Homemade Almond Milk & Berry Milk Shake

I have been wanting to start making my own almond milk for quite some time now. That way I can get the freshest and purest milk with NO additives. This can be done easily with a blender and a nut milk bag. The only thing stopping me was that I did not have a nut milk bag yet.

Sweet Carrot Cilantro Juice

Just a quick post today with a delicious juice recipe! If you love cilantro the way I do, you will most likely love this juice! The sweetness of carrots and apple, the saltiness of the celery with the herby flavor of cilantro are a perfect combinations for a smooth, creamy flavorful juice!

Home-Made Raw V-8 Juice & Synergy Kombucha Review

I've been wanting to make a homemade V-8 juice and today was the day! And all I can say is YUM! If you grew up loving V-8, then you will love this even more, as will your body! All fresh, and all raw! There are tons more nutrients in this juice than the traditional V-8!

Zesty Lemon Cilantro Ginger Blast

Today's juice, a bit similar to yesterdays with a few changes. I decided to make a "prettier" green juice. Yesterday's was delicious but sweeter, today's is slightly sweet, lemony and herby with a cilantro twist!

Zesty Lemon-Ginger-Basil Green Juice & Natural Vitamin D

So, if you have read my "My Story" page, you will know I am battling a terminal illness. So there are days when eating is a challenge. It's hard to tolerate all raw when I'm not feeling well, and I crave more starchy foods like rice and potatoes. I also get food aversions to some of my favorite things, which bums me out when it's something like cumin. Today is a chemo day. Surprisingly, I haven't felt quite as yuck as normal which I am really happy about. I have tons to do and usually I am a sickly couch potato for about four days. So, what does this have to do with my yummy juice recipe? Well, today I felt good enough to make a juice and drink it which is rare the day of my chemo!

Green-Carrot Juice

Keep the Doctor Away Green Smoothie

As always, I start my morning with a 16oz glass of water with lemon. The latest talk is that it is a good way to help your body detox and re-hydrate from the night, before you begin to put food in. And... Strawberries are in season here in Florida, YUM one of my favorite fruits. I can't resist having these around, even organic prices on them are decent! So I had to have a few of these fresh with my smoothie! I didn't want to add any in my smoothie, I just wanted to enjoy them as is! I usually save the frozen ones for smoothies and eat the fresh ones! (And yeah, old Coca-Cola glasses haha, I will NEVER put that stuff in my body again ever! The glasses are cute though! :) Anyhow, back to the topic of smoothies! There are a lot of great things about smoothies.

The Power of Green Juice

Green - Carrot
6-7 handfuls of mixed baby greens
10 carrots

Gerson Green
beet greens
swiss chard
romaine, green, red leaf
watercress
escarole
1/4 green pepper
1 green apple

Green Goddess Juice
kale
romaine
parsley
1 cucumber
1 green apple
1 stalk of celery

Green juice is a power house for your body. There is a lot to be said about what these leafty greens can do to feed your body, detox, help heal and boost your immune system and your energy. Everyone could stand to eat more of these amazing nutrient dense greens and juicing is one way to do it. By juicing your greens you are removing the fiber and consuming the nutrients. It allows you to consume more greens than you would on a normal basis and flood your body with nutrients and beneficial enzymes. It helps to keep your body alkalized, hydrated and energized! When ever I am feeling low, I make a green juice, and in a bit I am feeling much better. It's a much better pick me up than caffeine, which does not give your body what it is asking for and needs.

Some people juice for periods of time to detox, they may eat certain foods to cleanse then go back to their normal habits and some will do a juice fast where they only consume juice. I do not do juice fasts myself. You can add some juice to your normal day. You can eat to detox everyday which is what I do!

Also, for this you will need a juicer, not a blender. But a blender is another good way to add more greens to your diet in the form of green smoothies!

If you'd like to read more on how juicing can help you heal, check out the Gerson Institute.

Here are ten good reasons to to juice greens borrowed from The Pleasure Nutritionist:

10 benefits of green juices

1. Green juices are nutrient powerhouses. Powerhouses! 32 oz. of green juice can have a whole head of lettuce, several leaves of kale, carrots, cucumbers, parsley and still taste great. There is no way I could ever eat as many nutrients as I can drink in one green juice.

1. Green juices digest really easily. Because the fiber has been removed from the veggies and fruit, green juice passes quickly and easily through the system.

1. Green juices hydrate the body. There is a ton of water in green juices. The water goes straight to the cells.

1. Green juices give tons of energy. Since green juice travels so easily to the cells, the cells get lots of nutrients quickly, which gives the body energy. And because they are so easy to digest, the body has energy for other things like walks and work and making love.

1. Green juices flush out waste. All the nutrients and water in green juices act like a big ….washing the waste right out of the body. Less waste means less excess weight.

1. Green juices decrease cravings. You experience fewer cravings with green juices because the body gets all the nutrients it needs so it doesn’t crave more food.

1. Green juices are DELICIOUS. There is nothing, NOTHING, like a fresh green juice. So yummy.

1. Green juices help you slow down. It can take a little while to make a juice and clean the machine. If you go at with more of a meditative mindset then you’ll be fully relaxed by the time you enjoy your delicious green drink.

1. Green juices get you eating veggies you normally wouldn't. A lot of folks don’t just eat beets or bunches of parsley or raw cabbage but with a green juice you just throw it all in and chances are good it’ll taste great (and give your body a fabulous boost).

1. Green juices make you more alkaline. Much of the food we eat is highly acidic which leads to allergies, joint pain, digestive issues and a whole host of other uncomfortable and undesirable pains and illnesses. Green juices are very alkaline so they help to balance out all the acids in the body and bring your body to a happier, healthier state.

Green Smoothies - It's what's for breakfast!

Orange Banana
1 frozen banana
2 peeled tangelos (cut away thick membranes)
2 large stalks of kale
2 tsp hemp seeds
1/2 cup Thai coconut water & flesh or almond milk (or more)

Banana Berry
1 frozen banana
5 frozen strawberries
1/4 cup frozen blueberries
2 tsp hemp seeds
2 large stalks of kale, romaine or other greens
1/2 cup of coconut water or nut milk

Banana Mango
1 frozen banana
1/2 mango
handful or two of fresh baby spinach
2 tsp hemp seeds
1/2 cup coconut water or nut milk

A good green smoothie usually starts off with a banana, a handful of fresh greens and a nut milk or coconut water. Then add what ever other fruit you have available! You can also add a scoop or two of your favorite plant based protein mix or hemp seeds. It works great if you have a single serve blender cup like I do, It's so darn easy and very little mess. This is one of the quickest breakfasts ever. And it gives you a jump start to your day!

As you can see the options are limitless! Your smoothie colors will not be green if you add berries and greens, they may look more brown or purple. The color may not be appealing but they will still taste really good! Some people like to add a sweetener to these, but I prefer them without. If you do, you can use stevia, dates, or a teaspoon or two of honey or maple syrup.

I buy enough bananas to always keep some in the freezer. When they get to peak ripeness, I peel them and put them in a large ziplock bag and take them out when I make a smoothie. You can also puree just the frozen banana and eat it as a treat... it is delicious, banana ice cream!

If you've read my other recipes you'll see I use hulled hemp seed a lot, it is considered a superfood and is one of the few plants that are considered a complete protein. It is a plant based protein that is considered above soy and flax. It has all 20 amino acids, including the 9 essential amino acids. It is a good source of vitamin E and has many other trace minerals. It is much easier to digest than soy. Here is a really good write up on hemp seeds.

Carrot-Orange Creamsicle Juice

Carrot Orange Creamsicle Juice:
12-15 medium size carrots scrubbed or peeled

2 sweet juicy tangerines

1 half inch knob of ginger

This juice is my favorite!. Remember when we were kids and the ice cream truck would come rolling around playing it's little tunes, hypnotizing children like rats to the Pied Piper? One of my favorite treats was an orange push-up pop. It was creamy, smooth and orangey. Well this juice reminds me of an extremely healthy version of that! The key is to use some really sweet juicy tangerines!

For this you will need a juicer, not a blender. I use an Omega Nutrition Center. It is not a inexpensive piece of equipment but it is well worth the investment if you are serious about juicing. After a lot of research on juice quality I chose this one. There are many good ones on the market, but there are some cheaper ones that do not extract as much juice or they destroy some of the nutrients. The bonus of this juicer is that it can also be used as a food processor, grind flour, coffee beans, nuts etc. and make noodles! It comes with a juicing attachment, a grinding attachment, a couple pasta and bread stick attachments. I ended up ordering mine from Bed, Bath & Beyond with a 20% off coupon. If you sign up with your email address they will periodically send you these lovely coupons!

Most people peel carrots. However, most of the nutrients are in and just under the skin. So now I just give mine a good scrubbing with a vegetable brush (unless the skins look really bad). I cut the carrots into narrow sticks to feed them into the grinder. I feed in a few carrot sticks first to get things going, then add the ginger and tangerines. I don't bother peeling the ginger, I do cut off any section of the skin that looks bad. If the tangerines have a thin clean looking peel I just leave it on and quarter them so they fit down the tube. If the peel has a lot of pith then you are going to want to peel or trim the tangerines and just add a few pieces of the peel. Then I go back to adding the carrots. The carrots are a lot more fibrous so they help push the softer tangerines through. You also don't want to add the ginger last or you may not get all the juice from it. My juicer has two cups, one for the juice and one for the pulp. You can discard the pulp or save it and use it in broths or on top of salads. Mine comes out pretty dry. I use some of it, it is great fiber, but most of the nutrition is in the juice. So when I'm done feeding all of the ingredients into the juicer, I then strain it into the mason jar with a small metal mesh strainer. I picked up a mason jar funnel for about $1.50 and a mesh strainer, that makes this super easy This gets the last bit of pulp out of the juice so it is really smooth!

I drink my juices from mason jars and use a glass straw. I love my glass straws! I was given two as a gift from a very sweet lady I met in a local health food store. She was a sales rep for Foods Alive. They come with their own little brush so you can easily clean them. You'll never want to use a plastic straw again after you've used these! You can also find these on Amazon. Is there anything they DON'T sell? All I know is that finding healthier options can be challenging locally. I do buy locally when I can but when I can't I go right to Amazon.