Gardening

I promised some gardening pictures. This one is of the herbs on my patio: mint, parsley, cilantro and dill. I already use them a LOT! I love putting parsley, cilantro and dill in my salad dressings and in any salads that I make. The dill especially adds a nice flavor. We have basil and rosemary in our squares, and sage that came back from last year.

 Here is one of our squares. We have green beans, cantaloupe, cabbage, garlic, swiss chard and cucumbers in this square. We have 4 squares total. Everything is growing beautifully! I will be adding a whole square of strawberries for next years garden, and I want to do asparagus too, but am not quite sure yet how to do it.

 Here are some of my beets. Aren't they beautiful? Beet greens are soooo good in green smoothies, and beets are amazing blood cleaners! They are also good at keeping cancer, wrinkles, and fatigue at bay! You can take raw beets, peel them and cut them into chunks. Throw them in your freezer, and throw a frozen chunk into your smoothie for beautiful color! We are so excited to grow beets this year!

What are you growing in your garden?

Smoothie Recipes

Here are a few new ones that I've come across.
To go with those nummy fresh strawberries (thanks, dear Faye for the yummy berries!):
1 pint fresh strawberries
3 medium bananas, frozen
2 big handfuls of spinach
water, as necessary, about a cup

Blend in your high power blender
If you have a high power blender, you can leave the tops on the strawberries, especially if they are organic. (Strawberries are some of the dirty dozen--lots of toxins in those bad boys!)

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2 frozen bananas
2 cups grapes
1 apple, cored and frozen in chunks
3 cups fresh spinach
some water

Blend in your high power blender, greens first, please!
This one is so yummy, the kids LOVE it!!

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1/2 cup-1 cup water
2 T chopped dates (rinsed and soaked for a few hours prior to making)
4 pears, cored (I would freeze 2-3 of these to ensure the nice cold smoothie consistency)
2 cups fresh spinach
2 ribs celery, chopped into big chunks
1/2 c frozen mango

Blend in your high power blender, greens first, please!

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1 fresh mango
2 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
lots of greens (I used half kale and half spinach)
2 pears, cored
2-3 frozen bananas

Blend in your high power blender.


****If you have a high power blender, it's best to blend the greens and water for a cycle, then add fresh fruit, followed by frozen. I usually don't measure except the water. Usually I stuff the blender jar full of green, then pour water up to the 8-12 oz line, then blend. Then I add fresh fruit, followed by frozen, and press the whole juice button.
I've heard that if you don't have a high power blender, that it's best to do fruit first followed by green, very slowly. Anyone have suggestions for if you don't have a high power blender?

Dark Chocolate Black Bean Brownies

3 eggs
1/2 C raw chocolate powder
1/2 C raw walnuts
1 T vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 T coconut oil
1 C agave
2 c black beans (rinsed, especially if canned)
1/2 C dark chocolate chunks
1/4 tsp sea salt
Preheat oven to 325. Spray a 11x13 pan or line with parchment paper. Put all ingredients except 1/4 cup walnuts and chocolate chunks in high powered blender and hit batters. If you don't have a high power blender, blend the eggs, agave and black beans, and then add the rest of the ingredients to blend.

Pour the mixture in the pan and sprinkle with choc chunks and remaining walnuts. Bake until middle is set, about 45 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting.

**Note, this tastes best served cold, so keep in the fridge.

The texture of this is very different, but it is very tasty!

Thanks, GSG!

P.S. I saved some for my 6 year old so that she didn't feel pressured to eat Ice Cream tomorrow for her Ice Cream day. She's excited to have brownies!

Salads & Summer Nummies...and a note on salad dressings

My FAVORITE summer meal is my concoction of Pasta Salad, but since we've started eating better, mine needed some tweaking. First of all, it needed homemade dressing-more on that below, if you want to read-, and secondly, it needed less pasta and more veggies. This was a HIT at my house. My 3 year old asked for 3 platefuls of it. Quick note: I'm not a fan of raw broccoli. I prefer it a little soft, so if you allow the dressing to soak into the broccoli, it softens it up nicely, and is super tasty!

Pasta salad

1 lb whole grain pasta or gluten free pasta
2 cans albacore tuna
1-3 handfuls of spinach, depending on your mood
1 colored pepper, diced
broccoli and cauliflower cut into small pieces
1 cucumber, peeled and diced
some shredded cheese

homemade dressing of your choice. See mine below.

Cook pasta according to package directions. Combine all ingredients and let marinate in fridge.

Homemade Dressing

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2-3 T flax seed oil
1/2 cup raw apple cider vinegar
fresh dill
1 T dijon mustard
3 whole cloves garlic, peeled
1 t sea salt (or to taste)
2 t Italian seasoning
1 T parsley or fresh parsley
fresh dill or other fresh herbs
Combine in BlendTec and press Dressings.

I fell in LOVE with this tasty smoothie! Tell me what you think!

Yummy Summer Treat

Honeydew
Fresh Mint leaves
Cram as much honey dew in blender as you can. Throw in a small handful of mint leaves. Blend and enjoy. If you're thinking ahead, this would be fabulous with half of the honeydew pieces frozen. Your kids will LOVE IT!!

Fruit Bouquet

We had this last Sunday for our dessert, which we only do on Sundays now, if the kids can go to church without eating sugar. Yes, it IS offered to them EVERY SUNDAY! It was super easy and super fun. The pictures aren't great, but here is the link for the details. Enjoy!

***Note on salad dressing:
Bottled salad dressings are a danger to your health. Virtually all of them contain one or more of the following dangerous ingredients:

Monosodium glutamate (MSG). This is also hiding in hydrolyzed vegetable protein and dozens of other food additives, so you may not recognize that it’s in your bottled dressing. MSG makes you crave more of the foods it is in and thus has been linked to the obesity epidemic. Perhaps even more importantly, it is a neurotoxin that has been linked to brain damage, central nervous system damage, and dozens of other major health problems.
High-fructose corn syrup. The very worst of all the refined sugars, it is linked to diabetes, tooth decay, and obesity, among dozens of other health risks. 

Refined oils. These are oils such as soy, safflower, canola, and other vegetable oils which are heated above 400° and made rancid and, therefore, carcinogenic. Everyone knows trans fatty acids (TFAs) are deadly, but even refined oils that are not manufactured and bombarded with hydrogen atoms like TFAs are very harmful to our health, damaging every cell they come into contact with. Despite the claims of soy product manufacturers, who have been very successful at promoting soy in the past two decades, soy oil and other refined soy products are thyroid suppressants.

Chemical additives and preservatives. These include propylene glycol, sodium laureth sulfate (SLS), and other chemicals whose names you cannot pronounce. Although PG and SLS are known by the FDA to cause liver and kidney damage, the FDA approves these chemicals and many others if they are “food grade,” which means that the rodents and droppings are strained out. 
Ew.

This is partially taken from Green Smoothie Girl. I found it very interesting. We are experimenting, and so far we've had 1 keeper (above) and one not-so-good. Note to self-measure lime juice, don't just pour it in. :)

Celery Blueberry Smoothie

So.....I have sore toes today. Why, you ask? Well, let me tell you. I did Zumba yesterday, via the Wii. No, that's not why my toes are sore, keep reading. ;) Afterwards, I thought, huh...I'm NOT going to let these yummy endorphins go to waste. I'm going to mow the lawn! (My husband and I have a deal this summer: I mow if he weedeats...he is so busy that he can't keep up with it all anymore. But I HATE weedeating, so there ya have it). So, I decided to not do the self propeller thing on the mower for when I go uphill, and so I was pushing with my toes. Well, this morning, it felt like someone had dropped something heavy on my toes. :) My mom reminded me that muscle burns more calories, even if they are my toe muscles. :) Ha!

Okay, onward...my cleanse has been mainly a green smoothie cleanse. I no longer feel the need to use any form of sweetener for my smoothies. Zip. Yahoo! I've also found that using organic celery really helps to replenish my body after a workout (or working outside in the heat). I've slowly started introducing me (and the kiddos) to celery in our smoothies. I had 2 kiddos who had Field Day yesterday and they were dragging when they got home from school....til they have "the best smoothie ever" according to them...with 2 stalks of organic celery, organic spinach, pineapple, banana and frozen blueberries. They were good to go until dinner, and were so energetic!

Why organic celery? Well, celery is one of the "dirty dozen", in fact it is the top member of produce that carries toxins from field to store. Organic is best. I found organic on sale at our Super Target for $1.47 a bag! So, we are using a lot of celery this week.

Happy Slurping!

Chocolate Muffins

Happy Mother's Day all of you who are mothers or will be someday! It's warm and sunny and beautiful here today....with the very small exception of my little 6 year old who is running a fever, achy and coughing. Bleh. I'm hoping with a little extra greens coming her way tonight it will help her body fight it off!

I didn't have a traditional Mother's Day with the husband who makes breakfast in bed, blahbity blah....instead, I have the gift of a husband who has a desire to help others. He and 300 others in our Church from the Nashville area are in Alabama right now helping with the clean up efforts from the multiple tornadoes that hit a few weeks ago. If you aren't aware of it, do a search for Tuscaloosa tornado. There was one in particular that left a wake of 200 miles of damage. It was mind boggling! I was so thrilled to find out that from Nashville area alone, 300 men volunteered, and nearly that many wives were happy to let their husbands go on Mother's Day weekend. From what my husband says, the devastation is overwhelming, and yet the simple acts of gratitude of the people they have been able to help has been so humbling. I'm grateful.

So, during this cleanse, I have to say that there have definitely been ups and downs. Nothing feels as good as drinking pure veggies and fruits for a few days, I have to admit. It really is amazing! I was determined, however, to have something chocolatey on Mother's Day. Check out this baby! I haven't tasted it yet, but my house smells absolutely heavenly! Our weekly tradition is to have a treat on Sunday evenings, and I'm so grateful to find things without sugar to serve as a treat.

Chocolate Muffins
1/2 c water
2 1/2 cups freshly ground whole grain flour
1 c buttermilk
1 c unsweetened applesauce (I made this from scratch in my BlendTec-see below!)
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla (or 1 tsp almond extract and 1 tsp vanilla)
3/4 c cocoa (raw, preferrably)
3/4 c agave nectar
2 tsp stevia
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sea salt
Almonds or walnuts, optional

Mix 1st 4 ingredients and let sit overnight (or all day). The next morning, stir in next 5 ingredients, first with a spoon and then with a hand mixer. Stir in (with a spoon) the baking soda and sea salt and mix until just blended, then let it sit for 10-20 minutes while oven preheats to 400.
Fill muffin tins (either oiled or lined with muffin liners) 3/4 full. Sprinkle with nuts if desired, and let bake for 20 minutes or until they spring back when touched. Makes 2 dozen.

Blueberry Flax Muffins

Wow. That's all I gotta say. I'm not even following this to the letter cause I'm breastfeeding and needing some more calories, but wow. Some of the reactions my body has had on it's desire to rid itself of toxins are: nausea, extreme fatigue, issues with mood stability, frequent urination, bloating, restless sleep.
It's been really hard, but I'm on day 3, already lost 4 pounds, and today has already been a lot better then the previous two.
Emotional cleanse? I've been doing pretty good with this. It really has helped me to take a few minutes to myself every day. I need to start leaving the house a little more. Those days seem to make all the difference. Looking forward to some warmer weather next week-a walk sounds so delightful!
Spiritual-I missed yesterday! Boo to me, but I'm not going to beat myself up. Right? Right!!! I'll pick it back up today. I'm not doing as well with praying on my knees, but I will also do better starting today.

I've loved hearing some of your goals. A few folks have emailed me with them, and I just love the enthusiasm-it's contagious! So, thank you so much!

On another note, I have been to 2 of the 3 Mother's day celebrations at my kiddos' school this week. My last one is this afternoon. It has been so much fun! My favorite things were the letter written to me by my 10 year old, my stats written by my kindergartner-including my 26 feet of height and 250 lb weight, and the excited face of my 8 year old-ready for me to come and be with him. I'm so excited! Since our family is still holding true to the no-sugar thing, I made some Blueberry Flax Muffins. The texture was different, but the kids LOVED THEM! I'm sure I'll make them again. We were able to share these together during the celebration to avoid the sugary junk that was being offered.
The recipe is from Green Smoothie Girl, and I made the bean flour by just blending up some white beans in my BlendTec. The muffins will rise more and be lighter and more digestible if you soak the grains overnight as described in the instructions.

3 C warm water
3½ C whole-wheat flour (finely ground soft white wheat is best)
½ C white bean flour
2 eggs (organic, free-range)
½ C yogurt or kefir (or whey)
1 1/2 C Sucanat
2 tsp. vanilla
½ C melted coconut oil
1 Tbsp. aluminum-free baking powder (reduce by half if you soak grains overnight)
½ C flax seeds, freshly ground
1 tsp. sea salt
2½ C blueberries, fresh or frozen
Combine the water, flours, flax, and yogurt. Cover and let the mixture sit overnight or all day (this is an optional step to eliminate phytates). Add all remaining ingredients except the blueberries and mix thoroughly.
Gently fold in the blueberries. Bake in lined or greased muffin tins, 2/3 full, for 25 minutes at 400°. Makes about 3 dozen muffins.