Ohhh....Holy Green Mary

Truth. 

I was scared about this post.  The idea popped into my head and I loved it....then thought about it more, and nearly vomited. 

I'm so happy I experimented and went with my gut.

After all the nasty green beer attempts and other attempts and turning drinks green with dreaded food coloring, I wanted to try something else.  Something that was naturally green, healthy, and a bit naughty. 

What better time to experiment and play around than St. Patrick's Day.  I know many people that like to start there a.m. with a drink on this celebratory day (no judgment) and although I am mostly Greek, I'm also Irish so I best be representing my roots. 

Low and behold.  My Green Mary.  What a beauty and not too different than my regular drink of choice; green juice...with the added companion, Vodka!   

Bloody Marys.  Perfect hangover drink.  Perfect morning drink.  A meal in a glass.  You have your celery, tomatoes, olives, salt and vodka.  What's not too love- other than the red hue.

This mighty fine, green fighting machine is...get this, delicious AND healthy.  I was apprehensive that I couldn't pull it all together and make my favorite bloody drink green, I almost lost hope.

Thanks to Google and adapting a Green Bloody Mary recipe from Food Republic, I came up with a delicious drink to start your St. Patty's morn. 

My Holy Green Mary

EQUAL PARTS

yellow tomatoes, chopped

tomatillos, husks removed

cucumber, peeled and chopped

green apple, peeled and chopped

*spinach-handful

Cocktail

1 1/2 ounces vodka

1/2 ounce fresh lime juice

3-4 dashes green jalapeno Tabasco

1/2 teaspoon white horseradish

1/4 teaspoon celery seed

1 splash olive juice

Directions:

1. Blend the tomatoes, tomatillos, cucumber, spinach, and apple until smooth
2. In a cocktail shaker, combine the mixture with the rest of the ingredients and shake until chilled
3. Pour into a glass and garnish to your hearts desire

The key is to make sure it is extra chilled. 

You have to make this.  Sooo good and truth be told, I am very proud of myself.  Now go make yourself one and maybe, just maybe, you will find a wee Leprechaun who will tell you were your pot of gold is after a few :)

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Bottoms Up.

Getting My Cleanse On

Since I had surgery and Dr.'s orders have prevented me from any form of real exercise, I've thrown caution to the wind in the diet department. I've cheated with sugary treats and salty delights. I have enjoyed pizza, pasta, cookies, wine, cheetos (yes, cheetos and lots), and a few meals out. Great healthy start to my new year, right? It was fun, but really, I feel straight up dis-gu-sting.

Truthfully, I think most of it is not being able to get my booty to the gym. The gym is my escape, my "me" time; which, let's face it, every mom needs. When I work out I feel strong, energized, and confident (ohhhhhhhh somtiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmmeeeesssssss I get a good Feelin'!!). This good feeling automatically influences me to eat good green, nutritious foods that my body craves. When I can't mix it up at the gym, I feel lazy, smooshy, down, and tired. Add to that a crappy diet and I feel like what I see coming out of Baby M's diaper. Great visual right!

I knew I had to do something after this weekend. I had one of my best friends in town, she spoiled us and we had a blast. When I say blast I mean, we ate lots of amazing cheeses', drank one too many martinis, and had wine for dessert. I woke up with a not so healthy feeling. Come Sunday, I decided to have a clean week.

I needed my energy back and to rid myself of all the unhealthy foods (and uh um....alcohol) I ingested. I highly recommend a cleanse if you are feeling bloated, tired, or gross.  I don't think I need to state this, but I will do so because I married an attorney and I don't want anyone getting hurt: I am no expert --- please check with a Dr. if you have any health problems, eating disorders or illnesses before trying any cleanse.

Lucky for me, I have many books on different cleanses and how to detox. But really, many of them can be drastic and just down right unhealthy.

Dr. Brian Clement, director at Hippocrates Health Center in Miami, says in his book Living Foods for Optimum Health: "Fast one day every week, consuming only freshly squeezed green drinks, vegetable juices, purified water, herbal teas. These fasting days will allow any potential long-term toxins to be released before they can cause serious damage. It's like changing the oil in your car before your engine fails."

Sounds amazing right? But do these people have young kids? I sometimes feel that people who can pull off juice fasting must not have kids who ask them for food 24/7 or they just have an insane amount of willpower. With three young boys and one man in the house, I am around food A LOT. I think I might die trying to withhold all solids for 24 hours while constantly feeding it to others. Either that or I would turn into a wicked mean mommy. I love my family too much to subject them to that.  Now, if I was on a fab yoga retreat in Arizona I could most definitely do a juice/liquid cleanse. But I am not, so I won't.

SO...I decided to take bits and pieces of my different books and create my own realistic plan for the week. I want to give my body a break from spending too much energy breaking down all of the junk I have been eating and redirect it towards healing and detoxifying.  Who knows if it actually rids my body of all the toxins, but I base the success of a cleanse on how I feel.

Here are the major players of my cleanse:

Room temperature water with a squeeze of lemon and a dash of cayenne pepper first thing in the morning (no this is not the highly unhealthy Master Cleanse). According to Kris Carr, "This cleanses your liver and stimulates circulation."

Good Belly Probiotic Juice Drink- this stuff is so good. My bestie who was in town told me about this. I personally don't drink milk and I rarely eat yogurt. I do eat cheese on occasions. My body is not getting enough of the "good" bacteria. I have looked into probiotic pills but they can be super expensive. Enter Good Belly. It is vegan and promotes healthy digestion. I bought it at Whole Foods and I love it. I take a little every morning and it keeps things flowin'. This alone can be a good cleanse :)

Fresh Green Juice- Swiss chard or kale (asked for kale, The Husband brought home swiss chard), 5 stalks of celery, 1 head of romaine lettuce, dandelion greens, 1 large cucumber, 8 spears of asparagus, parsley, 1 pear, 1 apple, and lemon. Green juice gives you vitamins, minerals, enzymes, protein, and oxygen. Juices are powerhouses of antioxidants that fight oxidants and free radicals in our bodies which contribute to cancer, heart disease, and aging. Also, it is like drinking liquid energy. Amazing!  Read my previous post to learn more about the benefits of green juice by clicking here.  Since that post, I was gifted the Breville 800JEXL by my wonderful and incredibly thoughtful family.  I love this juicer and it can tackle just about anything.

Green Tea- a super healthy drink that your body with thank (more on this coming soon)

Water- you know, that beautifully, clear, refreshing liquid that hydrates your body and nourishes your cells?

Soup- In this case, natural pureed split pea soup

Clean, healthy foods, LOTS of greens.

So here is what my diet looked like up till Wednesday.

Monday 

•  wake up with room temperature water with a squeeze of lemon and a pinch of cayenne pepper.
•  8am- 4 oz of Good Belly probiotic juice drink.
•  9:30am- 16 oz of fresh green juice
•  glass of water
•  noon: pureed split pea soup
•  2pm- green tea with lemon
•  3pm- big glass of water
•  4pm- 30 oz of fresh green juice
•  6pm- green tea with lemon
•  7pm- big green spinach salad with walnuts, avocado, and craisins
•  8pm- more water :) 

Tuesday 

• wake up with room temperature water with a squeeze of lemon and a pinch of cayenne pepper.
•  8am- 4 oz of Good Belly probiotic juice drink.
•  9am- Amazing Meal smoothie with kale, frozen banana, and almond milk
•  glass of water
•  noon- huge spinach salad
•  2pm- green tea
•  4pm- 30oz of fresh green juice
•  6:30- whole wheat, light on cheese, enchiladas (I'm not perfect :) )
•  rest of night water

 Wednesday

• wake up with room temperature water with a squeeze of lemon and a pinch of cayenne pepper.
•  8am- 4 oz of Good Belly probiotic juice drink.
•  8:45am- 4oz of greek yogurt with banana and a tablespoon of granola
•  water
•  noon- Ezekiel bread with avocado, spinach, and cucumber.
•  water
•  3pm- green tea
•  4pm- 30oz of fresh green juice
•  7pm- quinoa and asparagus

For the rest of the week, my diet is going to consist of mostly easy digestible liquids and fresh clean foods. No processed foods, meats, dairy, etc.

If I cheat, I don't beat myself up too much, I let it go and continue with my cleanse.

And that my friends, is getting my cleanse on!

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Wanna get Juiced?

Are you one of those type of people who wake up in the morning, hit snooze a few times, get up in a haze, and can't have one coherent thought until you get caffeine?  I know I was (minus the snooze button thanks to the little ones).  When I was recovering, I was spoiled.  Let me state that again, SPOILED by my amazing father.  My Dad (who is not a coffee drinker), would get me a tall double soy skinny vanilla latte from Starbucks e-v-e-r-y day before he headed to work for nearly two months.   If I was not awake or at home in the am, he would drop it off on my doorstep.  I found myself waking up every morning looking forward to this ritual and small chat with my friend, my Dad.  As much as I loved the jolt of energy I got, deep down inside, I knew I was setting myself up with an unhealthy obsession. 

Caffeine is magical.  It seriously is.  It can turn a crappy morning into serenity with a few sips.  It can help you function and give you the energy you need for work, or raising three boys.   I mean 90% of humans consume caffeine daily.  There is a reason for this, it is highly addictive.  It operates using the same mechanisms that cocaine and heroin does to stimulate the brain.   According to Marshall Brain, "caffeine blocks adenosine reception so you feel alert. It injects adrenaline into the system to give you a boost. And it manipulates dopamine production to make you feel good".  Still sounds great to me; who wouldn't want to be alert, energized and feel good?  But after all these rainbow and butterfly feelings you CRASH. Until you reach the point where you are just  jumpy and irritable.   So what to do but consume more cups of Jo's.  If you try to stop this nasty habit you feel tired and depressed and many people get a terrible, splitting headache.  These usually force you back into the addiction again. Wake up folks, this isn't good!  It's a bad habit and bad for your lovely bod. 

So now that we are addicted, what to do...hmmm....take your a@# to a support group?  Little dramatic.  Wean down to a few cups a week?  Better.  Switch to Green Tea?  Closer.  Replace a few cups with organic green juice?  Ah Ha!  Peeps are you ready to get Juiced!  Oh-my-god it is wonderful.  Seriously it gives you the energy and makes you feel amazing knowing that you are feeding your inner beauty with liquid fruit and veggies!  The more juice you down the fewer stimulants you need.  The juicing Goddess, Kris Carr says that guzzling this emerald liquid will balance your PH and give you a shot of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, protein, and oxygen. Plus it is filled with sustainable energy.   If you are thinking, of using store-bought fruit juice.  Think again.  Those are loaded with sugar that will for sure make your blood sugar spike and crash. 

Still not buyin' it...

• Juicing helps in the absorption of nutrients.


• Juicing gives you more greens in your diet if you aren't naturally filling up on the good stuff daily.


• Juicing is a great way to get loads of chlorophyll.  Chlorophyll is like liquid gold.  It is what makes plants green and is possibly the most powerful element in the universe.  Sheryl Walters says, "It is medicine for our bodies. It increases the flow of oxygen to all parts of the body, which means we release more carbon dioxide, toxins and stress. Plenty of oxygen means that our bodies become an aerobic environment where disease cannot live. An anaerobic environment is where disease thrives." 


• Juicing nearly contains all of the minerals we need.


• It provides us with essential enzymes that we need to clean, detoxify, and renew at the cellular level.


• The obvious, it taste fantastic!  Better than say, eating kale raw.

 Hint: It helps to drink green juice on an empty stomach because solid food will slow the digestive process.  So what better way than first thing in the morn?

Where to start?  First the juicer.  There are all types of juicers out there they range from $20-$1000.  I have the basic Jack LaLanne Power Juicer.  I got it from my in-laws two years ago.  This juicer works fine but I am disappointed with how it juices leafy greens.  I feel a lot of the juice is just spit out into the chute.  I am saving for the Breville Juice Fountain Elite.  After The Husband purchased the blender for me, he isn't ready to jump on another juice/smoothie purchase quite yet.  Good thing I have a birthday coming up :)  (Yes, I still count down to my bday, 3 months exactly)! 

Now to be honest, purchasing all the veggies for the juicer is costly.  I am still trying to figure out the cheapest way of going about it.  When I can, I buy my organic veggies from Costco in bulk.  This helps a lot.  Other than that I buy kale at the grocery store and when I can, I love to shop the Farmers Market for fresh veggies.  However, I find that many of the veggies at Farmers Markets are not organic.  My friend Mary told me about an organic fruit/vegetable delivery system.  It is called Farm Fresh to You and they deliver a box every week or every other week to your door.  It is filled with fresh organic seasonal local produce.  I will let you know how that works! So in the meantime if you do buy non-organic be sure to wash, wash, and wash those leafy greens and celery well.  I use a lot of cucumbers in my juice and if they are not organic, I will peel the waxy skin off.  My summer project is to start a vegetable garden. We will see how well that goes considering I can't tell the difference between weeds and plants.   Good thing I have these magazines to start.

These magazines were a kind gift from my Mother-in-Law and good friend Nikki.

Also, cleaning the juicer is a pain.  I hate to clean and it's not like I can just throw the juicer in the dishwasher.  You have to take it apart and clean each section.  That being said, once you start juicing you are hooked and those nuances become trivial.   

Anne's Basic Concoction Juice aka ABC Juice

                            Kale 5 stocks                             

Spinach 1 bunch

Celery 3 stalks

Cucumbers 1/2

Apple 1/2

Pear-1

Now this is the way to start the morning.

 

Or have pleasant evening.

Or a crazy night!

Cheers!

On another note, my sweet X turned two yesterday!  Happy Birthday!