The livin’ is easy

Yesterday was a busy day.  As I mentioned in my post below, I had a doctor’s appointment.  I skipped my usual Green Monster because I wanted to be as light as possible on the scale because I am a crazy person.  After my appointment (which, by the way, I have to say, I go to best, most awesome, most fantastic midwife in the world.  I actually look FORWARD to my yearly exam so I can see her!  She is the awesomest woman I have ever met — she’s like that woman who inspires you to go to grad school, have kids, be your best.  And yes, she has encouraged me to do all of those things. We always have a mini-therapy sesh before we get down to the awful part of the visit. Anyone need a midwife in New Hampshire?  Email me, I got the best one ever).

I digress.

After the appointment, I was too lazy to wash greens or get my blender dirty, so I just ate a banana, a grapefruit and an orange.  I started in that order because bananas peel fastest and I could eat it quicker.  The grapefruit gave me more fruit for my peeling efforts, and the orange was the piece de resistance of the meal.

I was meeting a friend for tea at noon, so I had to have lunch a little early.  Here’s what I had:

TJ's black bean soup, 1/2 a 'zeke muffin, raw bell pepps and cukes, splodge of hummus for dipping, Cranberry Lime Polar Seltzer and a Cherry Pie Lara.

I saved the Lara for my tea time.  I ordered a soy chai latte that was ridiculously sweet but overall it was a nice little treat and I  didn’t even consider ordering one of those buttercream frosted cupcakes.  Normally, I would be fantasizing about swimming in an Olympic swimming pool full of that frosting.  Progress people!  Hello, my name is Elizabeth and I am a recovering frosting addict.

Then I was off to the gym to try to cram three days worth of working out into one sesh (wha?  I think that’s totally going to work!) and then I had to scramble to the store to pick up vegels to bring to our friends’ new house for a dinner party.  Our friends lived in a nearby town for a few years then moved to take a teaching job at a university in Virginia.  They’re back for the summer for some research and it was so incredible to see them again.  We missed them a lot.

Dinner (unpictured because I’m still not sure how my friends will react if I whip out a camera and start photographing my plate) was 2 corn on the cobs, salad, sauteed broccolini and a chickpea, black bean and raisin salad.  Oh, and some locally produced wine. The broccolini was so delicious.  It was just sauteed in salt, pepper, and olive oil but it tasted like french fries to me.

Dessert was a fruit salad with blueberries, strawberries and melon.  It was such an incredible dinner and we are so happy our friends are home for the summer!  Have I mentioned that already?

Today I finally got off my rump and juiced some veggies that needed to be used.  I love fruit and vegetable juices but I kinda hate to wash, chop, juice and then clean the juicer.  Unlike most healthy food bloggers, I am not much of a perfectionist but am very slackerish when it comes to prep and clean up.  So I decided to just juice my heart out so I only had to only clean up once.  I stored everything in an airtight container, so hopefully I won’t lose too many enzymes.

First juice: Green Lemonade from Natalia Rose’s “The Raw Food Detox Diet.” I bought this book about 3 years ago when I lived in Seattle and, at the time, the Green Lemonade and the maple/soysauce salmon were the only recipes I was brave enough to try.   It’s a great book, though, and the Green Lemonade is a great recipe.

I had to switch mine up based on the ingredients I had available.  Above is some Swiss Chard, spinach, sad looking celery, lemon, apple and a piece of galangal (the weird looking thing in my hand).  I bought the galangal a while back while making Thai soups.  It is a little spicier and pine-ier than ginger, but it eats cancer cells.  No really, it gobbles up cancer cells like Pac Man eating those little pellets.

We interrupt this orgy of juicing for a snack -- 1/2 a 'zeke muffin with Satan's PB.

Then it was time for juicing beets, carrots, and some more of the wimpy-looking celery that didn’t make it into the green lemonade.

Taking a swim in veggie wash

Then I had a pre-lunch cocktail while I fixed salad:

Green Lemonade. It burns so good!

And finally, it was lunch time:

Romaine, spinach, chickpeas, tomato, avo, and bell pepps. Also, a slightly burned Dr. Praegger veggie burger with, um, a bite missing.

I love dr. praeger’s veggie burgers.  They taste like egg rolls to me.  I also added a little Eden Foods Umeboshi Paste to the salad after this pic was taken.

That’s all for now!   I am bursting with joy that my Raw Zucchini Spaghetti with Pesto was featured on Jennifer’s ThisisWhyYou’reThin!  I feel… really good about that!

Peace,

Elizabeth