Let's Get Juicy

I used to start every day with a cool glass of orange juice.

You know the kind that you buy in the grocery store in the carton from the refrigerated section?

The stuff that is made from oranges picked up to a year ago, treated with heat to remove all traces of bacteria, and then finally enriched with essential oils, vitamins and sugar. Natural, fresh squeezed orange juice it is not.

I quit the juice in high school.

Not because I cared about how organic or processed my food was. Rather, my utmost concern was my waistline, and fitting into a size five.

Ohhh, I would never wish a teenage girlhood upon anyone.

Somewhere in the fitness magazines and diet books I read, I got the (correct) idea that orange juice was empty calories and ditched it. For years after, I stayed away from juice like the plague – unless it was mixed into an adult beverage.

Until recently…

Now, I drink juice all the time. Oh yeah, I’ve become a juice head. Watch out New Jersey! (Ok, not that kind of juice).

My drink of choice is fresh pressed vegetable juice.

Unfortunately, in NYC you need to be a millionaire to drink a steady diet of fresh pressed juice. Those babies cost on average eight dollars a pop! That’s $3,000 annually for one measly juice a day. You could get a supersized meal at McDonald’s for that price and still have change left over for a pack of gum.

But when I looked into buying a juicer, I realized that I didn’t have any extra storage space for something in my kitchen, and I didn’t have an extra ten minutes every morning to clean out my juicer. Plus, I wasn’t too keen on shelling out a couple hundred bucks.

It turns out that to enjoy fresh juice, I don’t need to be a high-roller nor buy another fancy kitchen appliance. I can make juice in my blender.

How to make your own juice without a juicer:

High Speed Blender
Fine Strainer and/or cheesecloth
Large contrainer to fit under strainer
Spoon

Start with fruit and veggies washed, and chopped to about the size of an apricot for really hard items (beets, carrots) and larger for softer items.

(1) Start out by putting the softest watery vegetables and fruits in the blender. I usually start with: lime or lemon juice, tomatoes, cucumbers, and watermelon are all pretty watery

The blender turned those cukes into mush.

(2) Then add leafy vegetables. I usually fold big leaves – like kale, lettuce, and collard greens and drop them into the blender until they are liquefied.

Celery...not just for Bloody Mary's.

Red kale going into the celery-cucumber mixture.

(3) If at anytime, the blender gets stuck, add a little water.

Some chopped up beets and a little - oops - I mean - lot of ginger.

(4) Add the hardest stuff last.

The raw beets were peeled and chopped first.  

(5) I also add last any extras like – salt, hemp seeds, a knob of ginger, or a little jalapeño.

Add some lime. Citrus is almost a staple in any juice I make.

(6) Once everything is blended, it should look like a thick shake when you tilt the blender around, but there should be no chunks. Usually, I blend on the liquefy setting for about 1 minute, but you may need to adjust for your blender.

The beets really give this juice an awesome color.

(7) Nestle the strainer inside your large container. Be sure that bottom of the strainer is about 2-3 inches from the bottom and that the side of the strainer don’t hang above the large container.

My strainer....I bought this at Ikea for under $5.00.  

Strainer + pan = True love.

(8) Slowly pour the contents of the blender into the strainer. You might want to use a spoon in the strainer and stir while pouring. If you are using a cheesecloth, lay the cheesecloth inside the strainer, allowing generous amounts to hang over the edges so you can tie up the pulp in a bag.

Be careful not to spill beets all over. They stain!

(9) Once blender contents are poured into the strainer, you can let it drain for a minute or two, but then pull out the spoon and stir the contents gently. Scraping the sides of the container as you stir.

The leftover pulp after giving it some swirls with the spoon.

(10) If using the cheesecloth, gently gather the edges of the cloth to make a bag, remove the strainer, and with clean hands squeeze the pulp. It helps to squeeze small sections as the cloth is fragile and will rip or certain holes will enlarge if you put too much pressure on the bag.

(11) Once you’ve extracted enough juice, poor the juice from the large container into a glass and enjoy. You will know have extracted enough when if using just the strainer, the pulp is lumpy, and if using the cheesecloth, when the pulp begins to start coming out of the cheesecloth.

A multi-vitamin in a glass. It tastes good too.  

(12) The remaining pulp will be juicy still and it’s a bit wasteful. Sometimes I stir in a few spoonfuls of the pulp into the juice to add some fiber. Sometimes, I freeze it and reuse it another recipe – such as to bulk up veggie burgers, but sadly most times, I throw it away. If you have a garden you can use this as fertilizer and you can certainly start a compost pile with the remains.

Although not the best method to make juice, this certainly yields a cheap cup of juice and a rich cup of vitamins.

Enjoy your juice!

How to Make a Good salad

If the were one staple in my diet, it would be the salad (ok,you got me on this...and coffee). I eat a salad almost everyday for lunch, and sometimes for dinner too.



If this sounds like punishment, then you have been going about the salad all wrong. Salads don't have to feel like rabbit food. In fact, a salad can be downright unhealthy if laden with cheese, creamy dressing, fried protein options, or even if you skip the obvious culprits and load up on avocado, beans, corn, and nuts.

To make a delicous salad and keep it healthy too, there are a few simple components too keep in mind.

The Base



The base of a salad will typically be a leafy green of some type, but don't feel obligated to pick a lettuce, as cucumbers, beets, beans, grains, and just about any neutral tasting vegetable can work. Head lettuce is not the go to lettuce either. Romaine makes a nice substitute, but I prefer some of the more exotic lettuces such as arugula and mache.

Don't use the same lettuce everyday for your salad or you will get bored. I try to use two bases a week. This week, it's kale and spinach.

Crunchy Ingredients



I'm not sure you can call something a salad if it doesn't crunch. Carrots, radishes, roasted nuts, cucumbers, jicama, peppers, cabbage, and apples have major crunch factor plus lots of nutrition. The crunch doesn't have to come from produce. Asian noodles, crunched up tortilla chips, or even a crispy protein option could work, but be aware that those options can pack extra calories and should be balanced out with lighter dressings and healthier creamy options.

Creamy Ingredients



Creamy doesn't mean cream-based; it means melty, smooth options which add substance and depth to the salad. My go to options are avocado, beets and white or red beans. Sometimes, the creaminess comes from the salad dressing such as when I make a tahini-based salad dressing.

If the creamy option is a dairy product, that's perfectly fine too, as long as the portion is reasonable and it's balanced out with the other ingredients. As a rule, it might be good to allow only one salad "fun" ingredient is allowed per day. "Fun" foods might be fried onions, croutons, cheese, extra nuts, or ranch dressing for example.

Protein



Grilled chicken, if you are a lover of grilled chicken, is the death of a many a healthy salad. Look it's perfectly healthy and a good source of protein. I'm not saying you shouldn't eat grilled chicken anymore. But cold grilled chicken on a bed of cold vegetables is just not appetizing to me.

Protein in the salad can come from so many sources: beans, tofu, nuts, chopped up veggie burgers, diced cold cuts, tuna, and the aforementioned chicken, just to name a few.

Salad Dressing

The salad dressing brings everything together. In my opinion, it's the missing link. I experiment with my dressings almost daily and when I hit upon a great combination, I look forward to the salad all day long.

The best salad dressings are homemade, but there are a lots of amazing store brands out there too. My favorite salad dressing is a combination of vinegar and oil. I use more vinegar than oil, but most people prefer equal amounts. Try adding a pinch of sugar or a little water if the vinegar taste is too strong.

Set a Theme

The best salads work because all the ingredients compliment each other. Not sure what vegetable compliments which nut? Me too. Instead, I look to other food combinations to come up with my salads.



Do you like pizza? How about spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts, caramelized onions, croutons, a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese and a basil vinaigrette?

Or do you like Mexican food? Then put your favorite taco fillings in a salad, forget the sour cream and cheese and make a vinegar and oil dressing but use lime juice in place of vinegar.

Finally, if you are still don't think you can put together a yummy salad, keep these rules in mind:

Make the salad colorful. The richer the colors, the more chock full of nutrients the salad will be. Plus, food that looks good, tastes better.

Dress the salad right before eating. The acid in vinegar breaks down vegetables and will cause a salad to wilt and lose it's crunch factor by the time you get around to eating it. So carry the salad dressing in a separate container if you are bringing it for lunch.

If you are using a really fibrous vegetable, dress the salad a few hours before eating. I know I just said to wait until right before eating, but ingredients like kale and broccoli are just too tough to eat raw. However if they marinate for a few hours, they will end up the perfect texture.

Now here's a Kale Salad I put together for lunch this week:



3 cups Kale chopped into bit size pieces
6 baby carrots
5 radishes
1/2 cup white beans
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 an Italian sweet pepper, sliced

Dressing:
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
1 tbs water
1 tbs olive oil
Pinch of salt and pepper
Sprinkle (one or two shakes from the container) of garlic powder

Chop up the carrots and radishes in the food processor.




Mix everything together and enjoy! Because this salad is full of kale, add the dressing immediately and then wait to eat. I made this in the morning before work and ate it for lunch, so it marinated for about four hours.

The Keyboard is Fixed and Vegan Kale Chips

Finally, I’m back!

I bet you thought that I was kidding about being back to writing my blog in January and that it was just another New Year’s Resolution that had finally lost its steam. Not quite.

Actually, what happened is that one cold, grey Sunday – you know the type, where all you want to do is curl up on the couch and watch your favorite movies and snack on comfort food your mom didn't let you eat as a kid – I woke up to find that a few select keys on my keyboard didn’t work. Miraculously, my computer password doesn’t use any of those keys so I was able to log in but I couldn’t type in ‘gmail’, ‘Amanda’, ‘google’, or ‘nymag.’

As one of my friends on Facebook pointed out, this wasn’t nearly half as bad as Egypt (unless you count the emotional turmoil I felt inside by not being able to check my favorite blogs (blocked at work), facebook (also blocked at work), and generally the fact that I have to do work at work….how unfair!). But I felt unhinged and bored nonetheless. Oh yeah, didn’t you know? I don’t have cable TV. So my computer is not only my link to the world wide web, but my DVD player, my Netflix and my DVR. I do have basic cable but I can only watch so many reruns of Seinfeld and Two and Half Men (take notice CBS), before you just need to do something.

So what did I do? Well, I took to the kitchen and made like a Top Chef. I made vegan kale chips, granola bars, spaghetti and garlic bread, a Thrive pizza, vegan pesto, and a bunch of new salad combinations. The best part about the week is that I finally crossed a huge threshold that has been staring me down for the better part of four months.

Nutrional Yeast. EWW, right? Yes, it does sound gross, but seriously get over it right now, because cheese is moldy milk, beer is fermented wheat and mushrooms are fungi. It’s yeast that is grown on molasses and unlike the yeast used in bread, it is not alive or active. When you buy it from the store, it comes in light yellow flakes and is almost odorless.


But the best part about it is that it melts and tastes like mild cheddar cheese, and it’s chock full of vitamins. One serving (3 tablespoons) has more than your daily recommended allowance of B-1, B-2, B-3, B-6, folic acid, and B-12, plus nine grams of protein, five grams of fiber, and only eight calories. Sounds like a power food if ever one were to exist. I used the nutritional yeast in Averie's vegan kale chips recipe, which also included a ton of cashews. It didn’t quite come out looking the same way and I think its because I used the food processor instead of the blender. The second time I added a dollop of tahini because I heard that goes well with nutritional yeast, but the flavor was a bit too powerful for me.

So don’t be afraid. Try them! And if you still can’t get your mind around nutritional yeast, then get your fabulous behind to a health food store and buy some and try some. Trust me, you will be surprised that vegetables can be so deliciously bad.

I'll have the burger, raw

When I decided to try raw food, I knew that I wouldn't last on fresh fruit, carrot sticks and salads. That would feel way too much like a diet. And I don't do diets. But that's exactly how I ate the first time I went raw, and I passed most of the time with a pain in my stomach - either because I was starving or from all that roughage.

I had started googling raw foods and recipes a week earlier to see what was out there. A lot of raw recipes call for time consuming steps such as dehydrating and marinating, but the ingredients were surprising simple and readily available. The odd ingredient or two out there - such as miso or nutritional yeast - were still readily available and inexpensive. Vegan recipes cannot boast such things.

Since this was only a week long experiment, simplicity was the name of my game. So I axed any recipe that called for dehydrating, soaking or marinating. I also took to using the daily plate to keep track of the nutrition in the food as well.

The first raw recipe I went for came from a very familiar source. I read the vegan nutrition book by professional triathalete Brendan Brazier this summer and I loved his simple recipes and his "recovery" theory on improving performance. Brendan inspired me to quit coffee (something that I love with all my heart and soul), and many of his recipes were raw or had the option to be made raw. So I knew that my first recipe would have to come from an old friend that I could count on.I went for a recipe that was basically devoid of the crazy supplements he loves to add - such as the seaweed dulse or hemp protein powder and chose the simple Almond Flaxseed Burger. Just six ingredients, all already part of my kitchen staples, and one simple step - blend in food processor. The only substitution I made was to replace the balsamic vinegar with rice vinegar, as I had just run out.

The burgers came out awesome and each bite was an explosion of flavor. Processing all the ingredients together gave the burger a nice, sticky and slightly creamy texture that made the recipe seem, well not quite cooked, but not raw either. My only criticism on this recipe is that the garlic taste was quite strong, so if you just have a hot date the next day, I would suggest cutting the garlic in half.

I'm not interested in getting in trouble for posting recipes that belong to someone else so I can't post the recipe on my blog, but lucky for you one of the blogs I love to read, No Meat Athlete, has the recipe to share.

And with that first raw recipe, I was converted. I had imagined the raw food as a punishment for my holiday indulgences, and that the pain and suffering, the gnawing in my belly, was penance for all those Christmas cookies. At the end of the week, I imagined that I would emerge delirious and light-headed, but no longer hungry because the sensation had become de rigueur. Instead, after only day one, I was energized and (dare I even suggest it?) excited to eat more raw food.

If only cleaning up after all my other indulgences and extravagances was this much fun.