Now granted, I didn’t eat too terribly in Vegas.  In fact, check out this beautiful salad I had on Thursday evening:

It makes me want to get out my spiralizer, which has been sadly neglected as of late.

I had seaweed salad and a side of seared tuna at a really fun sushi restaurant we found:

And I even ate at the Canyon Ranch Grill for lunch – unfortunately no pics of this one but I had a small serving of quinoa salad with butternut squash cubes and a cup of delicious roasted vegetable soup.  And a REAL ginger ale, made with fresh ginger juice!  (SO GOOD!)

But here and there I had to sneak in some fun stuff too, like these fabulous chocolate crepes at Espressement Illy:

So I always get home from any kind of travel and just really look forward to some simple plant-based meals I toss together myself, like a salad of baby bok choy greens, cucumber, grape tomatoes and homemade vegan ranch dressing:

Or some fajita-spiced peppers and onions with tomatoes, nutritional yeast and cilantro hominy:

And of course a super-sized green smoothie!

I had a fabulous little visit but it sure tastes good to be home! 

What do you miss when you travel?

– Shari B. =)

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

• 5 Things That Can Undermine Your Health When Flying (and tips to avoid them)
• Why You Might Want to ADD a Pound
• The BEET of My Own Drum

It’s amazing how good one can feel after a few consecutive nights of really great sleep!  Today’s workout was fabulous.

• Dynamic warmup for 5 minutes + some rotator cuff exercises
• Deep smith squats (I mean DEEP.  Hamstrings touching calves)
• Overhead shoulder presses
• DB rows with horizontal grip
• Curtsy lunges with weight vest
• Back extensions on the ball
• Ball crunches
• Biceps with the band
• Triceps with the band
• Angled pushups on smith machine with varying hand placements

And later today, when the weather is supposed to be mid-70s I get to do a little socialcizing at my favorite hilly loop with a good friend for some catch up time.  It’s going to be a great day!

After weights this morning, I made a super post-workout smoothie.

This thing was massive!  32 ounces.  It didn’t even fit into my large cup!  It was like the Big Gulp of smoothies!

So I wondered – if my smoothie is THIS big and this filling, what kind of calories are we talking here?  Just out of curiosity I decided to enter it into a calorie calculator to check.  In addition to 10 ounces of water and a couple of ice cubes, here are the ingredients and the calorie info (if it is hard to read, click on the image to see it full-size):

Only 216 calories and a very solid balance of protein and carbs.  I don’t mind that the fat is low, because I get plenty of healthy fats in my lunches and dinners by way of avocado, egg yolks, olive oil and more.

Look at all the goodies packed into this smoothie: Ginger is included for its anti-inflammatory properties, not mention helpful for digestion and it is a warming ingredient.  Lemon for a boost of alkalinity.  Mixed berries (black, blue and strawberries) rich in antioxidants.  Frozen organic spinach because no meal is complete without some leafy greens!  Cucumber (also anti-inflammatory and antioxidant-rich) for healthy connective tissue and cleansing water content.  Celery – hello fiber!

If you are looking for a calorie controlled breakfast option that you can eat on the run, this one’s for you!

Have a fabulous Friday friends!  And a safe and fun St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow!

– Shari B. =)

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

• Dressed Up Like Tabouleh
• Who Needs a Garden Anyway
• Weekend of Weddings

Since greens remind me of warmer days, I thought I’d share another kitchen tip with you today.  Treat your greens like freshly cut flowers and they will last longer.  I do this with kale, parsley and cilantro regularly.

Grab a heavy glass jar (this is where my leftover almond butter jars come in handy) and fill with enough filtered water that the cut end of the stems sit are just dipped in.

Cover very lightly with a plastic bag to create its own little greenhouse.

Place in your refrigerator.

Change the water every few days as you would with a bouquet of flowers.

Fresh herbs elevate the flavor of just about every dish and they can be pretty pricey!  So making sure they last longer is important to me because I really hate to throw money into my garbage disposal.

Organic kale is no bargain either at $3 a bunch.  If your kale does start to get ‘wilty’ before you get a chance to use it all, make some kale chips with it, juice it or toss some into a green smoothie.

You can also do this with your asparagus when it comes into season.

Have a super day friends! 

– Shari B. =)

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

• Kale Babies
• Juicehead
• Tastes Good to Be Home

I just finished an AWESOME lower body workout and am sipping on a green post-workout smoothie.  We attempted a hike this morning so we got really bundled up and strapped on our Yak Trax. We knew it was windy when we drove to the trailhead, but we literally got out of the car, took three steps, looked at each other and said, “Indoor workout instead??”  Holy hurricane winds, Batman!  You could hardly stand up straight.  So we came home, took the dogs out for Riley’s vet-ordered mini-walk (which really looks more like a drunken sailor wobble for Riley) while we were still bundled up tight and then I did 50 minutes of walking lunges, squats, wall squats, deadlifts, wide/straight leg deadlifts, calf raises, step ups, pulsing lunges, etc.  You get the idea.  I will be feeling it tomorrow!

No sense waiting until tomorrow to work on those 2012 intentions!  I feel a productive day coming on!

I have printed out my January No Slacker Tracker – if you are new to FitFeat, here is a post I wrote on it before.  And here is a link to a free January 2012 printable for you if you want your own.

This will give me a quick visual of when I’m moving my bod (I’ll mark that with one color and plan to also use another color to mark the days I feel I’m being nutritionally supportive of it as well).  All these little head colds are definitely my body’s way of telling me I haven’t been feeding it properly lately.

Really minimizing sugars (outside of fruit) will be on my list.  Good thing these arrived for Christmas and have already been gobbled up:

Huge thanks to my super friend Allison of The Sunday Flog for sending these delicious (and GORGEOUS) cookies.  What a fun treat!  Cory knows that when something is going to arrive in the mail from her, it’ll be delightful so he made trip after trip to the mailbox in anticipation.  (Last year her caramels were amazing and so were the FitFeat cookies!).   My photos don’t do her cookies justice, so go check out her post where she shows all the hard work and love that went into making these.  Allison, we devoured them that night and saved a couple to have with our coffee the next morning – thank you so much for the wonderful gift!

On that note friends, have an amazing celebration to ring in 2012 tonight!  I’m gonna go hit the list of things to get done and then I need to get ready to head out for our evening!

See you *next year*! 

– Shari B. =)

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

• Who Needs a Garden Anyway
• School Shopping & Quick Eats
• Cuts Like Buttah

WOW, my office is cold this morning – 64 degrees!

Oscar (the little guy on the weather station) thinks he needs that hat and scarf for OUTSIDE.  I’m thinking I need them inside just to write my blog post!  My office faces north and is at the end of the vent system so it doesn’t get a whole lot of heat on chilly days. 

So this is on full blast this morning:

And I’m chugging on my post-workout green smoothie, which doesn’t do much to warm me up.

Scoop of brown rice protein, 1/2 cucumber, 1 celery stalk, sprinkle of freshly ground flaxseeds, spoon of pepitas, handful of spinach, a clementine (Joan, I picked up some clementines – thanks for the reminder!) and 8 oz of water.

Yes, I did say POST-WORKOUT!  I got up and did a workout this morning for the first time in a number of days because of being sick (more on the workout in a minute).  For this being a FIT LIVING blog, I certainly haven’t been fitting in much FIT recently, have I?  I was thinking the other day how I’m looking forward to the fresh start of the upcoming new year and hoping it’s a better one overall.  2011 has been a great year in many ways, but between school finals in the early part of the year, getting a new business set up and going, catching pertussis (which had me out of the game for 2 months), then rhabdomyolysis (with a hospital stay and doc-imposed exercise restrictions after that fact) and now this cold, I feel like this has been one of my least “fit” years.  It seems like every time I climb back on my healthy wagon, I hit a bump and get bounced off!    As I told someone recently about their same issues, we need to install some seatbelts on these wagons! Early 2012 will bring my 39th birthday so I really want my last year in my thirties to be super-fit!  “Fit & Fine at 39″ will be my slogan.

Since it’s like I’m starting from square one, today’s workout was a little on the light side but it was a blast!

Circuit Workout:

Waterski Lunges (reverse lunge while holding a cable row at your belly)

Ball Knee-Ins

Single Leg Deadlifts

Tubing Crossover Lat Pulldowns

Frankenstein Squats (with broomstick)

Ball Crunches

Cardio Dance Interval to Rihanna “We Found Love“

Sip some water

Waterski Lunges (reverse lunge while holding a cable row at your belly)

Crossover Planks

Single Leg Deadlifts

Tubing Crossover Lat Pulldowns

Frankenstein Squats (low half of movement only to bump up intensity)

Hanging Knee Raises

Cardio Dance Interval to Ne-Yo “Closer”

Cool down and stretch

Ahhh I feel better already!  Now it’s just a matter of stringing a number of these good days together to rebuild my consistency.

Anyone else looking forward to a “clean slate” of 2012?  What are you looking forward to putting behind you?

Have a WONDERFUL Wednesday blog buds!

– Shari B. =)

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

• Tastes Good to Be Home
• The Lean, Light and LARGE Smoothie
• Bouquet of Greens

It’s been a fun day so far!   We got up this morning and did a Tabata workout.  Cory did his regular Tabata leg workout (smith squats, leg extensions, deadlifts, machine curls, lunges and abs).  I of course had to tweak my workout (just like I do with recipes, because I get bored so easily I guess!) so I did my Tabata routine with these:

• standing kickbacks with banding
• smith squats with a narrow stance
• kettlebell windmills (alternating sides each set)
• single straight leg deadlifts – balanced on a yoga mat**
• hamstring curls on fitball
• plank mashup (some straight, some with hip twist, side planks)

** I don’t have a cool balancing disk or a Bosu so when I want to ramp up the intensity of an exercise a bit, I add a bit of balance to it by folding up a yoga mat.  Looks simple, but it really does throw your body just a bit off kilter when you are doing single leg exercises.  Like this:

After our workout, I had a big green juice with kale, a green apple, a little lemon, some ginger, celery, cucumber, and broccoli stalks.

Then we took the crazy beasts out for a walk.  They got their greens with breakfast too (my dogs go nuts for kale stalks) – look closely and you’ll see him licking his lips!  His little tongue is poking out:

When it was time for some real breakfast food, I made buckwheat pancakes (with some extra protein powder and greek yogurt mixed into the batter) topped with some blueberry goat cheese and a little organic maple syrup:

I can’t tell you the last time I made pancakes – it’s been a long time!  Granted when you are using buckwheat they aren’t the same “cake-y” delightful ones you might get at IHOP, but these sure are better for you!

For lunch I made a spinach and pesto quesadilla.  Don’t mind the bite out of the tortilla.  I was trying a new sprouted grain tortilla and wanted to make sure I liked it first before I actually made my lunch.

A good trick when you are using cheese is to grate it with a super fine microplane.  You get the “visual effect” of a good amount of cheese, but by weight you hardly have any because it’s so light.  Here I’m using my favorite Mt. Sterling raw goat cheese.

Pile on a bunch of baby spinach, fold in half and cook on your Foreman grill for a few minutes until the cheese is melted and sizzling.

I was planning to have these baby carrots on the side:

But unfortunately they were frozen solid.  On to plan B:

Who doesn’t love the Pampered Chef crinkle cutter? 

My afternoon snack was a SUPERGREEN smoothie (and this one even tasted a little greener than usual).  Frozen mango, kale, spinach, greens powder and egg protein.

I’ve definitely had my fair share of greens today!

How about you?  Did you get a lot of greens in?  Or do you need to include a leafy green salad with your dinner? 

Before I go I have two more pics to share.  One I took on the way to meet my client for our run yesterday.  Look at how dark it is now in the morning!  This was at 6:15 AM.

I don’t mind cooler days, but I already miss the extra daylight!

And this other pic I took when Rascal saw a squirrel from our window – this was too cute NOT to get a snapshot…

My two *men* 

Hope you are having a GREAT weekend so far!

– Shari B. =)

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

• School Shopping & Quick Eats
• Plenty of Green on Black Friday
• The Lean, Light and LARGE Smoothie

So are you in a heat wave where you live?  We are looking at the 13th or 14th day of 90+ temps today.  I don’t mind ONE bit.  Why?  Because I see the temps down in Arizona (thanks iPhone for that cool feature) everyday and I can’t tell you the last time I’ve seen them below 100 for their daily highs.  When I look at their forecast, I see this:  104, 107, 107, 105, 106, 105, 108.

Holy hot pants, Batman!  That’s crazy hot!  So 90+ in Denver – it’s like the north pole up here!

You know what cools the soul on a super hot day?  Green smoothies!  Especially if you put cucumber in it!  (Cucumbers are very cooling and very hydrating.)

Right now as I type this I am drinking the ugliest of green smoothies. Thanks to a couple of frozen cherries AND some greens powder in addition to my 1/2 cucumber, 4 kale leaves (oh darn I just realized I forgot my celery), 1 scoop of Amazing Meal and a banana.  Well,  it’s not a your typical bright green. 

Hello UGLY SMOOTHIE!

Thank you banana for being able to hide plenty of green flavor and make this ugly thing taste SO MUCH BETTER than it looks!

I was in dire need of getting back to my usual eating habits.  After our road tripping weekend plus MSP’s birthday and the free stuff I ate at the IKEA grand opening yesterday (that is a whole other post…) I have taken in what feels like a mountain of sugar.  And my tummy has been vocal in letting me know that it wanted the healthy stuff back!

After a morning run at my favorite hilly trail, I made a green juice (much prettier green!)

My mid-morning snack was a slice of toasted Ezekial with miso, almond butter and cinnamon (with a side of coconut water and some B12)

For lunch, I had a leftover hummus plate from Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill that I reworked into a wrap (2 pcs falafel, pickled cabbage, hummus, tomato/cucumber dicers and a bit of tabbouleh)

Dinner is yet TBD.  I have no clue what I’m making for dinner and the day is flying by.  Too much to do, too little time!  I need to continue recipe testing “freezer” recipes, so if you have ideas for me send them my way!  I could use some inspiration! 

***

Speaking of MSP’s birthday, as a gift to him, I’m going to return his real name to him on the blog.  I don’t think he’s ever been a fan of the “MSP” moniker (which actually was just my shortened way to say My Sweetie Pie) — maybe it has something to do with being too close to PMS?  I can’t be sure.   Either way, Happy Happy Birthday to my sweetie pie, Cory.   (Well, happy bday yesterday that is, since I’m just writing today!)  In one of my next posts, I’ll fill you in on how we spent most of his birthday at IKEA.  Weird way to spend a birthday, you might think, but we had a blast!  I’ll show you why!

Have a great day blog buds!  If you are sweltering wherever you live I will send cooling thoughts your way!

– Shari B. =)

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

• Juicehead
• The Lean, Light and LARGE Smoothie
• Who Needs a Garden Anyway

I have a fair amount of air travel coming up between now and October for business and fun.  I don’t know about you but flying really can work a number on my body.  I thought I’d share a FitFeature with five things to keep in mind when you travel by plane and some of the tips I use to stay healthy and keep my body feeling good.

1. Flying is very dehydrating to the body thanks to the recycled air and reduced oxygen

Focus on getting plenty of hydrating liquids before, during and after your flight.  It’s tempting to not want to drink up so that you don’t have to use the plane’s lavatory, but please don’t make this mistake.  It won’t be worth it in the long run.  Good choices are plain filtered water, coconut water, water with lemon, kombucha tea.  Unfortunately since you can’t bring your own liquids through security you end up needing to buy some bottled water once you are at your gate. I know it’s expensive, but your body will thank you.

Avoid dehydrating drinks like coffee and alcohol. (If you need a coffee, at the very least choose decaf.  Or better yet have herbal tea.)  And unless there is a fresh juice bar in the airport, skip the juice as well.  If it’s bottled it has been pasteurized with high heat so all the goodness of fresh juice is no longer in the bottled juice.  Further, if it’s not organic juice, you could be getting an extra-concentrated dose of pesticide chemicals.

Another thing you can do is bring some prepared water-rich fruits and vegetables along (fortunately food is allowed through security):  cucumber slices, watermelon chunks, grapefruit segments, oranges, salad with plenty of tomato, lemon segments (great for adding to your water once you are on the plane and for squeezing onto your salad as well).

2. The decreased air pressure can cause gas and bloating

Oh boy.  This one gets me every time.  I can FEEL that pressure on my insides and it’s so uncomfortable.  The day before and the day of a flight I really focus on eating foods that are easy to digest:  green smoothies, fresh green juice, green salads, lightly steamed vegetables, water-rich fruits, maybe a little fish and eggs (easier proteins to digest), Greek yogurt if you don’t have any dairy issues.

Things you may want to minimize:  beans, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, heavy/rich foods, meats (harder to digest and stay in your system longer), nuts that haven’t been soaked (they are harder to digest as well).  Pay attention to things in everyday life that cause you to feel bloated or a little ‘gassy’ – these are the things you don’t want to eat the day you fly.  They might be a little different for everyone.

3. Being cooped up with a lot of germs blowing around

I never used to be a germaphobe. Then about 5 years ago when we took a cruise, there was an outbreak of norovirus on our ship.  Thank goodness we didn’t contract it (about 500 unlucky other people did) and the entire staff were walking around in surgical masks, wearing plastic gloves, spraying disinfectant everywhere.  You would have thought it was the plague.   I started pushing the elevator buttons with my elbow (and only if it was covered in clothing!).  It’s shocking to me now when I pay attention in public places how many people are  coughing, sniffling, hacking and I swear they all somehow end up on your plane sitting near you.  One time I wore a bandana around my neck like scarf so that I could cover my face just in case.  True story.  Sounds ridiculous and extreme, but I didn’t get sick!  I rarely use hand antibacterial lotion in everyday life but I definitely do when I fly.  And this year, that’s exactly where I caught that nasty pertussis virus (whooping cough) that took me down for a while.

This is another reason that adding a lot of vegetables and fruits to your diet is helpful.  Increase your intake of all colors of produce to help boost your immune system daily.  If you aren’t a fan of eating all of your fruits/veggies, consider green smoothies, fresh organic green juices(and wheatgrass juice) or even dried greens powders.

I increase my intake of probiotics even more around travel times:  kombucha tea, probiotic tablets (50 billion), kefir, fermented foods like sauerkraut and tempeh.

4. Radiation exposure

There’s not much you can do to minimize your exposure here except for maybe ask for the pat-down in lieu of going through the new big X-ray machines.  However, you can choose some foods wisely to help cleanse some of that radiation.  Best choice?  Seaweed!  I eat seaweed a few times a week anyway, but before and after flying I try to incorporate some extra seaweed into my salads.  Soak arame and then turn it into a marinated seaweed salad.  Or add dulse flakes to more meals (it hides well in most anything cooked).  Look for a Japanese restaurant the next time you travel and order a seaweed salad and some miso soup.

Chlorophyll-rich foods are also helpful in cleansing – which if you are eating lots of dark veggies you’ll be covered.  This is where your fresh green juices, green smoothies, salads and greens powders are helpful.  I also keep a bottle of chlorophyll tablets around for high-travel times as well.

5. Flying really restricts movement

I am not one to get up and walk around much on a plane.  If my flights were longer than 2-3 hours each, I definitely would make an effort walk the aisleways to keep my leg muscles moving (this is especially important for minimizing the risk of DVT, deep vein thrombosis). 

While I know some folks like to be productive when hanging out at the gate waiting for a flight, this is the time to get your body moving.  I won’t ask you to do something crazy like wall squats or lunges in public (although you can do some hover squats in the privacy of a restroom stall if you’d like!) but definitely WALK AROUND.  Don’t take the escalator/elevator if there is an option for stairs, and don’t take those moving sidewalks.  Move as much as you can before/after the flight.  And walk on over to the restroom right before boarding!

Move around while you are waiting for your bags to arrive at baggage claim.  This is also a great time to do some stretching – reach down and touch your toes, do a few side bends, put your arms overhead and stretch up onto your toes like you just got out of bed.  And if you feel like people are watching you, don’t worry – there are plenty of odder things going on at the airport for people to look at!

***

The bottom line for minimizing the physical impact of air travel:  hydrate, load up on fruits/veggies, increase your sea vegetable and probiotic intake, and move your bod! Avoid the tempting prepackaged foods and fast food restaurants because all those things will do is weigh you down further, make you more dehydrated, zap your energy, and increase the toxic load on your body.  That’s no way to start your trip – especially if it’s for something fun! 

(Hmmm… that sounds a lot like what you hear me spouting for daily living here at FitFeat!) 

Do you have any favorite tips/tricks/home remedies for keeping the body happy and healthy when traveling?  Please share with us!

– Shari B. =)

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

• The 10 Commandments of FitFeat
• Cuts Like Buttah
• Make Your Old Year(end) Resolution Today!

I’m drinking a refreshingly tart green smoothie this morning. It includes:

• 1/2 lemon (peeled)
• 1/3 grapefruit (peeled)
• handful red grapes
• 2 kale leaves
• handful spinach
• drizzle of hemp oil
• 1/3 frozen banana
• 1/2 cucumber
• 1 celery stalk
• 1 scoop vanilla “Raw Protein” sprouted grain powder (Garden of Life)

You can definitely taste the grapefruit!

This is following a leg-shaking lower body Tabata workout today.  (I’m officially cleared for exercise again!  Wahoo!)

• BW Speed Squat Taps
• Barstool Swings + Squat (place a tall stool in front of you.  Swing one leg up and over it then squat down, repeat other side.)
• Straight Leg Deadlifts
• Clam (for glutes)
• Yoga cycle:  Twisting Chair Prayer left and right, Reverse Warrior left and right, Plank, Eagle Pose left and right, regular Chair Pose
• Core cycle: supermans, boat pose

As I type it out, it looks easy but it was surprisingly challenging.  I think Tabata timing makes any exercise movement more challenging.

***

Seeing how we are coming up on the 4th of July, I wanted to repost one of my FitFeat favorites (from July 2010).  I still love its message.  Plus, today being July 1, we are now officially in the second half of the year.  Spend some time today revisiting resolutions or goals made back on January 1 – anything you still want to work on?  Or maybe you’ve accomplished them all and you are ready to make some new ones!

Something New to Celebrate This Independence Day

I always love the start of a new month – it’s like a mini-New Year celebration every 30 days or so!  Feels like a fresh start.  Each July to me often feels like an especially clean slate – we’re starting the second half of the year.  I like to remind clients to celebrate an additional kind of independence over this holiday weekend (and throughout the month).

Become independent and free yourself:

• from toxic foods/additives – eliminate them as much as you can to get things back to balance – this is a great time to just cleanse the system with plant foods.  Drink a green smoothie, eat some fresh berries, have a cool salad for dinner.
• from addictive sugar cravings – this is a tough one, I know! I struggle with this off and on.  Stop consuming refined sugar for a few days in a row and then it becomes a piece of (sugarless) cake.  The first days are the hardest but if you get past the ‘hump’ you’ll thank yourself for it. 
• from being bound by restrictive diets – pick some healthy habits and live by those rather than feeling that you have to follow strict rules that will ultimately make you binge or backslide later on.
• from being a slave to body image – hey we all have something we personally think is a ‘flaw’ but how about this month, let’s pick something about our bodies to LOVE when we look in the mirror.

These are just a few examples to get you thinking!

What not-so-great habit will you break free of this Independence Day and replace with a new healthy one?

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

• The Lean, Light and LARGE Smoothie
• Who Needs a Garden Anyway
• If You Live In Swelterville…

I have been spending a decent amount of time in the kitchen recently (pictures to follow later in the post). Today when I was testing a new recipe adaptation for a vegetarian Adzuki Bean Shepherd’s Pie (with spicy mashed yams on top… mmmm!) I was realizing that if I were ever to have a cooking show it would most likely be featured on Comedy Central as opposed to the Food Network.  And not so much because of my silly sense of humor but because of the string of crazy things that seem to happen when I step into my own kitchen.

Like when I was trying to pour from a new container of vegetable stock and it decided to “glug” WAAAAY past the measuring cup and splash all over my arm and shirt.

Or when I was stirring a mixture of adzuki beans and vegetables sauteeing on the stovetop and my spatula took on a life of its own, made some sort of slingshot maneuver and flung bean mixture EVERYWHERE.  (Seriously – I’m going to have to move my stove out from the wall to clean this one up.)

I feel fortunate that when I used both my blender and my food processor today, the lids were firmly in place.  It could have been disastrous – it has just been one of those days!

The good news?  The shepherd’s pie was delicious!  (I’m not really sure what to call it – it’s obviously not shepherd’s pie if there’s no lamb in it.  “Farmer’s Pie” maybe?)

It’s not very pretty in the casserole dish pictured below.  When I make this for the intended client, it will be in single serving baking dishes and I’ll fancy up the yam topper (maybe with a pastry bag) but when I’m just checking to see how it tastes and how it will freeze/thaw/reheat, I’m not worried about the looks yet. 

However, some of the other things I’ve made lately are much easier on the eyes:

Raw “Fruit Truffles”
with dates, carob, orange zest/juice, dried cranberries and rolled in raw sesame seeds

Orange Chia Seed MiniCakes with Dark Chocolate Coconut Ganache
and White Chocolate abstracts (all vegan except for the white chocolate)
(I was sharing with the neighbors, so I put their initials on them)

I also made some quick-bread muffins with the pulp leftover from my juicer…

… but then I forgot to take a picture when they were done!

(I’m putting together an alternative ingredient dessert class that will be hosted in the near future by a wonderful gal I know!  Just so you don’t think all I’m eating these days is sweets!  )

I also tried Gena’s raw juice pulp crackers in the dehydrator and I tossed some green olives, garlic, capers and artichoke hearts into the food processor to make a quick ‘tapenade’:

***

I’ve gotten back into the swing of eating again like I used to:  aiming for a minimum of a pound of raw veggies a day via green smoothie and large salad, plus some cooked veggies.  And on top of that I’m also adding in some fresh green juice as well – it feels GREAT to be getting back to that.  I have so much food testing to do now as a part of my job that I’d really gotten away from getting in all my raw veggies.  Granted, most of the test food I make has TONS of veggies in it (even just today’s recipe alone had onion, mushrooms, carrot, zucchini, celery and yam) – but RAW veggies are very important for us as well for the enzymes and vitamins that can be diminished or destroyed by cooking.

I weighed my smoothie veggies for fun:

13.6 oz of GREEN just in my smoothie!  Wahoo!

Rascal… every morning he just EYEBALLS my smoothies.

Juice with fun things like broccoli stalks, parsley, cucumber, celery, kale and a green apple:

Kale salad (massaged in hemp oil) and topped with a very-veggie-egg salad (green onions, celery, kale stalks, carrots, beans and sprouts):

Chard Boats filled with navy beans, sprouts, carrots, leftover Pesto Tilapia mixed with a little Vegenaise:

***

Speaking of healthy eating (and JUICING specifically), MSP and I watched a wonderful documentary this past weekend called “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead“.  (I wanted to embed the trailer here but it’s not playing nice with me today so click HERE for the link to watch it on YouTube.)

Long story short:  the man in the film got up to 309 lbs and also suffered from an autoimmune disease.  He went on a physician-monitored green juice fast … for SIXTY DAYS!!  (Incidentally that doc was Dr. Joel Fuhrman – whose books I love and who first turned me on to the idea of getting at least 1 lb of raw veggies per day).  Can you imagine ONLY drinking juice for 60 days straight?  WOW!  that makes EATING green veggies seem so much easier by comparison, don’t you think?  He then went on to help another man who was 428 lbs (and suffering from the same autoimmune disorder) on his juice fast journey.  There is more to the film – you can “rent” it at Amazon.com and stream it right to your computer.   Check it out!

“Forks Over Knives” (meaning ‘choose nutrition first instead of later having to resort to meds/surgery’), another nutrition documentary, opens in Denver this weekend and I can’t wait to see that one too!

Have you seen either of these movies?  Have you ever done an extended juice fast?

Have a great day friends!  I’ll be back again (sooner this time, I promise) so I can tell you about the start of YARDIO season and also about WATER KEFIR that a friend clued me in on!

– Shari B. =)

Related FitFeat Posts to Check Out:

• If You Live In Swelterville…
• 5 Things That Can Undermine Your Health When Flying (and tips to avoid them)
• Yardio Time is Here Again!