Happy New Year!

Rebounder

Loving my rebounder. I rebound 3-4 times per week for 20 minutes. I feel my cells and blood jumping around. Working up a good sweat, an exhilirating, tingling feeling. Raising my arms, cleaning the lymphs.

Also, enjoying my Fall Juice (recipe is in previous entry). Nourishing, cleansing, immune support and really delicious.

Wishing you a lymphatically clean day!

Fall Juice

My blood is craving something more earthy. This power juice is the right thing for me now in autumn. The color is beautiful and the flavor is perfect!

3 celery stalks
4 carrots
handful of parsley
1 apple
1 medium beet
4 leaves of chard
1/2 lemon
piece of ginger
small garlic clove

Today is My Birthday, Happy Birthday to Me!

Today I celebrate my birthday with a new juice which is so delicious. Before drinking the juice I spent 20 minutes on the rebounder. I rebound 3-4 times a week. Dan has a great demo and explains it so well.

Juice together kale, celery, parsley.
In VitaMix or strong blender place coconut water and coconut meat of two coconuts. If one has lots of water and lots of meat, it might be enough. I needed two.
Then add the green juice and one or two bananas.
D E L I C I O U S!
A super Happy Birthday drink!

Birthday dinner will be at my favorite restaurant, Pure Food & Wine in NYC.

Coconut Water, Youtube and Knitting

Spending 2 weeks in Bahia, Brazil......relaxing and soaking up some nice weather.
Today is a complete restful day.
Took a nap to the sound of the ocean, which was so needed.
Eating super light.
Had green tea earlier.
Beautiful, sweet watermelon, several times during the day.
Pitcherful of coconut water. Absolutely hydrating, feeling my cells drinking it up.
I might have a salad later, or some fruit.
Will take this opportunity to eat incredible fruits, will energize and detox this body.
Catching up with healthy youtube videos of Dan McDonald. Love his spirit, honesty and inspiration.
Oh and loving my knitting.
My gratitude for a blissful day!

Flax Pumpkin Sunflower Caraway Crackers

I love caraway seeds, so this cracker is awesome.
Always enjoy a few with my salad.
Super easy to make.
I make 5 trays of it and it lasts a while.

Here is the basic how to flax cracker recipe that I made not too long ago.
In this one I added:
flax
pumpkin seeds
sunflower seeds
caraway (did not soak)
salt
cayenne
cumin

Afternoon pick-me-up juice

Having some energy and chiropractic work done on me. Releasing, opening up. Change of season is a good time for me to go through this. Being more aware, extra mindful, the layers are sliding off. I especially needed this afternoon pick-me-up juice. The early green smoothie was sucked up into my system. I feel this juice going through my blood system. Healing, invigorating and calming.


4 carrots
kale stems (from yesterday's kale salad)
big handful of parsley
3 celery stalks
1 cucumber
1 pear

Easy & simple

It's been a great hot summer here in New York. Keeping it simple is good.
Here are two items I have been repeating and enjoying.

1.Cut up peaches with sprinkled propolis.
With delicious, aromatic peaches and energizing propolis....yum.

2. Piece of lemon, piece of jalapeno (growing in my herb garden) to your liking and a squirt of agave into iced water, let it sit a bit. Refreshing.
I like the tingling on my tongue from the spicy pepper.

Hope your summer is healthy and easy.

Brazil

Hello Friends,
There is a small village in Bahia, Brazil called Cascalheira. It is a very poor village with gentle, good people. For the past few years we have helped build a few simple homes, bring clothes, toys, distribute food, buy shoes, etc.
Many people have been involved with the donations and we thank you.
We will be traveling to Brazil in a few months and it will be time to help out again.
Please look at my blog on Cascalheira.
Thank you!
~jessica

Parsley Smoothie

Have been making a lot of green smoothies. It is just so easy, tastes great and so excellent for our health. Blending a Vitamix pitcherfull lasts me the whole day. Of course if more than one person is drinking it then it doesn't. Sometimes it's like that at our house. Usually I have two large glasses in the morning when I make it, I put the rest covered in the refrigerator.

Place in Vitamix or strong blender:
1 large & 1 small mangoes (I buy a case of each at the Indian market, wash them, place them in a large basket, put it out in the sun to reenergize and then bring them back into the kitchen).
large bunch or 2 small bunches of parsley or any greens
1 cup water, not too much, you can add more if needed
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of coconut oil
2 scoops of protein powder (have been using the Sunwarrior Raw Vegan Natural flavor)
MSM and/or any superfoods
sometimes I add a banana
ice cubes
blend up, be healthy!!

Sea Vegetable & Kale Salad

This sea veggie & kale salad is light and delicious. With the weather being scorching it feels good to eat. Lots of it. Many times. Yes, I LOVE this salad. Good minerals from the sea veggies.
This is where I buy the Ohsawa Sea Vegetable Salad. You can add avocado, grated carrots, grated beets, anything that you love in your salad. This one I had today is the following recipe.

Oh and the dressing is delicious.

For one serving:
Soak some of the sea veggies for about 15 minutes, only soak a tiny bit, it does grow quite a bit.
Drain & chop.
Destem kale and cut into small pieces. I used 3 leaves.
Sprinkle shelled hemp seeds.
Mix.

Dressing: whisk it all together. Adjust to your liking.
olive oil
nama shoyu
apple cider vinegar
agave

Pour dressing over salad. Mix real well.

I sprinkled a bit of cayenne over it.

This is a super delish salad.

Flax/Sunflower Seeds Crackers

The sunflower seeds in these crackers give it a nice flavor.

Soak flax seeds overnight. The seeds soak up a lot of water, add more than double the water amount. Also, soak sunflower seeds.

Flax becomes gooey. Drain sunflower seeds. Mix the two seeds with spatula.
My mix was 2 cups flax (dry). 1 cup sunflower.
Add Himalayan crystal salt and any other spice you like or just keep it simple. Taste.

Spread on teflex sheets. Dehydrate about 7 hours, flip onto mesh of the tray and peel teflex off. Continue dehydrating until crisp.

Store in airtight container.

It's delicious with kale salad. Yum!

Dan McDonald Video & Juice

Dan, the Life Regenerator has been an inspiration. I enjoy listening to him on youtube and facebook about his adventures, his life and views, and his great juices. Right now, my favorite juice is Dan's recipe. Truly delicious and my body loves it too.

It is: carrots, cucumber, celery, kale, parsley, cilantro and a handful of small tomatoes. I did add mint from my herb garden.

Beautiful Cilantro Smoothie.

I am blogging again. It was a difficult time for a while, a family member passed away. She is at peace, no more suffering.

This beautiful green smoothie is so delicious. The picture is taken with the app on the iphone called hipstamatic. There are different lenses, flash and film settings. It gives a unique character, blurring and discolored images.

Here's the smoothie ingredients:

1 bunch of cilantro
handful or more of strawberries
1 mango or 2 if they are small
2 teaspoons of coconut oil
pinch of salt
scoop of msm (okay without it too)
2 cups of water & a few ice cubes

blend and enjoy!

Taking a break

Taking a break.

A lot is going on.
Needing to recharge.
Will be back!

Dehydrating with Sun

After soaking the almonds, they are being sun dried.

The mung bean sprouts are getting some good rays too.

Kissed by the sun. Yum!!

Mangosteen

Lovin' mangosteen.

Is this a beautiful fruit or what?

Goji::Wolfberries

Goji::Wolfberries


Soak a small handful of the dried berries in a large glass of water until soft or overnight in the refrigerator.
I add a couple of drops of lemon or orange essential oil, gives a nice additional flavor.
Nice drink with a bit of crunch of the berries.
Or can add it to a smoothie.

Energy! Refreshing!

Brazil Nut Milk w/Green Vibrance

soak a handful of brazil nuts
in blender add:
brazil nuts
3 cups of water
piece of vanilla bean
blend and strain in nut bag
put brazil nut milk back into blender and add:
2 scoops of green vibrance
pinch of himalyan salt
about 4 pieces of frozen bananas
blend
it is a light, beautiful green, nutritious drink

Sugar Cane Juice

At Natural News there is some useful information on sugar cane juice.
Did you know that sugar cane is actually a grass?
I have been drinking sugar cane juice when going out. The machine squeezes out all the green juice with all its minerals and phytonutrients.
I am enjoying the nutrients and energy derived from this special juice.

My Avatar

Here I am as a Na'vi from Pandora.

My Mother's Saurkraut

My wonderful mother is spending a few months with us in Bahia, Brazil. We were talking about how impossible it is to find saurkraut here, which we all love to eat. So, to that she said, "I can make it". So she did, and now I will too and you can too! Thank you to my Anyu.

cut white cabbage into thin strips
add salt, not too much to begin with, can add more later
with hands squeeze all the cabbage for a few minutes
add a little vinegar, not too much
can add peppercorns, I added pink peppercorns
pat down in container
put a mesh cloth or cheesecloth over it
let it sit on counter for a few days
if there is sun, let it sit under it for a few hours
two to three days of this and it is ready.
being that it is summer here, ours was ready in one and a half days.
in colder climate, can leave for three days
it does shrink so make a lot if you love saurkraut or make in small batches.
refrigerate and enjoy the enzymes from it.
ours was delicious and so easy to make.

Pitaya:Dragon Fruit

What a beautiful fruit Pitaya is.

Pitaya Fruit, Pitahaya Fruit or commonly known as the Dragon Fruit is among the most nutritious and wonderful exotic fruits. It has a light sweet taste. High in vitamin C. Looks like a kiwi on the inside with the tiny little black seeds and the deep red/purple color. Just looking at it makes one feel healthy. This is the first time we have seen Pitaya at our local market. Not sure how long the season is, but we will be eating quite a bit of this amazing, nutritious fruit.

Following is the nutrtitional information on Pitaya.

Fiber 0.9g
Fat 0.61g
Ashes 0.68g
Carotene 0.012g
Water 83.0g
Phosphorus 36.1mg
Ascorbic Acid 9.0mg
Protein 0.229g
Riboflavin 0.045mg
Calcium 8.8g
Niacin 0.430mg
Iron 0.65mg

Importance of eating a Pitaya fruit:
Carotene helps maintain and equally improve the health of the eyes
The fiber enhances digestion in our bodies
The fiber equally reduces fat
The protein component of the pitaya fruit enhances the body’s metabolism
Calcium reinforces bones and aid in formation of healthy teeth
Vitamin B2 acts as a multi vitamin to recover and improve loss appetite
Vitamin B1 assists in production of energy as well as metabolizing carbohydrates
Vitamin B3 lowers bad cholesterol level and enhances the appearance of the skin by moisturizing and smoothening it.
Vitamin C ensures bruises and cuts heal faster and improves the general immune system of our bodies
Phosphorus aids in tissue formation.

The Garden Diet Retreat

I'm passing this information on about this amazing long weekend retreat in California, taking place January 15-18, 2010.

The Garden Diet Retreat, raw food gathering with Storm and Jinjee.

Perhaps one day I will be able to attend.

If you are attending, enjoy!