The End of March

March 31st, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Lunch - (3 Comments)

Well, we made it. It’s the last day of The Greener March Challenge.

Whether you ate greens every day for the last 31 days or not, you endured my month long green stream of posts.  I’m not sure if I should say “Congrats!” or “I’m sorry.”

There were certainly a few highlights for me for this month.

The first thing that comes to mind is Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.  I’m so glad I watched this documentary and was re-inspired to get back to juicing after a bit of a juice hiatus.  I know that a few of you watched this film and were inspired and motivated by it too.

“More Greens” Doesn’t Have to Mean “More Salad”

March 30th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Lunch - (Comments Off on “More Greens” Doesn’t Have to Mean “More Salad”)

We just said goodbye to the last of our friends from a good sized potluck dinner gathering here tonight.  Lots of good food with good friends – the only green leafy food in sight tonight came from the Spinach Artichoke Dip that I made, but it was devoured before I even remembered to get out my camera for the picture I’d planned to take.

Before there were friends and food tonight, there was lunch this afternoon.  Knowing we had a big dinner party ahead of us, I kept lunch on lighter and greener side.  I’ve got a long run on the agenda for tomorrow for half marathon training, and so my favorite day-before-a-long-run salad was in order!

Fresh juice!  It’s time to haul it all out of the fridge and run the numbers.

Fresh Green Juice Ingredients

Today I made green lemonade from:

1 bunch of dinosaur kale
Beet greens from three beets
1/3 of a head of celery (3 – 4 stalks)
2 gala apples
2 lemons
1/2 seedless cucumber
a hunk of ginger about the length of my pointer finger

Kale juice with a splash of red from the beet greens? So pretty.

Juicing in Progress Add Beet Greens

Until you mix it all together, that is. Then it more closely resembles black lemonade.

How Much Fresh Juice

Intro to Collard Greens

March 28th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Vegetable Lovin' - (6 Comments)

These are collard greens. These collard greens have been in my refrigerator for more than a week.

Collard Greens

My hesitation stems from the fact that I tried collards at a picnic over the summer, and they were awful.  AWFUL!

There are enough people in this world who enjoy collard greens that I figured it was not the collards fault that they were so bad – it was probably the fault of the person who made them.  A person who doesn’t have the slightest idea that this blogs exists, so I feel like I am free to say “Your collards sucked, lady!”  (sorry.)

This smoothie looked really good and chocolate-y, until I added two handfuls of spinach to it. Then it looked a bit closer in color to a pair of combat fatigues than a delicious chocolate drink.

Chocolate Spinach Smoothie

Oh well.  Drink up, soldier!

I gave the juicer a break today and made a green (brown) smoothie instead. Today’s combo was frozen banana, cocoa powder, cottage cheese, milk and spinach. It might not be pretty, but it tasted fine and went down the hatch without hesitation.  I only felt hesitation when I got the camera out.

Different Strokes

March 26th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Lunch - (14 Comments)

This is quite possibly the greenest lunch I’ve eaten all month. It might even be the greenest lunch I’ve ever eaten.  Like, ever ever.

Tuna and Pickle Sandwich

My dad reads the blog and sometimes he calls to comment on cute baby pictures or if I made something that looked appealing to him.

But the other day he called to ask me what the heck I was thinking putting carrots in chili. Carrots and beef are for meat sauce, not chili! He’s not the only one who’s questioned my recent approach to chili – someone else said that chili without beans is not chili, it’s meat sauce.

A Few Juicy Details

March 25th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Healthy Habits - (8 Comments)

I am definitely on a green juice kick right now.  Let’s chat a little bit about juicing today.

We’ll start with a quick primer on the differences between fresh juice and smoothies because this is a question that many people have.

Fresh Juice

(This was Carrot Apple Ginger Juice – it’s one of my favorite non-green juice combos!)

Carrot Juice

Juicing extracts the liquid from fruits and vegetables, bringing much of the plant’s nutrients, vitamins and minerals along with it, while leaving the pulp behind.

Don’t Sweat It

March 24th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Fitness - (2 Comments)

A few days ago I started to notice that I was getting a cold. Fortunately, it never turned into a full fledged cold (special thanks to my bag of tricks for when I feel a cold coming on!) but I was definitely not feeling like my usual self on on Thursday night, Friday and into Saturday.

Red Hot Cauliflower

March 23rd, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Dinner Time - (6 Comments)

There was some green on our dinner plates tonight, but more importantly, there was red!

Black Bean Burgers with Spicy Buffalo Cauliflower

Spicy “Buffalo” Cauliflower was tonight’s side dish to homemade black bean burgers.

You’ll need:

1 large head of cauliflower, cut into florets
3 Tbsp butter, melted
1/3 c hot sauce
1/3 c apple cider vinegar

Pre-heat oven to 450. In a separate dish, melt butter, stir in hot sauce and apple cider vinegar. With cauliflower in a large mixing bowl, pour sauce over cauliflower and use a large spoon to stir cauliflower and coat well with buffalo sauce. Bake for 25 minutes.

Crustless Spinach Quiche

March 22nd, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Dinner Time - (3 Comments)

Taco salad for breakfast yesterday, eggs for dinner today.

Crustless Spinach Quiche

Dinner for breakfast, breakfast for dinner.  Someone must have set the clocks ahead 12 hours.

Tonight was a crustless quiche with spinach, mushrooms, red pepper and onions.  Crustless quiche means no grains or refined carbohydrates, it saves you on calories too.  I was pretty strict with my grain intake for a while after reading Deep Nutrition at the end of last year (i.e., eating very little grain) but I am eating more grains from time to time now.