Holidays and Juicing

Hey busy ladies, how do you prepare the looming holiday season?  Do you take it one holiday at a time, or are you already planning ahead for them all?  What’s your best kept secret for surviving this fast approaching holiday season? On top of the holidays my son will be turning 4! It’s hard to imagine, he will no longer be classified as a toddler. I am struggling with an idea for his birthday party, it will be too cold and dreary for an outside soirée and the bounce house thing is used for everything plus they cost an arm and a leg so I am looking into other options. If you have had a successful indoor party to entertain 10 four year olds let me know!

So in preparation for the holidays I decided to go on a juice fast, just to kick start a healthy eating habit during all these temptations. In 3 days I lost 6lbs! It wasn’t the best tasting I must admit however it wasn’t horrible. I am not condoning not eating and defiantly do not juice if you are pregnant or breast feeding because you need more calories for your wee one. First you might ask why…. why would anyone want to do a juice feast for heavens sake? The answer is “to jump start your health journey” especially if you are not well, or you have low energy which is mine and most mommies issue. Drinking juiced vegetables will give your body incredible, easily absorbed nutrition that it has most likely been craving for many years. I know that some of the weight lost is water weight and I am not expecting it to stay off but it’s a great kick off for healthy eating.

On that note, I suggest that all of my friends read the book Skinny Bitch. Don’t be put off by the title. It’s a great quick read that will open your eyes to the food industry and how they push horrible food products on us to fatten their pockets and our bellies. You may not agree with everything in the book but it will surely get you thinking and perhaps make a few easy changes in your pantry.

Below are some juicing recipes. I know it’s hard to spend a lot of money on fruit and vegetables but think about it, do you blink when spending $4 at Starbucks or going out for lunch at work? Do you scoff and dropping $20+ at Target on crap you don’t really need, yet we will him and haw at spending money on something that is good for us and keeps us around longer and more energetic for our kids?  Plus if your kids see you eating healthy it’s likely that they will want to follow and a lot of these recipes can be altered to be more kid friendly. That’s just my two cents…

Refreshing cleansing juice
2 pears
4 stalks celery
2 cucumbers
Juice in juicer and drink throughout the day
Green lemonade
4-8 leaves of romaine lettuce and/or kale
2 large apples
2 lemons
Optional (carrot)
Stir in agave nectar for sweetness if needed. You can also add a carrot if you want to cut the astringent flavor more. Drink this and your skin will be glowing!
Carrots & green juice
2-4 carrots
4-8 leaves romaine, spinach and/or kale
2 apples (optional to cut astringent taste)
Carrots are great because they contain natural sugars that your body will crave during a fast.

Tropical Enzyme Booster JuiceIngredients:
1/2 pineapple, small
1small papaya
1 small mango

Rejuvenating Veggie Juice

Ingredients:
4 medium carrots
1 large beet
3 stalks of celery
2 large kale leaves
1 inch piece ginger

Power Cleanser Juice

Ingredients:
4 medium carrots
1 large beet
10 sprigs of parsley
4 inch piece of cucumber

Tomato Vegetable Juice

Ingredients:
2 medium carrots
1 small beet
10 sprigs of parsley
2 tomatoes
2 stalks of celery
1 clove of garlic
1/2 onion, small

Carrot and Beet Juice

Ingredients:
4 medium carrots
1 large beet

Apple, Pear, Lemon, Lime and Ginger Cleanser Juice

Ingredients:
3 medium organic apples
3 large organic pears
1/2 small organic lime
1/2 small organic lemon
1 inch piece of fresh organic ginger

Struggles

So since during the winter blast of 2011, which was last week mind you and lasted for oh 4 days, I have struggled to start my diet and other resolutions. In the last day I have conquered these struggles and started:

• To eat right and exercise a.k.a my resolution to Get Shake Weight Arms. I was a regular in the gym in Florida but my schedule was a wee bit different there  and I have gained a little extra jiggle since moving. I now have NO excuses to not workout since I made a brash purchase and bought an elliptical and I have the weights and knowledge to do the rest. I just pray for the willpower to stay away from the sweets. Which is extremely hard when your toddler son is sick and you bribe him with candy to get him to take his medicine and there are leftover Skittles, Peanut butter bars and Teddy Grahams.

Why do they taste so damn good

• Yesterday I also started another term to obtain my MBA. To be honest I have zero desire to go back to school but since my company is paying for it and it can't hurt me - I decided to hit the books. Its taking me a long time to graduate since I refuse to pay any money out of pocket but when I do graduate I can say I'm smarter than my husband! We all know this NOT to be true as he knows just enough about everything to argue any point and will at any given point in time.
• I also started this blog which is something I have been wanting to do for a long time now but just never got around to it. I have to say reading Natalie's blog (which is deeper than this one and helping a lot of people out there) made me push myself to get on the ball. Speaking of balls,  Cakeballer Emmie turning out the cake balls like nobodies business also made me want to jump into this world of blogging.
• Another resolution of mine is to Enjoy Cooking more. I love to bake but that is because I love to eat sweets. I want to enjoy making meals, that my husband will eat and not scoff at. He is particularly picky about his meals, although last night I came home from work and he was eating an english muffin with melted peanut butter on it and washed it down with a glass of wine with ice in it. Perhaps I am rubbing off on him more than I thought. 

To that end here is the recipe for the Browned Butter Frosting noted in my first post:
1 Cup Butter
1 (16 oz) package powdered sugar
1/4 Cup milk
1 Tsp. Vanilla
Cook butter in a small heavy saucepan over medium head, stirring constantly, about 6-8 minutes or until butter is golden brown. Remove from heat immediately and pour butter into a small bowl, cover and chill one hour and begins to solidify.
Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy; gradually add powdered sugar alternately with milk, beginning and ending with the powdered sugar. Beat at low speed until well blended after each addition. Stir in vanilla. I chilled my frosting, taking it out when the cupcakes were out of the oven. Giving the cupcakes time to cool was just enough time for the icing to be spreadable.