Are You on the Juice? No, not THAT kind.

I watched Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead when it first premiered on Netflix a couple of years ago.  At the time, I was in the beginning stages of my health discovery adventure.  It was around the time that I started experimenting with a raw vegan diet.  I already knew the benefits of eating fruits and veggies, but Joe's story really amazed me.  It also made a huge impression on my omnivore husband.  We both thought that adding fresh juices to our daily routine would be a great idea.  

Why juice?  When we juice fresh fruits and veggies, we are basically pulling out the vitamins and other nutrients while eliminating the fiber.  This allows the body to absorb the nutrients directly into the bloodstream without having to process them through the digestive tract.  It's like injecting nutrition right into your veins!

I decided to buy my brother's juicer from him at a steep discount.  It wasn't anything special, but a Breville was good enough for Joe, so it was good enough for me.

At the time, we lived about 45 minutes from the nearest grocery store that carried organic produce, but I would go by there after work and stock our fridge.  I would also drive from our home to the farmer's market in Nashville (well over a one hour drive) every weekend and buy tons of fresh greens and apples.  I loved the experience of wandering the market, meeting new people, talking to the farmers, and just inhaling the fresh air.  But after a while, I got burned out on the long drive and the extra gas money.  (I was driving an SUV with a V-8 engine.).   Not to mention, we're both the kind of people who are running late wherever we go, and juicing takes time.  So, we didn't stick with it.  We both loved drinking the juice, but just couldn't make it a habit.  

Well, fast forward to January 2014, and I received a gift from a very generous and kind family member... A brand new Omega 8006 juicer!  It's quite different from the Breville.  This juicer is an auger-style, meaning that instead of spinning and cutting the produce, it presses everything into a screen at slow speed which releases the juice and separates it from the pulp without oxidative stress.  Heat isn't a friend of juice, so the centrifugal style, like the Breville, can be less than ideal.  However, having used both, I can say that I never noticed my juice getting warm when I used the centrifugal type.  The main thing that I noticed from using the Omega versus the Breville, is the amount of juice that's pressed from leafy greens and the dryness of the pulp.  A lot of my leafy greens would just spin out the side of the Breville without releasing much juice.  One downfall of the Omega is the prep involved.  Because the chute is small, I have to cut my veggies and fruits to fit.  I've gotten this down to a routine, though, so I'm not too annoyed by it.  My main concern is getting the best nutrition possible, and the Omega definitely helps with that goal. 

I can say that since receiving the Omega, we have juiced consistently.  I started by making a green juice and a root juice for myself everyday.  And as of last week, I'm making juice for myself and my husband.  I'm also sharing my juices with our ten-month-old daughter who seems to really enjoy them.  Yay!  

So, you may be wondering, "Lindsey, what do you juice?"  I don't get too creative during the work week, since I like to stay in a routine to keep things on-time in the morning.  My go-to for green juice as of late is kale, spinach, celery, cucumber, apple, and lemon.  I managed to find some fresh turmeric root at the international market over the weekend, so I've added that to this week's juice, and it seems to be a hit.  No complaints from the hubby, at least.  My root juice is pretty much the same every day, too.  Carrot, beet, celery, apple is the base, and I've also been adding turmeric and ginger to it this week.  I love the kick of spice from the ginger and how it tastes with the sweetness of the other veggies.  

I watched a YouTube video by "The Life-Regenerator" Dan McDonald last week which inspired me to try something new on Saturday.  He made a pineapple, cilantro, and coconut juice, which sounded really refreshing.  Cilantro is one of my favorite herbs and is a great detoxifier.  I thought I'd give it a try.  Fresh Thai coconuts aren't easy to find in Tennessee, but I had some "coconut water powder" in the cabinet.  (It was one of Jimmy's Christmas gifts, since he's a complete coconut water addict.)  I must say, the juice was so refreshing!  Dan really knows what he's doing.  He has tons of videos on his YouTube channel demonstrating juice and raw food recipes.  

If you're just learning about juicing, I'd recommend keeping it simple, only juicing 2 or 3 items at a time.  Start with a watery vegetable, like cucumber or celery.  Then, add a green, such as kale, spinach, romaine, etc.  And lastly, toss in a fruit for sweetness.  Apples, pears, and oranges work great.  Lemon is also a nice addition and will help to keep oxidation at a minimum if you have to store your juices for any amount of time.  Once you've gotten some recipes that you like, try adding more flavors.  Carrots and beets will add sweetness to any juice.  Herbs are great for detoxing.  Ginger and turmeric are incredible for treating inflammation.  

I love experimenting on the weekends when I'm not hurried.  Play around and have fun with it.  It's one of the best things you can do for your health.  Even if you don't change anything else, you'll be flooding your cells with beautiful nutrition.

Some wonderful resources for juicing are:

RebootwithJoe.com

Holdingherown.com

Naturaljuicejunkie.com

Runningonjuice.com

Smoothie Recipe: The Hormone Balancing Orange Dream

About three weeks ago, I received my new juicer, an Omega 8006.  Since then, I've been juicing every morning.  Typically, I'll wake up and drink a glass of warm lemon water followed by a green juice.  While I have the juicer going, I also prepare a sweet root juice to take to work, usually beet-carrot-apple-celery.  I call it "The Plant Blood."  

I like to go easy on my digestive tract in the early part of my day, so I will then make a smoothie to drink as my morning snack.  With oranges being in-season, I've been on a bit of a kick.  This recipe includes maca, of which I have shared the benefits in a previous post.  It's truly a SUPERfood.  It turned out so good that I just had to share with all of you.

The Hormone-Balancing Orange Dream Smoothie

2 oranges, peeled

2 frozen bananas

1-1/2 cups almond milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp chia seeds (I soaked mine in water overnight)

1 scoop protein powder (I used Garden of Life Raw Vanilla Protein)

2 tbsp Maca powder (optional)

Cinnamon & ginger to taste

Dash of cayenne pepper

Pinch of sea salt

I blended my fruits and almond milk until smooth before adding the other ingredients just to prevent over-processing of my superfoods.  I then topped my smoothie with a scoop of hemp seeds.  It reminds me of the orange dreamcicles that I had as a kid, but without all of the junk and processed sugar.  Delish!  Of course, you could add your favorite leafy green vegetable or some celery to this to give it extra nutrient power.  Please give this one a try.  It's amazing!

Lavender Chocolate Green Smoothie

Most mornings, I make a green smoothie.  It's one of the easiest ways to get extra mineral-rich leafy greens into your diet.  Sometimes I make them heavy with pineapple or berries, but more often than not, it's chocolate.  I know, I'm addicted. But if loving cacao is wrong, I don't wanna be right.  This morning, I wanted a cacao smoothie, but with a little twist.  I decided it was lavender kind of day.  With the crazy-cold weather we've had here in Tennessee, I needed a taste of spring.  Here's what I came up with:

Lavender Cacao Green Smoothie

3 cups spinach

2 cups fresh almond milk

1 banana

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

5 drops lavender essential oil

1 scoop Garden of Life Raw Vanilla protein powder

2 tsp wheatgrass juice powder

2 tbsp maca powder

2 tbsp raw cacao powder

Stevia or other sweetener to taste

Dash of cayenne pepper

Dash of sea salt 

Blend the banana, spinach, and almond milk until smooth, then add all other ingredients and blend to combine.  With super-foods, you want to blend them as little as possible to minimize heat exposure.  If you don't have raw cacao, use your favorite cocoa powder or even chocolate bar.  If you don't have maca, protein powder, or wheatgrass juice powder, just leave it out.  The main flavor comes from the vanilla and lavender oil, so the extra stuff is just for added body and nutrition.  You could, also, use any essential oil flavor that you like.  I may try orange or peppermint tomorrow.  

It's so easy to be creative with green smoothies.  Make sure you have a green vegetable, a fruit, and a liquid.  Where you take it from there is limitless.  What's your favorite green smoothie recipe? 

How to Make Your Own Baby Food

Baby food.  The thought of it just brings to mind watered-down, flavorless purées in tiny glass jars lining the shelves at my local grocery store.  Personally, I think spending money on something so simple should be a crime.  Not to mention, we have no idea what's actually in those jars, such as water toxins and pesticides.  If you're lucky enough to find organic baby food at the grocery store, you can count on spending around $0.99 per jar.  That can get expensive fast!  So, I resolved to make my own baby food before Little Miss Charlotte even entered the world.  I thought it would be time-consuming, but I knew I had to do what was best for my baby.  Once she actually started eating solids, I quickly realized that I had been misled.  It's not time-consuming at all!  I make all of Charlotte's food for the week on Sunday afternoon in about one hour.  

At first, I wasn't sure what to feed her.  Of course, packaged garbage and animal products were out of the question.  But where to begin?  So many people, doctors included, recommend rice cereal to start, however, there's really no nutrient value to rice cereal.  It's empty carbohydrate calories.  I knew I didn't want to start my baby with something like that.  From all of my reading, I realized that the best thing to start her with would be healthy fats.  Babies need lots of healthy fat to grow a big, beautiful brain (one that my daughter will need when she becomes a physicist someday).  One of the best foods for healthy fat is avocado.  It's easily digested, filling, and contains some pretty awesome stuff, such as protein (perfect for a growing kid), vitamins A, C, and E, selenium, zinc, phytosterols, and omega-3 fatty acids.  A better choice than plain-ole rice cereal?  I'd say so.  And I think Charlotte would agree: 

What I would like to suggest is that we moms think outside the box, literally.  It's so quick and easy to grab pre-made baby food, but it's not what's healthiest.  And we want to grow the next generation better than ours, right?  I mean, we're looking at childhood obesity and diabetes rates that are growing every year.  It's so sad.  I know I don't want my daughter to fall into the sugar trap, and when we start babies eating simple, white carbs first thing, we aren't doing them any favors when it comes to resisting that frosted cupcake later in life.  The funny thing is that kids don't know any different.  So far, in addition to avocado, Charlotte has had broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, peas, carrots, sweet potato, tomato, apple, blueberries, strawberries, banana, quinoa, and lentils (with onion!).  And you know what?  She's enjoyed it all!  She will eat anything I give her with gusto.  We tend to push our own food preferences on our kids, but they're actually clean slates.  If we can start now with feeding our children only healthy foods, their taste buds will develop a preference for those foods.  Imagine, no fighting over Happy Meals.  What if your child didn't even know what McDonald's served?  Oh, what a glorious thought!  

And on that note, here's what Charlotte is having this week:

 

First off, I buy everything I can organic if my little girl is going to be eating it.  She's going to have plenty of time to be exposed to pesticides and toxins in her life, but for now, I'm doing my best to minimize them.  I steam most of her veggies to retain as many nutrients as possible, since some vitamins are lost in cooking water.  On Sunday evening, I roughly chopped a large sweet potato and some carrots.  We're working with finger foods now that she's got some dexterity and a couple of teeth, so I try to chop the pieces small enough for her to handle and not choke.  

I steamed those separately until they were soft enough to mash with the back of a spoon.  Then, I poured them onto a cookie sheet to cool. 

Next, I boiled a bag of organic cut green beans. 

Once the beans were soft, I put away the carrots and sweet potatoes and poured them onto the cookie sheet to cool.  After cooling, I used my large knife to chop them into smaller pieces, for Charlotte's little hands to grab.  

I also cooked about one cup of red lentils with a dash of sea salt and mixed them with some leftover quinoa I had made earlier in the day.  With that, a week's worth of nutritious lunches were complete and ready for Grandma to serve.  

Along with these foods, she will eat fruit in the mornings, such as apples, berries, or bananas.  She's not a big eater in the morning and prefers to just nurse at night, but if she wants to eat something at dinner time, I will just steam peas or share my dinner, assuming I'm not eating anything a ten-month-old shouldn't have.  

Making baby food doesn't have to be complicated.  If your little one is still too little for finger foods, just purée the above foods with a little water or breast milk to thin it.  It took less than one hour start to finish for all of this and probably cost $5-$6.  You can't put a price tag on growing healthy babies, but I'd say that's a pretty nice one.  

Raw Chocolate Candy! Need I say more?

I'm a chocolate addict.  Maybe it's because I'm female.  Maybe it's because I need the minerals.  Maybe I just love chocolate.  I don't really care about the reasons, I just am.  To me, chocolate is heaven.  The darker, the better.  I HATE milk chocolate.  It's so gross.  If I wanted something that sweet, I'd just eat a handful of sugar.  I also have disdane for donuts.  Ugh.  Too sweet.  I think my obsession started my senior year of high school when I made friends with our German exchange student who's parents would send care packages full of European candies, and she would always share them in our art class.  Even after she went home that summer, she would ship Swiss and German chocolates to my house.  That was the first time I experienced REAL chocolate.  When you're 17 and American, you think Hershey's invented the stuff.  But after tasting that beautiful, bittersweet, richness that Christiana shared, there was no going back.  And so began my love affair with hard-to-find creamy, rich perfection.  As a vegan, my favorite store-bought brand is Endangered Species.  They have no animal ingredients and give 10% of profits to various environmental causes. Yay for living consciously!  If I'm going to buy a bar, I like their 88% dark or 72% mint chocolate.  Both are fabulous and low in sugar.  When you care about your health and want to gain the benefits of chocolate, always aim for 72% or higher cacao content.  

Lately, though, I've been trying to do more and more raw foods, so I started playing with some recipes for raw chocolate candy.  I bought a one-pound bag of raw cacao from Amazon.com and set to work.  Raw cacao is a great source of antioxidants (which help fight free-radicals in our bodies), as well as manganese and magnesium.  Manganese helps oxygenate blood, and  magnesium is a brain-balancing chemical, which could explain why we crave chocolate when stressed.  Raw cacao helps our bodies to release feel-good hormones.  Like you needed a reason to eat it? 

I've been adding superfoods to my candies lately, too.  I discovered the wonder of maca when I was trying to restart my hormonal systems in 2011 after being told I couldn't get pregnant due to my body not producing estrogen, like zilch, nada.  And since I now have my gorgeous, funny, wild, and sweet little girl, I think it helped.  This sweet powder comes from a root that grows in the Andes of Peru and is known for its hormone regulating effects.  It's been used for ages in both men and women to combat symptoms of menopause and andropause.  It's also been found to help increase energy, endurance, strength, memory, and circulation, as well as libido.  Ooh la la!  This stuff is so neat.  I purchase mine through TheRawFoodWorld.com.  They offer the highest quality maca that I've found.  Plus, I absolutely adore Matt Monarch and his wife, Angela.  (They have a YouTube channel all about the raw lifestyle.)

The main ingredient in my raw chocolates is organic, unrefined coconut oil.  You always want to buy unrefined coconut oil.  That means it's essentially raw and still contains all of the good fats, aka medium-chain fatty acids, which feed the brain and help you burn fat.  It's most affordable at Trader Joe's, but Kroger also sells it for just two dollars more per 16-ounce jar.  Unrefined coconut oil will actually smell and taste like coconut.  That's how you know it's the good stuff.  If you live in an area with limited resources, you can always purchase these ingredients online and have them shipped right to your door.  Doesn't get any easier than that.  

After a few batches of chocolate blobs, I invested in (if you can call $6 an investment) a candy mold, so now my chocolates are pretty as well as delicious.  And without further ado, I present my favorite new recipe:

Raw Vegan Chocolate Candy

Makes 30 small chocolates

1/2 cup coconut oil, melted

6 Tbsp raw cacao (can use regular cocoa if raw isn't available, but it doesn't carry the same health benefits)

4 Tbsp liquid sweetener such as agave or maple syrup (could use powdered stevia, but add slowly and taste as you go since it's very concentrated)

2 Tbsp Maca (optional)

Pinch of sea salt

1 tsp vanilla extract or 5-6 drops of your favorite essential oil (optional)

These are so easy, and turn out absolutely creamy and smooth.  Just melt the oil in a double boiler or use a glass bowl in hot water.  Whisk in the other ingredients and pour into a candy mold, or chill until it starts to harden and scoop into balls on a cookie sheet.  Then, refrigerate or freeze until hardened.  (Since coconut oil melts around 76 degrees, you'll want to keep these refrigerated.  I've found that the maca helps to keep them from melting quite as quickly, though).  

I attended a raw food meetup group on Saturday and took two batches of six different flavors; cayenne, orange, peppermint, lavender & vanilla, cacao nib, and coconut flake.  They were a huge hit!  I didn't have a single piece to bring home.  There's nothing quite like eating guilt-free candy. 

How breast-feeding led me to go vegan

Merry Christmas!  I want to start by saying that this is a very personal post.  I'm not trying to cause controversy, it's just how I feel.  I don't want to hurt animals, and I've created a life that incorporates my belief.  I don't judge anyone else for their food choices... As long as you're not eating fast food and junk food all day.  I feel that a person's diet is a part of who they are and if they're happy with it, that's what's important.  If you aren't happy with your diet, hey, that's why I'm here.

When I was pregnant, I drank raw organic milk every morning, and ate raw cheddar cheese almost daily.  I was a dedicated dairy addict.  It happens.  I know about the health benefits of raw dairy, and I thought that it would be a great thing for growing a healthy baby, which she appears to be by all measures. As I've said before, I really struggled with cravings at that time, and I knew my body was telling me it needed something, which I heard as "CHEESE!"  I stuck to only organic and raw products.  (That processed, homogenized, pasteurized crap is poison, in my opinion).  And I enjoyed it... A LOT.  

After Charlotte was born, I never once craved meat, even though I struggled with my red meat cravings while pregnant.  The one thing that kept me from going back to full-vegan, was cheese.  I actually didn't crave milk after her birth, either.  But cheese?  That was a different story.  I've met a lot of vegetarians who've said they'd be vegan if not for cheese.  I can totally understand that.  I wanted to go vegan again, but I just didn't see the harm in having a dairy product.  I mean, no one dies to make cheese, right?  Well, that's what I thought.  

I have driven past a dairy farm every morning on my way to work for years.  I always like seeing the beautiful cows eating their grass and lounging in their water hole.  To me, those big brown eyes are just gorgeous!  I've been around a lot of cows, and they are such gentle, sweet animals.  It wasn't until I came back to work in June, as a breast-feeding and pumping mommy, that things finally clicked.  I noticed the very large udders hanging from the cows, all the cows.  There wasn't a bull in sight.  I also noted there weren't any babies.  That got me thinking.  To get cow's milk, the cow has to give birth.  To give birth, the cow has to get pregnant.  How was this happening without any bulls or calves in sight?  Well, I discovered that in a lot of dairy operations, male calves are sold for veal (OMG!), and females are put back into the dairy business.  The mommy cows are impregnated "manually" by the farmers (ouch!), and kept pregnant for years until they're no longer useful.  At which point they're disposed of.  While they're being used for milk production, they're connected to painful milking machines.  Coming from a pumping mom, I would be miserable if I had to be connected to that thing against my will.  Pumping isn't comfortable.  Sometimes, it's quite painful.  I do it because it's what's best for my baby.  Will I miss doing it when she weans?  Hell, no!  I seriously doubt that Mavis the dairy cow happily steps up to her milking machine feeling like she's doing something great for humanity.  And I'm pretty positive that what she feels as the suction pulls on her udders is love.  Maybe becoming a mom has made me a big softy, but I just can't justify supporting an operation that takes babies away from their mothers and forces those mothers to be in pain day-in and day-out.   What if it was me?  It just seems heartless.  If I am to live a compassionate life, I can't be a part of it. And you know what?  I feel just fine.  I have less nasal mucus in the morning, and I'm sleeping soundly too.  I've not looked back.  So if you're struggling to give up cheese, butter or milk, hook yourself to a breast pump for a few days.  Ouch!  It'll change your prospective, trust me.  And if that doesn't work, just remember that we're the only species that consumes the milk of another species, and we consume it as adults.  It's kind of weird when you think about it.  Mothers' milk is made to make babies grow, so if you are drinking it as an adult and you have a weight issue, maybe there's a connection?  

I know people love their cheese, and this isn't meant to ruffle feathers.  I just want people to think about where their food comes from.  Consider it food for thought. 

Have a wonderful rest of the week, and eat something green. 

Where have I been? And some easy, quick recipes

I know it's been a couple of weeks since my last post, but WOW, I've been busy!  As of this week, I'm an official Raw Foods Chef and Instructor.  That's right, I can now teach others (with some credibility) how to create beautiful, healthy, vibrant raw foods.  In addition, I can also certify other Raw Food chefs through the Living on Live Food program.  So, if you'd like to become a raw chef, I'd love to teach you.

  

With all of the holiday fun going on, plus work, and the general unpredictability of a teething eight month-old, I haven't been in writing mode.  I have, however, developed a couple of amazing recipes for you to try.  These are all vegan, some raw and very quick, ya know, since I hate to spend hours making one dish.  I sure don't mind being in the kitchen for hours, but I have recipe ADD.  So without further ado, please enjoy...

Massaged Kale Salad

(This is pretty much my kale chips without the dehydrator.)

1 bunch organic kale

1 lemon, juiced

1 tsp olive/sesame oil

1/2-1 tsp garlic powder

2 tbsp onion, finely chopped

1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)

Cayenne pepper to taste

Chop the kale as fine as you'd prefer.  I like mine very fine since it's easier to chew that way.  Add the lemon juice and olive/sesame oil and massage the kale with your hands until it appears bright green and evenly coated.  Then, add the garlic powder, onion, nutritional yeast, and pepper, and toss with a fork, or you hands. (Don't forget to wash your hands immediately if you toss with your hands!  We wouldn't want any cayenne pepper to get in your eyes... Or lemon juice for that matter.)  That's it!  You're done.  It's so simple.  If you want to make a more hearty salad, feel free to toss in some nuts, seeds, dried cranberries, apples, fresh herbs, etc.  

Coconut Mushroom Soup

(This soup is very savory and really helps with those post-Thanksgiving cravings.)

12 oz (or more) mushrooms, sliced thinly

1/2 medium onion, chopped finely

1 clove garlic

1 can full-fat coconut milk

1-1/2 cup water

1 vegetable bouillon cube (optional)

2 tbsp Bragg's Liquid Aminos ( or soy sauce)

1 tbsp tarragon

1 tsp sage

1 tsp rosemary

Toppings:

Chopped red bell pepper

Sliced green onion

Cilantro

In a small sauce pan, heat water to boiling and add boullion cube.  Stir until the cube dissolves.  In a blender, pour the broth, then add the coconut milk, garlic and Bragg's Liquid Aminos, with half the chopped onion and half the sliced mushrooms.  Blend until smooth.  Then, add the herbs and blend briefly.  At this point, your soup is done, just pour it into a bowl and add the rest of the mushrooms and onion.  If you'd like to soften the veggies, just add the mixture to a pan a warm over low heat until your desired softness is achieved.  When serving, top the soup with fresh chopped bell pepper, green onion, cilantro, spinach, kale, etc.  it's beautiful!  Alternately, you could make this a "green soup" by blending fresh greens into the mix.  Yum!

Miso-Ginger Salad Dressing

(This dressing is AMAZING on any type of green salad.  The flavor is so rich.)

1/2 cup olive oil

1 lemon, juiced

1 tbsp Bragg's Liquid Aminos (or soy sauce)

1-1/2 tbsp miso (any color will do)

1" piece fresh ginger, chopped very finely

1 clove garlic, chopped very finely

1/2 cup water

Black or white pepper to taste

Add all ingredients to a mason jar and shake to combine, or use a blender if you prefer smaller bits of ginger and garlic.  

Note:  Fresh miso can generally be found in the Nature's Market area of Kroger, or in the refrigerator at any Asian grocery store.  It comes as a paste and is very cheap.  It'll also keep for a very long time because it's a fermented food.  

Last night, I made a kale salad and used the miso dressing instead of my usual lemon juice and olive oil combo.  It was perfection!  

I hope these recipes will help you incorporate more gorgeous plants into your diet.  Whether you're a carnivore, omnivore, or herbivore, it never hurts to get more amazing greens.