Apple Pie Mini's

I love warm apples and cinnamon. The smell is heavenly and the taste is just delicious. One of my favorite ways to cook apples is to just to bake the whole apple right in the oven with a little bit of cinnamon and butter in a scooped out hole, but then I was led to these fantastic apple pies and my mouth is watering for them. You can find directions here: http://paperplatesandchina.blogspot.com/2011/08/pie-la-apple.html  And the best part is you can easily adjust the recipe to what you have on hand. If you have packaged breads like crescent rolls or cinnamon rolls, you can easily use those instead of pie crust. If you do want a pie crust but prefer a vegan substitute, you can try a delicious almond pie crust like this one:  http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/desserts/r/almondpiecrust.htm . If you like the taste of something like toasted walnuts, throw a few in to your apple mixture, or add a pear instead, or raisins. Use what you have and enjoy these simply desserts. They make staying healthy enjoyable and your house will smell fantastic also. -A

Peanut Butter and Banana Smoothie

I found this recipe in our local Sunday paper, and look forward to trying it out.


Peanut Butter and Banana Agave Smoothie
1 ripe banana
1/2 cup to 1 cup fat free vanilla yogurt
2 tablespoons C&H Organic Light Agave nectar 
1/2 cup skim milk 
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter 
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4-6 ice cubes


Combine everything in the blender until smooth. This is per serving, so just double, triple, etc for the number of people you are serving. I would imagine you could substitute soy or almond milk for the skim, maybe even soygurt or yofu, or even applesauce or coconut milk if you prefer dairy free. Just experiment and have fun.

Yummy Lunch...A Big Fat Salad

For lunch we always have a nice big salad. Doesn't that look awesome?....loaded with lots of raw vegetables and I like to add Mandarin oranges and dried cranberries to mine...they make it so good. DD skips the fruit in her salads but loves to add a hard boiled egg. We usually load up on many different leafy greens in our salads, like spinach, arugula, romaine, and some sort of artisan or organic mixed greens. Topped with broccoli, carrots, jicama, kidney beans, eggs, green onions, red onions, celery, red and green bell peppers, cauliflower, sunflower seeds ....well you get the idea....anything we have in the fridge. 
I have found a great dressing called Galeos. They have a couple of flavors but the one I enjoy is the Miso Sesame Seed dressing. 2 Tablespoons is only 50 Calories with 3% fat and 0% saturated fat, and 6% sodium. Woo Hoo.....this stuff is Gold!
DD enjoys the Eating Right dressings from Safeway. We haven't been able to find the Ranch lately...but the Fresh Garlic Caesar is 70 calories for 2 tablespoons, 4% fat, 3% saturated fat and 10% sodium...which is awesome for a salad dressing! 
Have you looked at the label for your favorite dressing? How does it stack up and what good ones do you recommend? We would love to hear from you. -A

Probiotics

We use the probiotics from Sherry Brescia at
http://www.bluerockholistics.com/product/pross.asp . We looked at many probiotics and decided we like hers the best. With hers you need to keep it refrigerated, it's even shipped cold, so the probiotics stay alive. That doesn't mean others don't work, we actually used the Align probiotics for awhile and did notice some benefits from it also. The probiotics itself intoduce living organisms in to the body which help to create a beneficial healthier inside. Many of the foods and medicines that a person takes can disrupt the balance of good bacteria and bad bacteria within the digestion sysytem and we have found that we just feel better just by adding the probiotics to our lifestyle. There are things you can eat that have these good bacterias but honestly, we can't imagine eating these things very often. You may like these foods but we don't, so the probiotics in capsules is what we choose. Many people eat yogurt as a good source of probiotics, but you have to make sure they are "live" bacteria in the yogurt and your body may require much more then can be provided by just eating one yogurt. Here are the top probiotic foods: Yogurt, Kimchi, Japanese Natto, Miso, Dark Chocolate, Micro-algae, Tempeh, Sauerkraut, Kefir, Pickles or other fermented vegetables, Kombucha Tea, Sourdough bread, and some cheeses. What's your favorite way to get Probiotics? -A

Jicama

This week has been much better, and its not even over yet. Today we are going to a Halloween Faire and though temptation will be all around, we plan to suck down a juice right before hand so the smells of tasty sweet treats doesn't throw us over the edge.
That also means a good lunch beforehand. At lunch, we like to add Jicama to our salad. It's such a unique and tasty surprise in a salad. Don't know what a Jicama is? Here's what one looks like.

They resemble a yam or potato, in that it is a root vegetable. Apparently, these also grow beans on the vine but I have never tried a Jicama bean. The outside is brownish, with a crisp white inside. The skin is interesting because you can peel it off, similar to bark on a tree. I like to peel it, and then run it through the food processor to get shredded pieces, which are awesome to top a salad. I also run carrots through and always have shredded carrots available.

The Jicama skin being peeled.

The Jicama shredded for use as a salad topping.

Now that you know what one is...you can pick one up at your next shopping trip and give it a try. Let us know what you think after trying Jicama. A

To Freeze or Not to Freeze?

So this week was hard, and it showed at the scales. While DD stayed the same, I actually gained a pound. UGH! But, all in all, I'm not worried about it....I'm just happy be feeling better and looking forward to the upcoming week. Todays morning drink had fabulous cherries, banana, papaya, grapes, raspberries, blackberries and pineapple in it. Really delicious. But here's the question....to freeze or not to freeze?  
My thoughts are, for us, it's okay to freeze items and use it, both as a time saver, money saver and its being frozen and used within a week. And while it is better to eat the fruit right away...we are still getting much of the benefits we want even though we are using the freshly frozen fruit. For example, I love pineapple, but we never eat a whole pineapple before it starts to go bad. So instead of throwing money down the drain, I have been cutting the pineapple and then will freeze what I don't use right then. I can then take a chunk or two out each day and throw the frozen piece of pineapple in to the blender. I also freeze cantalope or melons. For the most part everything else we blend is fresh.
So, be creative, try new things, and have fun while eating healthier. For dinner last night, DD made some grilled pineapple, which was just delicious. Our local whole foods clerk suggested we try juicing 2-3 cups spinach, some fresh mint, with a pineapple. Sounds interesting. Okay..it sounds disgusting but the funny thing is that juicing wierd combination of foods actually tastes better then eating those same food combos raw. I would never eat a beet, carrot, cucumber, lemon, chard salad but as a drink it works.
Tip of the day: Invest in some sharp knives. Cutting pineapple, acorn squash and melons, etc. is so much easier with a good knife. Doesn't have to be an expensive knife, just sharp. We bought a $30 set of 5 or 6 knives at Costco and they work awesome, making the cutting of the fresh fruits and vegetables so much easier. Enjoy your day. A

Dirty Floor

True to our 'Dirty Girls' name, it seems like our floor is always getting dirty when juicing/blending.  So...this is how Angee mops the floor.

This week has been hard since Angee has been sick because it has been much easier to go through the drive thru.  We still did good up until about 1pm each day and already need to buy more fruit.  The scale will tell the tale come Sunday! - D