My Green Drink

Since I found out that in no shape or form should you ever consume raw kale I was on hot pursuit to find a replacement for my standard green drink recipe this summer. So after a lot of searching and looking at different recipes on the web I came up with my own green drink recipe. You can make this in a vita-mix or you can leave the fiber behind and juice it. This drink saved my life all summer long. Also this was the ultimate water retention reducer. I would drink this down and all my puffiness would detox right out of me. I would weigh my self before hand and then after and could not believe it.

Pretty easy recipe and only use organic:
one large cucumber
four or five stalks of celery
five or six leaves of roman lettuce
One lime
five drops of SweetLeaf liquid Stevia
1/2 cup or so of low sodium mineral water

Optional additions:
one green apple:)
coconut water:)


Juice all together and pour into a glass, add some ice and top with mineral water, and add liquid stevia to taste. If you are vita mixing then you probably might want to half the recipe.

A Monday....

      Mondays are always crazy and a mad dash so I keep it as easy as possible when it comes to cooking.

     The morning started with  a Winter Earl Grey White Tea Latte and a half of a Udi's bagel with almond butter and a sliced Banana. I found this White Earl Grey at the Berkley Bowl in Berkley by Harney & Sons Fine Teas.  A White Tea Earl Grey was a great find because the caffeine level is so much lower and packed with more antioxidants then any other tea.  White Teas are not toasted so they are more of a "raw tea" so you get more out of them then any other.

      Later came two loads of laundry, stripping the bed, answered 12 emails and it was lunch time.

     Daiya grilled cheese and sauteed kale. I used this great Gluten Free bread made with Quinoa flour that I found at the Berkley Bowl. It is baked by a Gluten Free bakery called the Grindstone located in Northern California. They do mail order so check them out. Such great breads. I added sauerkraut to mine Ben had his without and asked for five more when he was done. One pan, fast clean up and sooooo good! 

 Now back to working on my secret project. So exciting!!!  I made a Matcha Green Tea latte with Almond Milk which is sooo good. Matcha is another antioxidant power house. It takes a little practice to work with because it is in powder form, but with a latte you just make the steamed milk and whisk in the powder directly in your mug with a small whisk and add maybe some vanilla extract and some stevia and you are good to go.

Tic-toc Ben is home and it is time for dinner. Again, super fast dinner. I made salmon under the broiler just eight minutes and rub the salmon with a Asian rub I buy from Dean and Deluca. Toss  a salad with some left over red quinoa and dinner is ready!

I hope everybody got through their Monday without many bruises or battle scares.

Later,
Shara

Clean Day 6 & 7

Same old same old. In the morning. I did make Matcha Green Tea lattes with almond milk stevia and some vanilla extract. So good!

Lunch was a throw together for sure. I had some random things in the refrigerator so I just made a pretty rustic bean, veggie and pasta dish.

What you will need:
1 can of Cannellini Beans rinsed
1/2 head of cauliflower chopped
1 leek sliced into thin ribbons (just the white and about half way up the green)
5 leaves of Swiss chard remove rib and chop into thin ribbons
1 container of mushrooms cleaned and chopped
two cloves of garlic chopped
4 fresh sage leaves chopped into thin ribbons
1 pound of brown rice pasta
a couple of good pinches of white pepper
1/2 cup of veggie or chicken broth
salt to taste
Optional nuts or seed toppings 
1 tbsp of grape seed oil
*after you cut your leeks into ribbons add them to a bowl of cold water and let them soak for a minute or two and then drain them in a colander and rinse well under the faucet.

Add your oil to your pan and turn to medium heat. Add your leeks and let them soften a bit the add your garlic, mushrooms, white pepper, sage and cook four about 5 minutes stir and combine. Fill a large pot of water and place on stove to high and sprinkle with salt. Once boiling add your rice pasta.

Add the stock, Swiss chard and the beans and let them cook for about another 8 minutes stir and combine. Once your pasta is ready drain and leave a little of the pasta water in the pasta.

It should look like this when you are done.

Add some pasta to a dish and top with mixture. You will have quite a bit left over. Go ahead and combine the mixture and the pasta in a container and save for the next day or for dinner later on.

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We had our re-peat afternoon shake, so good! I made a simple salad for us for dinner.

This morning we had a Island Paradise shake. Basically, 1/2 cup of mango, 1/2 cup of pineapple, one apple, two tbsp of organic dried coconut, scoops of vanilla nourish, scoops of move, stevia, two tbsp of almond meal and two tbsp of chia seeds, 2 cups of water and 1 cup of almond milk.

Today I took the left overs from yesterday and warmed them up with some broth and heat through in a pan with the top on.  

I had some nice wile Alaskan cod in the freezer so I thawed it in the sink in some water for about 20 minutes and then sprinkled with some Organic Garlic Pepper blend from Costco and some grape seed oil. I placed it on some parchment paper in a baking sheet in a 375 degree oven for about 20 to 25 minutes. Cod takes not time to cook. Just poke and see it the juices run clear and you are ready. 

For or evening meal I just made the same salad as the night before and we had the same chocolate berry shake for out mid afternoon shake.

We are both really in the thick of dropping the weight. Man going to the bathroom a lot. This is a great sign that we are loosing all the pollution we have absorbed since out last detox. I have been reading a lot on the Clean forum about wanting to loose as much weight as they can. So I am seeing people eat just like a bowl of soup for there lunch. Now the point of the detox is to detox and not just loose weight. Your lunch is supposed to be a balanced meal not just a bowl of soup only. You are will loose sugar and bad fat on this detox but you will loose the pollution first and for most that has built up in your belly, hips, thighs, blood, kidneys etc, etc the most. Keep that in mind Kiddos!;)

Clean Day 2 & 3

Day two was not bad as last year, tired but not zombie like at all. I did not make anything different from day 1 and I planned it that way. I was prepared for it to be just horrible and cooked enough on Day 1 for Day 2 to keep it easy except for our little evening meal. I picked up my CSA box from NTC and we got a huge share this week that included Jerusalem artichokes(sun chokes). I was so excited to see them. I can never find them when they are in season so this was great. I figured I can make a hot salad with them with all the kale and collard greens that I got.

Basically, I peeled them then cut them into chunks. Added some grape seed oil to my pan and pan fried them until golden. The add a some white balsamic vinegar, pepper and two bay leaves then turned down the heat to low and covered the pan for about ten minutes. Then I chopped up a few huge hand fulls of kale and collards, chopped two cloves of garlic, and used some killer brown clam shell mushrooms and threw it all in with the Jerusalem chokes and combined and add a few splashes of chicken broth and turned up the heat a bit and put the cover back on for about 15 to 20 minutes checking and tossing every five and BAM ready to go. I tossed in about 1/2 cup of slivered almonds at the end and served hot. YUM!

We had the same afternoon shake. We went on a hour long walk around the neighborhood at night to burn more calories becuase we power walked in 34 degree weather rather then a indoor gym tread mill walk. Good fitness tip to remember want to burn more calories in a shorter period of time do it in cold weather or in cold water.

Day three we had the same morning Thanksgiving themed shake and a mint green tea late made with almond milk and some stevia. I found this great recipe on GOOP under the Clean program section. I altered it a bit because I hate fennel! Not dislike, but HATE it, and actually it takes a lot for me to hate any vegetable and this one I for sure do! So I used the GOOP recipe and subtracted the fennel and used Swiss chard because I broke down my collards the night before. 

Pretty easy marinade. I altered the amounts because I used less fish: 1 tbsp of Tamari, 2 tbsp of sesame oil, 2 tbsp of rice wine vinegar, 1 tbsp of Mirin, a tsp of whole grain mustard and 2 chopped garlic cloves.

I mixed the marinade in the glass dish directly and whisked as directed. Then placed the whole piece of Salmon in the dish skin side up flipped it a couple of times to coat top and bottom and left it skin side up in the dish and then cut into about two inch wide pieces. I did skin side up because it will absorb the marinade faster. Pop in the frig for about 20 minutes.

 

I prepped the carrots the Norri sheets and the chard piece while it was marinating. Also filled my dutch oven with water and placed the steamer basket in it and turned the heat up to high to get the it ready to steam the rolls.  

 

After 20 minutes I took the salmon out and then started to construct the rolls. Just make sure to over lap the leaves a bit so they stay together.

Then I stuck them with two tooth pics each just in case so they will stay nice and tightly wrapped during the steaming.

Ready to go.............

I placed them in the steamer basket and turned the heat down to medium high heat and then put the top on and set the timer for 8 minutes and walked away. Poof, opened the dutch oven and they were done when the timer went off.

Served them with brown rice that I cooked with vegetable broth and some Japanese Salad. I will post the recipe for that in a separate post. SOOOOOO good!!!!!

We got tea at Peets later on after we went on cat specific research field trip(a Cat Show, I know you think we are weird but we had to get some advise from a Brit breeder about a new vet for Cashmere, it was actually pretty fun). I had the Jasmin Downy Pearl and Ben had the Lung Ching Dragonwell Green teas.

We had a Shari's Berries themed afternoon shake. I used the chocolate flavored Nourish and the Move with some frozen strawberries, some cacao powder, flax meal, almond meal, freeze dried coconut flakes, stevia, cinnamon, nutmeg, un-sweetened almond milk and some water.

For our light dinner we just a half a gluten free bagel with some nut butter and some apple slices to process our supplements.

As usual a mug of Natural Calm and hot water before bed. No work out today but gym tomorrow. 

my addiction..pumpkin puree...

I have a problem.
I have a issue.
I have a addiction to Pumpkin Puree!!!

As you can see I have many cans in my pantry. I also have frozen puree in my deep freeze that I made my self. I feel like the world is coming to an end when I get down to two cans of puree in my pantry. Once it hits Trader Joes I buy at least four cans every trip. I think it stems from my pumpkin pie addiction. I am nuts about pumpkin pie and the day my sister came up with a gluten free pie crust recipe, I knew Pumpkin pie would not just mean eating the filling but having the crust to!!!!

Since then my Mother has made me my own pie for just me only at Thanksgiving. I am very territorial about the pie to. I will stab you with a fork if you try to even take a bite of my pie! So last year I made pumpkin pie for myself but not on Thanksgiving, but just because I wanted it. I was a good girl and shared with Ben, but that was like pulling teeth. I think I gained about 10 pounds over the Fall just because of the pie. So I have not made one this year I am trying to keep the pie craving at bay. I make my pumpkin pie lattes, but I still want the pie. So I came up with a supper low calorie pumpkin pie recipe. I think it really taste more like Pumpkin Cheese Cake, but I cannot complain it is that good!

 What you need to have:
1 bag of ginger snaps( I like Trader Joe's GF, but Mi-Del works to)
2 tbsp of EV coconut oil( or some kind of butter)
2  to 2 1/2 cups of Greek style yogurt (0 % fat works great, coconut milk Greek style works to)
1 15 oz can of Pumpkin Puree
1 tbsp of pumpkin pie spice
2 tbsp of coconut palm sugar (or 1/4 cup of brown sugar, agave nectar, honey, maple syrup, or four packets of stevia)
pinches of:
cinnamon
clove
ground ginger
nutmeg
1 tsp of vanilla extract

1.Put the whole bag of ginger snaps in the food processor.
2.Add the two tbsp of coconut oil to the processor and pulse until mixed and crumbled
3.Scoop into a 9x9inch square pan or 8inch pie pan
4.Press with the back of a large spoon and level

5.Grab a mixing bowl and add all your wet ingredients and mix until completely combined.
6.Add the pumpkin pie spice and your sweetener. Then taste a little to see if it has that pumpkin pie taste to you if not add pinches of the other spices until it is to your taste.

7.Pour mixture over your crust and make it nice and even.
8.Place in the refrigerator over night covered.

The next day you should see half of it gone by a mysterious ghost named Ben.

Enjoy!

Halloween Re-Cap

We bought a ton of candy and gave it all away!!! The bowel pictured is actually huge!!

I carved three Fairytale pumpkins and used these LCD flicker battery operated candles by GE(got them at Loews for $7.00) this year. I think they did the trick I just put two lights in each pumpkin.

 After my carving session Mama needed a pumpkin Latte! I was inspired by Mamapea's recipe on her blog Peas and Thank You, but since I have a frother and two types of espresso makers I made mine tailored to my taste and my equipment!

Make a couple of shots of espresso. I used my Italian espresso maker instead of my Nepresso. Make your froth. I have a frother that works great! I add about 1/4 cup of milk to my Nepresso frother just enough to make some nice thick froth. I have seen little hand held frothers that are about $20.00 if you do not want to make the a huge investment. You could also just delete the froth or try and whisk some in another small sauce pan over medium heat. I am froth crazy person so I got the best and most efficient one on the market.

 Add a cup of milk of choice, two big table spoons of pumpkin, a good pinch of clove, 1/4 tsp of cinnamon, a good pinch of nutmeg(not pictured),1/2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice, 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract. Then whisk together until smooth. Turn heat to medium low making sure it does not boil.

Add a pack of stevia(liquid stevia works best anywhere from 7 to 14 drops depending on how sweet you want it) or some raw honey like 1/2 tbsp and whisk again. Taste test it to make sure it taste like pumpkin pie. If it doesn't add more spices until you get the right taste.

Add about a teaspoon of half and half to make it extra creamy if you have it on hand.

Add your foam first, then the espresso and finally pour the pumpkin mixture and sprinkle with cinnamon. This was a bit of trail in error to get the Latte to taste like a slice of pumpkin pie, but I finally got it:) This makes one huge mug or two normal size mugs of Pumpkin Pie Latte Goodness:)

I made spicy pumpkin seeds from my pumpkin carving adventure. Ben asked about ten times when would they be ready when he got home from work. You can see in the picture almost half are gone! You have to dry them out in the oven on 250 degrees for about three hours make them dry enough to make them crunchy if they are fresh from the pumpkin. Quite a task to separate them from the stringy flesh of the pumpkin. You have to put them in a strainer and run water over them and pull the seeds away from the flesh by hand. Once they where pretty dry I toss them in grape seed oil, brown sugar, garlic powder, cinnamon and chili powder. Then turned the oven to 350 degrees and toasted them for about 30 minutes(tossing them about every 10 minutes). If you buy them already dry they take about 10 minutes and then toss them in the oven then another 10 minutes.

 I received so many complements on my pumpkins from all the Moms in the neighborhood. I had a little group of ladies huddled around them asking where I got them and the LCD lights! I think a good day had by all!

a monday

Cashmere keeping me company in my almost re-decorated office while re-designing my blog today.

We had a busy weekend full of house remolding, but we managed to escape and go to Apple Hill in Placerville, CA to buy some nice apples and organic produce at Willow Pond. Also stopped by a new Winery called  Grace Patriot Winery. The Winery is very young but had two stand outs. They did not have all vintages out for tasting, but the standouts are the:
2009 Pinot Gris
2006 Syrah
They were pushing a wine called 5pm that is a blend. Now, I like blends just fine and have no issues with Wine Makers blending but this was not the wine they should have been pushing this was a really not great wine. The Syrah and even there Cab was a much better wine for sure. They had a fun very Dry candy like Rose' as well that would be a great pool party wine in the summer time. So all in all a very fun weekend.

Now today I was TIRED. Poor Ben had to drive into the Bay for work so I just had to get breakfast and coffee together and push him out the door. The rest of the day I finished the two week process of re-designing and organizing this blog. I finally got it the way I wanted it so I hope you like it! Feed back would be great! Still not sure on the colors.

So today I went to whole foods and picked up some of there Mediterranean Crunch Salad that looked almost Mediterranean. I just did not feel like making anything for lunch even though when I got home I still had to doctor it up to really make it "Mediterranean". Then before I left I wondered down the raw food isle to see if there was anything interesting. The raw food isle reminds me of a very cold dank old almost deserted European village for some reason. It is isolated from any of the happy food areas and everything looks dead and muted. I know sounds horrible but it is the truth. I find new stuff all over the store so I figured I would take a shot and see what I could find.

The October 2011 issue of Fast Company is a must read if you like to read about business, tech and love Industrial design as much as Ben and I do!

I found these GF breakfast crackers by Mauk Family Farms. They are organic and GF also grain free basically a cracker made with just seeds and some GF buckwheat. Per serving they have 11.8 grams of protein, 17.5 grams of fat, 158 calories, 13.1 grams of fiber and 45 grams of carbs. This is something that you would eat for energy for sure and in the morning or in the afternoon for lunch. I just topped mine with almond butter and organic no sugar added strawberry jam. They have a few other savory flavors that would be great with a hummus or avocado spread along side a big salad for lunch. Not bad.  Now, for the salad I got at Whole Foods needed a lot of help for sure. So here is basically what is in the salad if you want to make it with my additions:

Shara's Doctored up Kale Mediterranean Salad 
(yeah, all the extras I added and I am most certainly calling it my own for sure)

a bunch of chopped kale (WF)
one to two cups(depending how much you like them) Garbanzo Beans (chickpeas)
one diced and peeled cucumber (WF)
one diced red bell pepper (WF)
half of a red onion chopped (WF)
two cloves of garlic chopped (Shara)
1/4 cup or more if you like of kalamata olives halved (Shara)
half one lemon zested and juiced (Shara)
some black pepper (Shara)
some kosher salt (Shara)
maybe some crumbled feta if you want
one good pour of olive oil (Shara)

Just combine and toss it all together. Holds up in the refrigerator well for a few days because the kale takes a while to wilt.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!!!








 

Pizza & Beer a Summertime Friday Night Ritual

Pizza and Beer....Pizza and Beer...say it with me:)

When I was younger my parents owned and operated two Pizzerias, so I know and love pizza. We kept up a Friday Night ritual of Pizza for many years long after they sold the restaurants. Being a Gluten free girl never deterred me from our families Friday night ritual. I have eaten all kinds of gluten free pizza brands and there is only one that I would ever pay money for anymore. Now, I usually make my own crust but during the summer I buy frozen because it is too hot to do that much prep and cooking. So over the years I have picked up a few tricks to making the best doctored up pizza from a frozen pre-made ever!! The brand is called Conte's All Natural Gluten Free and Wheat Free Pizza. I like the Mushroom Florentine Pizza with Garlic and Olive Oil the best.

 Tools and seasonings you must have to get the best tasting pizza. You need a pizza pan with wholes in it. This is crucial for gluten free pizzas so the crust gets crisp even if you do not add sauce and use a regular pizza pan you are going to get a soggy pie for sure. Some instructions say to put them on the wrack but that is too messy to and too hot to try to move off the oven wrack for sure. I like this type because it is easy to deconstruct and add other things. So what i do is let the pizza sit on the counter for about five minutes then un-wrap it with a cuting board under neath you peel off as much of the cheese and toppings as you can.
You need some olive oil and a brush. Red pepper flakes(not as hot as you think give it a try) and Tony Chachere's Original Creole Seasoning! I contacted the company and they say it uses no gluten or wheat in their manufacturing process. Now this is key because it adds a punch to the tomatoes and the pizza in general without it the pizza falls flat in taste in my opinion. Place the doping-less pizza on the pizza pan and drizzle some olive oil on it then sprinkle with the Creole Seasoning and brush all over and set aside. Turn you oven to 400degrees(once the sun goes down I do this in the summer never before).

Now the next step is up to you. I like to chop up about a big handful of mushrooms, a half of a red onion and a whole tomato to add to the pizza. This is a trick I learned from some Pizza pros that if you do not have a wood fire pizza oven you should pre-cook the toppings first to get the flavors to meld together and make the pizza taste better. So I grabbed a big pan and added a little oil and put my chopped onion in first and let it sweat a bit then my mushrooms and tomatoes. I saute till softened and then add to my pizza crust. I usually ad some more Creole Seasoning and the red pepper flakes again in the Sauteing step. I am a big Oregano fan to, so I generously sprinkle about 1/2 tablespoon on the veggies while I saute them. Then I add back the cheese and the few toppings that came with the pizza. Pop in the oven for 30 minutes and bam!!! Great bubbly, crispy goodness.

Now you see I did not mention putting Tomato sauce on the pizza. I find sauteing whole tomatoes is much better then a sauce. The sauce for sure will make the crust soggy no mater what, but if you love sauce I actually make a great blender sauce and then let it cook on the stove for about 20 minutes and serve it as a side and I can just dip my pizza in it or add it to the top of the pizza as I eat it. This way people that love sauce can get as much as they want and people that don't like sauce can have it totally with out. I also like to chop up fresh basil and top my pizza with that to.

Now for the Beer! I am not a huge beer person. I worked at a Microbrew Pizzeria when I was 18 and I could not drink any of it even if I was of drinking age or course, but I got really good at smelling it and knowing if it was good or not. I know crazy, but if someone ask you to recommend a beer and you cannot taste it you have to figure out a way to know what is good from bad. I did well never had a complaint with my recommendations. So as the story goes the Gluten Free beer market like the bread and pizza market was slim to none for a long time. Just in the last few years Beer makers have put some money into researching how to make a great Gluten free beer. Finally, after my trial and error I found a great brand out of Belgium. They make a Dark Ale, Triple Blond and a Amber Ale. All of them are wonderful!! I usually have red wine like a Zin, Cab, Barbara with Pizza durning the winter but Beer is a must in the hot months for me. The brand of the beer is called Green's made from Rice, Buckwheat, Millet and Sorghum. Green's is also vegan as well. You can get it at Wholefoods. If they don't carry it at your local Wholefoods or specialty market ask them to order it for you. I would order a case. Totally worth it and you may get a case price break to boot:)