Enjoy this delicious Non- Dairy hot cocoa this holiday season......
You can make your own almond milk or pick some up at the super market. To make almond milk you need to soak 1cup almonds in 3 cups of warm water overnight. Put it in a blender and then strain through a cheese cloth or strainer. Use the almond pulp to thicken gravy or to add to a cookie recipe.
Ingredients:Serves 4
4 cups unsweetened almond milk (home made or store bought)
2 cinnamon sticks, split lengthwise
1/4 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
2 ounces chopped dark chocolate
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
Bring milk and cinnamon sticks to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat, and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Remove cinnamon sticks, rinse, and reserve. Whisk in cocoa, chocolate, sugar, and salt, whisking vigorously until mixture is foamy, 1 to 2 minutes. Divide among mugs. Garnish with cinnamon sticks.
Adapted from Martha Stewart living Dec 2007 edition
Delicious Cranberry sparkler
Ingredients:
2 cups cranberry juice
2 cups grapefruit juice
2 cups sparkling mineral water
Juice of 1 lime
Orange and lemon slices to garnish
Take a big punch bowl and combine the ingredients, squeeze the juice of 1 lime. Put in the orange slices and ice cubes and serve.Optional: you can add other fruit pieces to the bowl to make it look more attractive.
Peach strawberry shake:
The kids will love this one. A simple smoothie, you can completely avoid the sugar if your fruits are sweet.
Ingredients: Serves 2
2 medium-size ripe peaches
1 cup strawberries,
1 cup skimmed milk or soy milk
Sugar, as needed
1 cup ice cubes
Add ice cubes to the ingredients in a blender. Blend on high speed until smooth. Pour into two tall glasses, and serve immediately.
A warm apple drink for you (Serves 4)
The apples in this delicious drink will keep you energized. Ginger and cinnamon are known to improve circulation and generate heat in your body and also stimulate digestion and are perfect for a cold winter day.
Ingredients:
10 apples or 4 cups store bought 100 % apple juice
1" piece thinly sliced ginger
3-4 lemon slices
4 cinnamon sticks
Make atleast 4 cups of fresh apple juice in the juicer. You could also use store bought 100 % apple juice. Place apple juice in a pan with ginger and cinnamon sticks. Heat gently and strain into a heat proof glass. Add the lemon slices and let it stay for 2-4 minutes. Remove the lemon. Place a cinnamon stick into each glass, and serve warm.
10 super nutritious juices for a healthy lifestyle
Taken a s a part of a healthy diet and in amounts that are reasonable, juices are a great way to get our daily requirements for fresh fruits and vegetables. More importantly they are the very best ways to obtain the phytonutrients that are essential to our health and well being.
Here are ten super nutritious juices for a healthy lifestyle---
1. Super nutritious Juice:
Apples are loaded with antioxidants. They have vitamin C, which keeps your blood vessels healthy and helps you absorb iron. That means a reduced risk of cancer and heart disease, especially if you juice the skin. Apple juice is rich in Fiber and vitamin C. We have used blue berries for this juice but you could substitute it with any other berry of your choice. All berries are highly nutritious. Berries are rcih in vitamin C, vitamin K and manganese. Broccoli is a highly nutritious vegetable and may help prevent diabetes, heart disease and some cancers. It is rich in Calcium, potassium, folate, fiber, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin K and manganese. Pomegranates have up to three times the antioxidants of red wine and green tea. Drinking pomegranate juice long term may also help slow aging and protect against certain cancers. It is rich in Vitamin C and potassium. the flaxseeds in this juice have omega-3 fats, which can help reduce the risk of heart disease. Rich in Magnesium, phosphorus, copper, fiber, thiamin, manganese, potassium and zinc.
Ingredients:
2 apples 1 cup blue berries 6 oz brocoli 1 cup pomegranate juice or 2 small pomegranates 1 tsp flax seeds
Method:
Juice the apples, the berries and the brocoli. Add the pomegrante juice to it. top it with flax seeds and serve. If using whole pomegranate, deseed it and juice it with the other ingredients.
2. Feel Good cleanse juice
Watermelon is a water based fruit with diuretic and detoxifying properties. You could juice the rind of an organic watermelon if you are using a juicer. you could also peel the rind and put all the ingredients in a blender for this drink.
Ingredients:
10 oz watermelon with the rind (Remove rind if not organic) 10 oz strwaberries mint leaves to garnish
Method:
Juice the fruits and garnish with mint leaves and serve.
3. Super detoxifier
Cabbage juice is a good detoxifier. This juice aids in digestion and prevents fluid retention and constipation.
Ingredients:
2 pears 4 oz cabbage 4 celery stalks 1 oz watercress 1/2 tsp lemon juice
Method:
Juice all the ingredients. add 1/2 tsp lemon juice. Serve over ice.
4. Cold and Flu:
With the cold and flu season on its way this juice is a good choice to help ward off infections. Peppers are a natural pain killer and oranges are rich in Vitamin C.
Ingredients:
1 red pepper 1 yellow pepper 1 orange pepper 1 orange 1 tbsp mint leaves
Method:
Peel the orange. Juice the peppers and orange and garnish with mint leaves and serve.
5. Immune sytem booster:
This juice is high in selenium. It is also high in anti oxidants which will help rebalance your body's immunity.
Ingredients:
10 oz broccoli 6oz carrots 1/2 beet
Method:
Juice all the ingredients in a juicer and serve. The juice will get a reddish brown color because of the beets.
6. . High energy vegetable drink:
This drink is perfect to help cut cravings if you are trying to lose weight. It is rich in vitamin A, C , selenium and is even a good source of zinc.
Ingredients
3 oz broccoli 3 oz kale 1 oz parseley 7 oz apples 2 oz celery
Method:
Juice all the ingredients in a juicer and serve.
7 .Lunch Juice:
A quick lunch on the go.
Ingredients:
2-3 celery stalks 2 carrots 1 small cucumber 2 sprigs dill 2 apples 1 tbsp protein powder
Method:
Juice all the fruits and vegetables and pour into a glass. Whisk in the protein powder and serve.
8.Antibacterial power juice:
This is a very strong drink and may make your eyes water while preparing it. It will be worth the effort though with its antioxidant and antibacterial properties.
Ingredients:
3-4 celery stalks 1/2 onion 1 clove garlic 4 oz brocoli 3 apples
Method:
Juice the ingredients in a juicer and serve
9. Power Green super food juice
This serves 4. Keep the ingredients refrigerated before juicing. This will help you serve a delicious cold juice. This is very close to the Naked Juice (Green machine) available on the supermarket shelves. If you do not have some of the ingredients you could substitute or simply avoid them in this recipe. This Green Juice Superfood makes great breakfast or lunch meal.
Ingredients: 2 apples 8 oz pineapple 1 kiwi 15 oz broccoli handful of spinach leaves 1/2 bunch parseley 1/2 " ginger 1 clove garlic 1 mango 1 banana 1/2 tsp spirulina powder 1/2 tsp wheatgrass powder.
Method: Juice the apples, pineapples, kiwi, broccoli, spinach, parseley, ginger, garlic (you could use odorless garlic powder for this recipe if fresh is not available) in a juicer. In a blender mix this juice with mango pieces and a banana. Add the spirulina powder and the wheatgrass powder to the juice. Be sure to drink your Superfood smoothie cold by using cold ingredients to start with. Although many of these foods have reported medical benefits, remember at all times that if you have any type of health problem or physical symptom, do not self-diagnose or self-medicate—even with a food or herb. Trust your medical professional first and foremost in this department.
10. Stress Buster: (video)
The celery and fennel in this juice help the body utilize the magnesium and calcium to calm the nerves. Lettuce has a sedative effect. the orange and pineapple lend the sweet flavor to this drink and make it rich in Vitamin C and A.Enjoy!
Source:
Adapted from-Miracle juices by Charmaine Yabsley, Amanda Cross,
The Wood Cutter Story - Techniques To Sharpen Your Axe.
Once upon a time there was a woodcutter who was very busy cutting a tree with an axe. He seemed very tired and exhausted, the tree was big, but he was a great worker and not wasting a minute of his time was focused on his job of cutting the tree. Another wise woodcutter was passing by and he noticed this woodcutter at his work. He said "Hello there, good morning.. I see that you are working hard at your job, why don't you take a break for a while, sharpen your axe a little bit" To which the wood cutter said "I don't have time." and continued to work harder at cutting the tree.
You sure get the point, In this age of the internet, news, information, entertainment, phones, iPhones, blackberrys etc.. too many of us are focused so much at doing and accomplishing more that we forget to sharpen our axe, consequently less is accomplished and we are more exhausted in an endless cycle that feeds on to it self. We got to get out of this rut and invest time and effort in sharpening our axe. It will make us more productive, do less and accomplish more giving us more free time to relax and do things that we truly enjoy with much less stress.
In this article we are going to talk about simple yet practical steps with a three pronged approach to better health and well being. Juicing is certainly a highly recommended part of the solution but not all of it. Nutritious intake of food, basic aerobic excercise and stress reduction will sharpen your axe and take you to a new level of energy.
I) Sharpen your axe with excellent nutrition
We have covered queit a few articles on nutrition on our blogs. At the very least, we got to moderate out food intake with as a life style change, not necesarily diet, because diets are temporary and we fall back to square one over and over with failed attempts. Here are a few links that will give you a decent guidelines on good nutrition. Eating well and Juicing Smarter Best vegetables for Juicing Juicing for health and weightloss A case for Water
II) Nutrition will not cut it.. You need Exercise..
Nutrition alone is less than half of the story. Regular and consistent exercise will not only protect your immune system but also enhance it. Studies have proven that a simple regular brisk walking program can bolster defenses of the immune system. Now I cannot come up with any honest excuse for not doing regular 20 to 30 minutes of brisk walking as a basic form of exercise. Any more than that is an added bonus to sharpening the axe of the woodcutter in you. You do not even have to commit to a daily routine. Five days a week is ideal enough. Excercise also improves the mental wellness, relieves mild to moderate degrees of depression and anxiety.
III) Excercise will fall short.. You need to reduce stress. (Relationships)
I have no doubt that our creator made us for a purpose, the most simple and basic being to connect with others in a healthy relationship. A study conducted by the "Journal of the American Medical Association" (JAMA) came to a provocative conclusion that those individuals that are connected to other people like spouse, parent, parent-in-law, co-worker, friend, social or religious groups in a healthy relationship live longer than their counter parts who are less socially connected. A funny side of the results from the same study also showed that socially unconnected people produced significantly more mucous than socially connected people, thus proving the common adage that "Unfriendly people are snottier than friendly ones."(Referenced further reading ISSN 0098-7484 http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=2707252)
So the bottom line is you could have all the nutritious meals, excercise a lot but still fall short of a healthy life style if you are always all stressed out, uptight and not relationally smart. It's all in your hands and no one else can sharpen your axe. But the sharper your axe the happier you will be mind, body and soul.
