-approved! Cats love nutritional yeast!
If you’ve got a slow cooker/crock pot, then 1) just throw everything in there on low for 4 hours and 2) when can I borrow it? For everyone else out there using their stove, start by sauteing the vegetables and spices. Add in everything else after about 7 or 8 minutes and cook on low-medium for about an hour. Stir occasionally.
I know some people like corn, but I am not one of those people. Feel free to add in anywhere from ½ to 1 cup of corn if that’s something you’re thinking needs to be a part of your chili-devouring experience. Also, if you are a non-dairy consumer like I am, feel free to throw some Daiya cheddar shreds on top, or be like me and dump a pound of nutritional yeast into the bowl! I love nutritional yeast. So much. I could talk about it all day every day! some chives would be good in there too. When pulling out my individual jar to reheat, I filled the empty mason jar about a third of the way full with water and added it to the chili since it was a little thick. This also helped me get all the stuff stuck to the sides of the jar into the bowl!
Until next time, be healthy, be happy, and happy juicing!
2 posts in one day… I’m a wild woman! I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while, and I’ve had a few readers requesting these juicer recipes for a couple months now. Being my uber-productive self, I finished one of my deadlines early this afternoon (I believe Starbucks may have contributed), and what better study break is there than blogging? I know this blog is for “The Juice Junky” in all of us, but my new-found discovery of plant-based vegan recipes and holistic health practices can sometimes overshadow the juicing aspect you all come here for!
I have compiled a list of the 14 most popular juice recipes to share with you. Keep in mind, these are the most common recipes that I use myself, but there are obviously thousands of recipes that others may see as more popular than the ones listed here. Also to keep in mind for those new to the juicing practice, these recipes are only a guideline. Don’t be like “I have everything but the apple for this recipe so I guess I can’t make that one…” Feel free to mix and match! Once you get the hang of this crazy awesome world of juicing, you may move away from the recipes (I know I definitely have) and follow the general 80/20 rule while creating your own delicious concoctions!
The 80/20 Rule: You are not only allowed to make up your own juice recipes, you are encouraged to! Like I said before, you may not have all the ingredients for a specific recipe, but that doesn’t mean you can’t sub out apples for oranges or cucumber for celery, or even just omit an ingredient altogether (I can’t handle juicing radishes, no matter how many times I try! I leave those suckers out of any recipe calling for them). This brings us to the 80/20 rule: When creating your own juice recipes, the general guideline is to make your creation ~80% vegetables (preferably greens!) and ~20% fruits. You can ALWAYS up the vegetable percentage!
Fruit juice is okay in moderation (I mentioned making apple juice in my previous post), but it’s something that should be done as a “once-in-a-while-treat” basis. When fructose (fancy word for fruit sugar) is consumed without being coupled with fiber (fiber is removed during the juicing process) there is nothing from stopping the fructose from flooding the liver in one heavy hit. Eating an apple is okay, because the fiber combats the fructose and acts as a sort of “time-release” mechanism. Drinking apple juice, there is no fiber, so the digestive system is hit with all that fructose at once, which can be detrimental in high doses. I can go into detail on this in a later post if you’d like; just comment below and let me know!
Okay, enough science junk. I’m the one in school, not you. Time for the yummy part of juicing! Without further ado, I give you my list of the 14 most popular juices in my kitchen! That’s one new juice a day for two weeks! Please share your juice recipes and experiments in the comment section below!
Heavy Metal Detox
When the liver detoxifies, it sends those toxins to the intestines with the intention of getting them out of the body. Many heavy metals going through this process end up being reabsorbed into the bloodstream repetitively. Cilantro binds to these metals in the body and carries them through the intestinal tract so they are excreted once and for all, and don’t get reabsorbed, or stay in risky places like the brain.
ABC (a.k.a Fruit Punch)
Ultimate Beet
Mean Green (Original)
Carrot Cucumber
Flu-Buster (I swear by this!)
JUST SHOOT IT! You will feel instantly invigorated; I promise! Shoot it even when you’re not sick. When your throat is sore though, this shot will coat it and you will feel improvement within minutes.
Cucumber Beet
Simple Cucumber Love
Cucumber Apple
Perfect Skin
Operation Detox
Hangover Cure
Mango Salsa (my favorite “dinner” on a juice cleanse!)
Greens on Greens on Greens (my personal concoction)
When all else fails, there is this awesome infographic from CrazySexyJuice.com to help guide new juicers on their own juice-creation journey. Definitely check this website out; Kris Carr is amazing and she is a true inspiration to anyone looking to improve their health through nutrition.
Again, please feel free to comment and tell me about your favorite juice concoctions and kitchen experiments!
Happy Juicing!
Good Morning and Happy Tuesday! With yesterday being a holiday, I actually got a break from my 7-day work/school schedule and it. was. GLORIOUS. It’s back to the schedule today, though, and like I said last week, planning is key. I made up my shopping list yesterday and hit up Earth Fare for some groceries and was able to find some really good stuff! Am I the only one who gets more excited in a supermarket than a mall? Possibly, but I’m okay with that! I got home and wrote out all my meals on my kitchen board so there will be no meal confusion this week!
As you can see, I’m a bit of an organizational…. “enthusiast”. Yeah, let’s go with that. With work, school, and everything in between though, being organized (especially in regards to nutrition) is what keeps me going! This simple meal calendar only takes me about 15 minutes to create on Sundays during my lunch break at work (yeah for multitasking!) and it really 1)eliminates the stress of what the heck I’m going to eat each day on the go and 2) saves me tons of money, since if I didn’t pack my food, I’d be scouting out all the Chipotles and Pita Pits I could!
A wonderful surprise happened on Sunday: a ton of apples were donated at work for the horses. Like, a whole big crate of them. How is this beneficial to me? Well, so many were donated that we weren’t going to be able to use them all before they’d go bad. I obviously volunteered to take them off their hands. Nothing beats fresh apple juice! It’s like dessert!
Okay, you’re probably wondering where the heck this steel-cut oats recipe is! A little background first: so I bought a canister of oats a few weeks ago, not reading the label. When I got home, I realized they were steel-cut oats, and when I opened the canister, it did NOT look like the oatmeal I was familiar with. I was so confused! I bought it though, so I was going to eat it. I let it simmer for a half hour just like the directions told me to and….. They were insanely good! I’ve been on an oat kick ever since, and I’ve found that a few unlikely ingredients have made for one of the best breakfasts I’ve ever made!
Coconut Raspberry Steel-cut Oats
This breakfast is delicious, filling, and energizing! It’ll keep you going till lunch, I promise you! You can always experiment with different fruits, or added sweeteners if you’ve got a little sweet tooth going on in the morning. I’ve added apricots to this recipe before and it has been awesome as well!
Stay healthy and Happy Juicing!
Happy Tuesday everyone! Has it really been 4 months since my last post? I sincerely apologize; with a full time job and a full time class schedule, life can definitely get in the way of everything else sometimes. And I won’t lie to you: these next four months are going to be even more hectic and insane than ever, so bear with me. We will make it out alive; I promise!
Classes officially began yesterday, though I was in and out of meetings last week as well. Some exciting changes in my life since last we spoke:
Okay, now to the good stuff! Balancing work, school, and a life are going to be more challenging than ever in these next few months, and I know that in order to succeed, I need to make sure I make things like meals and shopping as organized as possible. I created a meal plan for the week and hung the clipboard next to my stove. Now I don’t have to stress about “What do I bring to campus for lunch today?” or “What the heck am I having for dinner?” It only took me about a half hour to write it all down, and that made the shopping trip 100x easier. With a few staples already in my kitchen, I managed to keep the bill under 30$… not bad it I do say so myself!
The menu for this morning included my hot lemon water (as always) and a kale-banana smoothie with the almond milk I made last night. I’m a creature of habit, and I always know it’s going to be a good day when I am able to stick to my routine in the mornings. Again, planning is key. My morning routine looks something like this:
Stumble out of bed and wander blindly to the kitchen to turn on the stove and heat my water. glance at my meal chart and see that a banana-kale smoothie is what’s happening this morning. Wash 1000 mg Vitamin C and 1000 mg niacin down with a full glass of water while I pull out everything I will need from the fridge. My counter looks something like this:
Bran wanted to help photograph the food this morning. He’s hiding in most of my pictures now, so be on the lookout! As you can see, I’ve already cut up lemon slices, and everything has been prepared (I did chop the kale this morning though). If you look in the right corner of the picture, you can see the edge of my clipboard hanging on the wall! I sip my hot lemon water while checking emails and once I finish, I head to the kitchen to make breakfast. If I make something like an oatmeal bake or roasted apples, I take that oven time to get my yoga on. This banana was not nearly as ripe as I prefer (the browner the better!) but the smoothie was still delicious and I always feel good about making a meal from ingredients I have prepared myself. The jar of brown stuff in the back is almond meal. If you remember my post about making almond milk (refresh your memory here) I talk about making almond meal from the leftover almond “pulp”. It’s quick, easy, and I added it to my kale-banana smoothie to up the fiber content, which is never a bad thing! Feel free to omit this if you are using store-bought almond milk, since prices of almond meal at the grocery store are a bit outrageous.
1 ripe banana
3-4 leaves kale, chopped
2 tbsp almond meal (optional)
1 cup almond milk
To reiterate what I said in my previous post about almond milk, I can’t stress enough how easy and effortless this process is! Yes, the almonds need to soak beforehand, but I did that while I was in class. And the almond meal has to go in the oven for an hour or two… which I just read and did work for my classes while that was happening. All in all, you probably only will spend about 10-15 minutes doing actual work.
Today’s menu includes brown rice & broccoli for lunch, mashed sweet potatoes and steamed kale for dinner, and some carrots and hummus as a mid-day snack. I’ll try and post as often as I can this semester, so let me know if there’s a certain health topic you want covered or an ingredient/recipe you’d like to see on here!
Conflicted. That pretty much sums up my entire Wednesday. This morning, I got up to go for a run (after my hot lemon water and some stretching of course!). I got less than a mile into my run before I turned around unexpectedly, deciding I just wasn’t feeling that particular trail. So then I run all the way back to the beginning and set out in an entirely different direction, thinking that would solve everything. It didn’t. Over a mile into that route, that path wasn’t right either. Exasperated with indecision, I ended up running over to the high school and doing laps around the football field until I was good and spent. My pace was decent according to my Nike app, but my mentality wasn’t.
Then came time to decide which delicious blue food recipe I was going to feature today, and again I was met with conflicting emotions and indecision. Since only one “blue” food really exists in the natural food world (with the exception of some very rare blue potatoes), blueberries were the obvious food choice. There’s no variety in the blue category, and I hate when I’m left without a choice! Blueberries are super delicious, though. But what to make with them? I usually just eat them raw, or I add them to juice and use the pulp in popsicles. I didn’t want to juice them since I was in too much of a hurry to really be able to preserve the pulp today, so I went for a smoothie. I don’t have a specific recipe for this one, but basically a few (like 3 or 4) heaping handfuls of spinach went into my blender, followed by my pint of blueberries from the market and some silken tofu (about half a brick). I added about a cup and a half of unsweetened almond milk and blended that sucker till it was creamy and totally liquid.
Man was that just what the doctor ordered after an hour of running! Feel free to add your own sweetener to this blend (agave, honey, stevia, etc.). A lot of people don’ t think my smoothies or juices are sweet enough, but I personally am not huge on super-sweet concoctions (I understand I’m pretty much alone in this!). Since my first juice fast in July 2011, my cravings for sugar have gone down significantly, and I don’t always use sweeteners. Currently, I don’t even have any type of sweeteners in my home. Like I said though, a couple tablespoons of agave may be just the key to making this smoothie your new go-to breakfast concoction!
If you head over to my good friend Allison’s Allison in Wellness Land, you’ll find some rockin’ info about blueberry nutrition on top of another awesome blueberry recipe with only two ingredients! Allison shows how to make Blueberry-Chia Jam, and it’s crazy good! Can’t get more simple/healthy/delicious than that!
Not every day is perfect. I’m not always a 100% up-and-at-em, vegany power superhero (as some of my friends would put it). Some days, I wanna say screw it, just like you do, crank up Alanis Morisette, and scream at every car I see on the road, even though I know they can’t hear me. We all have those days. While I can’t say I got a whole lot of emotional satisfaction from today, I am able to reflect on the fact that despite my moodiness, I was able to run over five miles, contribute to a very satisfying inter-professional meeting at Case, and eat some very healthy meals. Being able to see those accomplishments in print makes my day a bit more satisfying than I thought it was!
What do you do when you’re having an off day? Are you able to see positive actions even in the midst of conflict and indecision? Comment below and let me know how you get over your less-than-perfect moments.
Here’s to hoping tomorrow holds less conflict and more clarity.
Stay happy, stay healthy!
Happy Hump Day! Honestly, Wednesdays are the Mondays of my life right now, since I work from Wednesday through Saturday. That’s okay though, I won’t be bound to that schedule forever! I kind of like having Tuesdays off right now. Since most everyone is at work or school, I’m pretty much free to do as I please, traffic and line free. Who can complain about that? I got a nice 3 mile run in today after work, too. Can you spot the heart in the trees?
On top of Hump Day, looks like it’s GREEN Wellness Wednesday, too! Make sure you head over to Allison in Wellnessland to get a killer kale pesto recipe this week and hear about her adventures with kale in the kitchen! Okay so not only is this my favorite color, but it’s the color of most of my favorite foods! What to choose? There’s kale, broccoli, spinach, celery, cucumbers, chives, tomatillos, cilantro, parsley, avocados, artichokes…. I could be here all day people. Each are delicious in their own right and each bring their own unique nutritional benefits to the table. Anyone who knows me knows I am indecisive to a fault (don’t think you can fix me!) and won’t be surprised when I say I chose a veggie combo for you all to enjoy this week. Hey, at least I’m consistent.
1/2 jalapeno, de-seeded
1 lime
1 cucumber
1 mango
2 scallions
1 bunch cilantro
This recipe is probably my most favoritest juice of all time. Yeah, FAVORITEST. Like, if there was a juice law that said this was the only juice allowed forever, I’d drink it all day every day and never complain about it. Ever. It’s called mango salsa, and I’ve mentioned it on here several times, but it’s a drink that’s worth the extra attention. It’s health benefits parallel it’s foodgasmic flavor (yep, I said it), making it a win-win. You seriously CAN’T go wrong here people. Unless you don’t like cilantro. Which makes you a communist. Meaning that YOU are the one that’s wrong, and not my precious juice. Can you tell I really like cilantro? How could you not, with all it’s amazing benefits?
Did you know that cilantro is one of very few foods which actually bind to metals in the body and are able to carry them through the digestive tract to help our bodies get rid of them? Pretty cool, huh?
And oh, the jalapenos. Capsaicin is what gives the pepper its spicy kick, and researchers have found that capsaicin releases endorphins. Maybe that’s why this drink makes me so happy. Some studies are even in the works to study capsaicin’s effect on weight loss, but I’m not terribly concerned with that, and you shouldn’t be, either. Here’s the way I see it: “I got so fat by eating vegetables” said no one ever. Does it really matter if something inside a vegetable speeds metabolism to weight loss? Who cares!
Cucumbers are another green item found in the mango salsa drink, contributing to most of the concoction’s bulk. Something you might not know is that cucs contain about 20% of the daily recommended value of vitamin K, which helps with blood clotting and the distribution of calcium. Basically it’s your “injury prevention” nutrient, and cucumbers are full of it!
Mangoes are not green by any means, but the limes in the juice definitely are! Limes, on top of being delicious, carry almost 30% of your daily vitamin C in them. Not too shabby!
Add all these power foods together, and you will be ready to take on just about anything. I guarantee it. Please make sure you de-seed the jalapeno before throwing it through the juicer, though. Oh, and wash your hands after touching the jalapeno. Like right after you put it down. Do not, I repeat, do not rub your eye with your jalapeno-y fingers while drinking your juice. Not that that’s something I’ve ever done, but you know, it just sounds super painful. Like, you might spill your delicious juice on your way to dive into your shower, fully clothed. Again, not saying that actually happened to me last week, I’m just saying you should be careful…
Okay! That about wraps up Wellness Wednesday! Stay well, stay happy!
And get your juice on!
The Juice Junky 