So anyway… Angela gave me an idea for the post and that is to give you a glimpse of my preparation. You see a huge part of my preparation takes place only a couple of times a week, and this is a huge time saver over the week. I also REALLY do not like to be caught unprepared with no ready to grab food. Eating mostly vegan, mostly raw, I am hungrier more often than if I were eating foods with denser calories.

So here is what I did this morning. First lets start with the vegetables and fruits I am going to prepare, that I get all out… (I have a very large kitchen with lots of counter space.

What I did this morning.

1. Made a huge veggie salad,
2. put veggies and fruits "ready to eat" in containers for snacking
3. made a fresh  smoothie.

Time in Kitchen 1 hour, 10 minutes. What you see above is an accurate (close to) view of the fruits and vegetable amounts I processed.

2 pounds carrots – 3 large, peeled chunked and set aside for juice,  2 large, sliced thinly in bowl for salad,, and the rest cut in 'sticks' in container for snacking.

1 head of celery – 2 stalks sliced in bowl with salad, The rest cut in 'sticks' in container for snacking.

Peppers chunked and tossed in the salad,

Beets – washed, tops and thin root removed, 3 set aside for juice, the rest in container for later.

onion – 1/2 chopped in the salad,. The rest saved for something else.

Beans (Yellow and Green) 1/2 of each chopped for salad,, the rest topped, snapped and in container in fridge for snacking.

Broccoli – 1 head…. 1/2 of the florets in salad, 1/2 the florets in fridge for snacking and the stalk set aside for juice.

Cucumber half – chopped for salad

1 cup frozen mixed berries in the blender for my smoothie

Apple set aside for juice

Grapes washed and put in serving sized containers (6) for snacking

Flax seed oil in blender for smoothie.

Once the veggies were prepared and salad put away, and snacking sticks strips etc put away, I took my carrots, broccoli stalk, beets, and apple that I had set aside and juiced them. Then I put the juice in the blender with the berries and the flax seed oil and made a YUMMY mid morning smoothie for my snack!

So now I am ready for the day. this amount of produce will do me 2 days in summer because I am not eating much else. It also encourages my daughter to eat better (she grabs a container of grapes and some carrots for school snack) and my son who LOVES raw fresh green and yellow beans. In the winter I am eating other things as well because the produce is not as nice or as abundant as it is from local farms right now!

:-)

Smoothie enough for two

If you want to share!

I'm one of those who doesn't care for greens on their own. it's an acquired taste for sure. I still need to make sure I am getting my greens every day though, so I try some creative ways to disguise the taste. This was a SMASH hit. My husband drank it. I just told him it was a smoothie without telling him there were green things in it, and he loved it! It makes lots!

Juicy Smoothie for two

Blender and Juicer

1 cup frozen mixed berries – in the blender

Juice

2 large carrots

1 stalk celery

2 cups loosely packed spinach leaves

1/2 head of brocolli

1 red delicious apple

1/2 cup green grapes

(TIP - juice spinach leaves sandwiched between pieces of hard fruits or vegetables.)

Pour juice over berries in the blender, add 1 tablespoon flax seed oil and a teaspoon of raw organic honey.

Blend until smooth.

YUMMY!

If you are new to juicing, it is VERY easy to get fresh yummy juice.

Wash fruit  well (I like mine from the refrigerator so my juice won't be too warm). I recommend that for fruits and vegetables that you do not have to peel (apples, grapes, pears) buy organic. Juicing concentrates everything including whatever washing doesn't get off.

Peel the fruits and/or vegetables you would normally peel (oranges, pineapple etc)

Chunk them into large pieces and feed them into the chute. Use the plunger provided to push the fruit into the juicer. Juice comes out one end into a cup of some kind and pulp comes out the other and is caught in some kind of receptacle.

Drink the juice right away so you get the full advantage of enzymes, vitamins and minerals all of which begin to degrade (oxidize) as soon as they are exposed to air.

Clean up will vary depending on the machine and needs to be done as soon as you've finished your juice. Small sticky fruit bits will stick like glue if left over a few hours without soaking.  I have a rule… don't buy a juicer that takes more than 5 minutes to clean!

So let's get to some of the combinations that are great for beginners. (If you've never had 'greens' then add them slowly. Most people find the taste needs to be acquired.

BetaCarotene Drink

3 LARGE carrots

1 Granny Smith Apple

2 Large stalks of celery (With or without celery this is delicious!)

Beet Beat

1 medium beet root

2 pears

a thumbnail size ginger root

hand squeeze 1/2 lime

Cool as a Cucumber

1 medium cucumber

1 red delicious apple

1 medium carrot

"Ginger Ale"

A dozen Green Grapes

1 Granny Smith Apple

thumbnail  of ginger root (less if you find the taste too strong)

squeeze 1/2 lime and 1/2 lemon

sparkling water

 Summer Punch

dozen strawberries

1 Orange

Sparkling Water

Apple Greens

2 Granny Smith Apple

Handful fresh Spinach Leaves

squeeze 1/2 lime

Stress Breaker

2 Pears

2 Apples

1 Celery

1 Kiwi

Vegetable Cleanse Drink

3 celery stalks

Large Handful fresh Spinach

3 Large Carrots

There…..That should get you started ! I try to do at least 16 ounces of freshly juiced drinks every day. Some days I am totally on the fly though. I am sure you know what days I mean… :-) when I absolutely can NOT get my fresh juice made I can still get all of the goodness on fresh.

I have found a WHOLE FOOD RAW (dehydrated at less than 100 degrees) mix of picked fresh, organic fruits and vegetables. This juice has been tested at every stage for quality. I am convinced that it is a VERY good alternative to fresh made juice. In the winter (at least here in Canada) it likely has more freshness and enzymes than the produce we can get at the grocery.

It's called URI International. They have a wonderful line of products including some toxin free cleaners and an organic coconut oil (more on that later) but the two products that caught my raw juicers eye were The FEAST and Beyond Berries.

If you click on the image below you will be able to see the introductory pack you can get of this product. The prices are out of this world too! A month supply of the FEAST (2 servings a day) is under $50 which of course is what I spend in a week on fresh produce for my juicing. At any rate… it's great to have a few cannisters on hand.

Click the image below to view the FEAST sample pack

Click the image below if you want to view the rest of the whole food product line.