Got Vegetables? Make Juice

My latest, most favourite, amazing thing to do in the morning is to drink a cup of freshly made juice! Made with wonderful, organic vegetables and fruit, it's easy and super nutritious for you.

The Juicer: A powerful little Hamilton Beach juicer that makes a very full, healthy glass of juice (about 2-3 servings) from: 1 large apple, 1 large lemon, 1 large carrot, and a large bunch of kale or spinach makes ...

The Green Machine

(kale or spinach, carrots, apple, lemon)

Another fantastic juice recipe I concocted (name still pending):

2 medium beets
1 cup strawberries
1 cup pineapple

Everything chopped, add to the juicer and blended together.  Add ice and enjoy!

So why is freshly made juice so healthy for you?  Well to learn more I visited Care2 website which had a neat little list that explained the benefits of various fruits/vegetables ... here are a few from their website:

1. Carrot: strengthens the eyes and helps clear up skin eruptions.
2. Celery: helps to clear the skin (so does cucumber juice)
3. Ginger: helps with inflammation in the body, such as arthritis and is known to remedy nausea.
4. Lemon: is excellent for counteracting a high-fat, animal protein rich diet. Helps the liver in its daily detoxification process.  It can also help to really cut the taste of those green vegetables in your juice.
   
5. Apple: helps to relieve constipation, heal the intestines, and softens gall stones.
6. Radish: benefits the thyroid gland (in small amounts and mixed with other juice).
7. Kale & Collard: strengthens the bones due to high levels of calcium, potassium and Vitamin A.
8. Plums/Prune: helps alleviate constipation and can be used for liver disease.
9. Tomato: helps restore health to the liver, and can be used to treat diarrhea and chronic indigestion.
10. Watermelon: alkalinizes the blood, and can be used to treat urinary problems, edema, and canker sores. Its diuretic properties benefits the kidney’s and bladder. Juice the rind with the flesh for a sweet, thirst quenching drink.

  

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/the-healing-powers-of-fresh-juice.html#ixzz1Ygelonb8

Wet 'n' Wild Toronto Marathon

Today was the Goodlife Toronto marathon which thankfully, I did not have to run in but I did however volunteer as a Bike marshal.  It was cold, wet, rainy, dirty, and did I mention, freaking cold!

Well, it's Sunday evening now and the races are long over so hopefully all runners are now warm in their beds and probably passed out I imagine.  After a hard marathon or even 4-5 hours of bike riding around the cold weather helping the runners, rest and good nutrition are key elements to great recovery.

One of my most favourite pre- and post-work-out drinks to have are protein smoothies (all vegan of course), super delicious and nutritious, here are two of my favourite, easy mixes.

 Cranberry Protein Smoothie

3/4 cup almond milk
1/4 cup water
1/2-3/4 cup of frozen (or fresh) cranberries (however many you like)
1 tsp sunflower butter
1 scoop of vanilla flavoured brown rice protein powder like Sunwarrior

Blend all ingredients together in a good blender and enjoy!

I like mine with ice.

 Green Banana Protein Smoothie

3/4 cup almond milk
1/4 cup water
1 medium ripe organic banana
1 tsp almond butter
1 scoop of vanilla flavoured Vega Sport Performance Protein

Blend all ingredients together in a good blender and enjoy!

I don't discriminate, I personally love most all raw vegan protein powders and sometimes like to mix it up to get the full benefits from each throughout the day.

Congratulations to all the amazing runners today!

Green Tip 6: A Better Way "To Go"

I am definitely guilty of this on way too many occasions, so I have made a huge effort lately to always bring my travel mug to any coffee shop when I order to go.  These days you can find some very pretty travel mugs like these:

Hand painted travel mugs by Yevgenia

Another great tip, one we rarely think about I think, is overusing napkins or plastic utensils when we order to-go.  These things are way to easy to grab but are such a huge waste especially when you have metal utensils at home that you can easily carry with you in your bag or keep at the office.

The bigger culprit I think are the paper napkins!  They get picked up, used or even unused and thrown away faster then you can blink an eye, it's unfortunate really.

Try this instead ...

USE ONE LESS PAPER NAPKIN

During an average year, an American uses approximately 2,200 napkins—around six each day. If everyone in the U.S. used one less napkin a day, more than a billion pounds of napkins could be saved from landfills each year.

Other create options:

• keep a couple of clothe towels or napkins in your bag to use and reuse; all it takes is a good wash or rinse and it is good again for next use.
• Eat in! It's always the healthiest way to go anyway and cleaning up after will be less wasteful.
• Slow down! Eating is not a race, take your time eating and chances are you'll make less mess and need less clean up after

Any other ideas? Would love to hear them, please leave a comment, question or post idea - would love to hear from you!