The recent holidays are a blur of great family, friends, fun and food. Lots of rich, delicious, decadent food. I had planned to write about the roast beef and Yorkshire pudding on Christmas Eve, the poached foie gras and lentils on Christmas day, the oysters, foie gras and lobster on New Year’s eve and all of the sumptuous eating and drinking in between….but was either too busy eating or too sated from all the food and drink to sit down and type. I promised myself that I’d go back to blogging in earnest in January.
And here it is—the first month of the new year—filled with infinite possibilities. I am not much of a resolution maker, but my daughter asked that January be a true “healthy eating” month. I am happy to comply. We made a pact to eat more vegetarian meals, and I pulled out my juicer to give our healthy eating plan a kick-start. January will be filled with lots of great juicing—and I have tapped my Ayurvedic and yogic cookbooks for some great green juice recipes.
According to Lissa Rankin MD, an integrative medicine practitioner in California and green juice enthusiast (www.owningpink.com), organic green juice is a readily assimilated, easily digestible, unbelievably nutritious superfood. Drinking green juice fills your body with living enzymes, vitamins, oxygen, and phytonutrients. Because of this, green juice feeds your cells the necessary nutrients, allowing your cells to uncover the body's innate healing power, thereby boosting your body's ability to fight infection and heal chronic diseases.
Because the juicer eliminates the fiber that keeps you from being able to eat 3 pound of green veggies in one sitting, green juice allows you to consume more veggies and provides your digestive tract with much-needed rest, allowing the body to focus on repair, healing, detoxification, and renewal. Using organic produce, the nutrition you introduce to your body via green juice has very few, if any, of the chemicals and toxins we usually put into our bodies.
I have been making green juices to drink first thing in the morning and as a nightcap before going to bed. In the morning, our potassium filled energy juice is a medley of carrot, celery, spinach and parsley juices for an energy packed breakfast. At night, a juice of celery, cucumber and parsley is both calming and healing. In between, we eat healthy, vegetable rich meals, and drink lots of water. All of these recipes will be shared eventually, but I am including the juice recipes today for both inspiration and suggestion. I feel great….and want this feeling to carry me through all of 2011!
A happy, juicy new year to all….
Morning Green Juice
3 carrots, 3 stocks celery, ½ bunch parsley, 1 bunch spinach.
Juice all veggies together, mix and drink. Makes about two 6 oz servings.
Bedtime Calming Juice
1 large cucumber, 6 celery stalks, ½ bunch parsley.
Juice all veggies together. Makes 2 servings.
Dr. Lissa Rankin’s Green Superjuice (for daytime energy boost)
3-4 large kale leaves, ½ bunch swiss chard, 1 bunch sunflower sprouts, 3 stalks celery, 1 large cucumber, juice of 1 lemon, small piece fresh ginger, and 1 seeded jalapeno.
Juice all veggies together. Makes 2 servings.
