Juice Feast Day 2

(Ani's Corn Chowder)

It's day two of the three day juice feast and I'm feeling a bit under the weather. I've had a few sinus problems, a sore throat, and fatigue. I'm thinking that it's detox symptoms, so I'm taking today for rest and relaxation. It worked out well because my guy is home from work today to help me out with our lil one. I decided that since my juice feast was going well (not hungering for food), but I was experiencing some pretty heavy detox symptoms I would eat some raw food.

I made this delicious corn chowder from Ani Phyo's book "Raw Food Kitchen" and it is one of the yummiest chowders I've ever had! We are going to be making this chowder again, especially when fresh corn is in season. The other bonus was that it only took about 5 minutes to make!

Like I said it was rest and relaxation day, so I had my guy instruct me in some yoga moves this afternoon. It felt good to stretch certain muscles that were sore. Once I start feeling better I really want to get outdoors for another hiking trip. This picture is inspiring me to spend more time outside :)

~Maggie

A 3 day Juice Feast

My little one took this picture, while watching me make my juice for lunch. At this rate he is going to be selling work as a photographer at age 3 :)
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I am attempting a 3 day juice fast, with the support and inspiration from fellow bloggers. To see more information about our 3 day juice feast here is a link to Joanna's blog that encouraged/challenged us all.

Here are some of my favorite juices from today. I made about 5 different types just to see what I really liked, and what I would get more juice from. I'll share my top three :)

Morning Juice

"Green Morning Sunrise"
1 pineapple
1 head of romaine
A bunch of Kale
Juice it!
This makes about 2 cups/half a quart of juice. It tasted pretty yummy, I juiced the pineapple first and then stopped to pull out all the excess fiber that was separated. I put it in a container to make a pineapple sauce for my guy's lunch later. Don't waste a thing I say, especially delicious pineapple!

Afternoon Juice

"Carrot-Apple Lemonade"
6 Carrots
2 Apples
1 Lemon
Juice it!
This again makes about 2 cups/half a quart of juice, which is just enough for me to drink in one sitting. I ended up making more of this recipe because my lil guy loved the taste of this and drank about half of cup of my juice! This tastes surprisingly sweet, and the lemon counters the sweetness to make a really yummy juice.

Evening Juice

"Green Lemonade Love"

1 head of Romaine

1 bunch of Swiss Chard

1 Lemon (I use only 1/2 a lemon)

2 Apples

Juice!

This is a recipe I use daily because its my favorite green juice. I can always drink 2 glasses/4 cups of this juice no problem. It makes about 2 cups/half a quart of juice. I credit this recipe to Happy Foody.

I'm feeling pretty good today. The only issue I've noticed is that my sinuses feel like they are either about to get plugged with a sinus infection or cold. Hopefully it doesn't get too bad, well I'm off to rest and cuddle my boys :)

Enjoy some juicing!

~Maggie

Homestyle Minestrone Soup

Tonight I wanted to make a raw soup for dinner, but I let my guy take the challenge on :) It was another rainy day here and soup sounded so perfect. My guy decided on making Ani Phyo's Homestyle Minestrone Soup, from her book "Ani's raw food kitchen." My favorite part of this soup was the sun-dried tomatoes and the spices (garlic, cayenne, salt oregano). I added the last of the pizza seed crackers and drizzled some olive oil. Delicious!

Later we thought we needed something sweet, since the soup was so savory. I made us a banana-blueberry chocolate smoothie.

Ingredients:
2 cups of cold filtered water
2 bananas
1 cup of blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1/4 cup of cacao powder
1 tsp of honey
Blend! Makes 2 servings


Hope everyone enjoyed their dinner as much as we did!
~Maggie

Zucchini Chips

I made these yesterday as an experiment. I heard about dehydrating zucchini strips from a few different sources and I thought I could try making them for our dinner. They didn't make their way to dinner. My lil one and I ate them as a snack! They tasted really similar to potato chips, crisp, and a little salty. Needless to say I recommend using more than one zucchini when trying this recipe out. It's delicious!

Ingredients:

2-3 Zucchini (I only used 1..not enough!)

1/4 cup of Olive Oil

1 clove of Garlic (chopped/grated)

sprinkle of Sea Salt

sprinkle of Pepper

Mix olive oil, garlic, sea salt and pepper together in a bowl. Peel the zucchini till all the skin is removed. Use a peeler or a mandolin to peel off thin strips of the zucchini. Throw it into the bowl with the olive oil mixture. Make sure all the zucchini is fully coated and then place the strips into the dehydrator. It took only about 1-2 hours for these thin strips to crisp up and be ready to eat!

Great guilt free snack for you and healthy treat for the lil ones :) I'm going to go make some more right now!

~Maggie

Energy!

Last night I felt like I could have run around the block at my own warp speed at least twice. I had so much energy and happiness flowing through my body. My guy on the other hand was feeling the exact opposite: lethargic, tired and moody. Our moods didn't mesh all to well, so I decided to just go with being present, positive and supportive. I finally fell asleep sometime after mid-night and woke up feeling not as energetic.

I made myself a carrot sunrise, which usually tastes sweet and refreshing!

Ingredients:

5 Carrots

2 Celery stalks

1 Orange

1/2 a Green Cabbage

Juice it up!

This time I added some ginger, but I added too much! Ohhh what a mistake :( It made it spicy and I was only able to drink half of my juice. The rest went down the drain, what a learning experience!

Lunch was a much happier meal! I craved nori again, and this time I had avocado!

Ingredients:

1 raw Nori sheet (untoasted)

4 thin strips of Carrot

4 thin strips of Red Pepper

Broccoli sprouts

1/2 an Avocado, thinly sliced

Line all the veggies on the edge of the nori sheet. Fold the nori sheet over veggies, by rolling the sheet away from you as tightly as possible. Dab edge of nori sheet with water to seal it. Then cut into 6 pieces!

Everyone has to try this, it's fun and so cheap to make compared to buying it from a store or restaurant.

Other than eating really colorful food today, I've been purchasing some upbeat music for workouts :) I've also been chatting to one of my very best friends, which makes this day even better!

Enjoy yours!

~Maggie

Chocolate Indulgence

Last night we decided to explore the world of raw chocolate desserts. I came across this recipe when I was looking at some raw food websites. The pictures looked pretty delicious and I wanted to "unbake" with ingredients I had never tried before. The recipe for this is online here, but I'll post the directions on living food junkie because I found the instructions were missing a few steps, plus I substituted some ingredients with what I had in the pantry :)

Ingredients:
1 cup raw chopped nuts (I used pecans)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder (optional)
1/3 cup cold-pressed coconut oil
1/2 cup raw Cacao butter (expensive ingredient)
1/3 cup Goji Berries
1.5 cups raw Cacao powder
1/4 cup raw honey (the original recipe called for more, but I found it to be way too much. I plan on omitting this ingredient next time.)
1/2 cup Agave
a good dash of quality salt
1 vanilla bean

Mix the nuts and the cayenne powder in a bowl. Set aside.

In a double boiler melt the coconut oil. Remove from heat as soon as it melts. Pour it in the bowl with the nuts. Melt the cacao butter in the double boiler. Remove from heat as soon as it melts and pour in bowl with the nuts. The low heat from the double boiler is to just liquefy the oils not to cook them.

Then add the goji berries, cacao powder, honey, agave, salt and vanilla bean to the nut mixture. Stir everything together and than place in a ceramic dish. It's best to put some parchment paper in the dish before hand because the mixture is quite thick and sticky. Place it in the fridge. It sets very quickly, we ate some about 30 minutes later. Cut the truffles into little squares and enjoy!
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The texture is like a smooth truffle, but also has a nice crunch with the bits of nuts mixed within. The flavor of the chocolate is dark and rich. The cayenne is in the after taste of the truffle, so it leaves you with a bit of heat in your throat. My guy said to leave the cayenne out of the recipe next time so he can eat these faster :) I think these would make a great little gift idea around Christmas time, or if you are having a party/get together with friends :)
~Maggie

Hiking Raw

Last post I mentioned date day, which was amazing. We had a great time catching up with each other on our hike. The hike was intense at times with the large hills we climbed, but it was worth climbing those hills to be part of the breathtaking beauty of the forest. It felt so good for me to be physically and mentally out in the wilderness. The forest is so great for rejuvenating the spirit. I was astounded that most of the people we ran into on our hike were running and talking about how fast their times were for every kilometer. Running through the forest, with their heads down, not looking or stopping to see what was around them. Kudos to all of them for being able to run this trails intense 6 kilometers, but I hope for their sake they were able to stop and enjoy the therapeutic essence around them.



Once we were at this point which was about half way through the journey, we stopped by the falls, each ate an apple, chatted and enjoyed what was around us. It was a beautiful moment. The air smelt like watermelon, and the feel of the sun was warm. I only wish I could have felt the mist from the waterfall on my face.


~Maggie

Lunch time smoothie

Today is date day! My guy and I are going to go for a hike at one of our favorite spots. I took this picture of the falls a few summers ago, it's one of my favorites. We really enjoy hiking together and are slowly improving our endurance on the massive mountains we climb. Okay so they seem like mountains, there more like large hills on the mountain.

Pre-hiking hunger striked, so I decided to put my smoothie skills to work. I call this Strawberry Mountain, it seemed appropriate.

Ingredients:

1 cup of water
1 cup of strawberries (frozen or fresh)
1/8 of cashews

1/4 pitted dates
1/4 vanilla bean
1/2 a Banana
1 tbsp cacao powder
Blend it up!

This tasted so good, it's now my favorite smoothie recipe! It did not sit heavy like some smoothies can :)

~Maggie

Soup for lunch

It's a rainy day and I always crave something warm on a rainy day. I decided it was best to try out a raw soup recipe. I figure since summer is just around the corner, I'm not to sure how long soup cravings are going to around. I scouted some recipes and found this one by Alissa Cohen, the recipe is online so you can check it out here :)






The soup turned out creamy, with little bits of broccoli and a bit of heat from the cumin. I wasn't able to eat the whole bowl of soup as shown in the picture, it was very filling and after awhile quite rich in flavor. I added a some broccoli sprouts as a topping and ended up adding more because it gave the soup a bit of a crunch..yum!






Here are my "seed pizza crackers" I posted about yesterday without all those toppings in the way. I dipped the crackers in the soup and it made lunch all the better :)

~Maggie

Last night

My lil one fell asleep for his nap around 4ish, so once my guy came home from work we started making some dinner. I was in the mood for some Nori rolls and he was in the mood for some Greek salad, and than we both thought mmm sounds good! It also gave us a chance to play around with some common recipes, but make them more raw :)

I'm so proud of our Nori rolls, so this post is dedicated to their deliciousness!

I made this almond pate, which was a great substitute for the sticky rice. I found this recipe again from Mary Rydman's book "Raw Food Quick & Easy." I was trying to be as optimistic as I could about the pate, and boy was I ever surprised. It was an amazing substitute for rice, it had a wonderful texture. The great part is I have leftovers, which I might try on crackers or bread for lunch.



For the Nori rolls I included the pate, sprouts, cucumber, carrot and red bell peppers. I julienned all the veggies and it turned out great for one of the few times I've made Nori. My only wish was that my avocado's were ripe enough to have included. I love avocado!




Oh and if you wondering why I am awake, guess who woke up at 3am and decided it was time to start the day. A morning full of cartoons, reading books and cuddles with my lil' one in the wee hours of the morning turned out to be a lot of fun.
~Maggie

Pizza Crackers

Went for a two hour walk with my lil guy this morning. We tried to keep most of walk out of the city and mostly through the park trails. Eventually we made our way to a local store and picked out some delicious looking apples and Swiss chard. Once we were home around 12:30ish, we were so hungry! Luckily my dehydrator had finished drying my "Seed Pizza Crackers", a recipe I was trying out from Mary Rydman's book "Raw Food Quick & Easy." I wasn't quite sure how these were going to turn out because last night when I tasted the spread it didn't seem to flavorful, but as it turns out it had a really nice flavor.

Lunch today consisted of three small pieces of seed pizza cracker,
topped with Swiss chard, tomato, red pepper, cucumber and broccoli sprouts, with pineapple on the side :) I also used some of the dressing I made yesterday to top it off.

I'm also making "Pineapple Coconut Cookies" in my dehydrator. I made them last night along with the crackers. They look like they are going to ready tonight, so maybe a post later!

~Maggie

Good Mornin'

I'm sleepy this morning. I went to bed a little late and had to wake earlier than usual. I had a nice mid-day nap yesterday with my lil 2 year old boy, but in the long run it made it so difficult to fall asleep last night.

I was lying in bed this morning wondering what I should make for breakfast, and my first thought was something easy, with little clean-up. I ended up making a smoothie recipe from Ani Phyo's book, Raw Food Kitchen. I usually don't use recipes for smoothies or juices, because they are fun to create and hard to mess up. This time I thought why not, so here it is Ani's "Very Blueberry" smoothie :) It was delicious and chocked full of good things like dates, cashews, blueberries, water and vanilla bean. Well i'm feeling some energy so it's time to go for a long walk with my lil guy :)

~Maggie

Lunch Time!

Late this morning we went to the farmer's market and grocery store to purchase a few veggies, fruits and nuts we were low on. Now I can make some more raw crackers and breads in my dehydrator. I've made a few different types of crackers and they all had great taste and texture. I have also made a three different types of veggie burgers, by far my favorite was by Rod Rotondi, in his book Raw Food Real People. What I loved about this burger was that it was more vegetable based rather than nut. I found the other recipes I tried although decent relied heavily on nuts and the flavor just wasn't for me...Anyways, both raw crackers and raw veggie burgers are so great to add to salads and that is just what I did today!


Today's lunch was a BIG salad! I love big salads pretty much anytime of the day. This one included:

Green Leaf Lettuce
1/2 a Tomato
1 Avocado
Broccoli Sprouts
Shredded carrots and purple cabbage
Goji Berries
Rod's veggie sun burger
To top it off I quickly put together a dressing...but that is a whole other post, long story!

Yum! Now i'm off to make some crackers!
~Maggie

Spring Mornings

Springtime is here, which means lots of veggies, fruits and nuts are becoming more readily available to us, and at a cheaper cost. If your into planting your own garden, then yummy food is just out your backdoor! I started my own veggie garden last year and was able to produce some really delicious veggies and recipes, so i can't wait to start planting again this year! This season my mom and I are hopefully combining forces to plant a larger garden than the one i had in her backyard. This way the work is shared, we will have tons of fun and eat lots of great food!

When I'm not eating out of my own garden, I definitely believe in being a localvore, and shopping as locally as I can. But lets face it I love pineapple and I have not found a pineapple farmer at our local farmer's markets, so I tend buy what I can afford locally and the rest is up to my taste buds and cravings :)

This morning I had a green juice! I almost forgot to take a pic before I drank it all :)


I've been starting my mornings off by drinking green :) It's been an amazing replacement to coffee, yes I just wrote "a replacement for coffee"... No seriously, I find I get just as much energy or "buzz" off drinking a green juice as I ever did drinking coffee sludge.

Green Juice Ingredients:

6 pieces of Romaine Lettuce
1/2 a Lemon
2 Apples
1/2 Cucumber
pinch of ginger

Juice it up!

Off to get this morning started, see you at lunch!
~Maggie