Breakfast

I haven't been writing many new recipes, lately, because we've been enjoying the tried and true you see below. However, the season is changing and the fruits and veggies of the bountiful baskets are, too, so there may be more variety on the way. Nevertheless, this one is a favorite and is surprising delicious. Just be sure when you juice lettuce that you rehydrate it first--just soak the leaves in water and they perk right up. Otherwise, the drier wiltier leaves will likely clog the juicer, and unclog you.

Juice:
1 head green leaf lettuce
1 bag of grapes (any variety, but I do enjoy purple types)
2 bananas

yields about a quart.

Breakfast

Fridays are for leftovers. Anything left from the last week's bountiful basket has to go: out with the old, in with the new. And this was a good, light juice, not as heavy as some of the pulpier fruits.

Juice:
1/2 cantaloupe, including rind (wash thoroughly!)
2 huge plums
Cncord grapes to make one quart.

Three Juices in one day! What!

Started of the morning with an easy pleaser:

Juice:
4 Apples (I did two red delicious and two pink ladies; very nice)
2 cups of grapes
Yielded a little more than one quart

For lunch we enjoyed left over curry from yesterday:

Juice:
4 heads of broccoli
2 heads of cauliflower (these are surprisingly wet)Including greens
4 sweet potatoes, scrubbed with peels on
1 beet
Yields about two quarts

Prepare two chicken breasts using my squishing-between-two-cutting-boards method of tenderizing first. I salted the meat and coated generously in cinnamon before frying a large frying pan--I use a ten inch cast iron skillet. Remove the meat, and add the juice to the skilletover medium heat. I used about one tablespoon of curry powder, half a tablespoon of cumin, two tablespoons of cinnamon, two teaspoons of garlic powder (would have been better to have juiced a fresh clove), quarter cup of corn starch mixed into a little water for thickening, two teaspoons of ound ginger (again, fresh juiced ginger would have been better), quarter to a half cup of apple cider vinegar, honey to taste. Vinegar brings some bite and combined with honey lends a sweet and sour quality that I really like. Add the chicken back in, add a bunch of white raisins (I used about three quarters of a cup), make sure everything is hot, and serve over fresh hot jasmine rice. This was the very mild version: more curry powder and even a little cayenne pepper would be in order. Coconut milk would also make a tasy addition.

So, after that lunch, which was actually prepared yesterday, I was thinking that some sorbet would be nice in the evening:

Juice:
2 cups of grapes
1 box of figs (8-9 figs--they come in little rasperry box sized boxes...)
2 bananas

This is very creamy and super rich. I poured it into Pyrex bowls with lids and put them into the freezer; be sure not to fill them too full or they will erupt as they freeze and expand. This should be a good sorbet. I'll let you know tomorrow because this next recipe nudged the sorbet out of position.

We took a long ride on the scooter--Weston Canyon is very beautiful!-- and came back a little chilled: autumn is here, I think. So, I wanted something warm--something to keep my wife from turning on the heat. Hot fruit drink? Cider, of course.

Juice:
4 apples
6 Bartlett pears (when they're ripe, you've got to use them fast)
2 cups of grapes

I just put the sauce pan right under the juice spout. This yielded about a quart and a half, though, so I left enough in the pan for us to drink tonight and put the restin an airtight container in the fridge for breakfast tomorrow. Turn the stove to medium heat. Stir in about a half teaspoon of ground cloves, one teaspoon of nutmeg, and two teaspoons of cinnamon. I have about three cups of juice in the pot. Heat it up, stirring occasionally, and enjoy. It's a thick, delicious hot drink that will make you want more!

Whew! It's been a juiceful day.

Happy juicing!

On Bunches

I have a house full of women.

There's a women's conference at the university this weekend, so my wife's mom and sisters and sisters in law all come up and attend together for the two days. I've planning for it, though, and was well prepared: I've been saving three bunches of bananas all week. Kinda feels like when you've been preparing for a sporting event and now it's time to perform and you know you're ready, but there's still the chance that you could be beat. Kinda.

Then, I found a whole gaggle of pears in a dark cupboard, hoping I had forgotten they were there. That's like a fat Gatorade just when the pressure is on. Now I'm cool and ready to juice.

So, I made these two juices, which were good individually, but when I got them together like Hayley Mills it made one super smoothie juice with that particularly pleasant grittiness associated with pears. I think you'll like them all.

Juice:
4 oranges
1 gaggle of pears
A handful of grapes
Enjoy

Juice:
5 peaches
3 bunches of bananas
Enjoy

Combine those two, but be prepared for a tropical smoothie that is a sure winner. Yielded about three quests total. That ought to get those ladies going for the conference.

Breakfast

The last of the figs. This juice was very creamy--bananas do that--and had a particular flavor that was very delicious; a little like the feeling a blueberry has in your mouth, but not the taste. Must be the higher concentration of figs, since we couldn't taste it yesterday. Also a note on grape juice: we kept some in a pitcher in the fridge and some in a jar in the fridge. The pitcher oxidized and turned brown, like a cut apple, but I think the flavor is still okay. The airtight jar is the way to go for storage over a few days.

Juice:
7 figs
2 bananas
3-4cups of grapes

Full Bodied Breakfast

I need more vocabulary than, "This one was good." So, this juice was full bodied. The mangoes and peaches are very fine grained and so little pulp doesn't make it through the fine strainer in my juicer, the Hurom Slow Juicer. So it's a smoothie of a juice, and is quite flavorful and filling. I think that some diced mint would be tasty, and then frozen whis would be a good sorbet!
Juice:
1 Nerf football sized mango
1 banana
2 peaches
Some grapes to make a quart

Breakfast

3Nectarines, pitted
4Tomatillos
Grapes

This one was pretty tasty. I still liked the Grapiflower better for using tomatillos, but my wife really liked this one.

Sweet and Spicy

Tonight's dinner wass a good mixture of spice and sweet.

First course, of course, was soup.

Spicy Tomato Soup
Tomatoes--I used five average ones, and a handful of baby tomatoes I had handy
One bunch of celery, including greens, but cut it into short pieces
One chili pepper, including stem and seeds
Ten fresh basil leaves
Salt and pepper

Juice it. Juice the celery last,or else it will clog the output. Oh, and if you leave out the chili peppers it makes a tasty drinkable juice. Pour the juice into a sauce pan and simmer over medium heat. Salt and pepper to taste.

Next, I whipped up a couple of sauces for rice.

Spicy Lettuce Curry
Juice:
One head of green leaf lettuce
One clove of garlic
Half a bunch of spinach
Three chili peppers
Three white potatoes
Half a 12oz. can of coconut milk

1Table spoon Red curry powder
Chicken breast sliced half inch thick
Cinnamon
Corn starch
Salt
Pepper

The white potatoes should be intermixed with the lettuce and spinach to keep things moving through the juicer. You're gonna love the aroma as the garlic goes through!

Coat the chicken in cinnamon, salt and pepper; I cooked it in the same cast iron frying pan I made the rest of the sauce in. I seared it a little--pretty tasty. Remove the meat from the pan and set aside. Combine juice and coconut milk over medium heat. Add curry powder. I use the corn starch to thicken it a bit-- about four or five table spoons is what I used (don't forget to add a little water to the starch, not the starch to water. It's stiff at first, then dissolves). Add the chicken back in. Salt if necessary.

Sweet Mega Red
Juice:
Three bunches of Spinach
Two sweet potatos, skins on, but scrubbed thoroughly (otherwise it's gritty) sliced
One medium beet, juiced twice to remove pulp
Sweet table grapes
Half an inch of ginger root

Half a 12oz. can of coconut milk
A hot madras curry powder, or other yellow curry powder
Chicken breast
White raisins
Apple cider vinegar
cinnamon
Corn starch
Honey
Salt

The sliced sweet potatoes keep the spinach from gumming up the machine, so feed some spinach, then some potato; the potatoes also give a creamy feel to the sauce. The beet juice I had made previously, but it had too much pulp because my juicer was already clogged by some other stuff. So, I took the pulpy beet juice and ran it back through. It sweetens and gives the mega red color to the sauce. Then I added grapes for a little more mass and sweetness.

This is my special super tender chicken. Lay the chicken on a cutting board and coat copiously with cinnamon and salt. Then lay another cutting board on top and apply pressure. Smash the chicken until it is thin and uniform-- the thinner the more tender. I've also had good luck laying plastic wrap on top of the chicken and using a rolling pin to flatten it. It makes it super tender. Then, add some salt to an oiled frying pan on medium high heat and use a spatula to lay the chicken in the pan in one flat piece. Cook until you can turn it over, and cook both sides until it thoroughly cooked and pleasantly browned. Remove from heat, slice into thin strips and set aside.

Combine juice and coconut milk over medium heat; I like using the same deep frying pan i used for the chicken. Add curry powder. I used at least a quarter cup of corn starch with a little water added for thickening. The cider takes the edge off the pastiness left by the potatoes, and lends a sweet and sour flavor. I only usd a couple of table spoons' worth, but it could certainly stand more if you like the sourness. Add raisins and chicken. Honey and salt to taste, serve hot over Jasmine rice.

These two sauces are great complements, one spicy and one sweet. Plus the ultra green of the lettuce sauce next to the mega red beet sauce over white rice is a pretty stunning presentation.

On Grapes

When you're making juice everyday, you go through lots of roughage. A few minutes ago I juiced three big bunches of spinach and it yielded only about two cups. So, we use Bountiful Baskets each week to provide fodder for the juicer. This seems to be the best value in produce around here. But the best part is that you never know what you'll get in your basket each week, which means you get to be creative.

They've been supplying us with grapes the last couple of weeks. For a few buck extra you can get an entire flat of grapes--seedless table grapes, the small, super sweet ones that are not like the big ones you usually buy at the store. Thompson's seedless? Anyway, we've been drinking lots of grape juice. It's amazing how filling just juice can be.

But it's nothing like Welch's: even with a powerful juicer, the grapes leave some pulp in the juice. And it's actually very good. Last night I made two gallons of straight grape juice. After sitting in the fridge overnight it had settled and left the pulp on the bottom. I drank the pulp less stuff, and it was good, but not necessarily better. It's very sweet.

So, here are a couple of favorite grape mixtures from the last couple of weeks.

Grapiflower
1 head of cauliflower, including greens
6 tomatillos
Grapes to make 1 quart of juice total

Juice 'em and drink 'em!

Grape Cocktail
A handful of baby carrots
A box of strawberries, including greens
Two pears, just remove the stem
Plums, pitted
Grapes to taste

Lipeade
Eight key limes, peeled
Half a banana,peeled (takes the edge off)
Grapes to make at least a quart
Agave nectar for sweetness if desired; but I bet more grapes would do the trick.