Cooking Hacks - Cutting Cherry Tomatoes

Making cooking from scratch just that much easier. -- Finding new innovative ways to make the excuse "I just don't have time", completely and utterly irrelevant.

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Organic Non-GMO Seeds - Vegetables, Herbs and Flowers!

Gardening season is getting close, it's time to start sprouting and figuring out what plants are going to grace your garden this year. (I'm leaning towards ones that I can juice!)

Juicing Adventures Vol. 3

I tried something new today - for some reason I normally juice my orange first then move on to the apple, carrots and greens. In an effort to be a little more adventurous I juiced my greens first. 

To juice them properly in my Jack Lalanne Power juicer, I roll them up (The lettuce, chard, purple kale, mint and beet tops) and I squish them between two celery sticks. The celery sticks hold them together as I push them into the chute, and the greens juice better than they would otherwise. As I've mentioned before, this juicer isn't the greatest for greens, but there are ways to make it work better.




I ended up with about a cup of green juice. And then I tasted it. I suppose I could have choked it down, but greens aren't really my favorite part of the whole 'vegetable'- ness, hense one of the reasons I am juicing. Next I added the lime, and tried it again. It was a little better, but still not easy to drink.

(At some point in the future I'm going to try juicing herbs with the greens and find out if any of them make them palatable.)

Next I added in one orange and a whole ton of carrots. The result was about four cups of juice that was MMMMMMmmmmm good. For some reason the carrots make anything easy to drink. Today was also the first day that I didn't have any apple. The only fruits were a lime and an orange.



I have started peeling the oranges, you don't have to do it nicely or remove all the skin, but it improves the flavour if you get rid of some. Limes and lemons that are mild don't need to be peeled. I find the orange skin just a little bit too overpowering in the juice.

I've been juicing for over a week and a half now, every morning, and I've definitely noticed a marked increase in my energy. I'm waking up a little easier, have more energy longer, and when I get home from work I'm not drop dead tired like I normally am. There is no way I'm going to stop juicing any time soon!

** As always, all fruits and vegetables being juiced are organic.

Pictures via Muffet and Rand_G

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Let the Juicing Begin!

Well it's official; I've done it! I picked up my very own juicer yesterday and it is my plan to add freshly made juice to my morning routine. I picked up the Jack Lalanne Power Juicer Ultimate from my local Costco. It cost $119.99 before tax.

Now it is far from the best juicer out there, but the price was something I could manage right now and does a good job for the price. Cleaning; as long as you do it right away before the pulp dries is actually a relatively easy process. Taking it apart and putting it together is also pretty simple.

(I'm drinking my freshly made juice as I'm typing this!)

My reasoning was also quite simple. I don't eat much in the way of fruit and vegetables, and certainly not as much as I should. I also eat a very small variety; It's not that I'm super picky, but I can't be bothered with a lot of them. I'm hoping that adding juice to my diet will ensure I get the nutrients that I need and as a by product give me more energy and (I'm crossing my fingers) help me lose a little weight as well.

Juice, for me, is much easier to consume than smoothies, because it isn't as thick, I can get down a lot more than I would otherwise. (This juicer produces quite a small amount of foam, which is a nice bonus.) It doesn't work very well on baby spinach, I think the leaves are too small so they just get whipped through. However I've found that if I mix the leaves in with the pulp and run in through in a ball, it does alright. Larger greens should work better; I plan on trying them soon.

So what I have juiced so far?

My current drink consists of:
Lots of Carrots (love them)
Apple (didn't peel or core it, but I found that even though they fit in the chute whole, they juice better when cut in half.)
Melon (I removed the seeds and cut the melon into slices; didn't peel. It juiced well.)
Baby Spinach

Yesterday included all the above except the melon, but there was also lemon, lime, beet and zucchini. I really liked it with the citrus, it really made it more refreshing. (Didn't need to peel as they were quite mild.) 

I look forward to trying mint, baby bok choy, cucumber, tomatoes, etc...

Mmmmm - Juice!

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Juicing!

Over the past few weeks I have been debating whether or not to begin the adventure that is juicing. My sister has been juicing nearly every fruit/vegetable imaginable for ages and swears by it. I know for a fact that I don't eat nearly enough vegetables and I don't mind the juice that she makes! But, is juicing what "I" need?

I'm still deciding, but in the meantime I figured I would share some of the things that I am learning!

Why Should You Juice Vegetables? 

Everyone knows that you're supposed to eat 6-8 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. How often does that actually happen? I know personally I'm lucky if I eat that much in a day once a month! Juicing allows you to consume the benefits of all those vegetables in a single glass. It is way easier to get all those nutrients into your body.

Your body can absorb the nutrients more readily in juice form; so you're not wasting nearly as much.

You will end up eating a greater variety of fruits and vegetables than you normally would.

Juicing is also beneficial because it uses fresh uncooked fruits and veg. Once a food has been cooked it loses its micro-nutrients, but not if it has been juiced!

Does it really make a difference?

Everyone that I know that juices has told me that they feel more energetic, healthier, they recover more quickly when they get sick, etc... I've seen how much of a difference it makes in their lives and really believe that it does. I don't think so many people would go through the 'hassle' of it if they didn't find it beneficial.

Why juicing and not making smoothies?

I'm not 100% clear on whether or not there is a big difference between blending and juicing; except that some blenders can heat the food resulting in a loss of nutrients. For me, the choice is more personal. I enjoy smoothies but I cannot get them down very easily. I can drink a whole lot more juice because it isn't thick; so juicing would be a better choice for me.

So what is taking you so long to decide?

I 'know' that juicing would be a good idea; but I'm a pretty busy person. My biggest concern is whether or not I would have the time/inclination to do it. I have no desire to spend the money on a good juicer only to use it for a few days and decide it is too much of a hassle. You have to clean the juicer RIGHT away or it will mold, something you want to avoid at all costs. Will I have the time to do that?

The other fact is that there are an absolute ton of juicers out there. I personally want one that is as easy to clean as possible, and still gets the most out of the vegetables that it can. (Without being too expensive.)



One of these juicers is just over $100 - The other... over $300! That is a lot of money for me to invest before I figure out what I really need.

If you are thinking about juicing you should check out what Dr. Mercola has to say about it. 

I'll keep you posted and share any new juicing information that I come across!

Thanks for stopping by!

Photos courtesy of mathiasbaert, rick and cbb4104

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Product of the Week: Wheat Grass

Alright, so maybe 'wheat grass' isn't really a product per-say, since it's a plant, however please bear with me, cause that is what I'm featuring today!

Before I get into the product side of this post, lets first talk about wheat grass, and why you might be interested in it.

Now, wheat grass is simply a very young wheat plant - nothing more than that! The interest in its health properties began way back in the 1930's. An agricultural chemist used fresh cut grass in an attempt to nurse some extremely sick hens back to health. To his surprise, and considerable delight, the hens not only recovered but ended up popping out eggs more quickly than those that were in perfect health already.

He reproduced the experiment the following year with the same happy results. And so the wheat grass era was born.

There are now several companies that cultivate and sell wheat grass in a variety of forms. You can find it dried, juiced, juiced and then dried... etc...

The product that is going to be featured today, however, comes from a family company that seems to focus very intensively on the quality of their product.

They sell their juice vacuum packed and frozen (and ship it super quick) to ensure that it is fresh when you drink it.

Their website contains a great deal more information about wheat grass, and about their product. 

If you have used it before, please leave a comment and let everyone know what you thought of it!

Pesticides and Produce: The Worst Cases

It can be hard to dedicate yourself to eating wholly organic; trust me, I know. The price of organic butter is nearly enough to make my head explode. It is equally as hard to stick to an organic diet if you don't have access to organic stores. Lucky for me, Medicine Hat has become a little bit more Organically Inclined in the last few years.

If you want to make a go of eating organic and you find yourself struggling, then it stands to reason to choose what you eat organic wisely. There are some fruits and veggies that have much higher pesticide exposure than others. My logic is this: switch those veggies to organic first. Once you have taken the worst ones out of your diet then begin incorporating in others. It may not be as good as eating all organic, but at the very least you won't be eating the produce that is the worst for you.


I snitched the following list from EWG.com, you can check them out if you want to see where my info came from.

The WORST Fruits and Veg (Non Organic)

1. Apples
2. Celery
3. Strawberries
4. Peaches
5. Spinach
6. Nectarines
7. Grapes
8. Sweet Bell Peppers
9. Potatoes
10. Blueberries
11. Lettuce
12. Kale/Collard Greens

There you have it. If you're eating anything on that list that is non-organic, you just might want to consider switching!

Pictures via rduta and @joefoodie

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