Recycle! Reduce! Re-use!

Recycle!  Reduce!  Re-use! 
I'm Talkin' FOOD here!!

Did y'all watch The Big Waste on the Food Network Sunday evening?  OMG!  I'll never look at a food blemish the same way again!  I try not to throw food out.  I try to use it before it spoils.  Or, at least freeze it for later use if I'm not gonna use it right away.   I also compost peelings from vegs and fruit, eggshells, coffee and tea grounds and their filters, shredded newspaper, etc.  Black Gold is the result!

Being from the "use everything" school, I've learned a lot about using as much of the item as possible before tossing it.  For example, canning apples:  after peeling (or not!) place the peelings, cores and seeds into a separate pot to cook for awhile = natural pectin for thickening  jellies, pie fillings, etc.  Chicken carcass or beef bones?  Slow cook with water = stock!   Cold Coffee?  Iced Coffee!  Any leftover vegs, pasta or meat - toss into a freezer bag or container and make soup!  Leftover or stale bread = freeze it until there is enough for bread pudding!  And more recently, I was making garlic potatoes (any leftovers will become potato soup for our next chilly evening!).  I usually use a potato peeler so there is as little waste as possible.  This time I peeled with a paring knife, leaving some of the potato intact with the skin.  I then micro-steamed them tender and deep fried them.  Amazing potato skins! 

And!  Who doesn't love roasted garlic?  I love fresh garlic, but I took a shortcut and bought a large jar of garlic cloves to a larger amount of roasted garlic.  Normally, you would just cut off the top portion of the whole garlic exposing the cloves, drizzle with olive oil and salt and roast in foil til tender.  I just dumped the entire quart of already peeled cloves onto foil and drizzled them with olive oil and a sprinkling of sea salt (tightly enclosed in foil) and roasted them for an hour at 300 degrees.  Amazing results!  Tender, smooth, yummy!  I mashed a dozen with a fork and incorporated them into the mashed potatoes!  Da Bomb!  Just store in fridge or freezer til ready to use!  Add to hummus!!  Mix with buttah and spread on bread!  Add to ANYTHING!!!

On another note, I'm starting another round of juicing tomorrow.  My husband returned home with loads of produce for me!  Gotta get all this scrubbed and bagged today!  I'm shooting for a week at a time.  I may go a full 30 days again.  We'll see!

Tune in tomorrow for Semi-Wordless Wednesday!  Who knows what the topic will be?!!!

What's on  your Plate Palette?



My Favorite Project!  My Granbaby Girl,
Keller, strikin' a pose!



Square Foot Gardening!!  Labor, creativity and prayer!



Knitting is another palette I'm experimenting with!



And a bread baking palette!



Still Juicing too!  Maybe not a palette thing,
but creative combinations!



Add to all that, and I'm also busily preparing for an art event. 
The National Shrimp Festival is less than two weeks away. 
My dining room is in chaos with prints and originals everywhere
 ..waiting to packed in the trailer for the haul to Gulf Shores! 
Y'all come by and visit my booth!!  Would love to meet you all!

Okay. 

So, I'm feeling a bit discombobulated right now. 

Maybe it's because I've been feeding, rising,

kneading and baking bread for two days.

Maybe it's because I've been tasting bread for two days.

Maybe it's the butter on the bread I've been tasting for two days.

Maybe it' the rebellious spirit of the foodie in me

getting even for thirty days of juicing.

I just don't know.  I think the bloating is a dead giveaway. 

Ya think?!

Tomorrow I start a three day juice fast. 

I'm pretty sure three days is all I'm gonna need

to get back-on-track and for the realization that

I can't return to my old way of eating ..... evah!

Good Morning! 

Good Morning!

I made my weekly drive to the local farm stand this morning!

Came home with sacksful of softball sized peaches and

thirty juice oranges, as well as bananas, cucumbers,

potatoes, lettuce, Amish butter, pasta, cornmeal and yellow grits!

Made juice with half the oranges!

Then, I snipped the peels for composting!

Over the weekend, I fed one of two sourdough starters

I received from King Arthur Baking Company. 

It was a 24 hour ordeal!

Baked some bread last night. 

Turned out pretty good, but the next round

should be even better after another feeding. 

Later last night I fed the second package

of starter and twice already this morning. 

It should be ready to mix another batch

of bread (this time whole wheat) by late afternoon! 

I'll have two starters in the fridge for baking anytime!

I am gonna try to start a third starter on my own ...

one like I used to bake with years ago. 

It is made with water, sugar and potato flakes!

No yeast required and it's the easiest bread I've ever made!!!

  Four Sourdough "sponges" fed and waiting for bread making!

DAY 30!

Juicing Fast ends today!

Visit the "Juicing" Tab

at the top of this page

to read about the journey

and the changes!



FYI: For those who asked!

Still Juicing! 

Moving my juicing posts to a "page" format. 

Click on the "JUICING" tab at the top to follow the

Juicing Adventure!

JUICING DAY #

It's gonna be a long day!

I didn't take my Ambien last night because I wanted to see

how the inflammation/pain was panning out on the juicing. 

I can report I had NO pain during the night.  None!  Zero!  Zilch!

The anti-inflammatory benefits of juicing have kicked in!

Hoping the chronic insomnia will soon be a thing of the past.

Is there a juice for insomnia?  : )

I'm thrilled!  I will try some of the more natural sleep aids again.

The only reason they haven't worked in the past is 

because I woke up with pain during the night.

We'll see!  I'll report back with progress - after a good night's sleep!

On with my day!  I see a nap in it!



JUICING DAY

Day Seven has arrived. 

I'm feeling a bit lethargic today.   Very sleepy.

It's likely I'm going thru another detox phase. 

It's not all roses and balloons.

It's work.  It takes patience, expecially with your body

and the different phases of detox.

The whole point is to feel better and I know

I will again on the otherside of this round.

This is proof my body is responding.

FYI:  Stages of Detox:

http://www.juicefasting.org/detox.htm



The last couple of evenings I've had some light muscle cramps in my hand and foot.

I've experienced this before when I missed my daily potassium.

I know I'm flushing my body with a lot of fluids.  Likely the reason.

Supplementing with a banana and skipping the mild diuretic

my doc prescribed nearly two years ago.  I haven't had any bp issues

since I started taking it but when it was prescribed,

is the during the same time my mom was dying.  There was a lot going on. 

Ciao, for now!

j 

JUICING DAY #6 !

Down 9 lbs!

DAY 5!

Everything went well today! 

Finally found a couple of "Green" juices I like!

Tomorrow morning I step on the scale ....

I have felt great today!  Back in the studio!

Finished two paintings! 

Since I made it through my first goal today,

I'm shooting for 12 days now!

It does get easier!

After coming this far, when faced with temptations

(which are nearly non-existent),

the desire not to backtrack is stronger!

For those beginning to gain interest, two of today's recipes follow!

Morning Juice:  3 peaches, 2 oranges, squeeze of lemon juice

Note: leave the pith on the oranges for a creamier blend!)

Serve over ice!

Green Juice:  10 kale leaves, 1 orange, 6 carrots

(Again! Leave the pith on the orange!)

Serve over ice!

ENJOY!

          DAY

I can report the headaches are gone!  Three days of horrendous headaches.  Gone!

Energy is thru the roof!  I actually walked up a flight of stairs today without being winded!

Better yet .... I walked down them like a normal person,

instead of  the same leg going down each time, holding on to the rail!

I haven't been hungry!  No cravings!

I admit, because of my schedule away from home today, I ate solid food!

Peaches, strawberries and cantaloupe.  All raw!  Not so bad.

I found a fabulous book at the bookstore yesterday!

It not only includes recipes, but lots of tips.

The index is categorized by fruits and veggies

so you can use what you have on hand!

There is also a section that tells you what nutrients

you need for certain chronic illnesses AND

the kind of juice to make to able your body to heal itself!

You could not have convinced me a week ago.

I am hooked now!

My body is responding!

Day Three!

Continuing with the juice fast.  This takes a lot of discipline.  A lot!  I've had a couple of nasty headaches and had one blood sugar drop.  The upside is I feel more energetic and less bloated.  I don't feel as stiff during the day either.  My husband is asking how much longer til I eat solid food.  He misses my cooking, I think!  If I continue to experience shakiness, I may have to go back to my original plan of a modified juice fast.  I'll still be juicing and blending ..... digesting the pulp, which should keep things in check.  Weight loss was not my motivation for starting, as you will have noted in previous posts, however, I am tempted to check out the numbers on the scale.  I will wait til Monday morning, five days after starting.  That's gonna take extreme discipline ... waiting! 

I'm chilling what I juiced this morning because a cold juice is more palatable than a room temp one.  The morning beverage consists of cantaloupe, honeydew, peaches and black grapes!   I'm gonna peruse a few juice recipes for a lunch idea.  Later!

So, I napped thru lunch with my granbaby, trying to sleep a headache off.  Headaches have been the only side effect I've experienced with this juice fast.  I understand it is the body's way of letting you know you are eliminating toxins and withdrawing from stimulants.  This is good!  I was a coke/sweet tea/coffee gal three days ago.  Haven't craved either!  I did have a salt craving two days ago, but today while at Fresh Market, I sampled the dried veggies.  Ugh!  I had to spit it out!  Too salty!   Wow!  

Tomorrow a couple of friends are coming for a visit at the island .... bringing shrimp.  Oh my.  I think I'll be fine.  I'm gonna do a modified juicing over the weekend, because I don't want to haul that heavy juicer down there.  Smoothies and raw veggies. 

Day Two!

Starting out the day with a fruit smoothie!

Technically a juice ... but adding a naval orange,

peeled but left the pith .... made it ultra creamy!

I only drank half because I don't want my blood sugar to spike

with all the fruit.  I'll have the other half this afternoon

when I'm craving something sinful!!

Juiced:

6 oz raspberries

2 peaches

1 naval orange

1 granny smith apple

1 banana

Amazingly, after the first day I woke up feeling energetic!

Normally it takes me til mid-morning to reach any resemblance of energy.

After doing my heat wrap on my neck, I was revving to go!

Today is my scheduled B12 shot ... usually I'm dragging really low by this time!

WOW!

Lunch:  Mock V8 Green Juice!

This afternoon I seeded a watermelon with thoughts of juicing. 
I didn't need to! By the time I finished I had 16oz of watermelon juice
which I just strained into a container.  I added some bruised mint leaves from my garden!VOILA!

Here we go again!

DAY

I threw in the towel Monday because of the wretched kale!

Missed out yesterday because I was in too much physical pain all day

(neck/shoulder) to even want to try it again. 

Felt better towards end of day and prepped all the

fruits and veggies for today!

Today is my Official First Day of Reboot #1!

I juiced my green drink and my fruit drink this morning.

Will be drinking off and on all day, as needed.

Shooting for getting thru the first three days .... then seven

.... then, we'll see!

Mean Green Juice (mine!)

Kale - 6+ leaves

Spinach - 5-6 fistfuls

Celery - 3 stalks

1 Cucumber

1 Green Apple

1 Pear

1 Peach

Fruit Juice

Honeydew

Cantaloupe

Watermelon

Peach

Black Grapes

Carrots x4

2 handfuls spinach

plus ..... lots of water (6 x 8 oz).  

Well, that's lots for me!

  8:30am -  8oz fruit/veg juice
10:20am -  8 oz green juice
12:10pm -  8 oz green juice
  2:00pm -  8 oz fruit/veg juice
  2:45pm -  headache.  ugh.  craving salt.
  3:45pm -  Is it really cheating if I have a 1" piece of banana?  :-/   What about 9 goldfish?
  4:00pm -  8 oz green juice
  5:15pm -  16 oz green juice
  8:00 pm - 16 oz green juice


I haven't been on a schedule with this today.  ie, breakfast/snack/lunch/snack/dinner/snack.  I can't drink a full 20oz at a time.  I thought it might be best to drink smaller amounts off and on because of  my hypocglycemia.  I've gotta make a dash to the market this evening!  Actually looking forward to perusing the produce!  Also learned, I can add Naked Juice (not the NJ smoothie) for a quickie if I'm on the run!  Wish I could use V8!  Maybe I can come up with a juice recipe for it and Orange Julius! 

Made a quick run to Jimmy Lowes for more veggies and fruit.  Found a recipe for V8 AND Orange Julius!!   Came back with a watermelon, Chilton County peaches, cucumbers (6 for $1.49), and some of same stuff I used today, along with some Naked Juice from Winn Dixie.  I had to get out of there quickly cause the deli and bakery smells were wafting around my head!

 JUICING!
My juicing plan is modified from the radical juicing agenda! 

When I'm on the run, I will either have juice or eat raw fruits and vegs.
Plus water intake.  Amazed at what I'm learning about dehydration!

I'm getting fruits, veggies and some dairy....for calcium requirements. 

Some would argue that's not necessary, but I'd only argue back!

~

Morning Smoothie (made in blender):

Strawberries, Peaches, Blueberries, 1/2 Banana

Greek Yogurt (plain), 1/4 c high pulp Orange Juice

1/4 Whole Leaf Aloe Vera

(hoping to heal potential damage from NSAIDs)

I like the idea of using the blender over the juicer when I can

because the fiber isn't removed and I still get the punch of micronutrients!

(advised later in day....smoothies are not "juicing" becaue of fiber -
organ cleansing is not as effective unless absolute juice)
well .... I like the "absolute" part!  Oh! Not that kind of absolute?  LOL!

Mid-Day (lunch?)

Mean Green Juice (made in Juicer)

1 bunch of Kale

4 stalks Celery

3 Granny Smith Apples

1 Cucumber

1/2 lemon

ginger root

=

I'm not gonna lie to you.  It's awful.  Just plain awful.  I'm not a fan of kale anyway.  I poured an 8 oz glass and drank 1/3 of it (with a straw).  I experienced a slight sting in my mouth.  I was nauseated for twenty minutes.  I couldn't drink it.  I'm sure it's an acquired taste.  I will try spinach next time.  I like spinach.  Maybe an extra apple.  Someone please tell me I can do this!  I made my breakfast smoothie last week and put two packed cups of spinach in it.  It was great!  Even my two year old grandbaby loved it!  Kale.  Bleeeeeeccchhhh.  Going Googling for juicing combos.  I CAN do this!

Late Day Update:  So.....advice received from my FB juicing site:  No blenders.  No fiber in cleanse (except for liquid fiber in juicing).  Limit fruits.  So far .... this is worse than a colonoscopy prep!  The Mean Green Juice went down the drain.  I caved for a piece of fruit, some cheese and couple of crackers.  I'll try again this afternoon or tomorrow morning.  Remind me!  Why am I doing this?

"One quarter of what you eat keeps you alive; 

the other three-quarters keeps your doctor alive."

Oh yeah.

J U I C I N G ! ! !

You know that song "There's Always Tomorrow"?

Tomorrow is here!  Well, tomorrow it is anyway!

I've been reading about juicing for quite awhile.

I amateurly tried it several years ago (one meal a day)

 and loved the way I felt.   

At the time I borrowed my mom's juicer.  It was great!

Today I bought myself a Jack LaLanne Juicer...

and a fridge full of fruits and veggies.

It was costly .... but so is junk food and medication, right?!

I was hesitant at first, because you lose all the fiber bonus when you juice but the micronutrients benefits are enormous!  After doing a lot of research I found that you can save/freeze the pulp (fiber) to use in muffins, soup stock, etc.  Glad there is little waste!   I will continue my morning smoothie making with my blender because I lose no fiber there, but there isn't enough power to breakdown celery and other tough produce.

Why am I doing this?  I have experienced many autoimmune disorders over the last 30 years.  I am hoping to nip that in the boo-hiney.  We'll see.

What's an auto-immune disorder?  Well, to put it simply:  say you catch a bad cold or injure yourself somehow -- your immune system goes into overdrive and doesn't know when to quit after it has knocked out the bad guys and continues to attack good, healthy parts of your body.  I have already been diagnosed with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis (not bad considering the initial diagnosis leaned towards lupus or scleroderma), Reynaud's Syndrome, Pernicious Anemia and possibly my iron deficient anemia as well.  Toss in gallbladder disease and an elevated inflammatory process and you have my "soup" so to speak!   Considering the fact that processed foods and preservatives aggravate and play a part in causing every disease known to man, I don't see how I could go wrong with juicing.  Besides becoming healthier and kicking the AI issues, a side benefit is sure to be weight loss.  Who doesn't need that?   My more recently diagnosed back/neck/shoulder issues can only benefit from less stress weight.

I'm not looking forward to the side effects of the detox phase (the first three days).  This is why I'm considering a slower go.  But I'll make up my mind this evening whether to jump on board 100% for the ten day start or to modify it.  I'm not sure I need the irritability and exhaustion expected during the start-up .... especially while caring for a two year old!  I'll just have to take it as it comes .... like I have learned to do other obstacles.  I know I've started and failed countless times when just jump starting with gusto.  I have a reminder sitting on my countertop!