I have at least 2 cups of greens in my breakfast smoothie. I use 1/2 cup rice milk or soy milk, 1 frozen banana, 1 cup of peaches, 1 cup of pineapple, 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds, 2 cups greens and water for blending. This smoothie helps get me through the morning without any cravings or binging mid morning. I am totally satisfied until lunch and sometimes I am not even hungry at the usual lunch time, so I can wait and eat when I am truly hungry! The fruits I have listed here are simply my favorites. Sometimes I add mango, or berries of some kind. I’m not really big on the berry smoothies, I’d rather eat my berries, but Ken really likes the berry smoothies. Ken’s smoothie usually consists of, 1/2 cup rice milk or soy milk, 1 frozen banana, 1 cup of blueberries, 1 cup strawberries, 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds and 1/2 teaspoon maca powder, 1 cup greens and water for blending. Ken started with a small amount of greens because of his intestinal difficulties, but has worked his way up to about 1 cup. I’ll put the picture in here again of our smoothies. They are so YUMMY!
Don’t forget, click on the picture to see a bigger picture.

Note: Jackie’s smoothie is the GREEN one.

Try to make yourself one. You will be delighted, I promise! Just put all the ingredients into a blender and blend until completely smooth.

Now, some people I know, buy the boxes or bags of frozen greens to put in their smoothies. I don’t care for that, I think it is a texture thing, but I feel it gives my smoothie a slimy texture. But, hey, to each his own. I thought that I would share with you today how I do my greens for my smoothies. I especially love the spinach in my smoothie, but kale, collard and chard are good also.

I buy the big bags of baby spinach. I rinse them thoroughly, even though they may say triple washed, I wash them again anyway. I then spread them out on a cotton cloth and let them dry. I turn a small fan on them to help get the moisture out. Once they are thoroughly dried, I then put them into a plastic bag and into the freezer. When I take them out for my smoothie, they are frozen and crisp like potato chips. They blend up very well, and do not leave any strings in the smoothie! I love the color of the smoothie with spinach also!

Here’s the pictures: (click on the small picture to see a bigger one)

I also make sauteéd greens just about every night. We love them with whatever we are having for dinner. Sautí them with onions, carrots, green, yellow or red peppers, hot peppers, add a little vinegar, some lime or lemon juice. It just doesn’t get any better.

Also try a spinach salad with some raw almond slivers, cut up strawberries and some balsamic vinegar or fig vinegar over it. I sometimes find myself craving this now, for breakfast!!!

So, if you, like me, are looking for a trim waist, try adding some green to your life.

Happy, Healthy Eating

Jackie V.

Ken and I did try out some old favorite restaurants and a new restaurant this week. He was in charge of meals because I had so much studying to do in the evenings, and when Ken is in charge of meals, it is usually eating out!

We ate at Kansai Japanese Steakhouse. Wonderful veggie sushi, miso soup, and salad. I did steam vegetables one night at home, didn’t have time to go out to eat. Friday night, after it was all over, we met my nephew, Casey, and my brother, Rusty and sister-in-law, Penny for dinner at Ramsi’s Cafe on the World over in Louisville. It was delicious! I very highly recommend it. Lots of vegetarian and vegan choices! I had Seitan Parmesan on Cuban bread. OMG it was delicious! Ken had 1001 Arabian Lentils. I thought it was delicious, he thought it was okay. Lentils and rice with cumin and cinnamon. YUM! Penny had a roasted vegetable panini that was fabulous and Rusty had the 15 bean (Vegan) soup, delicious, and Thai Noodles, also muy delicioso (I know it’s spanish, but I don’t know how to say muy delicioso in Thai!)! Casey had chicken in jalepeno sauce over rice. He said it was very good also. It looked delicious.

So, if you are ever in Louisville Kentucky, visit Ramsi’s Cafe on the World!

I was so hungry for home-cooked food I couldn’t hardly stand it. I am an early morning riser, usually, but Saturday morning I slept until 9:30 a.m. My daughter called and woke me up. Today, Sunday, I slept until 10:00 a.m. I must have been exhausted!

Saturday afternoon I cooked a Fall Vegetable Hash.

This was a very delicious dish. I made it as follows:

1 medium onion
6 baby bella mushrooms
2 medium white potatoes
1 large sweet potato
1 small red pepper
1 small green pepper
1 bunch lacinto kale
2 Tablespoons olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
Salt
Pepper
Chipotle Powder

Dice all the vegetables into very small pieces (kind of hash like). Put 1 tablespoon olive oil in a stainless or cast iron skillet (you want to be able to put it in the oven), and bring it to heat. Place onions in first and let cook for about 3 minutes, do not brown. Add muchrooms and poatoes (both kinds) turn with pancake turner to combine. Let cook 3 more minutes, turning with pancake turner after 1 1/2 minutes. Add peppers turn to combine. Add all seasonings. If skillet is too dry, add about 2 tablespoons of water. Add kale that you have cut into small pieces and turn with pancake turner to combine.

Place entire concoction into the oven on 375 degrees for 20 minutes to let roast. In the meantime, place minced garlic in the additional 1 tablespoon of olive oil and let simmer (without browning garlic) for about 5 minutes. Remove hash from oven and drizzle with garlic infused olive oil. Let some of the pieces of garlic garnish the top. Serve with brown bread or with a salad (especially yummy). I try to have salads every chance I get.

Later we were hungry again, so I made some cabbage soup. Our friend, Beverly was here, so she had dinner with us.

So delicious and very easy to make.

1 medium onion, chopped
2 medium potatoes, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1/2 medium-sized head of cabbage
3 cups low-salt veggie broth
1 cup water, or enough to bring liquid to above level of vegetables.
Salt
Pepper
1 Tablespoon Earth Balance margarine
1/4 cup plain rice milk

Place vegetables into soup pot with 1 Tablespoon olive oil. Let saute for about 3 minutes, stirring often. Add veggie broth and water, salt and pepper. Let cook until potatoes are fork tender. Add soy margarine. Once the margarine has blended add the rice milk. Stir and serve.

I hope you enjoy these very easy fall dishes.

Happy, Healthy Eating,

Jackie V.

“Colcannon (Irish: cál ceannan, white head) is a food made from mashed potatoes, kale or cabbage, butter, salt, and pepper. It can contain other ingredients such as milk, cream, leeks, onions, chives or garlic. At one time it was a cheap, year-round staple food.

An old Irish Halloween tradition was to serve colcannon with prizes of small coins concealed in it, as the English do with Christmas pudding.

Colcannon recipe as taken from Vegan Yum Yum

Picture of Colcannon

I wasn’t sure about the dish at first, I let the garlic get a little too brown, so be careful with that, but the more I ate of it, the more I loved it. By the time it was gone, I wanted more! I didn’t have the seitan to put in it, but we loved it even without.

It is important to get your greens in, so any dish you can find that incorporates greens, or any place you can find to incorporate greens is very important! Dr. Fuhrman, or T. Colin Campbell, PhD. (I don’t really remember which one) said you must eat your greens every day if you expect to have a trim waist. So, eat your greens!

Thank you, Lolo

Happy, Healthy Eating

Jackie V.