First 3 days of being Vegan..oh wait, I had cupcakes...

So, why have we decided to go Vegan? Well, our doctor asked us to. Both of us, despite all the juice we are drinking have high cholesterol.  Too much cheese, I think. Neither one of us would like to take medication, so we are conducting an experiment. We are going (mostly) Vegan for at least 3 months. Saturdays will still be "Eat what ever the fuck you want to" days.

We recently discovered roasting vegetables. I saw a recipe on Pinterest for the "best broccoli you will ever have in your life". It's true. It is really good broccoli!

Take your fresh broccoli and toss it with olive oil, salt and pepper. Then, pop it in the oven on 350 for 15 minutes. Then broil it on high for another 5 minutes. = AWESOME.

Now we do all the veggies that way. With corn, we use  frozen. Toss it with the olive oil, salt and pepper and then put it in the oven for the 5 minutes of broil with the other veggies.

This is yesterday's dinner. All the veggies were cooked in the same fashion and the whole thing took about 20 minutes to make. Corn, cauliflower, broccoli, and surprise, surprise: brussel sprouts. Until this dish, I had never ever had any brussel sprouts that tasted good. 

Tonight, we had a similar dinner, but with no corn. Chris made some really delicious potato slices. Chris has been 100% vegan for these first 3 days. I had some cupcakes that were not vegan today, but otherwise I'm doing good too. We even found a dessert that isn't made with eggs or butter or milk: Biscoff cookies. Yum!

Weak Sauce and Crack Cocaine

Here's a quickie. 

We were out of cucumbers, but I wanted to make a juice with the kale because Chris likes the green juices. I also wanted to make sure that I used up the limes we have. Limes are as precious as crack cocaine right now! For real! Look it up, the Mexican Mafia are high-jacking lime trucks and extorting lime growers. I didn't want anyone who had died for my limes, to die in vain, so I feel the need to use them up before they get wonky. I did some research on the internet and found this recipe.   

I'm calling it "Weak Sauce." It has a pleasant flavor, but with no zing! 

It tastes like weak apple juice, or weak orange juice. 

Weak Sauce

2 Granny Smith Apples

2 Oranges

1 Lime

1 big hunk of Kale

2 Celery Stalks

Here it is in all it's glory: Weak Sauce!

I think next time, I will add in some ginger to get that "pop" of flavor.

Let me tell you about something terrible

So, we have this giant container of peeled garlic. 

 I looked up some juicing recipes with garlic in them. 

I found this one on the internet that got good reviews. 

It called for 1 apple, 1 garlic and 2 celery and 2 carrots. When I opened up the garlic container, the smell was so strong, I thought that I should add more carrots and another apple. Just to be safe.

I put it all through the juicier, and even though there was only one clove in there, the smell was really strong. The color was fairly pleasing.

I took the glass to Chris, and had him try it first. I wished that I had taken a picture of his expression, because I could tell that the juice was terrifyingly awful. 

I took a sip...oh loorrrrdy jeaaaaassuuuuuuussssss! It was awful. Chris had drank about 1/4 of his, and told me that I had to drink at least as much of mine to be fair. So I did. It was painful. Then Chris said, "what if I drink all of it". I said, "well, I guess I will too." 

Can you believe it, he drank the whole thing. 

I started in on mine, and then said..."I have to go back to work now!" hahaha...

I drank about 1/2 and put the rest down the drain. 

I had the taste of garlic in my mouth and on my breath for hours and hours afterwards. Don't get me wrong, I love garlic. But, juicing it was a very bad idea. 

Fuck You Garlic

2 Days, 3 new juices

Thanks to my sister, we have a new "Juicing recipes" book. 

We tried 3 new juices and they are all delicious.

I went a local farmer who has strawberries and picked up a big bucket of them. Now what? 

How about some "Sweet & Spicy Citrus" juice? 

5 Carrots

1 Orange

1/3 cup of Strawberries. I didn't measure, I just threw a bunch in

1 Lemon

a hunk of Ginger

Will it be good? Heck yeah it will! I really enjoyed this one we had for breakfast. According to the juicing book it is "Exceptionally rich in vitamin A and vitamin C"

 We still had strawberries left over, so this morning we had "Refreshing Strawberry Juice"

2 cups Strawberries; or just throw in what you have left

1 Cucumber

1/4 Lemon 

I didn't think that would be enough juice for the both of us, so I added in a pear and the whole lemon.

It was good and refreshing! I think the pear might have toned down the lemon taste a bit. But, we both liked it. Pig doesn't look too thrilled though. 

"Packed with ellagic acid, a phytonutrient that helps fight infflammation and cancer-causing cell damage", according to the juicing book. 

 For lunch we tried the "Tangerine Ginger Sipper". Except we didn't have tangerines, so I substituted an orange and a few clementines. 

1 "Tangerine"

1 Pear (or 2 for more juice)

1/4 Lemon (or a whole one because they taste good)

1/2 inch fresh ginger

Pig is much more excited about this one! According to the juicing book it is "A thirst-quenching combination of sweet and tart". We liked it!

Yes! We are still juicing!

Yes, we are still juicing! I haven't posted in over a month though. Mostly because we haven't tried anything new. We have been drinking a lot of the "mean green" for lunch, and our usual orange juice mix for breakfast. We have snuck in some beets and purple cabbage here and there too. I looked up a new recipe for lunch today. I don't remember what the name of it was, nor from which website I got it from. We will just call it "Delicious Juice"

This juice is for 2 servings.

2 Apples

2 Oranges

1 Cucumber

3 Stalks Celery

1 Lemon

It looks like this when you make it.

And like this, once you stir it up. 

It smelled good....and tasted good! We are going to try the same combo but add in kale to make it even more healthy. I'll let you know how it goes. 

How many fruits and vegetables were in your lunch today?

Look at this picture. This is our lunch for today. So many fruits and vegetables! 

How many did you get with your lunch today? 

We had the usual "mean green" juice for lunch and I made a dessert juice to go with it, which tasted...okay, not bad. Here is the dessert juice recipe:

Blueberry Beet Juice

1 beet with beet greens

1 cucumber

1 apple

4 tangerines

1 hunk of ginger root

Total fruits and veggies during lunch for Chris and I:

1 bunch of kale

1 beet and beet greens

2 stalks celery

4 apples

2 cucumbers

4 tangerines 

2 cups of blueberries

1 lemon

1 big hunk of ginger root

Here is our lunch. Total time to prep, prepare and clean was 30 minutes.

Here is a tip for new juicers: if you are using a citrus fruit, like lemon or oranges, use a vegetable peeler to get the skin off. It is much easier and faster than trying to peel the things. 

It tastes like dirt...IT TASTES LIKE DIRT!

I went to Kroger to get some kale to make our usual Mean-Green Juice. Kroger was out of kale so, I decided to get some purple cabbage and make the last juice I posted about 

"The things nightmares are made of." 

I made it for breakfast but Chris didn't like it much this time. I looked up some other recipes and found one that was similar but with spinach and ginger. Here is an appetizing picture of the ingredients. 

Purple Cabbage

Beet

Lemon

3 Apples

some Carrots

Spinach

Ginger

It turned out pretty, but as Chris said "It tastes like dirt...IT TASTES LIKE DIRT!" 

I don't recommend this recipe. 

The stuff nightmares are made of

We tried a new juice today for dinner. We were both scared. These ingredients are the stuff out of a kid's nightmare for dinner. Purple Cabbage, Beets, Carrots! I got the recipe from the rebootwithjoe website. They call it the BBQ Blow Out! I'm not really sure why.

The ingredients are scary, but this juice tasted surprisingly good!

I asked Pig to help me check out some of the ingredients. 

sniff sniff....First we looked at the purple cabbage. 

Then we checked out the beet. 

Seems okay. But, she wanted a little taste. 

mmmm! Beet Greens!

This made about 40 ounces of juice, enough for both of us to have a big glass. 

1/2 a purple cabbage

1 beet 

3 apples

3 carrots

1 lemon

It is a really pretty dark purple color. We will be having this again. 

No. Just No.

What's good? 

Kale

Apple 

Pear 

What's not good?

Bok Choy

Apple 

Pear

Yak! I made the bok choy, pear, apple for lunch. I had to use the citrus reamer to juice a giant lemon into it just to make it drinkable. Blah! Never again.

3 Day Juice Fast Starts........NOW!

After our 27 day juice fast a few weeks ago, Chris and I started drinking juice twice a day and then having a healthy meal. Except once a week, usually Saturday, we had an "eat what ever you want" day. We had a few "eat what ever you want today and tomorrow" a few times. Even on those "bad days" we still had at least one juice. Then the ice storm hit us and we went without power for 27 hours. Without power, we had no way to use the juicer. We couldn't use the stove or oven either, but we do have a wood burning stove so Chris cooked us up a few things on there. By the time the roads were safe, we were freezing (despite the stove) and we were HUNGRY! We really wanted some hot food, so we went to have a big meal at a Mexican restaurant. Now, here we are a few days later, and we want to get back on track. Even though we have gone back to 2 juices and a dinner, the dinners haven't been super healthy, and we are feeling it. We really miss our vegetables and the way they make us feel refreshed and healthy. 

So we are doing a 3 Day Reboot 

and then going back to our 2 juices and a HEALTHY dinner. 

One of the juices I actually look forward to having, even though it has a beet in it,  is one we had yesterday for breakfast. I found it on this girl's website. www.andherlittledogtoo.com

Beet Juice

1 beet

3 carrots

1 lemon

1 lime

a hunk of ginger

2 apples (supposed to be 3, but we were out so I added...)

1 pear

Both Chris and I liked this one. It was kind of odd and spicy. 

I said "it's weird" and Chris said "but I don't hate it."  

Pineapple Beet Juice

I decided to try a new juice this morning. 

Seemed like it would taste good, and I had a pineapple on hand. 

The recipe called for a cup of pineapple chunks, but I decided to use the whole thing so I would have enough for two people. It also called for a cucumber and a beet. I thought the pineapple would work like a lemon in contrast to the beet, since I don't like the beet taste.

After I got it all juiced, I took a sip. NOPE! I didn't like it at all, and I thought Chris would hate it too. He doesn't like cucumber, and pineapple is one of his least favorite juices. The taste was very cucumbery and bitter from the beet. So, I added a lemon.

I had already cleaned the juicer, so I used an the old fashioned kind to squeeze in the lemon.

It tasted much better. After the lemon, I kind of liked it. Chris thought it was too sweet from the pineapple. Noodles thought it was pretty.

Awesome; Terrible, and Meh..

Three new juices for us this week. The first one was really good. Very refreshing and nice.

2 Sweet Potatoes

3 Oranges

4 or 5 carrots

hunk of Ginger

It makes two glasses of yummy. Do it! It is good.

Terrible: Any juice involving a melon is like licking Satan's butt-hole.

We have officially sworn off any and all recipes involving melons of any type. 

Here is one we tried, it was like drinking bile. 

1 Cantaloupe

5 or 6 Carrots

I thought that this would be bad, so I added a lemon. 

It was still bad.

Yak!

This next one is called "The Immune Booster!"

I didn't think it was bad. It was very "carroty" tasting. 

Chris thought it was "meh..."

3 Carrots

3 Apples

1/2 Lemon

Hunk of Ginger

Looks bright and cheery! 

Sweet Potatoes: Beta-carotene = 

Vitamin A= healthy skin, mucus membranes, immune system, and good eye health and vision.

Carrots: among other things: Potassium=

helps maintain healthy sodium levels in the body, thereby helping to reduce elevated blood pressure levels.

Oranges: rich in Citrus Limonoids= 

proven to help fight a variety of cancers including that of the skin, lung, breast, stomach and colon.

Lemon Juice: raises Citrate Levels in the urine=prevents kidney stones.

Ginger: an excellent Carminative=eliminating gastrointestinal stress

Cantaloupe: Vitamin C=

protects your cells from oxidative damage -damage to your DNA, proteins and cell membranes as a side effect of your metabolism.

Apples: Alkalinity in apples assists in cleansing the destructive toxins/waste by-products from the liver.

The previous list was compiled after I Googled "why is X good for you" 

and listed some of the answers here for you.

Some Experiments

We had snow days last week and we were not able to get to the grocery store. Therefore, I had to do some experiments to see what would be good using just the fruits and veggies we had on hand. My main concern was breakfast juices. We did the "Joe's Mean Green" for lunch just about everyday. 

I had to use up these beets we had, but I didn't have any carrots!  

So we did a beet, lemon, and orange juice. It was good, but didn't make a lot. 

But, it was a really pretty color. 

I still had some beets left, but now I was out of oranges too! But, I did have some clementines. 

Beets

Clementines

Lemon

(and Grapefruit for Chris)

This ended up being one of Chris's favorite.

It turned out a pretty color too.

Pig didn't care.

Neither did Peepers.  

When I did make it to the grocery store, I got 2 containers of strawberries. I wanted to use them before they went bad. So I looked up some recipes  and found one for Strawberry Limeade. But, it didn't seem healthy enough, so I added some other ingredients. 

Strawberry Limeade. 

Strawberries

Green Apples

Lime

Carrots

Kale

It looks real pretty before you stir it. 

Looks like butt juice after you stir it. 

I thought it was good. Chris said it "tastes like meat". 

Here is a picture of Noodles.

Morning Juice

So we have been sick! I mean really sick, with laryngitis, acute sinusitis, and possibly the start of some bronchitis. I'm happy to say that though we had one "eat what ever we want that is fast and easy because we are sick day", the rest of the past  7 days we have stuck with either all juice, or what I call "juice, juice, dinner".  Because we are sick, we haven't tried any new recipes. So this morning, I decided to do our staple orange carrot (grapefruit) juice with a few extra things. 

We had some tangelos! So my juice this morning was

1 orange

1 tangelo

1 pear

1 carrot. 

Yummy.

Chris had almost the same. Instead of an orange he had a grapefruit. I decided to add the pear because the tangelo had a lot of the "white stuff" (aka pith) which can be bitter, so I added the pear to counter that bitterness with some sweetness. It was good. Chris said his was "really good".