smoothie time

Today I made a bunch of smoothies for next week. This is a lot of fun for me. Here are the ingredients for 12 servings! From left to right, we have 6 bags of spinach or baby romaine, several bags of berries, 12 oranges, 6 pomegranates, 6 bowls of grapes, 4 kinds of seeds (hemp, sunflower, pumpkin, and flax), our supplements (gentle care, osteo-sun, DHA), 12 dates, and the large grocery bill is laying in the front. This is definitely the most expensive part of my grocery bill! This will be an issue in my future but right now I'm going to enjoy it.

I make the smoothies in batches of 2. Here's the first batch for housemate. Dr. Fuhrman said, don't make all your smoothies with spinach because it has a lot of oxalic acid. That limits the absorption of calcium and maybe other things. Well, housemate doesn't like smoothies made with salad but I decided to try to anyway, using mild baby romaine. So this one has a banana and a couple of dates to sweeten it up. I thought it tasted great, so I think housemate will like it.

I made another similar batch for housemate with strawberries instead of blueberries, everything else the same:

Then I made a batch for me with spinach because the co-op had local spinach today and it will probably be the last time this season. This had mango and pineapple for the fruit. This was the best-tasting smoothie of all--really good! Housemate claims she doesn't like the green color so I get them for myself. Oh there was a lime too but I forgot to put it in the picture.

Next, several more batches for me and housemate with spinach and blueberries & raspberries or blueberries & strawberries.

The counter got messier and messier. The pom juice splattered on everything nearby, including the walls and floor. I thoroughly enjoyed snacking on the pom kernels. I need to stop snacking while preparing food in general, but not while making pom juice.

Time to cleanup:

I did a good job cleaning up and surprised housemate who usually has to deal with my messes.

Here they are in the freezer. Housemate's are the glasses on right with foil on top. Mine are the bottles at left. I sometimes eat out so the bottles are flexible that way.

Yes, that is haagen daaz ice cream at top right. That's for family visits. It doesn't tempt me, but I admit vegan ice cream would, so that's not permitted in the house.

compost!

Today I harvested our compost! This is about a 2 hour job that I do twice a year. That's easiest enough. We use a very low-tech and low-maintenance method for composting. We made a chicken wire/lattice box divided into two areas. We throw produce and yard waste on one side for 6 months while the other side composts, then repeat. If I am not totally lazy, I'll turn the compost occasionally. I think I did it once this summer. Here's our bin. We've been throwing produce into the left side since spring and let the right side compost our winter waste. You can see corn stalks growing out of the left side (in front). We ate lots of corn this summer.

Here's a close-up of the right side. I dug it all up and threw it over the fence into the garden.

Now it's all dug up and in a pile just behind the fence in the garden:

Now I'll move the pile from the left into the right side, mainly to just turn it over. It might be hard to see but there's worms everywhere. No need to buy worms for our pile.

The bottom of the left side was composted too so I threw that in the garden. Now the left side has been turned over and is on the right side. That will finish composting over winter and we'll fill up the left side with produce and yard waste.

Here's the pile in the garden:

I started spreading it but got tired. I'll finish tomorrow.

Here's our collards and kale, still going strong!

Overeating

I overate last night. It started when I ate lunch even though I wasn't hungry. I was very hungry at brekky so had a smoothie and a cup of beans. I like having this for brekky because I usually haven't eaten in a long time and I just exercised. That was about 9:30 am. But then lunch comes too soon. I waited until 12:40 pm to start preparing. Like usual, I snacked as I prepared. Lunch was steamed veggies of all kinds (broccoli, carrots, beets, brussels sprouts, leeks, kale) and vinegar and ground seeds. I had leftovers and 1 cup of beans for an early dinner at 5 pm. Dessert was an apple and orange. Okay, I should have stopped there but no, I had 3 more apples (small anyway), and then some cherry walnut ice cream. Boy was that good. okay, could I fit anything else in? Yep, a banana and some peanut butter (< 2 Tbsp thank goodness). Then I waddled to the hockey game. I was full until noon today. I didn't go to exercise this morning because I was full. I'm embarrassed to admit this. I'm thinking I should go back to logging everything I eat to keep myself accountable, 'cause it's embarrassing to have to write down stuff like that. I don't know why I'm doing this. I think I'm just getting into bad habits. or it's emotional or something. I am going through some big changes in my life, or at least, considering them. Another problem is my mealtimes. I would prefer to eat two big meals at about 10 am and 4 pm. But cohabitation requires me to prepare a big meal at 1 pm. Regardless of the reason, I have to start behaving. As Dr. Fuhrman says, no excuses.

clogged arteries

I've wondered what clogged arteries look like. The first part of this video shows one. Actually that whole series of videos is very interesting. The speaker is Dr. Klaper who is one of the doctors who gives advice on Dr. Fuhrman's forums. He's extremely gracious and knowledgeable. In fact, I think I have a crush on him. :)

Interview with Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn

How a plant-based diet cures heart disease.

Oct. 29

Today I only had two meals again. Interesting (for me). I liked it. It was easier than making 3 meals! I wish I could do this every day but I don't think it will fit in with housemate's lunch schedule.

Brekky was a smoothie and a cup of beans at 8 am. I'm trying out these heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo. I don't even bother adding spices or onions, just soak them overnight, cook them for a few hours, and put in the fridge for the next day or two. I have to admit, they are good. I'm starting to love beans, and love feeling satisfied for several hours.

I had 3 large carrots at 2 pm. I was hungry and it gave me energy for my bike ride home.

Then dinner was my current favorite salad. I also had a couple of small oranges. and a couple Tbsp of pumpkin seeds. That was from 4-5 pm (I start snacking while preparing...). I got really full from my giant salad (loaded with greens, beans, peas, nuts, veggies and fruit). It's 8:40 pm and I'm not the least bit hungry. The beans have real staying power.

apple, edamame, sweet pea salad

Ingredients for a full meal (1 large serving):

2 oz salad greens, chopped

small chopped apple

1/2 large or 1 small red bell pepper, chopped

1/2 cup edamame, thawed in microwave for a minute (optional--could just have more salad dressing)

sweet pea salad dressing

Combine everything. A high protein, delicious, filling meal! This one has a chopped raw beet instead of a red bell pepper.