Green Smoothie Girl's Blog!

I received an email today from Green Smoothie Girl with a saying I absolutely LOVED!!

"Eating healthy and turning your health around is just a matter of finding enough practices and recipes you love, and making habits of them."

She also says in her email..."There are lots of ways to lose weight, but only one way to good health with weight loss as a byproduct, and that's through eating simple, delicious, unadultered whole foods!"

I could not agree with her more, and this has definitely been the case for me.  The more wonderful recipes I try, added to all the research I have done to create healthy habits, is what has turned my health around, with weight loss as an added bonus!! 

Check out Green Smoothie Girl's blog 
It is amazing!!

"Disease-Proof Your Child: Feeding Kids Right" By Joel Fuhrman, M.D.

From back cover..."Cutting edge nutritional science for the family table: In his private practice, Joel Fuhrman, M.D. helps families transform their eating habits and recover their health. His nutrient-rich eating plan can have a significant impact on your child's resistance to dangerous infections, and a dramatic effect on reducing the occurrence of illnesses like asthma, ear infections, and allergies.  Dr. Fuhrman explains how you can make sure your children are eating right to maintain a healthy mind and body, and how eating certain foods and avoiding others can positively impact your child's IQ and success in school.

He also presents the fascinating science that demonstrates that the current epidemic of adult cancers and other diseases is closely linked to what we eat in the first quarter of life. Eating well in our early years may enable us to win the war on caner. Bolstered by this scientific evidence, Dr. Fuhrman helps you do everything you can to protect your child against developing diabetes, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune diseases, and cancer through a solid nutritional groundwork. 

Featuring easy-to-prepare, kid-friendly recipes that will satisfy even the pickiest eaters, your whole family will learn to establish lifelong healthful eating habits. harness the power of a nutrient-rich diet to ensure a lifetime free of illness and full of health!"

This is an amazing and powerful book. It quite clearly presents an abundance of scientific research that shows how what our children eat has such a dramatic effect on the rest of their lives.  He is quite persuasive in explaining how eating exceptionally healthy is the foundation for good health!  As a parent, I feel the need to be very proactive in the health of my children. This book has the potential to help you change any bad patterns in your children's diet and replace them with wonderful, healthy habits! Dr, Fuhrman has shared with us amazing knowledge to help us make correct decisions about the health of our children and ourselves.  You will never view food the same way after reading this book.  It empowered me to continue my efforts for a healthy lifestyle and to never give up, even with the pickiest eaters.  

I especially enjoyed his advice on instilling good eating habits in our children...like to never use food as rewards, teaching by example, and letting children eat when they are hungry instead of forcing them to eat at a certain time. As parents, we need to create the right environment in our home. We need to be responsible for the selection of food and for preparing the food our children eat. Our children need to be responsible for deciding how much and when to eat!  I love the ideas for many healthy snacks he gives, but still need to try his recipes for meals.  Some do seem rather daunting. But overall an amazing book on health and food.

RAW Tomatillo Salsa

Another AMAZING recipe from my Raw Foods Class! It is my new favorite salsa and I have been putting it on EVERYTHING!!  SO SO GOOD! It is shown on a sesame flax cracker. (Recipe to come!)

Tomatillo Salsa

1 onion (I used yellow)

2-3 cloves garlic

1/2 jalapeno pepper (more/less depending on your spice comfort)

10 tomatillos, husks removed

4 tomatoes

1/2 bunch cilantro (I used a little more)

2 avocados

juice of one lemon

salt and pepper to taste

Blend onion, garlic and pepper in a food processor until mixed well.  Add remaining ingredients and pulse to desired texture. Enjoy!

This is what a tomatillo looks like...kind of like green tomatoes! They are a staple in Mexican cooking and are excellent in sauces and dressings...think green verde sauce and Cafe Rio salad dressing!!!

RAW "5 Tastes" Soup

My sister and I went to a RAW FOODS class last week and I have been enjoying making some of the recipes they shared with us.  This one is a raw soup, perfect for summer time!  It has all the "five tastes" that you look for in food...SWEET, SAVORY, SALTY, SOUR, and BITTER!!  It has AMAZING flavor!! I adjusted the recipe a bit to make a thicker soup...my adjustments are included!

2 cups filtered water

1/3 cup EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)

1 lemon, juiced

1" piece ginger

1 garlic clove

1/4" - 1/2" piece jalapeno pepper (I used 3/4" but no seeds)

1 apple (I used granny smith)

2 stalks celery (I keep tops on)

handful of parsley or cilantro (I used cilantro)

1/2 cup grated carrot (I used 1 cup)

1/2 cup grated parsnip (I used 1 cup)

1 red bell pepper, diced (I used 1 extra large)

1 avocado, diced (I used 2)

sea salt to taste (I used pink Himalayan salt)

In a Vitamix, add water, EVOO, lemon juice, ginger, garlic, jalapeno, apple, and celery. Blend until completely smooth and slightly warmed. Add cilantro/parsley and blend until finely chopped. Poor into serving bowl and then add carrot, parsnip, red bell pepper, avocado, and salt to taste. Serve immediately, or store in fridge in a sealed glass jar for up to three days.

RAW Zucchini & Carrot Noodles With Spinach Pesto

I have been so busy trying new recipes that are RAW from my RAW foods class I went to with my sister at the LDS Holistic Living Conference last weekend! It was truly amazing and I came home very inspired and so excited to try some new things!  This was the first thing I made...it was amazing!!  I do not have a spirooli YET, so I had to make my zucchini noodles with a shredder! But I will include a picture of my sisters...she has a spiralizer and they look amazing!! I also added shredded carrots to mine because I thought it would be a pretty color and flavor...but that is not in the original recipe. Enjoy!

RAW Zucchini & Carrot Noodles With Pesto 

zucchini, made into spiralized noodles

I added shredded carrots

tomatoes, chopped for garnish

red bell peppers, chopped for garnish

pine nuts, handful for garnish

Spinach PESTO

1 cup EVOO

1/3 cup soft nut or seed (pine nut, almond, cashew, sunflower)

3 garlic cloves

1/2 cup fresh basil, oregano, parsley or 1T dry Italian seasoning

 (I used mostly fresh basil and some oregano)

1 cup organic baby spinach

1 t sea salt

Blend everything in Vitamix. Stores in fridge for two weeks. Put on top spiralized zucchini noodles garnished with tomatoes, red bell peppers, and pine nuts if desired.

This is what it would look like with zucchini spiralized noodles!

Here is a version with just the red bell peppers on top-

It is a very versatile recipe!!

Healthy Tip: Stay COMMITTED!!

I wanted to reiterate the most crucial thing to maintaining a healthy lifestyle!!

STAY COMMITTED!!

It is SO EASY to fall back into bad habits...but if you can stay committed to your GOAL of eating healthy and staying active...You will FEEL BETTER and YOU WILL SUCCEED!!

Dr. Seuss said it the best in Oh The Places You'll Go...
“So be sure when you step, Step with care and great tact. 

And remember that life's A Great Balancing Act. 

And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! 

(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed) Kid, you'll move mountains.” 

I also LOVE this quote I keep on my wall...

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth...the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.  All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred...Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now." -W.H. Murray