Drink the Summer Rainbow

Good morning, everyone! I hope you've had a good week, and that your weekend is off to a great start! I know one way to get a good kick to your energy... c'mon you know what I'm gonna say... Smoothie!! :) (Do I sound like a broken record yet?)

I love Saturdays because they are Farmers' Market days here in my town! We have a humble little market with only about 8 farmers, and a few other entrepreneurs. You can also find soaps, lotions, baked goods, and crafts.

But before I restock my fridge with new produce from the market and the grocery store, I needed to make some room! So it was time to use up left over produce. I was surprised how much variety I still had! And it all looked so pretty! So this morning I did a rainbow smoothie. In produce, each color food carries its own health benefits - so get that variety!



So here's what I put in my smoothie:
Red: goji berries
Orange: peach
Yellow: pineapple and frozen mango
Green: kale and Romaine
Purple: strawberries and blackberries

Then I sprinkled in a few Tablespoons of flax seeds for some extra protein and omega oils.

Blend and enjoy!

This is a power-packed drink of fiber, vitamins and minerals, very alkaline and antioxidant rich... and a lot of great natural sugars to kick start the morning! It made a nice, thick, heavy smoothie - keeps me full for hours! (And keeps me skipping along as I browse the produce section at the store while being crowded among all the other Saturday morning shoppers.)

David Heber, MD, PhD wrote a book called What Color Is Your Diet? In it, he goes over the different colors and benefits.

White: Usually it is agreed that there is also the white color category - that would include things like onion, garlic, chives, and mushroom. Yeah... I didn't feel like putting that into my smoothie! I'm not that adventurous! Other white/green foods that I could have included, though, are celery and pears. These foods all contain flavonoids that protect your cell membranes.

Red: I talked about benefits a little bit in an earlier post during Valentine's Day. But, to refresh, bold red foods include tomatoes, watermelon, etc. Think bold bright, leaning more towards pink than purple. These foods are rich in lycopene, which helps fight cancer.

Darker Orange: carrots, sweet potato, and squash are great for the eyes! All the carotenoids help with night vision and are also great disease fighters.

Yellow-Orange: brighter colored oranges such as the orange fruit, nectarines, and papaya are phenomenal sources of Vitamin C - great for the immune system! Since Vitamin C is water-soluble, your body doesn't like to store it too much. So it's important to get vitamin C from food on a daily basis!

Yellow-Green: corn, spinach, avocado, and peas are part of this group. They are rich in the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin. These components are now being linked with eye health and protection from macular degeneration!

Green: And the darker greens - kale, broccoli, sprouts, cabbage... these are such an important part of health. I've talked about it a little before, but these are rich in sulforaphane and help stimulate the liver, enhancing your body's natural detoxing and cleansing processes. They also contain isothicyanate and indoles, which help your body break down cancer-causing checmicals.

Purple: now you move into foods that are a darker red, such as grapes, berries, and eggplant. This color comes from anthocyanins that protect the heart.

So do like Skittles and taste (or drink!) the rainbow; but go for the natural, healthy rainbow instead of the sugary nutritionally-empty rainbow! ;-) You'll find that pot o' health in the end!

~Katie

Monday Smoozie

And the morning is off to a great start, kicking butt of lethargy and disease! Since it’s my late day at work, I got up, did a rather intense 45 minutes on the elliptical machine, and Dave and I shared a giant green smoothie for breakfast!

2 apples, 1 pear, 1 lemon, 1 cup mixed berries
1-2 cup spinach, 3 leaves dinosaur kale
Water to thin and smooth

Even Dave said he didn’t find it to be too “green” a green smoothie (and really, all those berries made it look more like a purple smoothie! Kind of reminiscent of the Smooze from my childhood…. Ahhh, My Little Ponies!)

And, with that wonderful arsenal of antioxidants, fiber, and health, I head to work where (akk! Oh no!) my wonderful co-worker hands me a bag of home made chocolate chip cookies!!

Nooooo!!!

Oddly enough, I didn’t really want them! I was able to tuck them away (definitely an “out of sight, out of mind” thing) and hope to save them for the weekend :)

Work was so busy I ended up missing lunch (*sigh!*) but I’ll munch on my snack veggies as I head home. Broccoli and celery – nothing exciting, but when you’re hungry, it’s mmm, mmm, good! (And as always, mmm, mmm, healthy!)

Got home and dove head first into Fire Ants! And, ok, honestly, sometimes I'm too lazy to make them this pretty every time. Some days, I just dump goji's and raisins in a pile, scoop the almond butter with the celery piece, and just roll that in the berry pile. Either way, yum-tastic health!

Have a great evening!

Hugs and all that good stuff :)

~Katie

Fire Ants on a Log

Here's a little recipe modification that I like... (and no, it's not actually flambéed, heated, or spicy. Bait and switch! Ha ha! Oh, and no real ants or logs either, just in case you were wondering about that, too...)

Many of us are familiar with the "ants on a log" snack: celery stick with peanut butter and raisins.

I prefer to use other nuts (See Not So Nuts About Peanuts post): almond and cashew are my favorites. If you don't make your own, try to find brands that are organic and definitely make sure they don't have added salts, sugars, or other additives! The ingredient list should just consist of the nut used. And instead of just raisins, I like to use soaked goji berries! (They're red, hence "fire ants.")

I take a little container and fill it with goji berries and water, let it sit for a while - it'd probably be okay with only about 10 minutes, but I just stick them in the fridge the night before so they're all pretty and plump in the morning when I pack my lunch! Spread a thin layer of nut butter on the celery, and top with goji (and maybe some organic raisins.) The raisins can add some sweetness, as I don't think the goji has a whole lot of strong flavors; or, cashew butter has some natural sweetness to it, so sometimes that's enough and I don't need the raisins at all!

This snack is great:

The water-rich celery is packed with Vitamins C and K, as well as phthalides (no, I did not misspell that!), which may help lower cholesterol, and coumarins, that may be useful in cancer prevention!

Goji berries (also called wolfberries), like most other berries, are rich in antioxidants to help prevent diseases and cell damage; and the polysaccharides in gojis may help with prevention and treatment of cancer. They are usually sold in health food stores dried. If you are interested in trying these, you may want to experiment with various brands, as companies often have varying dehydration times leading to differing hardness levels.

Almonds are full of Vitamin E, Magnesium, Manganese, Potassium, and even tryptophan - a compound that helps make the happy-chemical serotonin! Good moods, here we come! ;-) They're also a good source of monounsaturated fats (healthy!) And if that wasn't enough - almonds are also good for helping decrease your blood-sugar after eating to help prevent that pesky spike-and-crash.

Or if you went with the cashew butter, then you're getting a great dose of copper (yep, your body needs that! It's not just for pennies!) Copper helps with elimination of free radicals (damaging to your cells and skin – which shows as signs of aging), development of bone and connective tissue, and the production of the skin and hair pigment, melanin. Cashews are also rich in monounsaturated fats - specifically oleic acid, which is good for your cardiovascular health.

And, as always – have fun experimenting in the kitchen! Perhaps you like to drizzle some honey over it; or sprinkle on some cloves; or use dehydrated cherries or apricots… play! And enjoy your wholesome treat!

Have a great evening!

~Katie

Greenie Meanie

Alright, my friend. It's time... Embrace the Green! :) A power house drink to help boost your energy and begin cleansing your body inside and out!

Bear with me - as it can take some getting used to. Raw foodists love this type of drink. All the fresh nutrients in it can pack quite the energy punch! I like to drink some version of this most weekdays before work - since I have started it, I haven't needed coffee. The rich greens are full of energy-boosting vitamins, rich in antioxidants, very alkaline, and full of fiber to help with satiety!

Here's my basic recipe (all organics), but feel free to alter and let me know what types of spin you put on it!

-one apple, cored but not peeled
-one pear, cored not peeled-juice of half a lemon

-1/4th a head of Romain lettuce (or start with spinach, which usually tastes less “green”)

-1 Collard green leaf, or 2 Kale leaves

-water to desired consistency

Put everything in a blender, and give it a whirl! For your first time, you may will want to push some more fruits – pears, grapes, and bananas work well – but really whatever you. You may even prefer to start with just a fruit smoothie with a handful of spinach.

The "greenness" taste was almost overwhelming for me at first, but I've since gotten used to it. Oddly enough, some days I crave this sucker! Well, my body does - my tongue does not always agree! But I know that I feel better, lighter, and healthier when I have this for breakfast. Over time, as you get used to this little guy, you may start to cut back on the fruit, and push some of the darker greens.

Other additions I have made to this (once I realized I was sticking to the healthy, natural diet that I am now on) I went a bought some watercress, spirulina, hemp protein, and goji berries to add.

Having this for breakfast can fill your body with many needed nutrients, hopefully giving you a healthy kick to the day to kill those nasty cravings for useless, processed dead foods! And, then should you eat something less desirable later, well, at least you got this awesome start to the day!

Rock on, my friends, and give that Greenie Meanie a try! Oscar the grouch would be proud do slurp one of these (and maybe he wouldn't be so crabby then! Though I guess his grouchdom is endearing) ;-)

Here's to your Sunny Days, Sweeping the Clouds Away!

~Katie (and Oscar!)

The Smoothie

So I altered my tropical smoothie a bit, and thought I'd share a few photos of it!

While I normally add water to it to help with consistency, I had some left over coconut milk that just begged me to add it to the cool, tropical goodness that was in the blender! Coconut milk has been a hot topic in the nutrition world for a while. Once condemned for its high saturated fat content, there are now studies coming out showing there are different TYPES of saturated fats, and coconut's may not be as bad as once thought. Lauric acid, a medium-chain fatty acid in coconut, just may be a type of that the body is not going to absorb really quickly, and would rather burn quickly as fuel!

Coconut is also very hydrating for the body (yay for softer, healthier skin!)

I also added in some soaked goji berries - an antioxidant-packed berry with a rich history in Asia as a medicinal food. It is also being studied for its anti-aging effect! Add, maybe of less importance, I find it adds a nice sunset hue to my drink :)

I enjoyed pulling out some party favors and indulging in a hula-style drink, but if you don't have the silly little monkey, you can always garnish with a lime wedge.

I hope you have fun experimenting with your own recipes! You usually can't go wrong with fruit smoothies.

Enjoy, and drink up!

~Katie