Green Smoothie Challenge: Week 1

I have had a secret love affair with vegetable juice from childhood, when Mom would juice her own carrot juice and made my baby food. Fast forward, to the present Naked Green Machine was a staple for me for a while, until the $4.50 price tag was too much to ignore. With Melissa's help I'm going to learn how to make my own vitamin packed, protein rich smoothies!

OMG I need a food processor?!

This was my first reaction to reading the email prep list from Melissa. I'm hoping I can skip this step.  My Kitchen Aid should aid me well enough I think.

Melissa Daniel's inaugural smoothie recipe is easy enough: Frozen Spinach, Pineapple, banana and yogurt. All things I enjoy on a regular basis.

I placed all the ingredients into the blender at once and let it rip! It took a minute or two for the blade to grab hold of the yogurt to aid the mixing.  After five minutes the mixture turned a spring green. I had my first DIY green smoothie!

My first sip took me on a pleasant walk through a field of Spring grass. A welcomed escape from the chilly weather in Brooklyn. My Kitchen Aid did well, blending the mixture to a silky smooth consistency. The following gulps were taken while I made another batch! The taste was less sweet then the Naked Juice Green Machine and more grassy  in taste and texture then I thought.  The addition of the banana I thought for sure would come thru, but it didn't and I was surprised that I didn't miss it. The hint of pineapple sweetens the drink while the banana and yogurt smooth it out nicely.

The challenge so far has been making the smoothies every day.  I opted out of having the smoothie first thing in the morning because I have a long commute to work, plus I was concerned with some of the side effects (e.g. increase urination+...due to high fiber and increased water intake ) so I have been making the recipes after work and the gym.

 My food coach, Melissa is with me every step of the way with her emails of motivation and nutritional break down of each recipe. She said the smoothie is heavy enough to substitute as a meal (300 calories per serving), but on the first day I was snacking a few hours later.  Later in the week I chose to ignore the snack craving and found it went away after a while.

I highly recommend the recipe.  Its easy to make! My five speed Kitchen Aid blender was able to break down and blend the ingredients. I started out on Mix for the first 5 minutes.  I had to bang my hand against the sides and stop and stir with a spoon to help it along. Then increased the speed to Liquefy for a consistent five minutes or until all the ingredients are blended well.

If you do make it, let me know what you think!

Drink Real Food

Its been awhile since I posted here. Don't worry I have been eating great food. Including a five course birthday dinner at The River Cafe, Lobster rolls and more rolls from Red Hook lobster, gorging myself on a Russian food (and Vodka!) buffet, Chicken Fritters at Jaleo in Las Vegas, and thanks to the NYC hurricane I was able to go home to San Diego for my taco fix!

I've had adventurous off the plate as well. In May, I completed the NYC Five Boro Bike Tour.  This was such an accomplishment (especially since I didn't ride my bike to prepare and I threw a party the night before!) After completed the 42 mile bike tour I wondered what I could accomplish if I train! So I took up running and set a goal to run in a community 10K race (which I completed in October with a 12:00 pace) To switch up my training and prevent me from getting bored with the treadmill, I hiked the 6,000 ft Mount Mitchell in North Carolina (The tallest mountain this side of the Mississippi!)  and I enjoyed GORP  on my first ever kayaking trip down the Hudson River Gorge.

Now that the summer is officially over.  What's Next?!

Eating is still my passion.  But since I started running three to four times a week, I have noticed what I eat determines how I feel during and after my runs. For example eating Morton's Steak will bench me for three days (trust me I tried running the day after and my stomach rebelled BIG TIME ). There were also things I didn't know.   Like good old raisins and peanuts will not sustain me on a run nor will the high tech energy bars.

 So I'm revisiting the lessons my Mom taught me and my younger sister:  Eat Real Healthy Food. I searched around and found Brooklyn based Good Food and Health Coach Melissa Daniels (Aka Honeybee Holistic) on twitter thru a mutual friend. She created a challenge that makes it easy for her clients to eat the daily recommended 5-9 servings of  fruits and vegetables: Drink it! 

Her Green Smoothie Challenge encourages her clients to drink 32oz of lefty greens and fruit smoothies every day for a month. Its not a diet or a detox plan, just a easy way to eat cake AND your vegetables. Check in every week in the month of November as I blend to better health!

Montage of Eats: Blue Hill NYC

Farmer's Fest @ the original Blue Hill restaurant in Greenwich Village. A five course tasting inspired by the week's harvest.

Assortment of butters w Homemade Bread

Poached Trout w Citrus

Farmer's Egg w Lettuce Foam and Wild Mushrooms

Duck three ways:  Breast, Loin and Meatball

Recipe: Cupcakes Another Way

I found this recipe on this food blog The Kitchn  which is apart of the larger site Apartment Therapy.  The site is like Martha Stewart for working people on a budget. Cool projects for every room in your home, including great recipes from the blogosphere! When I first read the title I was so excited-  "Lasagna Cubcakes: Just the right size for lunch"- I could finally use that muffin pan collecting dust in the back of my cabinet!  

I love lasagna whether its the cheesy meaty casserole or the zucchini version.  But this recipe packs a double dose of ingenuity, first by scaling down the traditional 8+ serving to bite size and second using wonton wrappers for the noodles.  GENIUS,right?!

The Kithn includes a link to the blogger with the recipe, but I have reprinted it below. Like the blogger (Kate) I made a few revisions. I used homemade pasta sauce and ground turkey in place of the hamburger. Instead of spraying the pan with Pam, I used aluminum cupcake liners (nice presentation too!).  The ground  turkey, was too lean and brought down the flavor, but the homemade pasta sauce saved the day. My boyfriend's Yums followed immediately by "Can you make more"  means this is a keeper.

Lasagna Cupcakes, adapted from Food.com

• One cup of your favorite pasta sauce
• 1 lb hamburger meat
• 18 wonton wrappers
• 8 ounces mozzarella cheese , grated
• 3 ounces parmesan cheese , grated
• 4 ounces ricotta cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray 6 serving muffin tin with Pam
2. Cook hamburger meat, season to taste, drain.
3. Reserve 8 tablespoons of Parmesan and 8 tablespoons of mozzarella—this will be the topping. The remaining cheese will be used in the lasagnas (note you can vary the amount of cheese to taste keeping in mind that the parmesan is salty, the mozzarella is sweet as well as salty and helps to hold the lasagnas together, and the ricotta is sweet and creamy).
4. Start assembling the lasagnas. Line each cupcake mold with a round wonton wrapper. Put a little Parmesan, a little mozzarella, and a little ricotta into each mold. Top with a little meat and a spoonful of sauce. Repeat layers of wonton wrappers, cheeses, meat and sauce, creating 3 layers in all, and ending with sauce. Sprinkle each lasagna with reserved Parmesan and mozzarella.
5. Bake until the lasagnas are nicely browned, about 20 minutes.
6. Let cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edges and remove from pan.

Holiday Eats

Happy 2011- Lucky Black Eye Peas and Folded Greens, Dad's Preferred Bean Method and Garlicky Collard Greens inspired by my Christmas Present-How To Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

Merry Christmas- Braised Leg of Lamb w/ Olives and Celery Root Puree, New York Times 

Last year I made a boneless leg of lamb-a variation from a couple of food websites-it was OK....it was a bit dry and lacked the flavor punch that I am always craving.  Christmas 2010 was different.  I committed to a full recipe, from ingredients to preparation.  The December 15th article in the New York Times title was Seven Hour Leg of Lamb, in about Five had a great picture that validated the writer's description.

 "a silky, tender cut of meat so soft you could cut it with a spoon." 

My sister and I overwhelmed with both excitement and trepidation as we walking into Whole Foods in the Bowery.  At the butcher counter, we were surprised to over hear the guy in front of us pointing to his IPhone-  "What's the Shank End-It says I need the Shank end leg of lamb"  

While the butcher was cutting, we learned he was also a newbie with NYT recipe. I asked how confident he was in preparing the recipe and did he think the writer mistyped when she included green olives.  He shrugged and said he was a fan of olives and wished us luck as he walked way with his preferred cut leg of lamb. The same guy took the last three of the celery root in stock!  But we grabbed everything else including Organic Shank in leg of lamb, parsnips and Brussels Sprouts.

The writer was right, the lamb took five hours and it indeed was tender enough that we cut it with a spoon! The celery root puree was perfect, the consistency of buttery mash potatoes that sopped up all the rich sweet and salty pan juices.  HEAVEN!!

Recipe: Hudson Canyon Tuna with Shaved Brussel Sprouts

Buying fresh fish has become problematic on so many levels.  These days you have to watch out for mercy levels, farm raised versus wild, sustainable, local organic, extinct vs. bottom feeders, so  I usually rely on Whole Foods to make the decision for me and end up buying their vacuum packed fish and hope for the best. But last Friday we got lucky,  my boyfriend brought home three steaks of wild tuna caught by his friend Eric off the coast of Long Island!