My Go-To Green Juice

So in October, Carolyn invited me to meet up with her for a girls' week in Spain and Portugal after her week of working in London - she's getting a lot of blog love lately :)  Knowing I would not be able to turn this offer down, we immediately started checking out travel blogs, booking flights and awesome spots to stay on Airbnb.com - which, if you have not used this site yet definitely check it out for your next vacation.  I'm pretty much tired of hotels at this point, so I love that there is a site where you can find awesome apartments, rooms or entire houses to rent for vacations and short term stays.  The reviews are super helpful too.  But, I digress. 

So we settled on Barcelona, Lisbon and Madrid.  Not too shabby.  Monica got to come for the Barcelona part too, which was so fun.  We ate (and even learned to cook) a ton of amazing food, drank our fair share (and beyond...whoops!) of local wine, and soaked in as much culture as we could in that week.  Photos to come in a post soon.

By the end of the week, I was pretty sure I didn't need to eat again for days.  While everything was really amazing and we thoroughly enjoyed our experience, there was a serious lack of vegetables on the menus there - so cheese, calamari and paella it was then, oh darn :)  I knew I needed to get back on track at home, and I knew the perfect way to help do that.  Juicing is something I got interested in a few years back.  I remember my aunt first telling me about green juice a long time ago, and not being able to fathom how anyone could possibly want to drink spinach?!??  This is of course, before I tried it myself.  

There are so many great juice recipes out there, and it really is so easy to make a great tasting and super nutritious juice.  Juicing really helps let your system take a break and easily absorb lots of vitamins and minerals.  I've only had juice in place of one meal since I've been back, but I can already feel my body thanking me.  While I have experimented with many different recipes, below is the combination I always find myself going back to.  Give it a shot, you may be surprised how much a glass of juice made with real ingredients will fill you up :)

My Go-To Green Juice

• 3-4 large leaves of kale
• 1 handful of parsley
• 1/2 cucumber
• 2 apples (I used golden delicious here)
• a couple handfuls of baby carrots, or 2-3 whole carrots

Wash your veggies and core the apples.  That's all the prep you should need to do.  Juice them in the order shown above, add a few ice cubes if you'd like, and enjoy!

 
If you happen to be in the market for a juicer (Christmas and the holiday season is coming up soon!), check out the Breville Juice Fountain.  We've had it for a couple years now and it does an excellent job of getting most of the juice out of your fruits/veggies.  It is a centrifugal juicer, so the spinning of the center piece does produce a small bit of heat, which cuts down on the nutrients you end up ingesting.  To help retain more nutrients in your juice, you can always go for a cold press juicer, but of course that often comes with a heftier price tag.  Breville does make both types, but I have not personally tried out the cold press version.  If you have, I'd love to know your thoughts on them :)

Breville BJE200XL Juice Fountain (Centrifugal)

 

Kale, Roasted Sweet Potato and Apple Salad with Dijon Dressing

This salad was super easy to whip up on a weekday night for a healthy dinner with a lot of variety, and I enjoyed the leftovers for lunch the next day.  I could also see myself tossing a double batch of this together to take to a family gathering at my Mom's.  Over the years, I've had some trouble finding raw kale salads that I've truly enjoyed.  This is definitely one of them.  I've always enjoyed steamed kale as a side but thought raw kale was too tough in a salad.  One of the major ways I've turned this around for myself is slicing the kale into really skinny strips.  Something about doing that really changes the game for me and kale salads.

Kale is nice and sturdy so it will last a few days in the fridge even with the dressing.  Having some acid from the lemon juice in the dressing on the apples helps to keep them from browning as well, so I'd say overall this is one of the better salads I've made to be able to fully prepare ahead of time.

The combination of flavors and textures here also feels more substantial than just your average salad.  The hubs even gave it two thumbs up (literally)!

Kale, Roasted Sweet Potato and Apple Salad with Dijon Dressing

Adapted from Real Simple Magazine - September 2013

• 1 sweet potato - cut into 1" cubes
• 6 Tbsp olive oil
• Salt and black pepper (I prefer sea salt)
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 3 Tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 bunch kale (I used a flat leaf variety)
• 1 Gala or Fuji apple
• 1/4 C sliced almonds
• 4 oz shaved cheese (I used Swiss - next time I will probably try Gruyere)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Toss 2 Tbsp olive oil with the cubed sweet potato and season with salt and pepper on a rimmed baking sheet.  Roast for about 20 minutes, stirring halfway through, until slightly browned and a fork easily pierces the sweet potato.

While the sweet potato is roasting, whisk together the remaining oil, salt and pepper to your liking, lemon juice and Dijon mustard.

Chop the kale by folding in half, cutting out the large stem and then slicing into thin strips.  Slice up the apple and toss in a large bowl with the kale and the sweet potato once it has cooled slightly.  Top with the almonds, cheese, dressing and lightly toss once more.  Enjoy!