Too hard to keep up three blogs!

Find my personal blog (which includes all my juicing adventures) here divaskychick.wordpress.com

My juicing journey without all the family and craft stuff is here

Thanks for reading!

Day 5: Juicing Ain't So Bad

She says as she munches on a pilfered yogurt covered pretzel....

Ahhh Day Five… Started out fabulous with a totally savory V8 style raw juice. It was pretty good. Not perfect but a good first try. Everything you see here PLUS a peeled lemon and a quarter of an avocado in the blender, a little celery salt, onion powder and some tabasco. Oh, and I only used a quarter of that jalapeno. I will make some version of this again tomorrow afternoon. Tomorrow morning I have something special planned. Stay tuned, folks.

I can’t believe I’ve been drinking the same Kitchen Sink juice for two years and only just last week started changing it up. What a waste of opportunity! I just had no idea so many options existed. I mean, juicing a pumpkin was a flat out revelation. Now I’m eyeing a red onion, a butternut squash and some lentil beans… Can you juice sprouted lentils? I have no clue. But I’ll bet Google does.

My afternoon juice (and I make huge batches so it’s not like I’m drinking only two juices a day) was another experiment. Some pineapple, an apple, heart of romaine, kale, celery, carrot and a cucumber through the juicer and then in blender I put in maybe half a cup of raw beet I had been marinating in Ani’s Golden Elixir (mainly lemon juice, olive oil, raw honey and raw soy sauce.) I guess the olive oil takes it off the super great weight loss plan. Not to mention the honey. Didn’t taste as wonderful as I thought it would but it was very good. Maybe the pumpkin pie juice has just ruined me forever. My taste buds have evolved and there’s no going back.

Okay, then there’s that pretzel… Look, I have a three year old. That I didn’t eat a whole BAG of pretzels is a victory. So there. :P

Pumpkin Pie Juice!!

Can I just get this out there, once, so I can move on? OH MY GOD!!!!!

I just made pumpkin juice. I’m calling it Pumpkin Pie juice because I used pumpkin pie spice and some honey and a banana to sweeten it and seriously, this is the best juice I’ve ever made.

I have to give credit where credit is due. Terri Mares on Raw Food Rehab gave me the idea and talked about it on her video blog here. She was discussing ways to keep a long term juicing diet interesting and can we just say Jackpot?!!!

Here’s my recipe:

One six inch pumpkin scrubbed clean, scooped out and chopped into pieces to fit juicer. Do not peel. Add two whole red apples. Juice in my Breville Juicer.

In a blender, add a banana, a teaspoon of raw, unfiltered honey, a little less than half a teaspoon Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Pie Spice and a handful of ice. This is pumpkin pie in a glass, but totally healthy and raw. It’s breakfast AND dessert. Did I mention it’s heavenly?

Coco drinks my green juices every day but she’s having a hard time with this one. She’s only three and hasn’t really found her way to spices yet. She’s more of a simple pasta with olive oil kind of girl. I’m eyeing her glass longingly, even though I’m giving lip service to her drinking it if she wants to watch Cat in the Hat later today. I think we may have to make a deal…

Dinner time and Feeling Guilty

Juice Fast, Day Three

Meant to post this last night but forgot to hit publish!

My poor husband is starting a new business, wrapping up a long career in journalism with a well respected (although conservative) magazine. He's giving up regular TV appearances as the liberal punching bag on a conservative news show and entering the world of entrepreneurship to better provide for his family. I always joke that writing about business doesn't make him a businessman but in truth, I'm certain he's going to do very well.

What does this have to do with juicing? Well it's dinner time and I here I sit, faithfully sipping my juice and yet feeling guilty. My man is so stressed and so busy but he still took the time to spend the entire day with our daughter so that Mommy could have a little time to herself. The least I could do is fix him a nice dinner, right? So what if the tantalizing aromas are tough to "stomach" (haha.)

I should just bite the bullet and do this for him. And I will. Right now. Thanks for working through this with me.

PS: I broiled eggplant rounds with a little olive oil and salt, made a tapenade with kalamata olives and sun dried tomatoes and served both with goat cheese on toasted crusty bread. On a painful scale of one to ten, I'd call it a ten.

The Anti-Fall Post and Why I'm Juice Fasting

Much as I love the season, fall has not been kind to my waist line. I’m 44 years old and I just can’t eat like I used to. I jumped on the scale yesterday and was shocked to find that I now weigh more than my “fat weight.” In other words, I haven’t weighed this much since six months after my daughter was born, when I finally started dropping the fifty (!!) pounds I had gained during my pregnancy.

At times like this there’s only one thing to do: Break out the Juice Master’s 7 Lbs in 7 Days’ Super Juice Diet. Fortunately I had a feeling this was coming (might have started during a recent croissant binge) so I’ve been psyching myself up. Steph thinks he’s going to join me like he did last February when he lost 25 lbs but if he gets any skinnier I’ll have to shoot him to put him out of MY misery. My husband is not supposed to be skinnier than me. It’s a rule, possibly even biblical. Punishable by stoning, obviously.

So I’m psychologically ready and I’ve already survived day one. I’m checking out the recipes in the Liquid Lounge at Raw Food Rehab and I’ve added some juicing and raw food blogs to the ever growing list I follow. And I know, this time, that I can’t just go back to stuffing my face when this fast is over. I’d like to achieve about a 75% raw lifestyle. That’s the aim.

Nesting in November

Fall makes me "nesty." I've been cleaning and reorganizing the past few weeks and sewing up a storm. I want to bake butter slathered acorn squash and cook hearty soups, sew duvet covers and wear cashmere. I want to make a wreath for the door and start my Christmas shopping. I love being at home this time of year!

I've been taking a five week "homewares" sewing class at the Lill Street Art Center. We're supposed to be working on napkins, placemats, curtains and pillows but the instructor is very laid back (no patterns!) and really wants us to work on whatever we want. It's kind of like getting together with a bunch of strangers for some dedicated sewing time, and having an instructor around to help if you get stuck. In a way, it's just what I need.

Last night I made fitted sheet for Coco's toddler bed. Nothing to show you because I just used a cream color muslin for the first time to see how it would come together. It was ridiculously easy using instructions from here. Do yourself a favor and watch the video on sewing with elastic if you've never done so. Even my instructor learned something.

I've also completed the napkins above. Well, I've made eight of them. Is that enough? I used Sew4Home's instructions instead of the teacher's. Then I made these coordinating cocktail napkins without any instructions.

Just sew right sides together but leave a hole to turn inside out. Top stitch around the edge (which also closes the hole.)

The fabric is Lotus Garden by Stonehill. I'm thinking about buying some coordinating yardage and making a table cloth like this one:

Does that look hard? It should be as simple as cutting and sewing straight lines, neither of which I'm particularly good at. Something to do with patience?!

The whole project has to be done before Thanksgiving because we're having a pretty good size get together - six adults and three three year olds if no one else gets invited between now and then. As it is, I'll have to borrow chairs. I don't care, though. I love a house full of friends, family and good food. These particular friends are like family and their daughters are some of Coco's best friends. Isn't that lucky? I'm not quite ready to cook but I have my November issues of Martha Stewart and Bon Appetit next to my bed and I've got cranberry sauce on the brain. This time I'm going to quadruple the recipe and MAYBE we'll have some left over. Maybe...

Glass Jack O'Lanterns

So during my kitchen deep clean I found six tall orange glasses we picked up at CB2 about three years ago for a decor idea that never gelled. They've been sitting on the counter for a week while I considered what to do with them.

It hit me last night:
[caption id="attachment_471" align="alignnone" width="640" caption="Halloween Decor"][/caption]


Better late than never, I guess!