Love/Hate

My love/hate relationship with winter continues.  I love the soups and stews, hate the cold, sort days.  I came across this article:

11 Foods to Improve Your Mood.

I need to get some of this stuff into a juicer. STAT.

Eat Like a Cave Man

A very interesting article on the so-called Caveman Diet.  It says a lot about eating cleaner (organic) foods, and not cooking your meat to death.  Much of the article made very good sense to me.

From the article, copyright John Barron:

Recommendations:

As I said, just because the theory behind the diet may be questionable, does not mean that there is not much to take from the diet. I absolutely agree with the following:

• Cut way back or eliminate all grains. And if you eat grains, opt for hypoallergenic grains that have been soaked, sprouted, or well cooked.
• Eliminate all high omega-6 store bought oils from your diet. For low temperature cooking, use olive oil and coconut oil. For high temperature cooking, use avocado oil, grape seed oil, or rice bran oil. Supplement with omega-3 fatty acids.
• Eliminate all added sugars.
• When eating fruit, lean more towards berries than tree fruit; they're higher in antioxidants. But there's no need to be afraid of eating tree fruit, which tends to be higher in soluble fiber.
• Cut back or eliminate all beans, and if you eat them, make sure you soak them before cooking, and then cook them well before eating.
• Nuts are fine if you're not allergic. Use whole fresh nuts that have been soaked/sprouted. Do not use pasteurized or "roasted" nuts -- especially those roasted in oil.
• Cut way back on white potatoes, but yams and sweet potatoes are okay in moderation.
• Eliminate all commercial dairy from your diet. And if you do opt for some dairy, choose raw dairy despite what the government says -- or at the very least opt for organic, grass-fed dairy.
• If you eat meat, use only organic, grass-fed meat. And keep consumption to less than 4 oz a day. And don't overcook it. (And here you're faced with another conundrum if you eat commercial meat. If you undercook it, you face the risk of bacterial infection (see above). If you overcook it, you face the risk of cancer (see above). If you want to eat medium rare meat, you're going to have to buy organic, grass-fed meat from a supplier you trust.)

For when you want LOTS of Juice

Here is the juice of the day.  I will warn you that this makes 32 oz of juice.  I didn't calorie count this one.  Mostly because I wanted to just enjoy it.  Totally worth the effort.

With the masticating juicer:
4 carrots
1 large beet
2 navel oranges

When you have that done throw 2 clementines, and a cup of mangoes.  Blend together in the blender with the other juice.

I used frozen magoes, and added ice at the end.  This had a little bit more fiber and was in general kind of thick, so when I had it half finished I added some sprite.  I should have used just soda water, but I didn't.....because you can't be good all the time.  (And if you are, you are missing out on some yummy stuff!)

Juicing day....whatever.

At least I am still juicing at least once a day.  I added hummus.  I very much would love to add another protein but I haven't reached my goal yet.  Also, I have found that I like chewing.  Mastication is fun and good for you!  Green juice tonight because I have a lot of veg to get through.

Breakfast - Simply Orange Juice

Lunch - 2 cups of spinach, 3 tablespoons of hummus, one romma tomato

Juice:

1/2 a cabbage
1 cucumber
1/2 a lemon
1/4 inch of ginger
3 carrots
4 small beets
248 tiny calories

About 16 oz yield

Day 7 Juicing

I have had to add fat/protein sources.  I am still on it.  I just got tired of blogging.

So, in addition today, I have a lovely mixer juice for you!!  This is great for mixing with vodka.  Hater's can hate, it's my fast and it includes booze.  :-)

7 carrots
1 big beet
1 cucumber (this give it a fresh taste)
1/4 cup of raspberries
4 clementines.

OMG yummy juice.

Green juice tomorrow.  I may have to hold my nose to drink it, but it's worth it!

Fat/protein source:

Hummus and or avocado.  I feel ok about this and it makes me feel less weak, while keeping me at the lower calories that I have set goals for.

Day 4 Juicing/veg diet

Today's craving is a creamy delicious risotto.  Instead I had this:


5 dry Turkish Apricots. (Organic)

2 leaves of lettuce with a glob of hummus on them

Cabbage Soup

And a big ole' green juice.

Mia Culpa for missing a bit.  I am keeping track, I just fell off the blogger tread mill.

The Importance of Organic Food

....as told by a 10 year old.

Juicing/Fasting: Day 3

Got the good husband to go to the store to stock our shelves with lots of veg.  I feel better than I did yesterday.   This is not as hard as I thought I would be, and the soup seemed to help with the feeling of warmth.  Fasting in the winter is odd.  There are fewer fresh local choices.  Two things I am noticing is that I am not quite getting enough protein and almost no Vit. D.  I am going to supplement that. 

Coffee.  (Oh, I know...I should give it up, but there are only so many things I can work on at one time.)

One Green Apple, Raw

Cabbage Soup

Ginger Beer

Green V8 type juice:
I can honestly say this didn't taste like V8.  It was however very complex.  Almost too complex.  It was also thick.  VERY thick.  I strained it 3 times, and drank it on ice.  The taste was good.  Very fresh.  I added some lemon and old bay seasoning, and a bit of salt and pepper at the end.  The only other thing is that I think I might have blended (instead of masticating) the tomatoes, and added them at the end.

3 large tomatoes
4 ribs celery
1/4 cup of cabbage
4 carrots
2 cups spinach
3 ribs of kale
1/4 of an onion
1 clove of garlic

*no actual food photographers were injured or maimed in making this snapshot.

Broke down and had some incredibly garlicky hummus on lettuce leaves for the protein tonight.  I should probably have a protein source earlier in the evening.  This is one of the reason I never made it as a vegan.

Juice/Veg Fast Day The Second

Holy cow did I want to eat food today.  Well, not food, french fries.  I wanted grease soaked fries.  Instead, I had this:

Coffee

2 8oz glasses of Simply orange juice

Sweet juice:

One lemon

1 large beet

3 carrots

1 green apple

1/2 inch of ginger

1 1/2 cup of pineapple.

394 calories

Ginger Beer

I made this cabbage soup based on the cabbage soup diet, which is just weird.  6 bananas a day?  I don't think so.  This is very warming when garnished with hirachi sauce.  Very yummy and filling.

Cabbage Soup.

• 8 cups Organic Vegetable Stock
• 1 head Cabbage, Cooked
• 2 cups Carrots
• 1 cup Chopped Celery
• 4 Garlic Clove
• 1 Leek
• 1 medium raw Green-bell Pepper
• 1/4 tsp Old Bay Seasoning
• 1/4 tsp Chili Powder
• 1 tbsp Olive Oil
• 2 cups Italian Style Diced Tomatoes

DIRECTIONS

Sweat everything but cabbage in a large pot, in a very small portion of olive oil. Add Veg stock,and tomatoes then cabbage. Mix and then add spices to taste. I used what is mentioned plus a bit of thyme. Some salt and pepper. This isn't strictly a cabbage diet soup. It's a warming soup I am consuming during a juice fast.

Juicing Day One

Day one of my Juice/raw food vegi fast.

Cheating:  2 cups coffee

Breakfast:
1/2 cup plain fat free yogurt
1/2 cup blue berries
1 cup frozen pineapple
191 calories

Ginger tea

Juice:
2 green apples
4 carrots
1 small cabbage
2 beets with greens
1 cucumber
365 calories in 16 oz of juice

2 cups green beans (cooked in water)
6 cloves garlic
76 calories

1 small avocado
161 calories

Cheating:  A bit of brandy


-----------------------------
Even with the brandy to take the edge off, still a little hungry, though I feel like I have been eating all day.  This all added up to just under 1300 calories with my cheating.  I am ok with that.  I am not positive I can give up coffee and booze.  


Tune in, and find out!

How My Ass Got This Way, a Foodies Back Story.

When I watched "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" towards the end of last year, I got really energized about juicing.  We got a middle end juicer ($250) and I juiced almost daily from July to October.  My back went out, unfortunately so I wasn't getting around enough to do the prep work involved for a while and I started to back slide on the juicing when our farm share went fallow for the winter..........